Named for George W. Norton of Kentucky, who about 1882 bought and later developed the divide between Oak and Valley creeks. Post office, established in 1894, was at first in home (1.5 miles northeast) of postmaster Marion A. Wilkerson. This facility and a few country businesses - including stores, cotton gins, blacksmith shops -- were drawn into town, which was platted by O.C. Bivins in 1903.

First homes are said to have been built by Dr. W.W. Mitchell and Les Trimmier. High school was established in 1906. Early institutions included several churches and a Masonic Lodge.

Once an important landmark for early surveys of this area, Dewey Lake got its name after surveyors returned from here to headquarters and found, to their embarrassment, they had not yet named this site. Gallantly, they decided to call it after land office employee Miss Dewey. Lake Shore was site of Texas Ranger Camp "Roberts" (1879-1882) and the "Stag House," barracks for the cowboys of the Two Buckle Ranch. Surveyors often camped here, too. The lake disappeared in the 1880s after two creeks eroded its shores, forming a new channel which drained the lake basin.

Early members of the Prairie View United Methodist Church of the Nogalus Prairie area began holding services at this site in the early 1880s. Richard Willborn built their first sanctuary in 1883 on land owned by Thomas A. Nelms. He sold the land in 1887, but reserved two acres for the church. Local Baptists also used the site; the two congregations built brush arbors for revivals, held baptisms in nearby creeks and ponds, and had Sunday lunches at tables under pine trees. In 1912, church members donated cows to sell for lumber, which they used for a new building. The congregation built its current church in 1956. It remains a center for the community.

The abundance of creeks attracted travelers to this area, settled as early as the 1820s, and local tradition holds the community was named for the rocky beds of the creeks. The Rocky Branch Community grew throughout the 19th century; the earliest church, Spring Hill Primitive Baptist, was built in the 1850s. Over the years, the settlement boasted businesses, including lumber, grist and syrup mills, cotton gin, broom factory and general store. It also had a rodeo arena and baseball team, as well as a precinct courthouse, post office (1890-1904), community center and a Woodmen of the World band. Families made mattresses and canned foods at the community's school (1879-1943), which consolidated with the Paul H. Pewitt and Daingerfield districts in 1951.

This area, now covered by Lake Champion, was once the site of springs that originated from underground water which also supplied Champion Creek. They were called "wells" because the Seven Spring Basins closely resembled man-made wells. Buffalo tracks cut deep into the creek banks of soft sandstone indicated this was a watering place for great herds of bison. At least four trails crisscrossed the area where north and south Champion Creeks converged. For hundreds of years Indians also camped here, and in the 1880s a small, early Mitchell County settlement named "Artesia" grew up at the site of the wells.

War brought turmoil to Indians living in Kansas and the Indian Territory, with unfortunate results for Texans on the frontier. Most Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks and Seminoles aided the South, while others adhered to the North. Few Comanches made a treaty with the South; but a great majority with their allies, the Kiowas, held aloof from either side and plundered the frontier at will. Apaches and Kickapoos did the same from Mexico. Texas and Confederate troops, despite poor arms and mounts, held defense lines until war's end.

War brought turmoil to Indians living in Kansas and the Indian Territory, with unfortunate results for Texans on the frontier. Most Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks and Seminoles aided the South, while others adhered to the North. Few Comanches made a treaty with the South; but a great majority with their allies, the Kiowas, held aloof from either side and plundered the frontier at will. Apaches and Kickapoos did the same from Mexico. Texas and Confederate troops, despite poor arms and mounts, held defense lines until war's end.

At this site, on the second floor of a hardware store, 70 students enrolled for the first session of Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute, September 16, 1890. The students included 28 Creeks from Indian Territory. The City of Denton provided classrooms for the faculty of five under president Joshua C. Chilton, an educator with previous experience and training in Ohio and Indiana. In 1891, the school moved to a building at the present site of North Texas State University. This marker dedicated on 75th Anniversary of the University.

Created and organized in 1846. Named for pioneer resident Andrew Jackson Titus (1814-1855), who opened county's first road, to river port in Jefferson. Until after the Civil War, Titus County also included areas of present-day Franklin and Morris counties. Six mail routes going by horseback, had pack mules to follow lead horse. High waters in creeks and Sulphur River often halted travel. Record time to haul cotton to Jefferson was 5 days by ox wagon. In 1860 had 9,648 people. Voted 411 to 275 in favor of secession. Sent 10 military companies to Civil War. While home tables drew heavily on game foods (deer, wild turkeys, pigeons, bear), county furnished Confederate commissary with beef, butter, corn, rice, cotton, oats, sweet potatoes, flour, cornmeal, leather, lumber, pottery, tobacco, whiskey and wool. Wartime manufacturing plants included 9 sawmills, 8 gristmills, tanneries and a steam powered distillery. Mount Pleasant had a Confederate transportation depot employing blacksmiths, carpenters, harness makers, wheelwrights. It procured equipment and horses and mules, and made gear, harness and wagons for the purpose of moving men, army supplies and government owned cotton.

Named for North and South Bedias creeks, which in turn were named for the Bidai Indians, an agricultural people reputed to have been the oldest inhabitants of the area. "Bidai" means "brushwood", which may refer to the building material used in their dwellings.

The first white settlement in this vicinity was founded 1835 by Thomas P. Plaster, and for a while it was called Plasterville. In 1903, the community of "Old" Bedias surrendered most of its population to "New" Bedias after a branch of the International & Great Northern Railroad was built to the northeast.

Townspeople from Pankey and Cotton also moved here. The name "Bedias" was retained, but only after a heated struggle in which determined citizens refused to have the town named for a railroad official.

A famous, early resident of the Bedias area was Sarah Dodson, who in 1835 made the first "Lone Star" flag in Texas. She lived here from 1844 to 1848 and is buried in Old Bethel Cemetery, seven miles west.

One of the most unique features of this region is the large number of Tektites (also called "Bediasites") found here. These are beautiful, glassy, meteor-like stones which fell to earth 34 million years ago. Amazingly, Indians called them "jewels of the moon."