The Grand Prairie of Marcus D Hiles Part of Texas’ Frontier Past

Marcus D Hiles’ work as a real estate developer and insightful marketing professional has been concentrated in the northeastern Texas region of the United States, with a base out of Grand Prairie, Texas. Grand Prairie is a city which spreads across the boundaries of Dallas County, Tarrant County and Ellis County in Texas of the United States. Grand Prairie’s name, however, had to evolve out of the rough and tumble beginnings of the Texas frontier. In actuality, the 239.5 acres of land on the eastern side of the Trinity River and 100 acres of timberland on the west side of the River where Grand Prairie now stands were purchased by one Alexander McRae Dechman in 1863 for the exorbitant price of a broken wagon, a team of oxen and $200 in Confederate currency. Intending to live on the property, Dechman instead enlisted to fight in the Civil War, and it wasn’t until after the War, in 1867 that he filed a plat for a town of 50 acres with Dallas County.

Although Marcus D Hiles has bought and sold a significant amount of property in the northeast region of Texas in the United States, Grand Prairie’s original land owner Alexander Dechman returned to Texas after the Civil War to find an outbreak of yellow fever in Houston which drove his family to Bryan, Texas. Dechman strove to bring a railroad route through his Trinity River property, and traded half the prairie portion to the T&P Railroad. T&P promptly named the depot established there Dechman, which compelled Alexander Dechman to return to his original plans to live on his land, where his son Alexander had already built a trading post and worked a farm. But even as the United States Postal Service was designating Dechman as its newest mail delivery location, the T&P Railroad was routinely referring to the area as Grand Prairie, taken from maps which labeled the area the grand prairie of Texas. The railroad won, and the Post Office renamed their new station Grand Prairie.

Marcus D Hiles’ Grand Prairie of today is a creation of its long-standing relationship with the defense and aviation industries. During World War I, the Vought-Lewis Aviation Company developed the Vought VE-7 as a fighter and trainer aircraft, which took its first flight in 1917. Built for the United States Army, the Navy adopted it as its first fighter aircraft, and the VE-7 became the first plane to launch from an American aircraft carrier.

Marcus D. Hiles is passionate about education. He worked hard to build his career as a real estate developer in Texas.