Trails of Our Past

Expedition Grayson County

Mormon Grove

February 2, 2016 - Throughout Grayson County there are numerous roads with unique names…names that to most of us make no sense at all. There’s Gray Bottom road near Tom Bean, Spring Town road near Cannon, Stiff Chapel near Gunter and Bones Chapel near Whitesboro. For this article, however, we will look at Mormon Grove road, northwest of Dorchester. Mormons in Grayson County? That’s right, at one time, although only for a winter, there were a group of Mormons who took up residence in Grayson County.

The early days of the Mormons, respectively, were shrouded in trials and tribulations, the group having been persecuted by non-Mormons on several occasions. After being driven out of Missouri as a result of the Mormon War in 1838, the group established a town in Illinois called Nauvoo. As the town grew, it threatened all towns in the vicinity, growing almost as large as Chicago. Illinois residents disliked the group because of bloc voting and no matter how peaceful the Mormons might have been, area residents continued to feel hatred toward the group, mostly out of fear. In 1844, Joseph Smith, the group’s leader was assassinated and a succession crisis soon ensued.

Lyman Wight was ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and was a devout follower of Smith. When Smith was killed and the succession crisis began, Wight led 200 followers to Texas in the fall of 1845. The following February is when Brigham Young led the Mormon Exodus to Salt Lake City. Wight was ordained president of his own church as he separated from that of Young and his followers and were known as Wightites.

Prior to Joseph Smith’s death, he had instructed Wight that he should find a safe place in the Republic of Texas for the Latter Day Saints to settle. Wight felt compelled to honor this order, even after Smith’s murder, and in the fall of 1845 led 200 Wightites into Texas. They crossed into Texas in Grayson County and spent the winter in a camp southwest of the future site of Sherman. This area came to be known as Mormon Grove.

On December 31, 1845, The Telegraph and Texas Register of Houston, Texas stated that “we learn that the people of the Red River counties have been thrown into a state of alarm, by a report that a number of Mormon families were emigrating from Missouri to the colony in the Cross Timbers. A similar report was circulated about four years since, and caused great excitement in that section: some of the settlers threatened to turn out with their rifles and drive the emigrants from the country: but their ire soon subsided when they found that the reputed Mormons, were peaceful, honest backwoodsmen from Kentucky and Tennessee. We suspect that the recent report is as unfounded as the former. If it should prove true however, the only legal remedy for the evil will be to establish a missionary station in that section. The Mormons doubtless could be converted with much less difficulty than the heathen, and they surely are objects more deserving of compassion, than the Hindoos or Chinese.”

After the winter months had passed, the group continued south toward the Colorado River and into Austin. This group would later establish Mormon cities in Texas such as Zodiac, Morman Mill and Morman Camp.

Back in Grayson County, Mormon Grove remained a farming community with no known stores of any kind. It was located northeast of the Sperry Community and northwest of Dorchester. On November 5, 1875, Samuel R. Hay was appointed the first postmaster of Mormon Grove. The last postmaster was Frank Sperry, having been appointed on October 10, 1902. On February 29, 1903, the post office was discontinued and the mail was sent to Sherman.

Today, Mormon Grove road comes off of the east side of highway 289 just north of the Sperry Community which is at the intersection of highway 289 and FM 902. According to old maps, the grove of trees so named Mormon Grove were located on the north side of what is now Mormon Grove Road.

Recently, another researcher sent me an article that she uncovered while doing some research. The article appeared in The Sunday Gazetteer of Denison on October 06, 1889. The article gave an account of a young man, Fred Brownlee of Arkansas who was pursued by a posse for crimes that he supposedly did not commit. He left Arkansas and traveled southwest into Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Following close behind the posse was his sweetheart, nineteen year old Sarah Wilson from a nearby farm. The posse caught up with Brownlee near Armstrong Academy. He proclaimed his innocence, however the posse strung him up from a tree and left him behind to die. Sarah Wilson arrived just in time to find him hanging from a tree and quickly cut him loose. The couple headed south searching for safety and crossed into Texas near Colbert’s Ferry. The couple stopped to rest, however some of the posse members were also in the area and soon spotted them. Brownlee and Wilson were once again on the run as the posse once again pursued them. The couple traveled south until they were captured in Mormon Grove. Brownlee was once again hung from a tree in the southwest portion of the grove. This time, the posse filled his body with bullets to ensure his death. Sarah Wilson, heartbroken and unable to carry on, apparently killed herself or perhaps simply died from a broken heart. The next day, the bodies of Fred and Sarah were found side by side and the couple were buried beneath the oak tree. As summer ended, the tree also died and was forever known as the “haunted tree.” It was also told that nothing living, not even a bird would occupy the limbs of the now dead tree. Furthermore, it was said that for several feet around the base of the tree nothing would grow, creating a barren landscape beneath the tree. The large tree was said to be located in “the center of a clump of trees and standing at a considerable distance from any tree or any vegetation of any description, stands a massive tree of the forest oak variety, on which no leaf or bud has been seen for twenty-two years. The tree referred to stands in the southwestern portion of Mormon Grove.”

June 9, 2016 - A couple weeks ago the kids and I, while on our way to a baseball game in Pottsboro, stopped at Mormon Grove and recorded the GPS coordinates for the grove of trees that became known as Mormon Grove. The coordinates are: 33.561222, -96.698333. It is amazing that this little grove of trees has lasted so long and for the most part are undisturbed. While I did not personally get out and explore the area, I would imagine that there are many artifacts and other items of historical value buried beneath the dark soil of Grayson County, specifically in Mormon Grove.