John Elias and Ida May Herrington House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the John Elias and Ida May Herrington House out in Collin County. Now, 1902 is when John Elias Herrington and his wife Ida May put down roots, and I mean that literally. They built themselves a Queen Anne house right there in the Lone Star community, sitting square on the Blackland Prairie.

John had come out of Missouri, born in 1863, and Ida May (she was a Douglas before she was a Herrington) came along in 1870. Together they made something worth remembering. John was workin' that prairie land the way you have to work Blackland: wheat, corn, and cotton, all of it.

And if that weren't enough to keep a man busy, he was also dealin' in real estate on the side. Now here's the part that catches you. Back in 1894 (eight years before that house even went up), John Elias Herrington gave away one acre of his land.

Just gave it. To build the Lone Star School. One acre, freely handed over, and a community had a school.

Fast forward to 1919, and the Herringtons packed up and moved to Van Alstyne, where John stepped into the role of banker. The prairie farmer had become a man of finance. He passed in 1926; Ida May lived on until 1951.

But that Queen Anne house? It stayed in the family all the way until 1979; seventy-seven years of Herringtons under that hipped roof with its shingled gables, on that wrapped porch held up by bracketed posts. Some houses just hold on.

This one held on a good long while.

What the marker says

Missouri native John Elias Herrington (1863-1926), and his wife, Ida May (Douglas) (1870-1951), built this Queen Anne house in 1902 in the Lone Star community. John raised wheat, corn and cotton on this Blackland Prairie farm and dealt in real estate. In 1894, he gave one acre of land to built the Lone Star School. In 1919, the Herringtons moved to Van Alstyne, where John was a banker. The home remained in the family until 1979; it features a wrapped porch, bracketed posts and hipped roof with shingled gables. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2007