"Whitewright, Texas: A Brief Introduction"
by Mavis Anne Bryant

After the Civil War, many people were eager to leave older areas in the East and South and get a new start.  Immigrants also swelled the ranks of those seeking a new life in the West.  This was made easier in North Texas once the area
became accessible by railroad.

In the early 1870's, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT; "The Katy") rail line was built south from St. Louis, Missouri.  It entered Texas over a bridge across the Red River northwest of here, arriving in Denison on Christmas Eve of 1872.  Six years later, in 1878, The Katy extended its tracks from Denison across Grayson County, building a line southeast to the place that would become Whitewright.

New York investor, William Whitewright, the MKT's chief financial backer, purchased a tract of land in the path of the rail line and had the land surveyed as a town site.  Whitewright, who would never return to Texas, left two of his agents, Jim Reeves and Jim Batsell, to seel lots in the new community, named in Whitewright's honor.

Early settlers in this part of Grayson County had established communities at Orangeville, four miles east; Pilot Grove,
four miles south; and Kentucky Town, three miles west.  Immediately upon hearing the news of the town's founding,
many of the residents of these three communities moved their homes and businesses to Whitewright.

Now Whitewright, located in the center of perhaps the richest farmland in the county, had a rail line.  A post office was established in 1878, too, as well as numerous homes and commercial structures.  The new town attracted a growing population.

By 1894, the town boasted schools, churches, a newspaper, a college, and community organizations, in addition to railroad depots, cotton gins, restaurants, drugstores, blacksmith shops, and numerous other concerns.

By 1900, the population was 1,804.  Although it declined slightly to 1,563 in 1910 and 1,666 in 1920, the business community flourished.  Serious fired in 1904 and 1911 almost destroyed the central business district, but the citizens soon rebuilt.  
Fine Victorian homes on streets near the business district reflected the prosperity of the town's early decades.

By the mid-1920s, both the Missouri-Kansas-Texas and the Cotton Belt railroads served the town, and 68 businesses operated locally.  These included two banks and manufacturers of cottonseed oil and flour.

Whitewright served as a marketing, retail, and commercial center for the farmers of the surrounding area, who produced such crops as cotton, wheat, and corn.  Though there is no passenger rail service today, Whitewright continues to serve
as an important marketing center for this area of Grayson County.

 

The Center for American History Owns the original card index  for the Whitewright  Sun.
"Biographical index compiled by the Works Progress Administration, arranged
alphabetically, indexing selected Texas newspapers (the index is not online)
This contains the index of the Whitewright Sun through 1936


Whitewright History

Towns
Susan Hawkins
© 2024

If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message.