Editing Hearne, Texas (section)

===Founding===
Hearne is located on land that initially belonged to politician and soldier [[José Francisco Ruiz]]. By the 1840s, a tavern was located there and it also served as a general store and post office. The Hearne family moved to the area in the 1850s, purchasing 10,000 acres and operating cotton plantations. Christopher C. Hearne wanted a railroad line built through the area, but the Civil War started before the railroad could be constructed. His widow later gave 700 acres to the [[Houston and Texas Central Railway]].<ref name=TSHA>{{cite web|title=Hearne, TX|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hfh02|publisher=[[Texas State Historical Association]]|access-date=November 27, 2014}}</ref>

With the construction of a depot in Hearne in 1868, businesses began to open, including a hotel, saloons, churches and a cotton gin. Two rail lines met in Hearne by the 1870s. Hearne's population was 2,129 in 1900 and 3,511 in 1940. Between 1943 and 1946, a [[Camp Hearne|prison camp]] operated near the city limits and held several thousand German prisoners of war. Agricultural and manufacturing businesses came to Hearne by the 1960s. By 1990, over 5,000 people lived in Hearne; the population was 4,690 in 2000.<ref name=TSHA/>