Denison, Texas

Everything Denison is known for

8 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

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"
Texas Line Boogie
Chris Rea
14%
"Texas line boogie"
Girls From Texas
Pat Green
7%
"Once you cross that red river hoss"
Railroadin’ Some
Henry Thomas
7%
"Hello Greenville, Celeste, Denison, South McAlester"
Texas Bound Train
Cory Morrow
6%
"I wanna see where that Red River Flows"
If They Come Lookin’
Zach Bryan
2%
"Them Denison boys get meaner just when them trees get greener"

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.

Red River 50 songs Interstate 35 27 songs

History of Denison

The Red River Bridge War RoadyGoat

1931

In July 1931, Texas and Oklahoma nearly went to war over a bridge. The states had jointly built a free bridge across the Red River near Denison, Texas, to replace a privately owned toll bridge. The toll bridge company got a Texas court to block the free bridge from opening, claiming the state had promised to buy them out for sixty thousand dollars. Texas Governor Ross Sterling sent Rangers to barricade the Texas end of the new bridge. Oklahoma Governor William 'Alfalfa Bill' Murray was not a man who tolerated being told no. He declared martial law, sent five companies of Oklahoma National Guard to the bridge, including a machine gun platoon and a howitzer, and personally showed up armed with a revolver. Then he ordered his highway crews to demolish Oklahoma's approach to the old toll bridge, making it unusable. If Texans wanted to cross the Red River, they would use the free bridge or swim. Murray stood on the Oklahoma side daring Texas to do something about it. The Rangers on the Texas side had no orders to start a shooting war over a bridge. The standoff lasted weeks. Crowds gathered to watch. Newspapers called it the Red River Bridge War. On August 6, the Texas injunction was dissolved. The free bridge opened September 7. Nobody fired a shot, but it came closer than anyone wanted to admit.

4.5 mi away

Bryan County, OK RoadyGoat

Bryan County, Oklahoma, lies within the East Central Texas Plains, a landscape of rolling grasslands and scattered woodlands that mark the transition from the Great Plains to the South. Lake Texoma, a sprawling reservoir, dominates the southern border, a recreational haven drawing visitors to its shores. While the quiet beauty of this region might seem far removed from the spotlight, Bryan County claims an unlikely connection to Hollywood.

5.2 mi away

Why a Single Speck of Dust Is a Disaster RoadyGoat

The features printed on a modern chip are far smaller than a single speck of dust, smaller even than a bacterium. So one stray particle landing on a wafer can short out a circuit or ruin a chip entirely. That's why chips are made in cleanrooms, with air filtered hundreds of times cleaner than an operating room. It's also why workers wear full-body bunny suits. The surprise is that the suit isn't there to protect the worker. It protects the chip from the human, because we shed skin flakes and tiny particles constantly. So how does a circuit even get onto the wafer? A process called photolithography. They shine light through a patterned mask, like a stencil, onto a light-sensitive coating on the wafer, printing the circuit pattern, then etch it in. Then they repeat that in dozens of layers, building the chip up bit by bit. These are the cleanest, most precise factories humans have ever built.

8.0 mi away

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.

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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.

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North-South Railway Connection

1872

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 Katy to construct a rail line from the border of Kansas and the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) south to the Red River and into Texas. The Katy earned this lucrative right-of-way by being first in a national competition to construct a rail line from St. Louis south to the Indian Territory. Several months later the unheralded connection of the nation's first north-to-south rail service west of the Mississippi River was established here when a Texas Central Railroad train pulled into Denison from the south on March 10, 1873. In a brief ceremony to commemorate the occasion Denison Mayor L. S. Owings addressed a small crowd by reading the contents of a telegram he had dispatched to Galveston, Houston, New York, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco proclaiming his town's new role as a key link in the nation's network of rail lines. With this connection passengers and shippers could depend on continuous rail passage from the Texas Gulf Coast, where the Texas Central originated, through Denison to St. Louis where rail linkages extended north to Chicago, east to New York, and West to San Francisco.

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Denison, TX

1872

Denison is on U.S. highways 75 and 69 seven miles north of Sherman in northeastern Grayson County. In the early 1870s William Benjamin Munson, Sr. , and R. S. Stevens bought land in the area and prepared for the arrival of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad (the Katy). The townsite was laid out in the summer of 1872 and named for the vice president of the Katy, George Denison. The first train arrived on Christmas Eve. The town had over 3,000 residents by the summer of 1873, when it incorporated. Although Main Street appeared to be an orderly collection of businesses, the surrounding area consisted of a tent city, inhabited by bars, gambling halls, and houses of prostitution. On February 6, 1873, Denison established the first free public school in Texas. The first Denison Independent Order of Odd Fellows was organized on February 19, 1873. Denison had the first women's club in Texas; the XXI club began in 1876. In 1886 a post office opened, and in 1889 the town had 5,000 residents. During the next ten years Denison established itself as a retail and shipping point for North Texas. In addition to the tracks of the MKT, the town also became a stop on the St. Louis, San Francisco and Texas and the Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf railroads. Five additional rail lines that connected Denison with other communities in North Texas were chartered between the late 1870s and 1900, including the first interurban electric line between Denison and Sherman in 1896. By the end of the 1870s local businesses included two cotton compresses, a large flour mill, and a slaughterhouse capable of handling 700 cattle a day. In 1884 the town had an opera house that seated 1,200. In 1889 the Denison Herald began publication. During the twentieth century industrial and manufacturing plants provided a diversified economic base for the community. Electronic parts, clothes, furniture, and a variety of plastic goods are among the products manufactured in Denison. In 1900 the population surpassed 10,000. By the mid-1920s Denison had just over 17,000 residents and 400 businesses, including four banks. It also had two high schools, nine grade schools, and numerous churches. In 1936 Denison had 13,850 residents and 460 businesses. By the end of World War II the number of residents was just short of 16,000. The population was 26,000 in 1966, when businesses numbered just under 600. In 1989 Denison had a reported 24,234 residents and 427 businesses. In 1990 the population was 21,505, and in 2000 it was 22,773. Denison was the birthplace of the thirty-fourth president of the United States, Dwight David Eisenhower . The home he was born in in 1890 has been returned to its original appearance and sits in the Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site , a three-acre area that includes a museum.

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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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Everything Near Denison

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

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