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From the Canton Chamber Website:

CANTON: The Misplaced County Seat

     Prior to being designated a county, the area that is now Van Zandt County was occupied by various Indian cultures known as the Caddo, Cherokee, Delaware, Tawakoni and other tribes.(1) The Cherokees abandoned the area, acquired by treaty in 1834, after the battle July 15 and 16, 1839, with the Texas Army led by Captain Robert Smith's company. Famous Texans participating in the battle were Colonel Edward Burleson, John H. Reagan, General Thomas J. Rusk and Commissioner Albert Sidney Johnston. Cherokee Chief Bowles was killed in the battle and the Cherokees dispersed into Indian Territory.

    Earlier, Spanish and Mexican land grants were obtained for land in the area. The first was received in 1834 to a Mexican citizen, Luis Ruiz. Ten years later, in 1844, Charles F. Mercer attempted fo settle 6000 square miles, (or 4,000,000 acres), that included the future Van Zandt County.(2)

In 1848,Norwegian settlers led by Johan Reinert Reierson founded Four Mile prairie in the southwestern area of what would become Van Zandt County. The population of the area at that time, has been estimated at 150.(3)

    Van Zandt County was created by the State Legislature on March 20, 1848 by taking land from Henderson County. Henderson county originally included all of what is now Kaufman, Rockwall, Van Zandt, Wood and the major portion of Rains Counties.(4) Henderson County was created on April 27, 1846 from the Nacogdoches Municipality. The county government was organized August 77, 1848.(4) Surveyor, John H. Reagan proposed the name Van Zandt for the county and the State Legislature approved it. Isaac Van Zandt served as a Congressional member of the Republic of Texas in 1840-1841 and was sent by Governor Sam Houston as the Charge d'affairs or Diplomatic agent to the United States in 1842.(5)

Van Zandt County consisted of 1715 square miles of territory, and Jordan's Saline,(presently Grand Saline), was selected as the County Seat since it was near the geographic center of the county.

     The first District Court of the Ninth Judicial District of Texas was held in Jordan's Saline on December 25, 1848, with District Judge Bennett H. Martin presiding. (6) Judge Martin had been appointed by Governor J. Pickney Henderson. The first District Court of the county met in a small log cabin, one half mile south of Jordan's Saline on Christmas Day. It has been recorded that there was no fireplace resulting in no heat of any kind for those assembled on that cold day.(7)

     The first elected officials for the new county were: Gilbert Yarborough, Chief Justice: John Jordan, Thomas Horsely, Joseph Fisher and Isham Clark as County Commissioners.(8)

     In 1850, Wood County, (named for Governor George T. Wood), was created from Van Zandt County, therefore, Jordan's Saline, (Grand Saline), was no longer the geographical center of the county, resulting in the selection of a new site for the county seat. (Rains County was created from Wood, Hunt, Hopkins, and Van Zandt Counties June 9, 1870.(9)

     Thomas Mills received a land certificate for 640 acres of land in Mercer's Colony on November 18, 1850, which he transferred to Obey W. Owens. On December 23, 1850 the County Commissioners purchased 320 acres of the land from M. Owens. Deputy Surveyor, Mr. Enoch C. Tinnin of the Nacogdoches District office was to locate, as near as possible, the center of the county and find suitable land for the County Seat.

Mr. Tinnin began his survey at the east corner of the Jesse Stockwell league rather; that the north corner as was intended, resulting in the county seat town being located on private land instead of on the Thomas Mills Survey and two and one-half miles from the land owned by the county.

The Commissioners, unaware of the mistake, designated the land as the Canton town tract.(10) the Commissioners court ordered that a courthouse be built and gave the contract to Mr. James Bundy to be completed by the 20th day of December 1850. The court house stood on the west side of the public square. Mr. Jesse A. Asbury received $5.00 to move the archives from Jordan's Saline to Canton.(11)

      A jail and post office were also built in Canton. In 1853, Mr. Tinnin, the surveyor, appeared in commissioners Court with the patent for the 320 acres that the county had agreed to purchase for the town of Canton and the County Seat. It was discovered that the land owned by the county was two and one-half miles from where the post office, jail, and courthouse were built.(12)