Crockett Park

1835

Named for David Crockett (1786-1836), the colorful Tennessee pioneer and congressman who rallied to cause of Texas in her war for independence. Late in 1835, Crockett traveled by riverboat, horseback, and on foot, entering Texas along the Red River (NE of here). Camping at a site half a mile northeast of this park, he found wild bees and honey in hollow trees. In letters to family and friends, Crockett called the campsite a "honey grove." It is said he told his friends he would settle here later, but in a few weeks he died in cause of freedom at the Alamo. One of Crockett's old friends, Tennessee surveyor Samuel A. Erwin (1786-1854), became the first settler here (1839) and first postmaster (1846). Benjamin S. Walcott, arriving in 1848, added land of his own to his wife's legacy from James Gilmer. With Erwin as co-founder, he platted town of Honey Grove on the Gilmer grant. He also erected first stone building. By 1885, Honey Grove had many businesses, including a weekly newspaper, "The Independent." Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad reached here in 1887. A peak of 4,000 inhabitants was attained in 1890. Situated on land bought from W. J. Erwin (1919) this park provides recreation for a dynamic community. (1970)

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Bralley-Pendleton School

1882

The first school for Africa Americans in Honey Grove began in 1882 with 20 students and one teacher. The school was named for F. M. Bralley, an early superintendent. By 1911 there were 188 students and two teachers. Bralley became a high school in 1925 when Smith Hill School opened for elementary grades, but the two schools were joined again in 1934. In 1959 the school was renamed in honor of its long-term principal John W. Pendleton. After the Honey Grove schools were integrated in 1965-66, the Bralley-Pendleton School buildings were sold and razed. (1997)

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Erwin, Samuel Augustus

1837

(March 17, 1786 - July 13, 1854) Virginia-born Samuel Erwin was married in 1819 in Tennessee to Sally Rodgers Crisp (1795-1860), in a ceremony performed by local magistrate David Crockett. First settler in the Honey Grove area, Erwin arrived here in 1837 and surveyed land grants for other pioneers. A surveyor by profession, he platted the townsite for his friend B. S. Walcott in 1848. He was the town's first postmaster and one of Fannin County's earliest justices of the peace.

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Bolton, Hale William

1907

Hale William Bolton, artist, was born on September 27, 1879, in Fredericksburg, Iowa, the son of George W. and Alice Lucy (Hale) Bolton. The family moved to Honey Grove, Texas, in 1896. By 1905 Bolton was in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas earning his living as a piano tuner for the Jesse French Piano and Organ Company. He was also a violinist. He studied art with Frank Reaugh , exhibited in Nashville, Tennessee, and won gold medals at the Tri-State Exhibition in Memphis in 1907, 1910, and 1913. In 1909 he studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, after which he traveled in Europe for several years and studied with William Orowelt in Holland and William Rueloup and Paul Abram in Paris. Bolton returned to Oak Cliff in 1914 and was employed by the Dallas Piano Works. He entered exhibitions in both Dallas and Fort Worth. In 1915 he won a medal for a painting exhibited in Galveston. He specialized in western subjects and worked in oils or pastels. In 1916 he became a member of the American Federation of Arts and moved to California. The following year he returned to Texas and lived with his parents in Oak Cliff. He exhibited at the Dallas Woman's Forum in 1916 and 1918. Shortly before his death, he was awarded a grand prize by the California Society of Art. He died at Rusk, Texas, on October 10, 1920.

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Bralley, Francis Marion

1908

Francis Marion Bralley, college administrator, was born at Honey Grove, Texas, on March 6, 1867. He attended county schools and, after graduating from Wilcott Institute in 1885, enrolled in Methodist College, where he graduated two years later. During the next five years he taught in the public schools of Fannin and Lamar counties. On March 17, 1892, he married Melida Meade. The couple had four sons. In 1882 Bralley became superintendent of Fannin County schools. Six years later he returned to his hometown to serve as superintendent of the Honey Grove school system. In 1905 he began a three-year appointment in Austin as the chief clerk in the State Department of Education (later part of the Texas Education Agency ). He resigned in 1908 to become the general agent of the Texas Conference for Education. Although he served in this position for only one year, Bralley is credited with the success of an amendment to the Texas Constitution that allows school districts to levy local taxes for construction and needed repairs. In 1909 he accepted the presidency of the Texas School for the Blind . In November of the same year Governor Thomas Campbell appointed him to complete the term of R. B. Cousins as state superintendent of public transportation. The following year Bralley ran unopposed for the elective office. He was reelected in 1912 and resigned on September 1, 1913, to become head of the University of Texas extension department. He resigned that post the next year to accept the presidency of the College of Industrial Arts (now Texas Woman's University) at Denton. Bralley served as president of the college for eleven years. During his tenure the school's academic reputation increased. Its enrollment grew from 700 in 1913 to 2,000 in 1924, and the school property increased in value from $325,000 to just over $2 million. Bralley was president of the chamber of commerce and the Rotary Club and chairman of the board of the Christian church of Denton. He was a Mason and Knight of Pythias and president of the board of regents of the State Teachers College (now the University of North Texas). On August 23, 1924, he died in Dallas of a bronchial infection. He was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Denton.

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Nicholson, Andrew Jackson

1861

Andrew Jackson Nicholson, plantation owner, Confederate officer, and state representative, was born in Arkansas on May 19, 1827. He was a soldier in the Mexican War and fought in the battle of Monterrey. Nicholson married T. C. Parish on December 20, 1848. The couple had seven children. By 1861 he had settled his family in Fannin County, Texas, where he owned a 6,500-acre plantation and eighteen slaves. This property was able to produce 16,000 pounds of cotton annually. With the coming of the Civil War , Nicholson was elected as one of three delegates from Fannin County to attend the 1861 Texas Secession Convention . On February 1, 1861, Nicholson and his fellow delegates signed the Ordinance of Secession of Texas. Texas then joined the Confederate cause. Being a leading citizen of his county, Nicholson organized and equipped about 120 men for service as an infantry company and was elected captain of this unit. On July 26, 1861, however, the unit was converted into cavalry and designated Company F of the Eleventh Texas Cavalry . Nicholson himself was promoted to lieutenant colonel on May 8, 1862, but due to wounds received at a battle at Elkhorn Tavern, he was unable to continue service with the Eleventh Texas Cavalry. He then joined James Bourland 's Regiment of Texas Cavalry, which he served in until the end of the war. After the Civil War, Nicholson returned to Fannin County, where he assumed a prominent role in community affairs. In 1873 he won election as representative for District Eleven—comprising Fannin and Lamar counties—to the Fourteenth Texas Legislature. He was chairman of the Committee on County Government and County Finances. He later served in the Twentieth Texas Legislature from 1887 to 1889. He was also a Royal Arch Mason. Nicholson died on June 14, 1895, and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Honey Grove, Fannin County, Texas.

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Honey Grove, Texas

Music in Honey Grove

Songs About Honey Grove

Artists From Honey Grove

Rivers & Roads in Song near Honey Grove

History of Honey Grove

Crockett Park

Bralley-Pendleton School

Erwin, Samuel Augustus

Bolton, Hale William

Bralley, Francis Marion

Nicholson, Andrew Jackson

Things to Do in Honey Grove

Everything Near Honey Grove