aufman was among the earliest American settlements in the North Texas region known as the Three Forks, named for the convergence of the Trinity River’s West, Elm, and East forks. Mississippian William King arrived in 1840—a year before settlers showed up in the Dallas area—and built a stockade called King’s Fort for protection from Comanche and other tribes that had long inhabited the fertile prairielands. Over the last century,
