Gorman, TX

Gorman sits at the meeting of State Highway 6 and Farm Road 8 on Eastland County's southeastern edge. The city grew from the earlier community of Shinoak after the Texas Central Railroad named it for roadmaster Patrick Gorman and a post office opened in 1889. Gorman incorporated in 1902. By 1904, the railroad town had stores, a hotel, a gin, a lumberyard, a canning factory, electric streetlights, and the Gorman Ledger newspaper. That early mix of transport, trade, and processing set the pattern for the town's later working history.

Peanuts became the town's defining crop connection. Texas's first peanut-shelling machine was used in Gorman in 1940, and by 1986 a shelling plant and the headquarters of two peanut organizations were part of the local economy; one organization administered the western Peanut Price Support Program for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Gorman ISD has three schools, with its district office on West Lexington Avenue, while city government handles water service, taxes, agendas, and monthly meetings. Highway 6 still threads the town toward Eastland and De Leon, keeping the old crossroads visible in the present map.