Jesse P. Loving

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some men leave a mark on a place just by showin' up. Jesse P.

Loving was one of those men, and Grayson County, Texas has got the record to prove it. Born in Missouri in 1836, young Jesse came to Texas with his family in 1847. They put down roots first near relatives in Denton County, the way families used to do, finding familiar faces in unfamiliar country.

Then in 1852, the Lovings moved again, this time to Sherman, in Grayson County, and that is where the story really takes hold. Jesse was a Confederate veteran, and when the war was done, he did not drift. He planted himself in that community and got to work.

Multiple terms as county treasurer. State representative. The kind of civic resume that tells you a man understood that showing up for your neighbors is not a small thing.

In 1859, he married Lydia Ellen Bomar, and together the two of them built something beyond any office or title. Nine children. Charter membership in the Houston Street Christian Church.

A life woven deep into the fabric of Sherman. But here is the detail that I think deserves a moment of its own. In 1879, Jesse Loving was the driving force behind the establishment of the Old Settlers Association of Grayson County.

Think about what that means. A man who arrived in Texas as a boy, who watched a county grow up around him, who understood that the people who came before deserved to be remembered. That is not a bureaucratic impulse.

That is something closer to devotion. Jesse P. Loving lived until 1919, and when he was gone, he left behind a church, a family, a county, and an association built specifically so that the memory of those early days would not fade.

Some men show up, and the place remembers them for it.

What the marker says

(1836-1919) Missouri native Jesse "Jess" P. Loving came to Texas with his family in 1847. They settled first near relatives in Denton County, and moved to Sherman in Grayson County in 1852. Loving married Lydia Ellen Bomar in 1859. A Confederate veteran, he became a prominent civic leader, serving multiple terms as county treasurer and state representative. In 1879 Loving was the driving force behind the establishment of the Old Settlers Association of Grayson County. Jesse and Lydia Loving were charter members of the Houston Street Christian Church and were the parents of nine children. RECORDED-2000