Grayson County; an illustrated history of Grayson County, Texas. Page: 29
180 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this book.
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Katy; and since Denison remained the terminus of the
road until 1882, the city early achieved transportation
importance that it would never have had except for
that circumstance.
The civic jealousy created by competition did much
to stir Sherman to economic and cultural endeavor. Efforts
were made to overcome the deficiency of a rail
connection to the north by securing other lines through
Sherman. The Texas the Cotton
Belt in 1888. The Santa Fe and Frisco followed.
But for the remainder of the nineteenth century it was
the shipment of beef and other commodities over the
Katy that made Denison an important city.
During this period of inter-city rivalry Sherman assumed
the pose of an old, established city with Southern
ways and cultural resources. Difficult as this pose would
to be substantiate, it nevertheless seems to have had its
influence on the direction of Sherman's development.
Sherman prided itself of its schools and its society.
Denison prided itself on success. It was very hard for
Shermanites to feel entirely kindly toward a neighbor
who had a monopoly on a possession which Sherman
had belatedly learned to admire.
The other important event in Sherman life in the
1870's was the great fire of 1875. The fire started when
a lamp was overturned at the McCloud Hotel on Travis
Street on October 30, 1875. The conflagration spread
rapidly and was soon completely out of the control of
the primitive fire fighting equipment which was available
to combat it. When the flames finally went out,
all buildings south of the square had been destroyed.
Only two buildings stood unburned on the east side, and
only two remained in the block that lies to the south
and east of Travis and Lamar. The losses to the merchants
were staggering. Quite aside from the fact of
the fire itself, the list of losses is instructive as it gives
a very accurate idea of the economic development
achieved by the town before the tragedy. The firms
that were burned out are as follows:
M. M. Bond Cook Brothers, $1,500;
Bradburg M. Schneider
P. W. Sumner, $40,000; Andrews Moore
Hare, Bledsoe E. Hernstadt, $3,600; R. G.
Hall Hall G. C. Dugan,
$4,000; M. Singer L. Bornstein, $18,000;
S. R. Caruthers, $7,000; I. W. Levy Batsell
L. J. Martin, $2,500; Brooke i. E. Bond, $6,000; John Brooke, $12,000; William
Heebe, $1,600; J. R. Cole, $1,100; Sherman Courier, $4,000;
Fitch Cullers R. L. Bullock,
$4,000; Patriot Printing Co., $3,500; L. Pandres, $1,400;
S. B. Wright, $3,500; G. F. Lindsay. $9,000; Eubank J. J. Eubank, $4,000; T. C. Richards, $6,000; Register
office $4,000; Singer Sewing Machine Co., $38,000; Ed
Moore, $43,000; A. Young, $2,500; A. B. Moore, $8,000;
J. E. Lodsdon, $1,500; J. D. McCamant; $1,000; Block Jett County Jail, $500; J. W. Vaden, $1,600; Moody
Knights of Pythias, $400; J. Benner, $600;
Buchanan John Fenet, $400; B. Jones, $400;
F. M. Allen, $6,006; H. C. Holcombe W. W.
Walker, $2,000; C. Jackson, $3,000; Mrs. Galloway, $3,500;
S. Whitted, $1,000; W. E. Saunders, $500; Blahut, $100;
Masonic Lodge, $250; Byers Brothers, $600; Dr. i. M. Wilson,
$200; Black Frank Colbert, $2,000; Henry John Halsell, $2,000; Hous Holt, $2,000;
Mrs. Ben Moore, $3,000; C. Robold $2,200; William Wm. McDonald, $750; Boles
W. Voight, $1,500; Anderson J. F. Stinnett,
$2,500; John Dorchester, $1,500; Parks N. Wallrich, $200; Gas Company, $300; Cosmopolitan
Restaurant, $250; I. Feller, $700; Dred Parks, $225; J. W.
Hagee, $150; Mrs. L. Nason, $150; Dr. Stinson, $200.
As the reader can judge, this list also reflects the
shoddy construction of the original business district of
Sherman. The fire was the cause of a beneficial rebuilding
of almost the whole square. Because more permanent
materials were used, many of the buildings put
up in 1875-6 have changed only superficially since that
time. The zinc cornices and false pediments have yielded
in most cases and there has been decided remodeling of
the ground-floor fronts, but such things as the height of
building and dimensions of stores have not changed.
The seventies also saw the building of the courthouse
which most long-time residents of Grayson
County of the present day remember as the "old courthouse."
It was built in 1876 by Capt. L. F. Ely and
was a source of great local pride, as may be gathered
from this account of it written at the time:
The magnificent courthouse just completed is plenty proof
of the fact that the people of the county are imbued with the
same pride and public spirit possessed by those of the town
who have worked so persistently to build it up. This splendid
edifice is located in the center of the square and is 100 by
100 feet. The distance from the ground to the top of the dome
is 140 feet. The first floor is divided into large, well ventilated
offices, and has a secure fire-proof vault for the county
records. The second story has two courtrooms, one 45 by 100
feet, the other 40 by 80 feet, with convenient jury rooms.
The courthouse originally had a bell (formerly a fire
bell) that struck the hours, but this was removed in
1919 when the tower was taken down from the building.
On week ends and for special occasions it was not
unknown for the county to rent out the temple of justice
for public dances, rallies, shows, and lectures. On
such occasions, the floor was usually covered with sawdust,
a very necessary item in former days, which absorbed
tobacco juice and rendered it less objectionable.
Three other important structures built in Sherman
in the seventies deserve comment. They are the first
opera house, Schneider's store, and the Binkley House.
Of the opera house, little can be said except that it occupied
the site of the present Texas Theater and burned
in the early eighties. Its exterior architecture strongly
resembled the buildings which surrounded it and have
survived until the present day.
Schneider's also has survived, and today presents a
degree of its original appearance. Built on the northeast
corner of Travis and Houston, it was the most
pretentious of the structures erected after the fire. Even
today the delicacy and curiosity of its decorations captivate,
and to a population but recently emerged from
pioneer conditions, it must have seemed a marvel. The
business which occupied the building employed twentyseven
clerks to wait on the "retail trade" and boasted
that it could compete with "any house in St. Louis or
Galveston for the jobbing trade."BINKLEY HOUSE
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Landrum, Graham. Grayson County; an illustrated history of Grayson County, Texas., book, 1960; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth24647/m1/33/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.