Grayson County, Texas
Denison is home to 36 official Texas Historical Commission markers — each one telling a piece of the city’s story. Browse the markers below, then find them on the map and discover more nearby with RoadHistorical.
Established about 1853 by Benjamin F. 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…
View on map ↗Thirty-fourth president of the United States; born here Oct. 14, 1890, third son of David J. and Ida Elizabeth Stover Eisenhower. Dwight Eisenhower graduated from the U. S. Military Academy, 1915; in 1943, during World…
View on map ↗Founded Oct. 14, 1890, by ten early social leaders. A charter member, Texas Federation of Women's Clubs. Its 2-story brick hall, built 1896, was the first woman's clubhouse in Texas. Had facilities for music, drama,…
View on map ↗(1837-1915) Livestock broker from Illinois, whose pioneering in cattle markets helped Texas rebuild the economy which had been wrecked in 1861-1865 by Civil War. Cattle had increased greatly in wartime. Texas had no…
View on map ↗Completed 1944, Texoma is today the second largest lake in Texas and the eleventh largest reservoir in capacity in the United States. Its main purposes are flood control, power generation, and recreation. Lake Texoma…
View on map ↗Home built by world-famed scientist. Munson (1843-1913) was born in Illinois; educated in Kentucky; married Ellen Scott Bell, 1870; had eleven children.Settled in Denison 1876, and developed extensive nurseries.Built…
View on map ↗Grandnephew of George Washington, who had been guardian of L. A.'s father; was a doctor; came to Texas 1849 with inaugural suit, personal letters of George Washington. Wife came from noted West Virginia family.…
View on map ↗(Originally at 215 W. Houston, Sherman) Oldest extant house in city. Erected in 1850s by Dr. R. L. Bullock. Built around typical "dog run," or entry hall. Had first window glass in county. Family home of Confederate…
View on map ↗Oldest house in Grayson County. Contained county's first post office. Built 1830 near Preston Bend, important trail crossing on Red River. Builder was James G. Thompson, first Chief Justice (county judge), Grayson…
View on map ↗Denison's oldest house of worship and oldest Episcopal sanctuary in Grayson County. Site given by Denison Town Company and visitation by the Ret. Rev. Alexander Gregg, first bishop of Texas, in May 1873. Cornerstone was…
View on map ↗Built on 800-acre farm near Bells by Geo. S. Fitzgerald, who moved with family from Virginia to Texas in 1857. He cut building timber on his farm in 1859. On return from Confederate army he erected this house in 1866.…
View on map ↗Pioneer home of James Kinsey Miller and wife Orrena (Tabor), who came to Texas from North Carolina in 1852, settling in 1860 in area of later Denison. About 1866 Miller and his sons built 2-room dogtrot house of oak…
View on map ↗On homesite bought Oct. 15, 1866, by J. K. Miller (1826-1908), this spring supplied his household, neighbors, travelers on nearby ferry road. Civic -minded Miller gave alternate business area lots to the city of…
View on map ↗A noted watering place on pioneer trails, known as early as 1840 to settlers and prospectors who camped near the strong currents of water boiling up at the foot of a rocky bluff. The sandstone of the bluff's face became…
View on map ↗In 1865 the Union Pacific Railway southern branch was incorporated to build a railroad from the St. Louis-Kansas City area to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1870, with construction completed to the border of Indian Territory,…
View on map ↗Blacksmith Micajah C. Davis (1790-1860), one of the founders of Grayson County, erected this cabin about 1840 at Iron Ore Creek settlement near present Denison. The pioneer home was built of hand-hewn oak logs with a…
View on map ↗Ernst Martin Kohl (1857-1935), former German Navy captain who came to Denison in 1885, built the first floor of this structure in 1893 to house a grocery store and saloon. He added the top three floors in 1909-11 as his…
View on map ↗Pioneers, who were camped near a spring on property of William S. Reeves (1794-1879) while waiting for their land grants, built this one-room schoolhouse about 1855. The leader of the group was William L. Holder…
View on map ↗In 1874 this church was founded to serve the black community of this growing railroad town. Ministers from several Baptist churches in the county helped organize the new fellowship. Some of the charter members…
View on map ↗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…
View on map ↗A native of Missouri, Jesse Elvis Hendricks (1837-1920) came to Grayson County in 1846. In 1863-64, he built this log home five miles southeast of this site. It was originally a one-room cabin with a loft, but Hendricks…
View on map ↗St. Patrick's parish was founded in 1872 by the Roman Catholic bishop of Galveston, Claude Dubuis. The first church building at this site, designed by noted architect Nicholas J. Clayton, was completed in 1898.…
View on map ↗Organized a year after Denison was founded, Lone Star Masonic Lodge was chartered June 6, 1874. Meetings were held in several locations before the construction of this lodge hall. The northern half of the building was…
View on map ↗On December 24, 1872, a Missouri, Kansas & Texas (Katy) Railroad train carrying 100 passengers arrived here in the newly established railroad town of Denison. Its arrival marked the culmination of years of effort by the…
View on map ↗Founded in 1876 by the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur, Belgium, in association with St. Patrick's Catholic Church, St. Francis Xavier Academy was the first of six Texas schools organized by the Sisters. After purchasing a…
View on map ↗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…
View on map ↗Confederate veteran Thomas Jefferson Sanford and his wife Nannie (Johnson) bought 300 acres including this site in July 1871. Their children, William Robert and Oscar Thomas, lived on the land with Oscar's wife Sarah…
View on map ↗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…
View on map ↗Churches and private schools provided early educational training for African American students in Denison until 1886, when Anderson Public High School opened at 530 W. Bond Street. To meet the need for improved and…
View on map ↗Architect Donald Mayes (1914-1966) designed and lived in this house with his wife, Rose Marie (Riddle) (1918-2008), whom he married in 1940. In addition to this home, he designed several others in the Edgewood addition,…
View on map ↗In March 1873, after a survey of the newly-established town of Denison enumerated 40 citizens of the Methodist denomination, Reverend Alexander Jamison was sent to the town to organize a Methodist congregation. A new…
View on map ↗The Presbyterian Board of Home Missions commissioned Reverend Josiah Milligan to oversee Presbyterian outreach in Texas. Rev. Milligan chose to office in Denison and began holding services in his living room. On…
View on map ↗William Benjamin Munson (1846-1930) was born in Fulton County, Illinois. He was the first graduate of Kentucky’s Agricultural and Mechanical College (later, University of Kentucky) in 1869. He had moved to Texas by…
View on map ↗The Waples-Platter Grocery Company was established in 1872, before the City of Denison. Founded as Hanna, Owens & Co. In 1871, the company supplied Missouri-Kansas-Texas (mkt) railroad workers with provisions. The…
View on map ↗The city of Denison’s first public park was established in 1872. The town was founded in that same year as a terminus for the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas (KAYT) Railroad and began as a melting pot for many different…
View on map ↗In 1853, Asa Messenger, Sr. and his nephew, William Lightfoot, traveled to Grayson County and purchased a considerable amount of land. The Lightfoot family moved to Fannin County soon after, but the messengers made…
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