Denison, Texas

Everything Denison is known for

18 songs mention this city 4 artists from here

Denison, Texas, a city in the Texoma region, has a musical identity shaped by artists who call it home and songs that mention its name. The city, located in Grayson County, is known as the birthplace of the 34th U.S. president, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Denison is also recognized as a Music Friendly City by the Texas Music Office.

Among the artists from Denison are the country act Casey Daniels Band and metal band Texas Hippie Coalition. Denison is also referenced in songs like "Hometown Badboy" by Casey Daniels Band and "Texas Tags" by Texas Hippie Coalition. The city hosts "Music on Main," a free summer concert series in downtown Denison.

Music in Denison

Songs About Denison

Highway 377
Cross Canadian Ragweed
94%
"We drove him off that Seminole Bridge"
Hometown Badboy
Casey Daniels Band
53%
"Denison, Texas - I'm still your hometown bad boy"
If They Come Lookin'
Zach Bryan
40%
"Them Denison boys get meaner"
Texas Tags
Texas Hippie Coalition
40%
"Texas Tags"
Oklahoma
Trout Steak Revival
25%
"And the Texas line we crossed to end the night"
Texas Line Boogie
Chris Rea
14%
"Texas line boogie"
Oklahoma Borderline
Vince Gill
8%
"Come on, Oklahoma borderline"
Girls From Texas
Pat Green
7%
"Once you cross that red river hoss"
Railroadin’ Some
Henry Thomas
7%
"Hello Greenville, Celeste, Denison, South McAlester"
Oklahoma Girl
Eli Young Band
7%
"I crossed the state line about an hour ago"
Texas Bound Train
Cory Morrow
6%
"I wanna see where that Red River Flows"
Red River
The Lonesome Heroes
5%
"TITLE"
Long Way From OK
Granger Smith
5%
"So I ran south cross that red river"
Oklahoma-Texas Line
Rascal Flatts
3%
"A little brick house on the Oklahoma-Texas Line"
River Red
Cole Phillips
2%
"Okie-Texas line"
If They Come Lookin’
Zach Bryan
2%
"Them Denison boys get meaner just when them trees get greener"
Texas OK Line
special
2%
"TITLE"
OK Texas Wedgie
Various borders songs about
2%
"OK Texas Wedgie"

Artists From Denison

C
Casey Daniels Band
country Pop: 55
T
Texas Hippie Coalition
metal Pop: 43
B
Booker Ervin
hard bop Pop: 23
E
Ed Burleson
country Pop: 20

Rivers & Roads in Song near Denison

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Denison.

Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad 3 songs Red River 84 songs Interstate 35 42 songs

History of Denison

Denison, TX RoadyGoat

For a town its size, Denison has an outsized claim to fame. Its most famous son is Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President and Supreme Allied Commander in World War II. Ike was born here in 1890 in a small house by the railroad tracks, and his birthplace is now a state historic site. But there's more. Denison was also home to Thomas Volney Munson, a brilliant horticulturist who saved the entire European wine industry in the 1880s by shipping pest-resistant Texas grape rootstocks to France. For his work, he was inducted into the French Legion of Honor. And more recently, Captain Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger, the hero pilot who safely landed a passenger jet on the Hudson River, grew up right here and graduated from Denison High School. President, scientist, hero—all with roots in the town you're driving through right now.

The President Born by the Tracks RoadyGoat

Just a few blocks from downtown Denison, you can find a small, simple, two-story white house. It may not look like much, but it's the birthplace of a giant of the 20th century: Dwight D. Eisenhower. On October 14, 1890, the future 34th President and Supreme Allied Commander was born in that house. His father worked for the Katy Railroad, wiping steam engines for about ten dollars a week. The family was poor, and they only lived in Denison for about three years before moving to Kansas, where Ike grew up. But that humble beginning makes his story even more remarkable. The first U.S. President born in Texas came not from a place of wealth or power, but from a working-class family in a gritty railroad town. The house stands today as a powerful symbol of the American dream, a reminder that greatness can emerge from the most modest of origins, right here, by the side of the tracks.

The Denison Man Who Saved French Wine RoadyGoat

Here in Denison, a local horticulturist named Thomas Volney Munson performed a miracle for the world of wine. In the late eighteen hundreds, an aphid called phylloxera was devastating the vineyards of France, threatening to wipe out their entire wine industry. The pest attacked the roots of European grapevines, and nothing could stop it. Munson, through years of meticulous research at his Denison nursery, had become one of the world's leading experts on grapes. He discovered that native Texas grapevines were naturally resistant to phylloxera. At the request of the French government, he identified and shipped thousands of hardy Texas rootstocks across the Atlantic. French winemakers grafted their delicate vines—Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay—onto the tough Texas roots. It worked. The industry was saved. For his world-changing contribution, France named T.V. Munson a Chevalier du Mérite Agricole, a Knight of the Order of Agricultural Merit, back in eighteen eighty-eight—making him only the second American after Thomas Edison to earn it. It's an incredible story of science and salvation, and it started right here.

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

1890

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 War II, was appointed commanding general of Allied Forces in Europe; served as president of Columbia University, 1948-1952; was President of U. S., 1952-1960; active elder statesman later. (1968)

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Eisenhower, Dwight David

1890

Dwight David Eisenhower, general of the army and thirty-fourth president of the United States, was born in Denison, Texas, on October 14, 1890, to David J. and Ida (Stover) Eisenhower. His father, who had moved from Pennsylvania during the late nineteenth century, was employed on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad at the time. Shortly after his birth the family moved to Abilene, Kansas, from where Eisenhower was appointed to the United States Military Academy, West Point, in July 1911. At West Point he was popular and gregarious, but no dedicated student. A promising football career ended with a broken knee in a game against Jim Thorpe's Carlisle Indians, after which the cadet coached the freshman team. His future leadership abilities were predicted by one superior who described him as "born to command." Another, however, advised that his first assignment, on graduation in 1915, should be under "a strict disciplinarian." Eisenhower graduated on June 12, 1915, at the top of the middle third of his class, which numbered 163. He was commissioned a second lieutenant and assigned to the Nineteenth Infantry at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, on September 13, 1915. He received promotion to first lieutenant on July 1, 1916, the day he married Mamie Geneva Doud. They had two sons. Eisenhower's military career had an auspicious beginning when, during World War I , he commanded a heavy tank brigade at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. In 1926 he graduated number one in his class at the highly competitive Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth. During the 1930s Eisenhower, as a major and lieutenant colonel, was assigned largely to staff positions. His years in the War Department (1929–35) and as chief of staff to Gen. Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines (1935–39) gave him an insight into governmental affairs, both military and civilian, that was denied most of his contemporaries. On December 14, 1941, Eisenhower, then at Fort Sam Houston, was transferred to the War Plans Division, United States Army Staff, under Gen. George C. Marshall. From that time to 1961 he held one responsible position after another. As supreme commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, he gave the order that sent British and American troops into Normandy on June 6, 1944 (D-Day). Eleven months later (V-E Day) he accepted the surrender of Nazi representatives Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl. In 1948 Eisenhower retired as army chief of staff to become president of Columbia University in New York. Though his tenure was short-and interrupted continuously by service in Washington-he was able, while there, to organize the American Assembly for the Study of War and Peace through a gift from W. Averell Harriman. In 1951 he was recalled to military duty to serve as supreme commander, Allied Powers in Europe, under NATO. Though his name had often been mentioned in connection with the presidency, Eisenhower always demurred, insisting on an honest "draft" for that office. When he relented in 1952, however, he found himself bitterly opposed for the Republican nomination by Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio. His nomination was achieved only by the seating of a pro-Eisenhower Republican delegation from Texas. By contrast, his election over Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson was remarkably free of acrimony. As president, Eisenhower followed a moderate course, continuing most of the social reforms of Roosevelt's New Deal but insisting on fiscal responsibility in the federal government. His concern over the growing size of the Pentagon budget was reflected in his much-remembered farewell address, in which he warned of the "unwarranted influence of the military-industrial complex." His domestic achievements as president included, besides balancing the federal budget three times, the construction of the Interstate Highway System, passage of the first civil-rights law since the Civil War , and the dispatch of the 101st Airborne Division to enfo

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Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad

1865

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, the line was renamed the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad. This title was often shortened to M-K-T, which led to the familiar nickname by with the line is best known -- "The Katy." Following the route of an old cattle trail, the Katy became the first railroad to cross Indian Territory, now the state of Oklahoma, and enter Texas from the north. On Christmas Day 1872, over 100 passengers rode the first Katy train into Denison, a new townsite named for M-K-T Vice President George Denison. The construction and acquisition of branch lines soon extended the Katy east to Greenville, west to Rotan and Wichita Falls, and south to Galveston and San Antonio. By 1904, the system had over 1,000 miles of track in Texas. The railroad transported cattle, cotton, and other crops to market. It also carried passengers on such trains as the "Texas Special" and the "Katy Flyer" before passenger service ended in 1965. Today (1975) Denison is a division headquarters on the M-K-T and the home of about 600 railroad employees.

Historical Marker →

XXI Club

1890

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, art. Gave Denison its first free public library, 1896-1935.

Historical Marker →

Griggs, Allen R.

1870

Allen R. Griggs, Baptist minister, was born a slave, the son of Elbert and Brailla Griggs of Hancock County, Georgia, about 1850. He was brought to Texas at age nine. Griggs joined the Baptist Church in 1869 and was ordained as a missionary five years later. In 1870 he married, and he and his wife had eight children. Their son, Sutton Elbert Griggs , became a noted minister and novelist. In the early 1870s Griggs received his first pastorate at the New Hope Baptist Church in Dallas, a position he held for nearly ten years. He later served as pastor at Mount Gilead Baptist Church in Fort Worth and First Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Aside from his church duties, Griggs devoted himself to the education of black Texans. He helped raise funds to establish Bishop College and served that institution as a trustee. He was cofounder of North Texas Baptist College in Denison and several other institutions. He has also been credited with establishing the first black high school in Texas and Texas's first black newspaper. In 1891 Griggs was awarded an honorary doctor of divinity degree by the State University of Kentucky. In 1873 he was made a member of the World's Parliament of Religions, held in Chicago, and in 1905 he was selected as a delegate from Texas to the Pan-Baptists Congress meeting in London, England. Further religious activities include years spent as corresponding secretary of the National Baptist Educational Board and chief organizer and president of the Texas Baptist State Sunday-School Convention, and chief organizer of the Texas Baptist Foreign Mission Convention and the Texas Negro Biographical and Historical Society. For twenty years he served as moderator of the Northwestern Baptist Association and was moderator of the State Missionary and Superintendent of Missions for Texas for twenty-eight years. Griggs also served as editor for several newspapers including, the Baptist Journal , Baptist Preacher , Centennial Dollar Reporter , Dallas Christian Leaflet , National Baptist Bulletin , and the Western Star , which he served as an associate editor. At the time of his death he was dean of North Texas Baptist College. Griggs died on May 7, 1922, in Denison. He was buried in Dallas.

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Things to Do in Denison

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Day Trip to Denison 🇺🇸 FULL EPISODE (S15 E3)

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Everything Near Denison

304 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Explore Denison on the Map
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