Wise County was established in 1856, and Taylorsville (in honor of
Zachary Taylor) was made the county seat. Absalom Bishop, an early settler and member of the Texas Legislature, opposed naming the town after a
Whig Party member, and in 1858, arranged to have the name changed to Decatur, in honor of naval hero
Stephen Decatur. In 1857, a post office was opened, and the first school was established in 1857. In the early 1860s,
a courthouse was erected.
Civil War Early settlers to northern Texas came from a variety of eastern states, with about half coming from the "
Deep South". Most of the rest came from the Upper South, and a number sympathized with the
Unionist side at the outset of the Civil War. Cooke County and others voted against secession in this part of the state. Violence against Unionists by Confederate troops and militia was common, especially after the Confederate legislature passed an unpopular conscription law. In October 1862, several Unionist sympathizers from Decatur were arrested by Confederate troops and taken to nearby
Gainesville, the Cooke County seat, for trial on charges of treason and insurrection. About 150–200 suspects were arrested by Confederate troops. A "Citizens Court" was pulled together by local colonels, although it had no standing in state law. It quickly convicted seven men, who were executed by hanging. Mob pressure against the court arose, and it turned over 14 suspects, who were lynched - and executed by hanging without any judicial process. Nineteen men who had been acquitted were returned to the court, and a new jury convicted them without any new evidence, sentencing them to death. They were also hanged. Another two men were shot trying to escape. In all, 42 men were killed in Gainesville in these actions. North Texas was in chaos, with dissenting citizens at risk from military forces. A few weeks later, more suspected Unionist supporters were hanged without trial in several North Texas communities. Five were lynched in Decatur, under the supervision of Confederate Capt. John Hale. The
Great Hanging at Gainesville is believed to have been the largest single incident of
vigilante violence in U.S. history. It is one of five sites in Decatur listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. The
Wise County Courthouse was designed by
James Riely Gordon, the master architect of Texas courthouses. Completed in 1896, the building is an example of Gordon's Signature Plan. He used corner entrances (making for short halls) to draw in the breeze, which was pulled up through a central atrium like a chimney, providing excellent air circulation. The exterior is Texas red granite (like the Capitol) with terra cotta ornamentation. The almost pyramidal mass refers to 1,000-year-old churches in the south of
France. The building has been praised, with its "sister" courthouse in Waxahachie, as "the zenith of Gordon's Richardsonian Romanesque work". It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Another historic building found on the east side of the city is the
Texas Tourist Camp, dating back to 1927. In 1962, Eddie Wayne Hill, lead guitarist for
Tommy & the Tom Toms, and drummer Joel Colbert, were killed when their convertible collided head-on with a gravel truck on State Highway 114 south of Decatur. Country singer
Charley Pride was more fortunate, surviving a mid-air crash with another plane over Decatur in 1980, though two people died in the crash. ==Geography==