Editing Valley View, Texas (section)

==History==

The town was first settled in 1870 by the Lee family. L.W. Lee plotted a town on his land in 1872, naming it "Valley View", presumably for the view offered at the site of Spring Creek valley. Eighteen families moved in, and a post office opened in the community that same year.
 
A [[blacksmith]] shop was opened in 1873, and the shop was used for the community's first school. By 1884, the town had an estimated 250 inhabitants, three steam [[gristmill]]s and [[cotton gin]]s, and three general stores, and it shipped cotton, livestock, and wheat. 
The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway (now the [[BNSF Railway]]) reached the town in 1886. Valley View had four church buildings and a hotel by 1890, and the [[Valley View Independent School District (Cooke County, Texas)|Valley View Independent School District]] was incorporated in 1902. In 1903, the town witnessed dramatic growth with the completion of a two-story brick school house and six brick business buildings, the arrival of telephone service, and the opening of a bank. The following year the ''Valley View News'' began publishing weekly. The community had an estimated population of 600 by 1914.

Two fires struck the town in 1924. In the fall of 1940, the east side of the town square was burned down. On the morning of December 19, bank robbers started a second fire as they robbed the First National Bank (later named the Valley View National Bank and was owned by Thomas R. Couch) of $5,000. A further two city blocks were destroyed.

Valley View's population was estimated at 700 from the 1920s through the mid-1960s. In 1970, it was 805, but the town declined during the next decade. When Valley View formally incorporated in 1980, it had 514 inhabitants and six businesses. The town began to grow again in the 1980s and had a population of 640 in 1990.

=== 2024 Tornado ===
{{Further|Tornado outbreak sequence of May 19–26, 2024#Forestburg–Era–Valley View–Pilot Point, Texas}}
On May 25, 2024, both Valley View and the city of [[Pilot Point, Texas|Pilot Point]] were struck by an intense [[tornado]], resulting in 7 deaths and 100 injuries as well as extensive damage throughout both cities. A [[truck stop]] was also severely damaged in Valley View.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-tornadoes-pryor-claremore-2-confirmed-dead/60907606 | title=2 confirmed dead this weekend in northeast Oklahoma tornadoes: What we know | date=May 27, 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/confirmed-fatalities-dozens-injured-cooke-county-reported-tornado-may-25/287-ed2cca36-a8fe-46be-8297-563609938e1f | title=Seven confirmed dead — including children — after an EF-3 tornado hit Cooke County Saturday night | date=May 26, 2024 }}</ref> The [[National Weather Service]] rated the tornado EF3 on the [[Enhanced Fujita scale]].<ref>{{cite web |title=NWS Damage Survey for May 25th Tornado Event - Update # 1 |url=https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/wx/afos/p.php?pil=PNSFWD&e=202405272335 |website=Iowa Environmental Mesonet |publisher=National Weather Service Forecast Office in Fort Worth, Texas |access-date=30 May 2024}}</ref>