Fairfield: County Seat Carved from Mound Prairie

Fairfield sits at the center of Freestone County, a jurisdiction carved from Limestone County by the Texas legislature in eighteen fifty. The site was originally called Mound Prairie, but when organizers chose it as the county seat they renamed it Fairfield. Fertile, timbered land had drawn settlers up from the eastern states.

David Hall Love donated one hundred acres for the original townsite, and in eighteen fifty-one and fifty-two, one hundred twenty-eight lots sold at auction for prices ranging from six dollars to just over a hundred. Within a year there were dry goods stores, hotels, and a jail. Rich soil, clear springs, and access to the Trinity River made Freestone County productive farm country, and Fairfield has served as its seat of government for more than one hundred seventy years.