Grayson County TXGenWeb

Denison Daily News
Wednesday, July 22, 1874
pg. 1

COLLINSVILLE
Special Correspondence Daily News

Location - Railroad Prospects - Crops - McComb - Immigration - Etc.
Your correspondent left Sherman in a comfortable conveyance for Collinsville. For a few miles after leaving Sherman we traveled over a road newly cut through the timber; but soon gained the high rolling prairie. A pleasant breeze came sweeping in from the south, and light, fleecy clouds floated lazily across the morning sky. When we had gained the highest point along the road the view was beautiful beyond description. In whatsoever direction the eye turned spread before lay the richest treasures from the fruitful hand of nature. Here the prairie swelled into graceful knolls, and there sweeping away into miniature valleys fringed with low timber; and then as our road wound below the higher points, the little belts of timber were lost, and
the boundless prairie spread away until it appeared a sea of land. The landscape was exquisitely beautiful, but nature, ever profuse with her stores - gave it a finishing touch by shaking out on its broad expanse the full, flush beauties of a mid-summer morning. The shadows of the hazy clouds, chased each other, phantom-like across the undulating surface. Far away to the west appeared crescent-like the dim, blue outlines of the famous "cross-timbers." We found a few farms during the first part of our journey. The lands are mostly under "claim" - that is granted or sold by the State; there are many tracts, however, of what is known as the University Lands, which can, under the new law, be purchased. Well-tilled farms now gladden the eye, and at old McCombe [sic], we left the main traveled road to get a better view of the country. McCombe, one of the oldest pioneer land marks in this section of the State, is in the midst of a well cultivated district; and we pass through a long lane, bounded by farms in a high state of cultivation until we reach Collinsville. Collinsville is situated about 18 miles west of Sherman, near the
western boundary of Grayson county, and just on the eastern skirts of the famous "Cross Timbers" on a high prairie.
Collinsville is named after the founder,

ALPHEUS R. COLLINS
and can boast of a beautiful town site.
It is not yet 2 years old and can boast of representations of the leading professions, stores - drug, dry goods, grocery and blacksmith shops, one steam mill in operation and another in course of construction, livery stable, etc., and is surrounded by a farming country, which for fertility and productiveness is not excelled in the State. The price of wild lands ranges from $3 to $5 per acre. Water is easily reached by digging 12 to 15 feet.
Immigration is pouring in and this beautiful country is settling rapidly. The line of the T. & P. R.R. will pass near or through Collinsville, but a railroad is not necessary to make this a good town as it has the country to support it.
- - - B.