Trails of our Past

Howe about some history
By: Dusty Williams

Although the H.&T.C. railroad established many towns such as Van Alstyne, Anna and Melissa as it was laid across Texas in 1872, the founding of a town at Howe’s location was not its intention. The railroad put in a switch called Summit between Sherman and Van Alstyne and in 1876 Jabez Haning donated land for a town at the present site of Howe, donating every other lot to the railroad. As a result, businesses and residents migrated to the area and with populations high enough, a rail station was required, named Howe in honor of railroad director, F. M. Howe. Tradition states that the original name of the railroad switch was called Summit because it was 810 feet above sea level and was believed to be the highest point between the Red River and the Gulf of Mexico. In October of 1884, the citizens held a vote and decided to incorporate the town, thus making it the 6^th town in Grayson County to become incorporated. At the time of its incorporation, Howe had been reduced to a flag station, meaning the train only stopped if it was flagged down or if it was delivering passengers. The first mayor of Howe was George McCrary, with J. W. Culver as town marshal. Jabez Haning built the first house in Howe, a log cabin, which was located near a creek at the west end of Davis street.

Howe served as a country community, who happened to have been fortunate enough to have a railroad at its disposal. Perhaps the smallest of the railroad towns in Grayson County, this can likely be traced back to the fact that the railroad had never intended for it to exist. There are just a handful of old Victorian and farm style houses scattered throughout town and a small row of downtown buildings that until recently had spent years in neglect and despair. To provide evidence of the town’s rich farming community, one could look at Mr. James M. Stone, of Howe. In 1883 he submitted a patent for a cotton-stalk cutter and another patent was requested by him in 1890 when he designed a new plow. Throughout history, Howe had three saloons to cater to its needs. These were located on the north corner of Haning and Hughes, another a little north of this closer to O’Connell and a third on the south corner of Haning and Denny. The town voted to go dry sometime around 1900.  The railroad depot was located on the west side of the tracks between O’Connell and Tutt streets. There were also three known drug stores in Howe. One took the place of the former saloon when prohibition was enacted. Another drug store was located at the old Stockton building on the south side of Haning and the last was Brown’s Drug Store which later became Hop’s Caf. In 1890 a blacksmith shop was set up at the former site of one of the saloons. The same year, The Farmington and Howe Telephone Company was established.

In 1877, on the east side of the railroad tracks and on the north side off Haning the first school in Howe was established. This school operated through two buildings until 1897 when the Marshall-Bean College was founded off of Denny street where the old Middle School now stands. The school was not a college, rather a school with a fancy name. It consisted of 14 rooms and had a heating system to keep the rooms at a comfortable temperature. The independent school district was founded in 1906 and began serving the community. 

Howe School 
1912

Howe School Building
1919

In 1937 there was a large explosion which damaged the school. It was at this time that the building that currently sits on the site was built.

According to an old map, there were churches at the following locations: NE corner of O’Connell and Denny; SE corner of O’Connell and Denny; SW corner of Haning and Denny; SE corner of Davis and Denny and one just behind this church on the east side of Denny. The First Baptist Church of Howe was founded in 1879, with their first building having been completed in 1882. The Methodist Church was founded in 1877 west of Howe and their first building was built east of the railroad tracks. In 1909, on the NE corner of Denny and O’Connell a new building was constructed. The congregation remained here until 1977 when the current building was constructed. The First Christian Church was founded around 1872 and was backed by the Mantua Christian Church. 

Howe Christian Church

The church building was erected in 1893 and still stands at the SE corner of O’Connell and Denny. The church closed in 1982. The building later fell into the city’s hands and unfortunately the city did not want to repair it. The building still stands, however due to lack of care, the structure is slowly falling to the ground. Davis Chapel was constructed in the early 1900’s and was located off of Farmington Rd. On the east side of Farmington and north of where McBee Rd. hits Farmington is where the Davis Chapel once stood. Prior to this, it was the Little Brown School House. The church served as a non-denominational church until the 1940’s when it became a Nazarene Denomination Church. The church closed in the 1950’s and the building was moved to Howe. There are two cemeteries in the Howe vicinity. One is Hall Cemetery, SW of town and the other is an unmarked cemetery off of Bennett Rd.

This has been a brief history of Howe and a more detailed description of life and times in Howe could certainly be written.