Grayson County TXGenWeb

The Interurban

By Rea A. Nunnallee

The fore runner of the old Interurban was the old horse drawn street car in Denison. In 1885 the line was electrified and the first trolley car
in Denison replaced the old horse or mule drawn car. The city of Denison also had a steam powered street car that circled through South Denison and the Cotton Mill area. The fair on the early line was five cents round trip.

The first Interurban Railway built in Texas was put into operation in May 1901. The first company was organized by J. P. Craiger, John
Craiger and J. W. O'Grady. The trip from Denison to Sherman was made in 30 minutes, a distance of 10 1/2 miles. The fair was twenty-five cents. The second line was built in 1902 and extended from Dallas to Fort Worth and known as the North Texas Traction line. This company also owned the line from Fort Worth to Cleburne that was built in 1912. In 1905 J. F. Strickland became associated with the railway and began making plans for extending the line. Mr. Strickland formed an association of some prominent North Texas citizens for the purpose of obtaining right-of-way and franchises between Sherman and Dallas. The association was called the Texas Traction Company and the company was incorporated Sept. 25, 1906. By then the preliminary engineering and negotiations had been completed, and work was started on the construction of the electric line. Some two years later this was completed and on July 1, 1908 the first Interurban was run from Sherman to McKinney and another was run from Dallas to McKinney where a large meeting was held, in dedication of the line.