Grayson County TXGenWeb

The Jefferson Highway in Texas ran from Denison to Waskom.
Tom Moore wrote: Jefferson Highway was built in the 1910s as part of the National Auto Trail system. Lots of the trails were cattle trails first; then highways were built over them by localities and states. By mid to late 1920, auto trails like Jefferson Highway were being replaced in the United States with U.S. Highways system, often calles U.S. Routes or Federal Highways but built and maintained by states and localities. It was after World War II that a true federally funded Interstate Highway system was suggested. Eisenhower got it started, as he liked the system the German Reich had built in the 1930s to move heavy vehicles fast.

The Indianola Herald reported the Jefferson Highway would bring thousands through town and they'd need to stop, refresh and "replenish the fuel in their machines". Communities and counties along the Jefferson Highway had to maintain a hard surface road for travel 365 days a year. It was expected that "the mud must go." The Jefferson Highway Association claimed 2,000 metal signs and 20,000 pole markers blazed the route. The signage used a special monogram combining the letters 'J' and 'H" with a band of blue above and below. (quoted from The Des Moines Register, "Jefferson Highway is 100 Years old" by Elodie Opstad, December 7, 2015)

The organizational meeting of the Jefferson Highway Association was held in New Orleans on November 15 & 16, 1915. There was a long and heated debate about the route for the Jefferson Highway between New Orleans and Winnipeg, Canada. Finally a compromise was reached that specified certain cities as the “Cardinal Points” on the Jefferson Highway and left the final route between the cities to be determined in the future.
The cities selected as cardinal points between New Orleans and Winnipeg were: Baton Rouge; Alexandria; Shreveport, Louisiana; Denison, Texas; Muskogee, Oklahoma; Joplin, Missouri; Kansas City; St. Joseph; Des Moines, Iowa; Minneapolis; St. Paul, Minnesota.

The International Jefferson Highway Association held its board of directors meeting in Denison, Texas in 1917. W.N. King of Denison, who was also Vice-President of the Jefferson Highway, was the gentleman who arranged the meeting. A tribute was paid to Mr. King in the December 1917 issue of the Jefferson Highway Magazine.