Grayson County TXGenWeb

The Sherman Democrat
Sunday, August 13, 1939

HIGHWAY 14 WAS PART OF ORIGINAL ROAD OF REPUBLIC
Ninety-five years after the congress of the Texas republic passed a law seeking to establish a road across Texas north and south, the state of Texas is now paving a part of the same routing.
In 1844 a law of Congress made provisions for a road from the mouth of the Trinity River northward to Preston Bend on Red River. The road was chartered as the "Central National Road of the Republic of Texas."
It was to be paid for by a donation of public lands not exceeding 160 acres per mile, was to be 30 feet wide, the bridges 15 feet wide, and "stumps not more than 12 inches high."
About 70 miles of this road was completed and opened for wagon travel from Preston Bend through Pottsboro, Gunter, Celina, Frisco, to Dallas. The entire route did not cross any major streams.
This summer a project of the state highway department is improving highway 14 from a point on highway 82 just west of Sherman, south through Gunter, Celina and Frisco, to Dallas. The present route also crosses no large streams, though small bridges cross minor streams.
Thousands of immigrants poured into Texas over the early wagon road through Preston Bend.