Settlers moved to this site after Ambrose B. White camped here on his way west from Illinois in 1848. After 1858, his inn here stood on the Butterfield Stage route. The post office, opened in 1860, was named for White, who in 1869 surveyed the townsite with Dr. W. H. Trolinger, donor of land for a park. When Whitesboro incorporated in 1873, White was elected its first mayor. The Denison & Pacific Railroad, later part of the Missouri, Kansas, & Texas, arrived in 1879; the Texas & Pacific arrived in 1881. Today the area's economy is based on recreational facilities and peanut production.