William Balch, born in 1804, claimed land around this site in 1849 as a member of the Peters Colony. When he returned with his family in 1851, they found a group of Caddo Indians camping on one side of the springs, and the Balch family built their cabin on the other side and lived peaceably with their neighbors. Other Caddo also lived in the area that became Alvarado, drawn like the new settlers by the abundance of fresh water. The springs lay on the road from Birdville and Fort Worth to Hillsboro, Waco, Fort Graham, and other destinations. Balch founded the town of Alvarado in 1854, and his family moved into town. Joe Shaw, born in 1798, and Sarah Shaw, born in 1797, settled here with their family and farmed the land, and Joe Shaw served three terms as county sheriff. As settlers arrived in increasing numbers, the Caddo moved to the Oklahoma Territory or farther west, and by 1860 the area was dominated by new settlers. Lafayette Norman, a Tennessee native born in 1826, a veteran of the U.S. War with Mexico and later the Confederate Army, purchased 245 acres around this site with his third wife Julia in 1872. The Normans gave thirsty and weary travelers access to their spring, and the place became known as Norman Springs and Norman Grove. A seven-year drought in the 1930s and a five-year drought in the 1950s greatly lowered the region's water table, and Norman Springs slowly became little more than a muddy patch. By the dawn of the 21st century, the once free-flowing spring that had provided fresh water to early Indians and pioneer settlers on the Johnson County frontier was marked only by a willow tree.