316 Matching Results

Results open in a new window/tab.

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: Allison Cemetery]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Allison Cemetery in Whitesboro, Texas. Text: Believed to date from the mid-1800s, Allison Cemetery occupies three acres of land. The oldest dated marker is that of a 53-year-old man who was buried in 1865, though some headstones have been moved or were destroyed over time, and older graves may be noted only by roughly shaped rocks. Most of those interred on this site are descendants of H. Dennis, Sr., and other area families. Notable graves include a family of influenza victims believed to have been buried in 1858 and several war veterans. Managed and maintained by descendants, the cemetery is still in use.
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[State Historical Survey Committee Marker: Allison Mayfield]

Photograph of the State Historical Survey Committee marker for Allison Mayfield in Sherman, Texas. Text: Opened law practice here, 1884, became an assistant attorney general of Texas, 1893. Won election, 1897, to railroad commission, served 26 years - 16 years as chairman. The commission had been created in 1891 to regulate shipping rates and practices. In his term as chairman, oil and gas regulation - a major responsibility - began with jurisdiction over pipelines, 1917. In 1919 the legislature made the commission responsible for conservation of oil and gas. In the 1920's proration began. Complete regulation came in the 1930's with the 1,700,000 barrel-a-day production in East Texas. Backed by Texas Rangers, the commission closed the field until conservation rules could be revised. Commission policies were acclaimed when in World War II Texas was able to supply the allies with great stores of oil necessary for victory. The commission's goal is to prevent waste and protect oil and gas reserves by orderly regulation of exploration, production, and transportation. Such men as Chairman Mayfield set high ethical standards that have continued in the commission, causing it to merit the confidence of the people and of the petroleum industry.
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: Andrew L. Randell]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Andrew L. Randell in Sherman, Texas. Text: A native of Denison, Andrew Randell graduated from Princeton University and the University of Texas. He opened a law practice in Sherman and was active in civic and church affairs. He and his wife Vera (Harrison) had two daughters. It was in Freemasonry that he marked his greatest achievements, serving as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Texas; as executive secretary of the Masonic service association of the U.S., leading national disaster relief efforts, as a Director of the Dallas Masonic Homes, and as an advocate for Masonic Education programs, publication and ideals. Recorded - 2005.
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[State Historical Survey Committee Marker: Austin College]

Photograph of the State Historical Survey Committee marker for Austin College in Sherman, Texas. Text: Oldest college in Texas operating under original charter. Founded in 1849 by the Presbytery of Brazos under leadership of Daniel Baker. Named for Stephen F. Austin, Father of Texas. Opened in Huntsville with Sam Houston, Anson Jones, and Henderson Yoakum - Texas statesmen - among original trustees. Bell donated by Houston hangs in present chapel. For years competence in Greek and Latin was required for admittance. In 1855 opened the first law school in state, and became the first college in Texas to award graduate degrees in 1856. Had the first chapter in Texas of any national fraternity (Phi Delta Theta). Remained open during Civil War although most students joined Confederate Army. Post-war problems and epidemics caused move to Sherman in 1876. Oldest building is Luckett Hall (1908). The first building on the campus having been destroyed by arson in 1913. Erected first college Y.M.C.A. building west of the Mississippi River, 1911. In World War I, cooperated with the student army training corps and admitted first coeds. In World War II, aided army air training corps. Founded to serve youth in pioneer families, college new …
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: Barron Cemetery]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Barron Cemetery in Collinsville, Texas. Text: Named for John Barron (1831-87), a Civil War veteran who came here from Virginia and bought a good farm in 1870. Married first to Delilah Ward (d. 1860s), then to Margaret McElroy, he had fifteen children. About 1875 he gave land for a church-school building and this community cemetery, where he and some other members of his family were later buried. William Jenkins (1829-78), who was also a Confederate veteran, is earliest known among some six dozen interments. Burial ground, closed about 1920 is cared for by descendants who have formed (1971) the Barrom Cemetery Association.
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: Barron-Veazey House]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Barron-Veazey House in Van Alstyne, Texas. Text: Influenced by the prairie school of architecture in its form and its large, overhanging eaves, this home was built in 1905 for the family of Walter and Pearl Barron. A local merchant and banker, Barron sold the house in 1920 to hardware merchant R. Lee Veazey, in whose family it remained until 1965. Classical details such as the wraparound porch, fluted Corinthian columns, and Sullivanesque frieze along the roofline are also significant.
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: Bennett-Richardson House]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Bennett-Richardson House in Whitesboro, Texas. Text: This residence was built in 1902 for the family of local business leader Bland Bennett and Grace (Dunlap) Bennett. Exhibiting Victorian and classical revival detailing, its prominent features include a 1-story wraparound porch with a pedimented primary entrance, a hopped roof, and corbelled chimneys. Its transitional floor plan is reminiscent of both center passage and American foursquare plans. The H.S. Richardson family purchased the house in 1942.
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: Bethel Baptist Church]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Bethel Baptist Church in Whitewright, Texas. Text: This congregation grew from an early prayer group established in the Bethel community in 1875. A small group met in the schoolhouse, which also served as a community center, for weekly prayer and bible study. On April 16, 1884, nine men and women met to organize the Bethel Baptist Church. These charter members were Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Autrey, Mr. and Mrs. E. F. Jones, and Mrs. Sarah Miller. The Rev. Bob Thomas served as first pastor. The small congregation grew rapidly and soon had more than 150 members. In 1897, this property was deeded to Bethel Baptist Church by Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Autrey, in the same year. During the pastorate of J. M. Harder, a one-room sanctuary was constructed. A 1918 storm damaged the building, but it was repaired and the congregation continued to worship there until another was constructed in 1937. Throughout its history, Bethel Baptist Church has served as a focal point for the small community. The congregation continues to maintain the ideals and traditions of its pioneer founders.
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: Binion Homestead]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Binion Homestead in Pilot Grove, Texas. Text: Georgia Natives Thomas Noel Binion (1827-1900) and Pauline Walker Binion (1829-1915) migrated to Texas after the Civil War. They moved to the Oxford community in Grayson County where they purchased this 107-acre farm in 1871. Thomas and Pauline died, they were buried in the family cemetery Northwest of their homestead. The farm was inherited by their children. Eddie Binion became a merchant in nearby Pilot Grove, but moved back to the family homestead with his sister Sarah after the death of his wife. Eddie raised sugar cane and operated a syrup mill here from the turn of the century until the 1940s. The mill first used mules to operate the crusher, and wood fires to cook the molasses. When fuel oil and coal were readily available in the 1920s, a piston engine replaced the mule, and coal replaced the wood fires. During the depression years, cane continued to arrive but money to purchase coal and fuel oil diminished. The mule was reinstated, but the Binion syrup mill foundered in the 1940s. The mill was dismantled and the iron and steel sold for use in World …
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: Binkley Hotel]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Binkley Hotel in Sherman, Texas. Text: In the 1870s, a joint stock company was organized to construct a hotel in Sherman. One of the largest stockholders was Judge C.C. Binkley, a community leader for whom the hotel would be named. Binkley was also president of the Merchants and Planters (M&P) Bank, established in Sherman in 1872. The first two hotels at this site burned, and the second fire was reportedly set to cover an attempted robbery. The next hotel was built by the Sherman Hotel Company and operated by bank president C.B. Dorchester. The bank, then the Merchants and Planters National Bank, served farmers, ranchers, counties, and Indian tribes, becoming a financial hub for Texas and Oklahoma, and the close ties between bank and hotel attracted and accommodated business in the growing community. The Sherman Opera House, which brought in touring dramatic companies, added to the list of popular and prominent men and women who visited the hotel. Ladies would enter on the north, at the carriage entrance, and avoid passing the bar on their way to receptions in the dining room of the three-story hotel.
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: Boy Scout Troop 1 (Troup 44)]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Boy Scout Troop 1 (Troup 44) in Van Alstyne, Texas. Text: The U.S. Congress chartered the Boy Scouts of America organization in 1910. Just two years later, three Van Alstyne boys, Rowland Barnett, Otis White, and Rae Nunnallee, received a Boy Scout storybook. Barnett made a Christmas wish and, in March 1913, the Van Alstyne troop received its charter - one of the first in the state. W.F. Barnett, Rowland's father and Van Alstyne school superintendent, became the troop's first scoutmaster. Within a few years, Troop 1, as it was known then, helped establish other Boy Scout troops in the area, beginning with the communities of Anna and Elmont. The Van Alstyne troop worked from its founding date to serve its community. Through the 1920s, the troop helped in a citywide cleanup to control disease and insect population. In the 1940s, the troop's number changed to 44, and in 1948, the city donated land for a scout hut, which has since been used for meetings. in 1959, the troop took part in the relay of the Pan American Games torch as it traveled from Mexico City to Chicago. The Van Alstyne troop …
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: Butterfield Overland Mail Route Through Grayson County]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Butterfield Overland Mail Route Through Grayson County in Sherman, Texas. Text: In the mid-19th century, mail traffic between the eastern United States and the Western states and territories was accomplished via Panama and Cape Horn. in 1857, Congress authorized the postmaster to contract a new overland mail service. The successful bidder for the southern route was John Butterfield, who agreed to convey mail twice weekly in 25 days per run. The "Oxbow Trail" originated at St. Louis, Missouri, and Memphis, Tennessee, then merged at Fort Smith, Arkansas. The stagecoaches traveled through Indian Territory (later Oklahoma) and across northern Texas to Tucson, Arizona, and on to Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, traveling 2,795 miles from St. Louis. The trail entered Grayson County by crossing the Red River at Colbert's Ferry and proceeding into Sherman. It crossed the county toward Gainesville in Cooke County en route to Franklin (later El Paso). The citizens of Sherman are credited with especially courting the mail route to use Colbert's Ferry instead of entering Texas near Preston (8 mi. upriver). Sherman became a distribution point in 1858, bringing mail service to Texas settlements. Waterman L. Ormsby of …
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: Cannon Cemetery]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Cannon Cemetery in Van Alstyne, Texas. Text: Elijah Cannon, his eleven sons, and slaves moved from South Carolina to Texas in 1852 and settled nearby. In 1874 the family graveyard was included in land deeded by O.M. Cannon as a community burial place. The oldest documented grave is that of ten-year-old Nancy J. Bowen in 1857. An adjacent section was established for former slaves, and the earliest known burials are those of Billy and Glory Boyd in August 1880. Among the more than 700 graves are those of pioneer settlers, veterans of several wars, and members of fraternal organizations. The cemetery continues to serve the area.
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: Captain N.A. Birge House]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Captain N.A. Birge House in Sherman, Texas. Text: Connecticut native Noble Allan Birge (1832-1902) came to Texas prior to the Civil War. Settling in Jefferson with his wife and children, he was the first elected sheriff of Marion County in 1860. Following his service as a captain in the Confederate Army, Birge became a leading businessman in Jefferson. The owner of a livery stable and numerous city lots, he was an active civic leader involved in such endeavors as a railroad company and a navigation company. The Birge family moved to Grayson County in 1874, settling first on a farm north of Sherman. N.A. Birge soon became a prominent local businessman and industrialist, operating a large cotton brokerage firm and other cotton related businesses. This home was built for Birge in 1896, shortly after the Great Sherman Tornado destroyed an 1877 structure on the same site. Exhibiting both Queen Anne and Classical Revival style influences, the house features flamboyant Classical Revival touches in its gables with garlands, giant order Roman Ionic columns, pedimented (segmental arch) windows, and smaller columns that are half-Doric and half-turned. The home remained in the Birge family until …
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[State Historical Survey Committee Marker: Captain John Henry LeTellier]

Photograph of the State Historical Survey Committee marker for Captain John Henry LeTellier (January 21, 1842 - July 18, 1913) in Sherman, Texas. Text: Born in Virginia, educated at Bethany College. In 1861 he joined Confederate Army, serving in Company K, 24th Virginia infantry fought in battles of Manassas, Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Gettysburg, and others. Received several wounds, one serious (at Plymouth). Resumed teaching at end of war. Came to Texas and operated the Sherman private school, 1871-1913. A dynamic teacher and expert in math, he taught many persons who later rose to prominence. Recorded - 1969.
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[State Historical Survey Committee Marker: Captain LeTellier's School]

Photograph of the State Historical Survey Committee marker for Captain LeTellier's School in Sherman, Texas. Text: This school for boys, founded in 1871, was officially known as the Sherman private school, but informally as "the Cap'n's." It was established and run by former Confederate Army Captain John H. LeTellier (1842-1913), who was born and educated (at Bethany College) in Virginia. Pupils who attended his school, housed in a large frame building, were mainly boys, but a few younger girls were admitted. Tuition in 1871 was $3 a month. The roll contained names of many future leading citizens of this area, and scholastic standards were high. The captain demanded constant drill in English, spelling, and math, stressing oral arithmetic. For each subject completed, a certificate was given. In later years, LeTellier's daughter, Clifford, taught here. The captain, an energetic man who was respected by his boys, joined them in sports at recess, told them stories of his war experiences, sang, and played the guitar. Occasionally he held dances upstairs for which "Old Jim" the handyman played the fiddle. Each Fall, the fathers of the students furnished wagons and all the children rode to the Choctaw Bottoms for their favorite annual pecan …
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: Carpenters Bluff Bridge]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Carpenters Bluff Bridge in Denison, Texas. Text: Originally built as a railroad bridge for the Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf (MO&G) Line, this landmark structure across the Red River continues to provide a transportation route between Grayson County, Texas and Bryan County, Oklahoma. MO&G officials determined they needed a line through Grayson County to connect there with other railways in order to secure better freight rates for their shipments from the Oklahoma coal mines. The new line, under construction by 1910, entered Texas via this bridge at the small community known as Carpenters Bluff. Completed in the late summer of 1910, the Carpenters Bluff Bridge was designed to withstand major floods such as the one in 1908 that had destroyed several area bridges. Its design also included a wagon shelf, an extra lane to serve travelers on foot and horseback, as well as horse-drawn vehicles, all of whom had to pay a toll for its use. In 1921, ownership passed to the Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway Co., which maintained the line until 1965, when the company ceased operations in Texas due to declining rail traffic. The Texas & Pacific Railroad maintained the …
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: The Carr-Taliaferro House]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for the Carr-Taliaferro House in Sherman, Texas. Text: Prosperous farmer-landowner Richard Bell Carr (1858-1918) and wife Susan (1858-1940) moved into town from Cedar community. They employed highly-regarded contractor in Barrow to design and build this dignified family residence in 1907. Their daughter Susiebel married John Cecie Taliaferro in the front parlor in 1918. Continuing to live here, the Taliaferros later inherited and enlarged the house. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark [1978].
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[State Historical Survey Committee Marker: Old Cedar Community]

Photograph of the State Historical Survey Committee marker for Old Cedar Community in Sherman, Texas. Text: Settled in 1848 by Grayson County pioneers, who reclaimed land from wilderness. Raiding Indians and hardships of frontier life soon created need for a cemetery, established the same year. The plots were free to any person, many noted settlers are buried here, including one Union and 18 Confederate veterans of the Civil War. Of some 400 graves, half are marked. After community was well established, a school - Cedar Academy - was organized in 1871. D.H. Dumas gave the land for a 3-acre campus. Enrollment reached 79 in 1872. Here, besides the usual subjects, students learned how to make ink and split goose-quills for pens. Later, name was changed to Cedar High School. It merged with the Tom Bean District in 1937. Cedar Methodist Church was organized in 1871. The congregation worshipped in a log house on property deeded by J.G. Vestal and Colonel J.R. Cole. A half mile south of church on Whitemound-Cedar road, a 7-acre tract donated by Mr. and Mrs. B.M. Carr was used as camp ground for revivals. Each summer people would come for miles, pitch their tents there, and …
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: Central Christian Church]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Central Christian Church in Sherman, Texas. Text: This congregation traces its beginnings to the late 1850s, when pioneer minister Benjamin Franklin Hall came to this area to preach and organize a church. Early meeting places included a brush arbor and a union meeting house at the local Masonic Hall. A sanctuary was built in 1875 on the corner of Montgomery and Houston Streets. A site on the corner of Travis and Cherry Streets was acquired in 1895, and a new church structure was erected in 1905. A part of Grayson County history, this church has served the people of Sherman for over 130 years.
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: City of Tom Bean]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for City of Tom Bean in Tom Bean, Texas. Text: Thomas Bean, a wealthy Bonham landowner and surveyor, donated fifty acres of land in southeast Grayson County to be used for a Branch Railroad line from Sherman to Commerce. Bean died in 1887; in that year the city of Tom Bean was established. Nearby Whitemound, which was bypassed by the railroad, lost its post office to Tom Bean's city in 1888; many Whitemound settlers moved to the new town. Mr. Bean's estate began to sell town lots surrounding the railroad in the 1890s. The city school was moved in 1891 from a one-room structure to a two-story building with an auditorium. Several Christian denominations, including the Church of Christ, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist, established churches in town. The city charter was signed in 1897 and the first mayor was Ice B. Reeves. In the early days of the 20th century, the city boomed. Within a few years, it boasted a grain company, a furniture company, a drugstore, a newspaper called the "Tom Bean Bulletin", a saloon, a dance hall, a movie theater, and the Tom Bean Social Club. As time progressed, the sharp …
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: The Civilian Conservation Corps at Loy Park]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for The Civilian Conservation Corps at Loy Park in Denison, Texas. Text: Grayson County officials became aware of a growing need for a public recreation facility for the area's approximately 65,500 residents in 1930. Three years later the federal government agreed to create a small lake on land provided by the county. The county commissioners court purchased a site 2.5 miles southwest of Denison in October 1933 and secured the services of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a federal public works program, to construct the dam and build a recreational park. In early November, 200 men from Wisconsin who comprised CCC Company 857 arrived in Grayson County to begin construction. Many men returned home in April 1934 at the end of the six-month CCC contract. Though it was unusual to employ CCC workers in their own areas, 48 Grayson County men were enlisted to replenish the supply of works in Company 857. By 1934 the CCC men had created a recreation center with a lake, a roadway, 13 culvert bridges, six "battleship" picnic units, a baseball diamond, and a partially completed central tower of native stone. Initially called Grayson County Park, the facility …
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: Coffman Cemetery]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Coffman Cemetery at Loy Park in Denison, Texas. Text: While David Harman Coffman (1827-1888) served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War (1861-1865), his wife Harriet (Jones) and four sons came to north Texas from Missouri. After the war David joined the family and they bought this land. Although the earliest marked grave was dated 1867, the Coffmans deeded the one-acre plot to the county for a public burial ground in 1878. They gave the adjoining acre for a school and meetinghouse for Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church. J. K. Miller, pioneer who owned land on which Denison was laid out, was buried here.
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Texas Historical Commission Marker: Colbert's Ferry]

Photograph of the Texas Historical Commission marker for Colbert's Ferry in Denison, Texas. Text: Established about 1853 by Benjamin E. Colbert, across it came thousands of immigrants into Texas in the fifties. The stages of the Southern Overland Mail Line, which provided mail and passenger service between St. Louis and San Francisco crossed there, 1858 to 1861. Abandoned in 1931 when a highway bridge spanned the Red River.
Date: 2011-12/2012-03
Creator: West, Carolyn Effie
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History