Mansfield, Texas

Mansfield is a city in Ellis, Johnson, and Tarrant counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 56,368.

In 2009, CNN/Money Magazine rated Mansfield as one of the "Best Places to Live" in the United States, ranking 24th out of the top 100 places.

History
The first wave of settlers arrived in the rolling Cross Timbers country of north central Texas in the 1840s. Primarily of Scotch-Irish origins, these pioneer farmers came for the most part from southern states, following the frontier as it shifted west of the Mississippi. They entered an area where Indians had been living for thousands of years. The roving bands of Comanche posed a serious threat to the settlers, and in 1849, the U.S. Army established Fort Worth to protect the farms along the sparsely populated frontier.

The area southeast of the fort (and of the Trinity River) was well protected and presumably fairly well settled by the early 1850s. In one well-documented case, eight related families migrated to the area in 1853 from Illinois. Three of the four Gibson brothers in this group established homesteads about 4 mi northwest of present-day Mansfield. This settlement, which became known as the Gibson Community, included a school and a church building by 1860.

When R.S. Man and Julian Feild arrived around 1856 and built a grist mill at the crossroads that was to become the center of Mansfield, the beginnings of the community probably existed in the oak groves bordering Walnut Creek (originally called Cedar Bluff Creek). The Walnut Creek Congregation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church had organized itself in 1854. Members met in each other's homes, so it is suspected that there was a cluster of houses in the area.

In 1856, Julian Feild purchased 540 acre in the Mansfield area. Man and Feild completed their three-story brick grist mill sometime between 1856 and 1859. The mill, which produced flour and meal, was the first built in North Texas to utilize steam power and enjoyed patronage as far south as San Antonio and as far north as Oklahoma. The location of the mill in southeastern Tarrant County perhaps reflects the advanced state of wheat cultivation in the area and the ready availability of wood to feed the mill's steam boilers.

Feild opened a general merchandise store at the same time as the mill, located across Broad Street. He built a log house for his family, which also served as an inn for travelers and customers. By 1860, the nucleus of the future city existed. The first post office was established that year, with Julian Feild as postmaster.

During the War Between the States, the Man and Feild Mill supplied meal and flour to the Confederate States Army, hauling it to Shreveport, Louisiana, and Jefferson City, Missouri. As was common practice, the owners tithed ten percent of the mill's production to the Confederacy. The small community around the mill was unique in Tarrant County in that it prospered throughout the Civil War. "Feild's Freighters", assembled in ox-drawn wagon trains, went as far as Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where a part of the Indian Wars raged in the southern plains in the late 1860s and 1870s.

The prospering community which had grown up around the Man and Feild mill took on the name of "Mansfeild", a combination of the names of the founders. Repeated misspellings over the years resulted in the acceptance of the conventional spelling of "Mansfield." The town incorporated in 1909, continuing to be a hub for the surrounding farmland.

Notable inhabitants

 * John Howard Griffin (1920-1980), civil rights activist, author of the award-winning book, Black Like Me.

Geography
Mansfield is located at °N, °W (32.577087, -97.126699).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 36.5 square miles (94.6 km²), of which 36.5 square miles (94.5 km²) is land and 0.04 square mile (0.1 km²) (0.11%) is water.

Demographics
In 2010 Mansfield had a population of 56,368. The median age was 34.0. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 64.4% non-Hispanic white, 14.2% black or African American, 0.6% Native American, 1.5% Vietnamese, 2.2% other Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.2% non-Hispanic from some other race, 2.8% from two or more races and 15.4% Hispanic or Latino.

As of the census of 2000, there were 42,958 people. The population density was 768.5 people per square mile (296.7/km²). There were 9,172 housing units at an average density of 251.4 per square mile (97.1/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 76.9% White, 11.7% African American, 0.3% Native American, 3.8% Asian, 0% Pacific Islander, 4.9% from other races, and 2.5% from two or more races. 16.4% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 8,881 households out of which 50.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 74.5% were married couples living together, 8.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 13.9% were non-families. 10.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 3.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.08 and the average family size was 3.32.

In the city the population was spread out with 31.8% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 34.6% from 25 to 44, 20.2% from 45 to 64, and 5.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 102.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.1 males.

According to a 2006 estimate, the median family income in Mansfield is $84,589. Males had a median income of $50,084 versus $30,796 for females. The per capita income for the city was $26,446. About 2.7% of families and 4.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.4% of those under age 18 and 5.4% of those age 65 or over.

Education
Students living in the Tarrant County portion of Mansfield, as well as most of those living in the Johnson County portion, are served by the Mansfield Independent School District, with the remainder being served by Midlothian Independent School District. The high schools in the district are Mansfield High School, Mansfield Summit High School, Mansfield Timberview High School, Mansfield Legacy High School, Frontier High School, and the Alternative Education Center consisting of the ACE program and the BIC program. There are 21 elementary schools, 6 intermediate schools, and 6 middle schools.

Beginning in the fall semester of 2011, Frontier High School opened its doors to students who applied and were accepted to the school. Frontier High School, located within the Ben Barber Career Tech Academy, will feature state-of-the-art technology with individual laptops provided for each student enrolled in its programs. The focus of the campus is to provide students with a college experience by allowing technology to be more easily integrated into the classroom. Cellphones are allowed to be used throughout the entire campus and in the classroom at teacher discretion. The library has also been turned into a student area referred to as the "cube". Designed as an area for students to do work, Frontier students have found that it is severely overcrowded and concerns have been voiced.

The district also has programs with Tarrant County College to provide students with dual credit options to allow them to gain college hours in high school.

Mansfield School desegregation incident
See Mansfield School Desegregation Incident