He tried to establish a home on the property, but ran into difficulties, so he returned to his family in Birdville before joining in the Civil War.

[citation needed] After the war, Dechman returned to Birdville for two years before selling that farm in 1867 and moving to Houston, where yellow fever broke out, causing the family to settle in Bryan.

Later that same year, after the Postal Service had adopted the "Deckman" name, confusion resulted from the T&P Railroad designation "Grand Prairie".

This name was based on maps drawn from around 1850 through 1858 that labeled the area between Dallas and Fort Worth "the grand prairie of Texas".

While the present-day Vought plant on Jefferson Avenue is part of a small strip within the Dallas city limits, it was originally in Grand Prairie.

During World War II, the North American Aviation Plant B produced the Consolidated B-24 Liberator and the P-51C and K Mustang variants.

In 1953, the mayor and city council of Grand Prairie attempted to annex nearly 70 square miles (180 km2) of then-unincorporated and largely undeveloped land in southern Dallas and Tarrant counties.

Vehement debate ensued, and the legal pressure from cities such as Arlington, Duncanville and Irving wound up overturning part of the annexation attempt.

The city is bordered by Dallas to the east, Cedar Hill and Midlothian to the southeast, Mansfield to the southwest, Arlington to the west, Fort Worth to the northwest, and Irving to the north.

[10] The West Fork of the Trinity River and a major tributary, Johnson Creek, flow through Grand Prairie.

In the 1980s, a major Army Corps of Engineers project was begun to straighten the channel, which has reduced the damage of flooding.

The city of Grand Prairie is a voluntary member of the North Central Texas Council of Governments association, the purpose of which is to coordinate individual and collective local governments and facilitate regional solutions, eliminate unnecessary duplication, and enable joint decisions.

Other portions of Grand Prairie reside within the Arlington, Cedar Hill, Irving, Mansfield, and Midlothian school districts.

Grand Prairie residents in the Mansfield ISD are located generally south of the intersection of Camp Wisdom and Lake Ridge, and west of Joe Pool Lake to the Tarrant and Ellis County line in southwest Grand Prairie.

Timberview High School is located on State Highway 360 less than 100 yards (91 m) from the Grand Prairie city line.

Texas State Highways Spur 303 (named Pioneer Parkway) and 180 (Main Street) also run east–west in the northern and central portions of the city.

[37] In the era of private operation of passenger trains prior to the onset of the Amtrak era in 1971, Texas and Pacific Railway trains such as the Texas Eagle and the Louisiana Eagle made stops in Grand Prairie, on trips between Fort Worth and Dallas.

[38][39][40] Amtrak's Texas Eagle (Chicago-San Antonio) makes stops at Dallas Union Station 12 miles to the east.