The City of Hidalgo is located on lands settled by Spanish colonizer Jose de Escandon in 1749, as an adjunct to the new settlement of Reynosa, both part of colonial Spain until 1821. The desert settlement was mainly involved with cattle grazing for some 150 years.

In 1848, with the area now part of Texas and the United States, Scottish-born merchant John Young founded a town site on Spanish land grants as a trading post and ferry landing opposite Reynosa, now in the Republic of Mexico. Originally named Edingburg, the town’s name was changed to Hidalgo in 1876 in honor of the Mexican patriot, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, for whom Hidalgo County is also named. The county was formed in 1852 and Hidalgo remained its only town until 1905, serving as county seat from 1852 until 1908.