DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the first site of the city of Sherman, up in Grayson County. Now, every town has a story, but not every town has two homes. Sherman, Texas — she started life in the wrong spot, and it took a bald prairie, a water shortage, and one very determined state representative to set things right.
Pull up close, because this one's worth the telling. It begins on March 17, 1846, when the first Legislature of the State of Texas created Grayson County. Right there in the act, they named the county seat in honor of Sidney Sherman — born 1805, died 1873 — a man described as a heroic leader at the Battle of San Jacinto and in the affairs of the Republic of Texas.
That's the kind of name you put on a county seat. No argument there. Now, somebody had to go find where that county seat would actually sit.
Five commissioners were appointed to scout possible courthouse sites within three miles of the center of the county. Their names deserve saying out loud: Micajah Davis, George C. Dugan, Richard McIntire, James Shannon, and James G.
Thompson. Five men, a big open stretch of North Texas, and a decision that was going to matter for a good long while. The site they landed on had things going for it.
It sat on the old Cherokee Trail and on the road to an important river crossing at Preston Bend. The voters approved it. Townsite lots went up for auction late in the year 1846.
Things were moving. Chief Justice James G. Thompson — you may remember that name from the commissioner list, same man — took charge of supervising the construction of the courthouse.
In January of 1847, a contract was awarded to one M. L. Webster to build the thing.
And when it was finished? Well, they didn't just shake hands and go home. Completion of that courthouse called for a special celebration: a Fourth of July picnic, barbeque, a barrel of whiskey, music, and dancing.
Now that is how you dedicate a public building. But here's where the prairie starts whispering trouble. The site had a reputation — and not a flattering one.
Folks called it, plainly and without much poetry, a bald prairie. Water for public use was scarce. Wood for public use was scarce.
Two things you'd rather not be short of when you're trying to build a town from nothing. Enter State Representative James B. Shannon.
You'll recognize that name too — he was one of the original county seat commissioners, same man who helped pick this very spot. Whether that gave him a particular motivation to fix the situation, the marker doesn't say, but fix it he did. Shannon went back to the Legislature and secured new legislation.
Then, on November 23, 1848, Shannon and his business partner Samuel Blagg deeded eighty acres from their own holdings to the county commissioners — a new Sherman townsite, five miles to the east. Five miles. That's all it took to go from a bald, waterless prairie to the ground where Sherman would actually take root and grow.
So the next time you roll into Sherman, know that the town moved before it truly began — and that it took a barrel of whiskey, a scarce water supply, and one man willing to deed away his own land to put it where it belongs.
What the marker says
When Grayson County was created on March 17, 1846, by the first Legislature of the State of Texas, the act named the county seat in honor of Sidney Sherman (1805-73), an heroic leader at the Battle of San Jacinto and in the affairs of the Republic of Texas. Commissioners to select possible courthouse sites within 3 miles of center of the county were Micajah Davis, George C. Dugan, Richard McIntire, James Shannon, and James G. Thompson. This site on the old Cherokee Trail and the road to important river crossing at Preston Bend won approval of the voters. Townsite lots were auctioned late in the year 1846. Chief Justice James G. Thompson supervised building of courthouse under a contract awarded in Jan. 1847 to M. L. Webster. Completion of the structure called for special celebration in a Fourth of July picnic with barbeque, a barrel of whiskey, music, and dancing. Water and wood for public use were scarce at this site, called "a bald prairie". State Representative James B. Shannon (one of the original county seat commissioners) secured new legislation; he and Samuel Blagg, his business partner, on Nov. 23, 1848, deeded from their holdings to the county commissioners an 80-acre Sherman townsite 5 miles to the east. Incise on back: Sponsored by the Grayson County Historical survey committee and erected by the Sherman city council as a memorial to the pioneers of this area