Crandall was named for the Rev. C. F. Crandall, a Methodist minister who came here from Indiana in 1877 and bought 1800 acres of land. When the Texas Trunk Line Railroad built east from Dallas in 1880, he gave a bonus for rail service and became the first postmaster when the post office was created in 1881. Baptists, Disciples of Christ, and Methodists built churches. The townsite plat was recorded in 1889, and the city school system was established in 1901. By the early 1900s, the town had a lumber yard, several stores, 3 physicians, and 3 banks. It remains a center for agriculture and recreation.