Grayson County, Texas
Van Alstyne is home to 16 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.
The predecessor of this church, the First Disciples of Christ congregation in Texas, was founded during the winter of 1841-1842 at McKinney's Landing in Bowie County near the Texas-Arkansas border. Collin McKinney,…
View on map ↗Founded 1852 by Elijah Cannon, who came from South Carolina with his children and slaves, to develop 700 acres of land. Family established a church, cotton gin, grist mill, wagon factory. By 1885 town had an academy and…
View on map ↗(April 17, 1766 - September 8, 1861) A pioneer leader of North Texas and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, Collin McKinney was born in New Jersey, a son of Scottish immigrant parents. In 1780 the family…
View on map ↗(1820-1875) Born in South Carolina. In 1841 married May Thompson and moved to the Republic of Texas. In his capacity as surveyor, he helped map land that became a section of Dallas. Moved from Collin to Grayson County…
View on map ↗Outgrowth of Liberty Class, formed 1847 for Bible study and worship, in log cabin of Jim Creager (1.25 mi. S) by the Rev. Joab Biggs, of the Dallas Methodist circuit, and M. F. Cole. In 1855, after a rainstorm that…
View on map ↗In 1889 an association composed of merchants and landowners from the Van Alstyne area saw the need for quality education and established Columbia College. The school served all grades through college level, emphasizing…
View on map ↗Pioneer area landowner, banker, agriculturalist, and community leader James C. Umphress (1841-1917), a Confederate veteran of the Civil War, built this Victorian house for his wife Julia Caroline (Veazey) (d.1932) in…
View on map ↗The organizational meeting for this Masonic lodge was held on Feb. 7, 1857, on the second story of H.N. Walcott's store building in the village of Mantua (2 mi. SW). With district deputy grand master J.J. Harrison…
View on map ↗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…
View on map ↗David Elliott (d. 1909), for whom this cemetery is named, was a pioneer settler in the southern part of Grayson County. Born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in 1817, he joined the crew of a boat on the Mississippi River at…
View on map ↗Constituted on June 5, 1875, this lodge was organized in the early Grayson County community of Farmington (5 mi. SW). Members voted to move the lodge to Howe in 1887, after the earlier settlement was bypassed by the…
View on map ↗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…
View on map ↗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…
View on map ↗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…
View on map ↗Boy Scout Troop 1 (Troop 44) 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…
View on map ↗Established 1846 Historic Texas Cemetery - 2005
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