Tom Bean is a small city in southeastern Grayson County, about 11 miles southeast of the county seat of Sherman and roughly 60 miles northeast of Dallas, in the region long called Texoma or the Sher-Den area. The community was founded on October 27, 1888, as a stop on a new branch of the Cotton Belt (St. Louis Southwestern) Railway running between Commerce and Sherman. It was named for Thomas C. Bean, a wealthy Bonham surveyor and landowner who donated the acreage on which the town was built; J.W. Pennell recorded the name in honor of his friend. Like many North Texas railroad towns, Tom Bean developed quickly around its depot. Within a few years the young community supported a store, a blacksmith shop, a cotton gin, and a weekly newspaper, and by 1900 it counted a population of 299. Agriculture — particularly cotton and grain — anchored the local economy for generations, and the town grew modestly through the mid-1920s as businesses clustered along the rail corridor. In recent decades Tom Bean has settled into a quieter role as a small residential community whose position between Sherman, Denison, and the Red River keeps it tied to the larger Texoma region. Today Tom Bean has a population of about 930. It offers a small-town pace with a homegrown school district and easy highway access to the shopping, healthcare, and employment centers of Sherman and Denison to the northwest, while Dallas lies about an hour to the south. The city covers about 1.6 square miles, and its compact size and rail-town character give it a distinct identity within a growing North Texas landscape. Families and commuters drawn to a slower pace, a small district, and proximity to Lake Texoma find Tom Bean a comfortable fit.