Document text
reilifire --79-nfei, t'Yx'
4royston Co.
-4terman, list. No.4 about 1260 words
1---‘',--e.--1-/ i 5to y
NOWIRS OF UR= ORAYSOIT COUNTY.
(Jesse Pipkin LoviaR)
Inge 1.
FRC 240
On our way to Texas frem Itiesouri we heard talk everyebore
of two Texan town (this wee in 1841), and theee tee tosn were Pres-
ton, at the border of the ferry and Austin, the new capitol.
I was twelve yeas, old then and msoh excited at the pros-
pect of entering the magic borders of Texas. J. loaded all our
stuff on pe ferry, whisb left only room for the horse. The ferry..
flan, on tie say over, guessed from ar nerveous questions Vat I
was rather apprenheive about life in Texas, and told me that if I
would take a big drink at Hod River eater, it would give me courage
and mania& and the fortitude necessary to hold my wen in the now
stout. AS soon as I landed en the Texas side, Aent down to the It
bank and drank all I could held of this miraculous vater.
Around the Preston store we new about a hundred Indians in
their tAlinkets, moccasins and paint,
-fe took Coffee seed road and on top of a rooky, brushy hill
we saw tie oabin where Joel aarhart lived with his family and dogs.
ftereards -,arhart built the first steam mill in Grayson county, on
Iron Ore creek between 3herman and )onisea. He ground corn and
na-ed lte ibar as well.
43 maris about twenty miles and about dusk passed two or
throe houses on a bill. ye couldn't rouse a soul in any of than so
we rode on and camped at lemon drove, so *ailed because some Mop
none had camped there ones, 7e traveled on for about fifteen miles
and helloed at a house and asked the in who came out, how far vas
V
Yolk re
korayeen, Ce
therman, Dist, Xe404
Page 11,
20 240
At was to sherman, ifs replied that the tree houses we had passed
on the hill &bolt fifteen miles back was the town of 3herman,
nan was ifarry Campbell.
-awn we reached my Aunt's house I heard her ;Minding in
k
the titan and I said, "Aunt is ;3oing to have coffee for supper
1-44 it turned out that she was grinding meal in a steel hand mil
then 'eeing used generally on the Texas frontier,
One of the first schools in 3herman was taught by a Mr,
Taylor and was located on the site eL the present Travis 0treett
Liethodist Church at the corner of Travis and Uulberry'Streete,
Another was taught by Carey Land on Montgomery Rtreet at the sit.
of the old Chaffin home, These schools were all pay schools and
ran for about three menthe each year, (This was in 1851)
My father bought the Dimond lot en the south side of LW
!Amite west of Crockett in 1851 and I went to Blyth Mills, 125
miles away for the lunber. I brought it bask and dumped it on
lot and it
amilmailhalk remained there a year before we got ready to build,
was not a stick of it missing, I was sixteen at this time,
ken v• JeSpain wac another early teacher who taught in
1,ranch, near the site of the 13111ot place. He was one of the fl
Christian preachers in Grryson county. 'Ire. Lurroughs k,Cpith, wh,
had been ,;allie qtandrson of Red River county, taught in a littl
lo G cabin on College near Lroughton,
:ut the real start of education in Sherman Game with the
school of Barton 7. Taylor, a Methodist preacher, He had a boardin
school on the site of the Travis 3treet Methodist Church at
the corner of Travis and Mulberry streets. The building was a sto
and a half high, the upper newt being used as a dormitory for that
boarding pupils the lower part as classrooms. I entered this soh4o1
Yol we
Grayson County
3hermaa„ uist. Ns.*
3.
C 240
in 1853. There were studentn attending from all the neichboring
towns and also from Indian Territory. There were many half•bree
and none full -bloods among the students, boys and girls both at
ed. AiacnIt; the fulle.bloods was Yrank Overton who afterwards
governor of tiv Chootaw ,nation.
e etudied MoGuffeyse readers, Smith's greustoar and Jets
blue beck speller.
T,Jyloin school, though a success eduoationally, was not
renumerative financially, no he sold out in 1855 and went to Ca
ornia,
The next big school was taught by a Yankee in the old
cnurch and Masonic Ledge building, where the opera house now o
at the ,lorner of Travis and Peoan streets. Our seats were logs
solit in half with holes pored in the ends for the legs, zriting
was done on a seperate desk, usually acnembled for classes at
about eiflit in the morning and were dismissed shortly tefore d
le bad recess periods during the mornings and afternoons and ti
off for "..unoh,„
Mere were several large plantations along Aed Miver in
these early days, growing cotton and corn. Prairie land was re
led as unfit for anything but to grow rmse for the cattle. No
cotton was (Town away from the river bottoms until after the liar
Cept„ John T. Roots tuilt a house on louth Crockett etre
in much the sane design as his steamboat *Lightest" which pONed
the Red River, The two lions which 4Tmarded the entrance were ',re
'rem Jell, Orleans,
Inns in GraYson Cousty In 1850.
Fronton. 20 miles from Sherman, had three stores, It was
very small plum..
She
Polklore
Grayson to.,
3horman, oiste, .43.4
Page 4,
AC 240
1.-ilot Grove, nicknamed "Lickskillet, was about 25 miles
from Alerman on the Uo6,inneyftBonham Stage Line, Blueford Clomon*:
was the first settler there and operated a small trading post.
always madu him fighting mad to hoar his place reforred to as
!s_tdokskillet".
,;hawnee•Town, north of the site of Denison, between :;hawal
nee .4oet: and the Red River, was another of the early town in the-,
county, (iriginally this place had been a Shawnee Indian village
mats Gen. ,szsioung bought the land on which the town was built
and moved down from Red aiver country in 1850,
011 harren, at the odge of vannin county was otill
other early town, rft• forst settler there was john Kitt:them. .e
bad a tradinc house there for several years, He said that when he
first went there, the fled River ran close to his house on the bl
sJ
but in the course of years it altered its bed, movini7 half a mils
away, leavint, a lake where it had formerly pa-sed the bluff,
Co iiiiiVALIAT404144
rank Richards was one of the first merchants of 3herman.
Jis store was on the square at the corner of Travis and Lair s
.brabam Loving had a grocery store and saloon on *set
3poncer '.14,bomar ran a store on aouth Travis stree$1 Benjamin
Eradley operated a salow, and grocery on the square at the corner
of lamer and Traria.
The iussell Rotel was on the west side of Travis at •Tones,
and John vItch were the proprleters.
_aleh orn hat a saloon called the 3obastpoolw. Geor3e
'.tamps had a P!rocery and saloon tailed the "Red Front." George le
served as a eriff, represenative and later senator, lam ;suit had
ysert llunty
letnan, jet. no.4
240
operated a wool carding machine. Unole JimnV charts wee the father
of seventeen children, eight of them being twins. Uncle Jimmy
Jet nincs ran a farm on the edge of town and was a good farmer.
Ooonskin aoTerts was the well digger in the tOwn. John Jhaokleford
was the townle shoeliaker and was a fine story teller. tinesh g0198
served as justice of the peace and was the leading singer in the
town, olonon Doetwich served as county clerk for many years. Now.
ton nade rawhide bottom chairs. tingle Billie Hopson was a printer.
Den !lours ran a blacksmita shop. Uncle billie Coffee was ,county
treasurer for several tern*. Phillip ',tells wee a merchant. Lamle
tri:)nie -outhward me a !othodist preacher. Dr. q.L.Bullock was the
town's physician and was the father of the first child torn in
hernan It was called Billie and nicknamed Duster. Jr. John :rooks
was a drurAist at tt-e corner of the square and was postmaster for
a low, time. He was an ingenious little 7,npliehmane .hen anyone
oallelfor so iethtng he did not nave in stock, he would tell than
to co,lc luck the next day and he set about to manufacture it for
them,
her names of early settler* mere Andrew Mciaroy, Unole
Hilliard Jennings, High .1. Young, Sam Maxey, George Bond, lesley
Lone and his brother ,Annie, and Old Brother Procter.
InuotplAppT
Unpublished autobiography of Jesse Pipkin Loving, for many
years county clerk of (Avayson county. un is in lessees ion of 4.4us.
Y.U.Lueas, Aliterian for grayson County, 3herman. Tex.