About Rockwall Texas
article by David Kierski
Stand on a hill in Rockwall and look west over the lake, and on a clear day you will see Dallas swimming in blue haze 30 miles away, with lots of cars and buildings and roads and city in between. Turn around and look east and you will see rolling prairie stretching on for miles, the city far behind you. That's how you know you are in Rockwall, with one foot in the city and the other in the country.
Before white settlers ever appeared on the east bank of the East Fork of the Trinity River, Rockwall County was home to the Caddo Indians, peaceful farmers who lived in East Texas and who still exist today in Oklahoma. They inhabited Rockwall County and the rest of East Texas from before 500 AD until they were relocated to Oklahoma by Texas in 1859.
In the days when Texas was its own country, Rockwall was a stopping point on the National Road of the Republic of Texas for settlers headed for what would one day be Dallas. In order to drum up business and encourage settlement, the Texas government advertised land available in the newspapers of northern states. The area around what is now Dallas was called Peter's Colony, and the area where Rockwall County now sits was called Murphy's Colony. Settlers from the north would travel south along the National Road on their way to Peter's Colony, only to find their way blocked by the swollen Trinity East Fork. After waiting on the eastern bank for the flood to die down, some of the settlers decided to make a home along the East Fork.
One of these settlers was Sterling Rex Barnes, who, according to official Mercer's Colony documents, 
bought land in 1846 and settled on the east bank. In true Rockwall fashion, Barnes set up his own business ferrying people across the East Fork of the Trinity River, and later constructed a toll bridge across the river. He would never charge friends and family to cross.
John O. Heath was another early settler who bought land from Texas in Mercer's Colony in 1847 and built a home near what is now present-day Heath. Heath opened the first post office in Rockwall County, a locked trunk in his home where settlers would bring their mail for the postman to come and collect. The town of Heath was eventually named after him. In fact, you might recognize the names of many of the earliest settlers of Rockwall County: Benjamin F. Boydstun, William Dalton, Jefferson McKinney; they have been immortalized in streets, towns, and entire counties all over the area.
More settlers arrived in Mercer's Colony throughout the 1850s. The City of Rockwall was officially established on April 17, 1854, on donated land from Elijah Elgin. Rockwall got its name from the "mysterious rock wall" that settler Terry Wade unearthed on the town property while digging a well in 1851. This rock formation looks like a buried wall that runs through a large portion of the county. In the early days of Rockwall, some of the town's earliest residents could not agree who the very first settler of the area was. Each wanted to graciously name the town after the other, humbly refusing to share credit for being the town's founder, so they all agreed to name it after this bizarre rock formation. According to its local fans, this rock wall is evidence of the earliest civilization in Texas, built by forgotten natives long ago, but professional geologists seem to think it is a natural formation caused by volcanic activity. The debate will continue to rage, as neither side is willing to concede defeat.
Rockwall's population grew slowly throughout the remainder of the century, subsisting on cotton farming and encouraged by the building of the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad. Rockwall remained a rural community throughout the first half of the 20th Century, and until the 1940s only a handful of Rockwall County's residents had non-farm jobs. The town mostly prospered until it was hit hard by the Great Depression, jettisoning much of its population and businesses. This set the stage for its transition into a bedroom community of Dallas.
Two events sent Rockwall's population skyrocketing from around 3,000 in the 1960s to over 30,000 today: the building of Interstate 30 and the construction of Lake Ray Hubbard. Interstate 30 was opened in 1957, allowing unprecedented access to commuters from Dallas. Lake Ray Hubbard was built in 1969 and became a playground for otherwise outdoor-fun-starved Dallasites. What began as a small town far from the heart of the big city transformed into a refuge for wealthy city dwellers. Just one look at some of the older, larger homes along the lake confirms this. But Dallas kept growing to the east, and when people heard about the cheap land, open spaces, and relaxing pace of the town, Rockwall transformed again into a suburban mecca perched on the eastern shore of the lake. Today it is a small town hard at work keeping up with the pace of all these new residents. But the town is handling it well. New construction and infrastructure projects, a burgeoning arts and entertainment scene, hard-working small business owners, and plenty of options for dining and shopping with more always on the way make Rockwall a modern suburban community with a quaint and charming small town center.