DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells this one, and I'm just the voice that carries it down the road. Now, James Kinsey Miller and his wife Orrena — she was a Tabor before she married — they didn't come to Texas on a whim. They made the journey from North Carolina all the way to Texas in 1852.
That's a long way to travel with a family, and the family was only going to get bigger. Considerably bigger, as it turns out. They didn't plant roots immediately.
They spent those early years finding their footing, and it wasn't until 1860 that they finally settled in the area that would later become Denison. And then came the war years, and what came after. About 1866, Miller and his sons put up a house.
Not just any house — a two-room dogtrot, built from oak logs, sitting over a stone cellar. Now that cellar had gun ports cut into it. Gun ports.
For defense against Indian attacks. So you understand, this was not a house built for comfort first. It was built for survival first, and comfort could wait its turn.
And wait it did, because later additions eventually made the place more livable. But that original structure, those oak logs and that stone cellar with its gun ports, that was the foundation of it all. Fourteen children.
James Kinsey Miller and Orrena raised fourteen children. And in that house, one of their daughters was born — and she holds a particular distinction. She was the first known native of Denison.
The very first. Born right there in that dogtrot house with the gun ports in the cellar. The marker notes the house was preserved by Mr. and Mrs.
Warren R. Blood. Fourteen children, a stone cellar built for defense, and the first known native of a city that didn't quite exist yet when she drew her first breath.
Some houses just carry more history than they have any right to fit inside two rooms.
What the marker says
Pioneer home of James Kinsey Miller and wife Orrena (Tabor), who came to Texas from North Carolina in 1852, settling in 1860 in area of later Denison. About 1866 Miller and his sons built 2-room dogtrot house of oak logs over stone cellar with gun ports for defense in Indian attacks. Later additions made the house more livable. In family of 14 children, a Miller daughter born in this house was the first known native of Denison. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1972 Incise in base: Preserved by Mr. and Mrs. Warren R. Blood