A city with a rich heritage and a bright future
Mansfield is located 16 miles southeast of Fort Worth in southeastern Tarrant County and northeastern Johnson County. In 1857, Ralph S. Man, from South Carolina, and Julian B. Field, from Virginia, sold their sawmill and water mill in Fort Worth and moved to the wheat-producing area of southeastern Tarrant County, There they built a sawmill that became the county, and even the state’s, first steam-powered mill. The settlement that grew up around the mill was named after these two men, Mansfield, originally spelled as Mansfield.
In addition to the mill, Julian Field owned and operated a grocery store and became postmaster in 1860. The mill flourished and became well known. During the Civil War, the Man and Field Mill supplied meal and flour to the Confederate Army. After the war, he received US government contracts to supply flour and meal to Indian reservations and federal army outposts in West Texas (including Forts Griffin, Concho, and Belknap), New Mexico, and the Indian Territory.