James G. Gilmer

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just keepin' the flame alive. Back in 1814, a man named James G. Gilmer came into this world.

Thirty-one years later, in 1845, he packed up everything he had, everything he knew, and left Kentucky behind. He brought his wife Elizabeth, she was a Parrish before she married him, and he brought their children: William S., George A., and Thomas S. Three boys making a long road west into what was then, let's be honest, wilderness.

The kind of wilderness that doesn't apologize for itself. And yet James G. Gilmer came anyway.

That's the kind of man the marker calls him: courageous. One of the men who helped civilize that wild Texas land. Now, not long after the Gilmers arrived, something worth noting happened.

A fourth son, James P. Gilmer, is said to have been the first Anglo-American born at what is now Honey Grove. First one.

That's the kind of detail that sticks. But here's where the story turns quiet and heavy. A few months, just a few months, after James G.

Gilmer settled here, he died. The year was 1846. He had barely had time to put down roots before the ground took him.

His burial established the cemetery on that land. And the land grant he left behind, left to his wife Elizabeth, well, on that very ground, a town was later built. He never saw it.

But in a way, he was the foundation of it. The marker stands in Fannin County, and so does that truth.

What the marker says

(1814-1846) One of the courageous men who helped civilize the wilderness. Moved here from Kentucky in 1845 with his wife Elizabeth (Parrish) and children William S., George A., and Thomas S. James P. Gilmer, the fourth son, is said to have been first Anglo-American born at present Honey Grove. A few months after he settled here, James G. Gilmer died; his burial established this cemetery. On his land grant, left to his wife, the town was later built.