 The Sherman Courier "My father came to Texas in 1838 and settled near Clarksville. He came to Grayson county in 1846. I was born in the Republic of Texas in 1844 and became a citizen of the United States by annexation in 1845, and moved to Grayson county with my parents in 1846. My father was the first representative to Austin from this county, being a member of the legislature in 1847 at the same time that John H. Reagan was Representative from Anderson county. Old man Sam Houston used to come up into this country frequently and stopped at our house, and I knew him almost as well as I did my father. I was principally raised 2-1/2 miles northwest of the courthouse in an old double log house that my father had built in 1845 before we moved up here. For many years after we came here there were no roads in the country and I never saw such a thing as a bridge until I was almost grown. My recollection is that Sherman was moved to its present location from out here about four miles west in the year 1847. My father owned a negro man named "Tom" and he hauled the records and the other stuff from the old town over here and the county allowed my father five dollars for Tom's work. My grandfather, Thomas R. Shannon, came to this county in the early thirties and settled out near where the Shannon school house now is, and one of my uncles settled where the town of Denison now is in the year 1835. When they first came here, it was almost impossible to raise horses or cattle here as the wolves and bear and other varmints would destroy all the young. There were thousands of wolves here then, besides plenty of bear. The Indians were all through this country and you talk about a time, those real Old Settlers had it." Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |
