Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Sherman, Texas. Text: In the 19th century, Protestant denominations began sending representatives into Texas to organize new churches. By 1850, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church had established seven congregations in Grayson County. The following year, the Rev. W.A. Provine led Sherman residents in organizing their own church, which began meeting in 1852 in the Masonic Lodge Hall, which was used by several local congregations. After subsequently using space at the Methodist church, the Cumberland congregation constructed its own sanctuary in 1872 on the northwest corner of Travis and Cherry Streets. Throughout the early years of the church's life, regular revivals played an important role. In 1906, after almost a century of separation, the National Cumberland Presbyterian Church rejoined the Presbyterian Church (USA), and individual congregations were given the choice to follow suit. The Sherman church voted to rejoin but maintained its name, Cumberland Presbyterian Church, until 1909, when it became known as Grace Presbyterian Church. As the church's membership grew, it built additional and larger facilities at that same site over the next several decades. In 1921, the congregation voted to be known as Central Presbyterian Church, and …

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Umphress-Taylor Home in Van Alstyne, Texas. Text: Pioneer area landowner, banker, agriculturist, and community leader James C. Umphress (1841-1917), a Confederate veteran of the Civil War, built this Victorian house for his wife Julia Carolina (Veazey) (d. 1932) in 1903. In 1932 it was inherited by a daughter, Maude (Umphress) Taylor (d. 1977), who lived here until 1974. A civic leader, she was the wife of local banker and grain dealer Spencer Taylor (d. 1943). The family home features influences of Queen Anne and Classical Revival styling.

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for a federal building, a United States Courthouse, in Sherman, Texas. Text: After the Sherman Division of the federal district court for the Eastern District of Texas was established in 1902, plans were made to construct this building to serve the court and the postal service. U.S. Treasury Department supervising architect John Knox Taylor designed this Spanish colonial revival - beaux arts style building. Located in the commercial center in close proximity to the rail station, the structure was completed in early 1907 at a cost of $140,000. With its Terra cotta roof tiles, faux balconies with wrought iron grillwork, lamp brackets at both entrances, and two eagles overlooking the main entry, it was an imposing edifice and a significant addition to Sherman's downtown environment. In addition to the federal court, the building has housed local offices of other federal agencies, including the selective service administration, internal revenue service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, general services administration, and the Departments of Agriculture, Labor, and Defense. From 1907 to 1963, the U.S. Postal Service occupied the entire first floor. The original design of the building has remained essentially unchanged except for the first floor, which …

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Van Alstyne in Van Alstyne, Texas. Text: The town of Mantua was established about 3 miles southwest of here in 1854. Mantua prospered but was unexpectedly bypassed in 1873 when the Houston and Texas Central Railway (H&TC) extended its track through this area instead. That year a depot was built and a post office established in the new town named for Maria Van Alstyne, the widow of W.A. Van Alstyne who had been a principal stockholder of the H&TC. Churches, businesses, and people of Mantua and other area towns moved here to be near the railroad. Van Alstyne was incorporated and a newspaper established in 1883. Columbia College was founded in 1889. Van Alstyne contained banks, schools, hotels, an opera house, a literary club, and electric service. by 1900, when cotton and other farm production dominated the local economy. Interurban transportation began in 1908. The local "Grays" semi-pro baseball team, established about 1902, played for many decades and produced a number of major league players. Many local businesses, churches, and social organizations trace their origins to Mantua and 19th century Van Alstyne. The historic downtown area, the former site of popular Saturday …

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Van Alstyne Cemetery in Van Alstyne, Texas. Text: Established 1846 Historic Texas Cemetery 2005

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Whitesboro in Whitesboro, Texas. Text: Victorian home built 1889 by Dr. R.N. Younger, church, banking and school leader. Southern exposure in 10 of 12 rooms and halls, fine beveled mirrors in 3 of 6 hand-carved mantels. Bought 1923 by Sullivans noted teachers, heirs of the first owner of the site.

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Vittitoe Cemetery in Whitewright, Texas. Text: This graveyard was begun as a family burial plot by Samuel and Ellen Vittitoe, who settled on land surrounding this site in 1852. Their son, Frank, probably was the first to be buried here sometime before the outbreak of the Civil War, although his headstone is undated, the Vittitoes made it known to the residents of Kentucky Town (1 mi. N.) that their plot was open for burials outside the family, but the cemetery was not used as a public burial ground until it was legally established as such in 1885. More than 700 graves have been recorded in the Vittitoe Cemetery, most of them bear tombstones with legible inscriptions, but others are marked only by stakes or pieces of stone or rock, included among those buried here are early settlers such as Andrew Thomas, who brought his family to the area in 1837; numerous Civil War veterans; the Rev. Isaac Teague, Pastor of the Kentucky Town Baptist Church during the early 1900s; and Benjamin Earnest, who helped establish a general store soon after settling in Kentucky Town in 1859. Vittitoe Cemetery, which is cared for …

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Walnut Street Church of Christ in Sherman, Texas. Text: Completed in 1920, this classical revival sanctuary first served the congregation of the Walnut Street Church of Christ. Known as Travis Street Church of Christ since 1963, when it moved to a new site, the congregation has ties to the 1850s. Members built this edifice to serve as their third sanctuary. The chapel is a two-story raised structure with a central stairway, grand portico, and 48 stained glass windows.

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Washburn Cemetery in Bells, Texas. Text: Samuel and Mary Washburn and their family moved to Texas from Missouri in 1836. Washburn was granted 1280 acres of land in 1838. As more settlers moved into the area, a burial site was needed and a portion of land on the south edge of the Washburn survey was set aside for a cemetery. The oldest marked grave is that of infant Mary Gentry in 1867. However, many graves marked only with rocks or Bois D'Arc posts are believed to be from the 1850s. The 2.5-acre cemetery contains about 300 graves. The Washburn Cemetery Association maintains the site.

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Washington Iron Works, Inc. in Sherman, Texas. Text: In 1875 Solon Totten (1847-1932) made two horseback trips to Texas from Quincy, Illinois, searching for better conditions for the family blacksmith business. Finding stage companies operating out of Sherman which required blacksmith services, he persuaded his father and family to move here. In 1876 Solon and his brother Levi Totten (1844-1915) opened "Totten Bros. Blacksmith" on Cherry Street. The business made wheels for freight wagons and stagecoaches and repaired the vehicles. L.L. Roussel, Adolph and Max Seisfeld, Noah Swain and Levi and Solon Totten were the original stockholders. The named changed in 1881 to "Washington Iron Works". In 1890 the firm moved to East Lamar Street and settled here. By 1893 the Totten brothers and their father Joseph (1821-1906) gained full ownership. It remains in the Totten family. After 1904 Solon operated the company with his sons Harry (1877-1964) and Jesse (1880-1946) until he retired in 1922. Harold Totten (1900-1969) ran the company with his father Harry after Jesse's death. The foundry section closed in 1938. During World War II, the shop made gun barrel molds. This industry, the oldest in Sherman, has …

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Whitaker Cemetery in Gunter, Texas. Text: Pioneers in Clayton School House Community began using this site on J.W. Whitaker's Farm as a burial ground in 1866, with the interment of Joseph McLean. The settlers, who were farmers and ranchers from Mississippi and other Southern states, bought this cemetery in 1880 and continued to use it as a burial ground. In 1967 descendants of the pioneer settlers formed the Whitaker Cemetery Association to provide for the maintenance of the gravesites. The organization sponsors an annual memorial service the third Sunday in May. (1983).

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Site of Early Grayson County Settlement Whitemound in Tom Bean, Texas. Text: Named for two large white mounds of rock nearby. Settled 1849 by Henry Lackey and his 9 children, from Missouri. Town grew up around A.S. Lackey Grist Mill. It had a post office, churches, businesses, several doctors, and Bosworth Academy. Most residents moved away after Cotton Belt Railroad bypassed this site in 1888.

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Whitesboro in Whitesboro, Texas. Text: Settlers moved to this site after Ambrose B. White (1811-83) camped here on his way west from Illinois in 1848. His inn here was on the Butterfield Stage route after 1858. The post office, opened in 1860, was named for White, who surveyed (1869) the townsite with Dr. W.H. Trolinger (1827-95), donor of land for a park. When Whitesboro incorporated in 1873, White was elected its first mayor. The Denison & Pacific Railroad, later part of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, arrived in 1879; the Texas & Pacific in 1881. Today the area's economy is based on recreational facilities and peanut production.

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Whitewright in Whitewright, Texas. Text: Early settlers in this part of Grayson County established communities at Orangeville (4 mi. e.), Pilot Grove (4 mi. s.), and Kentucky Town (3 mi. w.). In 1878, after the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas (MAT) railroad built a line southeast from Denison to this Site, a new town was created and named for William Whitewright (1825-1898), a railroad official and vice-president of Union Trust Company of New York, the railroad's financial backer. Immediately upon the news of the town's founding, former citizens of Orangeville, Pilot Grove, and Kentuckytown moved to Whitewright. A post office was established in 1878, along with numerous homes and businesses. By 1894 the town boasted schools, churches, a newspaper, a college, and community organizations, as well as railroad depots, cotton gins, restaurants, drugstores, grocery stores, wagon yards and livery stables, lumberyards, hardware stores, blacksmith shops, and numerous other businesses. Serious fires in 1904 and 1911 almost destroyed the central business district, but the citizens soon rebuilt. The city of Whitewright no longer has passenger rail service, but it continues its role as an important marketing center for this area of Grayson County.

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Whitewright Masonic Lodge No. 167 in Whitewright, Texas. Text: In 1855, men in Kentucky Town organized a Masonic Lodge, receiving their charter the following year as the Kentucky Town Masonic Lodge No, 167. More than 20 years later, in 1878, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad bypassed Kentucky Town, running three miles east in the newly established town of Whitewright. The Masonic Lodge moved in 1883, and in 1893, members changed the name to Whitewright Lodge No, 167 but kept the original Kentucky Town charter. The lodge has occupied several buildings since its founding. It has also served several affiliate Masonic orders, including Whitewright Chapter No. 198 of Royal Arch Masons, which merged with a Denison chapter in 1949, Whitewright Council No. 136, which merged with a Denison group in 1971, and the local order of the Eastern Star, comprised of men and women, continues to support the work of the lodge. Several lodge members have been leaders in government and in the Masonic order. These men include Dan Scott McMillin, Grant Master of Texas Masons in 1915, who served as both a State Representative and State Senator; James J. Gallaher, Grand …

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for William Whitley Wheat in Howe, Texas. Text: William Whitley Wheat (1820-1890) was born in Alabama to Samuel and Cynthia (Stinson) Wheat. He married Cynthia Ann Maynard, and the couple came to Texas in 1842 to Peters Colony. They moved three years later to what is now Grayson County, settling and raising ten children near Farmington. Wheat was an early cattle drover to Northern markets, and he became a respected and successful farmer. He served for many years as Grayson County Commissioner in the 1870s and 1880s and was first presiding president of the Old Settlers Association of North Texas. As such, he worked to ease local tensions in the post-Civil War years. Recorded - 2002.

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Younger Scott McKinney Home in Van Alstyne, Texas. Text: The land surrounding this house was originally owned by Collin McKinney, a prominent early Texas statesman. In 1857 McKinney deeded the acreage to his son Younger Scott (1819-1907), who was born in Kentucky but grew up in Red River County. When Younger Scott McKinney moved to his property in Grayson County, he built this home for his wife Sarah (Janes) and their six children. In addition to being a farmer and an ordained Methodist Episcopal Minister, McKinney served as Grayson County Surveyor in 1852-53. The land remained in the family until 1928.