When Butterfield Overland Mail traversed this area from 1858 to 1861 on the St. Louis to San Francisco route, a crossing over the West Fork of the Trinity was necessary. On February 11, 1860, Colonel W. H. Hunt obtained a charter and built a toll bridge here, 50 yards west. The Overland Mail ceased operating as the Civil War began, and the bridge soon collapsed. However, a settlement had begun here, and in 1873 Charles Cates, a Decatur merchant, spanned the river with an iron bridge. When the Rock Island Railroad built to this point in 1893, the town moved but retained its historic name.