According to John H. Cullom, there was only a small frame depot on the Texas & Pacific Railroad, one general Merchandise store owned by Shands & Company, a small grocery store run by Tom Ayers, a blacksmith shop, a cotton gin, and a few residences when he stepped off the train February 23, 1877.

Today Forney affords its citizens a brick depot, approximately thirty thriving business concerns, and hard surfaced streets have replaced the earlier boggy black mud roads. Forney boasts of about 1200 population, and is as prosperous a community of its size as can be found anywhere.

(Note: not sure why this was called Deer Trail, unless it was a recurring column.)