DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and it's a story worth telling right. Eleven Presbyterian families packed up their lives in New York and headed to Fannin County, Texas, in 1869. Not on a whim, mind you.
This was an organized colony, put together by Howard L. Parmele and others, with a clear purpose: establish a Presbyterian U.S.A. mission on the Texas frontier. Now, among the people Parmele organized alongside was his brother-in-law — and here's where the story gets a little electric — Samuel F.
B. Morse. The inventor of the telegraph.
That Samuel F. B. Morse.
Out here in the tall grass of Fannin County. They settled near a spot already known to the freight haulers working the long road between Sherman and the East Texas port of Jefferson — a stopover called Waller Wells. The new community took its name from a nearby stream, and so Valley Creek was born.
Through the 1870s, Howard Parmele went to work building something real. A mercantile store. A sawmill.
A cotton gin. And the town didn't stop there — it kept growin' until it had a school, a hotel, a post office, a drugstore, a grist mill, a barbershop, doctors, churches, and a blacksmith shop. That is a community, friends.
That is a place where people intended to stay. In 1875, with the assistance of Dr. D.
H. Dodson — an Iowa minister and educator — the local Presbyterian U.S.A. church was formally organized. Valley Creek had roots, and it had faith to go with them.
But 1880 came, and the rail lines did not. The railroad bypassed Valley Creek entirely, and in the way of so many Texas towns that never heard a locomotive whistle, the community began to fade. Businesses moved three miles south to Leonard, and many of the people who had built Valley Creek became prominent leaders there.
What remains at the site today is a church building and a cemetery. The stream's still there, of course. Streams don't care much about rail schedules.
But that church and that cemetery — they're the last witnesses to eleven families who came a long way from New York to build something that, for one bright decade, was very much alive.
What the marker says
The first permanent settlement in this area began in 1869 when eleven Presbyterian families migrated here from New York. Organized by Howard L. Parmele and others, including his brother-in-law Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, the colony was formed for the establishment of a Presbyterian U.S.A. mission. Land for the settlement was located near the site of Waller Wells, an early campground used by freight haulers operating between Sherman and the East Texas port of Jefferson. Named for a nearby stream, Valley Creek became a thriving community in the 1870s under the direction of Howard Parmele, who established a mercantile store, sawmill, and cotton gin here. The town also included a school, hotel, post office, drugstore, grist mill, barbershop, doctors, churches, and a blacksmith shop. With the assistance of dr. d. H. Dodson, an Iowa minister and educator, the local Presbyterian U.S.A. church was formally organized in 1875. Bypassed by rail lines in 1880, the town declined. Businesses were moved to Leonard (3 mi. S), where many former Valley Creek residents became prominent leaders. Only a church building and a cemetery remain at the site of the pioneer Valley Creek community.