Justin, Texas - An American Village

Yesterday we had to travel to a small town known as Justin, about 35 miles from Carrollton, Tx. When I first heard the name Justin, my mind immediately went back to Bangalore, India where our office assistant was named Justin. So I wondered what kind of a city this was named Justin... Nevertheless we drove down the highway to reach the rickety town of Justin dominated by horse and cattle ranches.

According to the city website, this area was originally settled by a band of French colonists who in 1848 established the Icarian Colony. The community was abandoned a year later, and the area remained sparsely populated until the early 1880's. The formation of the city started in 1883, when one Chet Helm and Riley started selling town lots. At that time there was no name to this settlement/ community. A year later an enterprising individual opened a general store and four years later, the Santa Fe extended its rail line from Fort Worth to Purcell, Oklahoma. The tracks were laid contiguous to this yet unnamed community.

In January 1887, the 100-strong community petitioned postal authorities for a post office to be named Justin, in honor of Justin Sherman, chief engineer of the Santa Fe rail line. Since then the population of the city has not grown much, today Justin is still a small city of about 3,000 people. It looks like any small town in India, for example Tumkur, Ramnagar but only the infrastructure is a shade better. There are quite a few leisure facilities such a tennis court, athletic track and of course a large Church.

Of course the biggest difference is perhaps the basic civic infrastructure, smooth roads (though narrow), good drainage system and clean drinking water piped to every home. If these things could be achieved in India we would not be far behind the rest of the First-World nations. What needs to be done to achieve this is hard working people and corruption free establishment.

City Park, Justin

Trading Post (Antique Store), Justin

Water Supply location for Justin city

Any city in US must have a church....