 Denison, Texas Denison Herald
Sunday Morning, June 25, 1972 SUGAR BOTTOM NURSES MEMORIES OF COLORFUL PAST The 600 block South Armstrong Avenue today is more or less just another suburban business strip. There's little, except the memories of older residents, to reflect the area's glory during the heyday of Sugarbottom. As a community within a community, Sugarbottom reached back to Denison's very early days with a fierce and perhaps a bit clannish pride that set the neighborhood apart. Nobody ever circumscribed the precise area, but the 600 block historically was the vortex. But Sugarbottom was something more than a geographic entity - it was a spirit, a loyalty, a sense of humor, civic pride, and perhaps just a bit of deviltry. There are a couple of accounts - probably both just legends - about how Sugarbottom got its name. One had a group of rowdy boys, supposed to be the "Huckleberry Gang," smashing open a barrel of sugar in front of GIdeon Stephens' store to even a score with the cantankerous merchant. Another version is that a locomotive was switching a carload of sugar in that vicinity when a passenger train crashed into it, snowing the area with the contents of a splintered freight car. But however it came by its unusual monicker, Sugarbottom wrote its own distinct chapter in the history of Denison. A group of perhaps a dozen buildings, including grocery stores, furniture and sporting good shops, a shoe shop and filling stations, Sugarbottom was the focal point for all that happens in Southwest Denison. In the very early days Sugarbottom was a self-sufficient business center. Two saloons were necessary components. In later years, the lineup included hardware, furniture and grocery stores, a confectionary, shoe shop, garage, and auto body and paint shop. A Sugarbottom retiree himself, Joe Newcomb, remembers about as much of the neighborhood's history as anybody nowadays. He spent 36 years in business there, including transfer, hardware, and sporting goods. Newcomb can remember many of the area businessmen, starting with Louie Wertz, hardware; Earl Gardner and Bill Lindsey had the confectionary; Frank Ramsey and Ben Means were grocers; Redmon and Holden operated the auto body and paint shop; and Sam Benjamin was the garageman. And the senior member of the group was Charles Brigham, who operated the shoe shop and served longer than anybody else in the honorary office of mayor. Newcomb cites something that will be new to many Denisonians, that Paw Paw Creek, generally identified with extreme East Denison, actually starts in the Sugarbottom area, runs behind the buildings on the east side of the avenue, and angles east south of the Katy shop area. Sugarbottom never had to be prodded into action in any Denison undertaking. It had its own Christmas season decorations as early as downtown Denison. It got the jump on the rest of the town during the 1936 Texas Centennial year when it had its own one-night centennial celebration Ex-Denisonians spread the word about Sugarbottom. Among these was Shanty Morrell, a trombone player, a member of Radio Station WFAA's Early Bird Orchestra who composed "The Sugarbottom Blues", which was played frequently.  Sugar Bottom History Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson CountyTXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message.  |