TX BIOS:  Jesse Pipkins Loving
   Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.
   
   Washington, 1994.
   
   Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.
   
   This transcription intended to be 99.95% accurate.
   
   For more information about this text and this American Memory
   collection, refer to accompanying matter.
   
   U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (Folklore
   Project, Life Histories, 1936-39); Manuscript Division, Library of
   Congress.Copyright status not determined.
   
   00011
   
   FOLKLORE
   
   Grayson Co.
   
   Sherman, Dist. No. 4 [Folkstuff?] - Life history Duplicate copies
   
   about 1250 words
   
   Page 1.
   
   FEC 240 Duplicate
   
   Dec 23 1936 [?] 340 [DEL: EMIORS :DEL] MEMOIRS OF EARLY GRAYSON
   COUNTY.
   
   (Jesse Pipkins Loving)
   
   On our way to Texas from Missouri we heard talk everywhere of two
   Texas town (this was in 1847), and these two town were Preston, at the
   border of the ferry and Austin, the new capitol.
   
   I was twelve years old then and much excited at the prospect of
   catering the magic borders of Texas. We loaded all our stuff on [the?]
   ferry, which left only room for the horse. The ferryman, on the way
   over, guessed from my nervous questions that I was rather apprehensive
   about life in Texas, and told me that if I would take a big drink of
   Red River water, it would give me courage and cunning, and the
   fortitude necessary to hold my own in the new state. As soon as I
   landed on the Texas side, I went down to the [?] bank and drank all I
   could hold of this miraculous water.
   
   Around the Preston store we saw about a hundred Indians in their [DEL:
   balnkets :DEL] blankets, moccasins and paint.
   
   We took Coffee Bend road and on top of a rocky, brushy hill we saw the
   cabin where Joel Earhart lived with his family and dogs. Afterwards
   Earhart built the first steam mill in Grayson county, on Iron Ore
   Creek between Sherman and Denison. He ground corn and sawed lumber as
   well.
   
   We came about twenty miles and about dusk passed two or three housed
   on a hill. We couldn't rouse a soul in any of them so we rode on and
   camped at Mormon Grove, so called because some Mormons had camped
   there once. We traveled on for about fifteen miles and helloed at a
   house and asked the man who came out, how far was it was to Sherman.
   00022He replied that the tree houses we had passed on the hill aboit
   fifteen miles back was the town of Sherman. This man was Harry
   Campbell.
   
     NOTE: C12 - 2/11/41 - Texas
     
   When we reached my Aunt's house I heard her grinding in the [DEL:
   titchen :DEL] kitchen and I said, "Aunt is going to have coffee for
   supper, but it turned out that she was grinding meal in a steel hand
   mill then being used generally on the Texas frontier.
   
   One of the first schools in Sherman was taught by a Mr. Taylor and was
   located on the site of the present Travis Street Methodist Church at
   the corner of Travis and Mulberry Streets. Another was taught by Carey
   Land on Montgomery Street at the site of the old Chaffin home. These
   schools were all pay schools and ran for about three months each year.
   (This was in 1851)
   
   My father bought the second lot on the south side of [?] Street, west
   of Crockett in 1851 and I went to Blyth Mills, 125 miles away for the
   lumber. I brought it back and dumped it on the [DEL: [???] :DEL] lot
   and it remained there a year before we got ready to build. There was
   not a stick of it missing. I was sixteen at this time.
   
   Ben F. DeSpain was another early teacher who taught in Branch, near
   the sit of the Elliot place. He was one of the first Christian
   preachers in Grayson county. Mrs. Burroughs P. Smith, who had been
   Sallie Henderson of Red River county, taught in a little log cabin on
   college near Broughton.
   
   But the real start of education in Sherman came with the school of
   Barton T. Taylor, a Methodist preacher. He had a boarding school on
   the site of the Travis Street Methodist Church at the corner of Travis
   and Mulberry street. The building was a story and a half high, the
   upper part being used as a dormitory for the boarding pupils; the
   lower part as classroom. I entered this school 00033in 1853. There
   were students attending from all the neighboring towns and also from
   Indian Territory. There were many half-breed and some full-bloods
   among the students. Boys and girls both attended. Among the full-blood
   was Frank Overton who afterwards became governor of the Choctaw
   nation.
   
   We studied McGuffey's readers, Smith's grammer and Webster's blue back
   speller. [DEL: Taylors :DEL] Taylor' school, though a success
   educationally, was not renumerative financially, so he sold out in
   1855 and went to California.
   
   The next big school was taught by a Yankee in the old [?] Church and
   Masonic Lodge building, where the opera house now stands at the corner
   of Travis and Pecan streets. Our seats were logs split in half with
   holes bored in the ends for the legs. Writing was done on a sperate
   desk. We usually assembled for classes at about eight in the morning
   and were dismissed shortly before dusk. We had recess periods during
   the mornings and afternoons and time off for lunch.
   
   There were several large plantations along Red River in these early
   days, growing cotton and corn. Prairie land was regarded as unfit for
   anything but to grow grass for the cattle. No cotton was grown away
   from the river bottoms until after the war.
   
   Capt. John T. Roots built a house on South Crockett street in much the
   same design as his steamboat "Lightest" which [DEL: piled :DEL] plied
   the Red River. The two lions which guarded the entrance were [?] from
   New Orleans. Towns in Grayson County in 1850
   
   Preston, 20 miles from Sherman, had three stores. It was a very small
   place.
   
   00044
   
   Pilot Grove, nicknamed "Lickskillet, was about 25 miles from Sherman
   on the Mckinney-Bonham Stage Line. Blueford Clements was the first
   settle there and operated a small trading post. It always made him
   fighting mad to hear his place referred to as "Lickskillet".
   
   Shawnee-Town, north of the sit of Denison, between Shawnee Creek and
   the Red River, was another of the early town in the county. Originally
   this place had been a Shawnee Indian village [DEL: [??] :DEL] [Gen?].
   [?]. C. Young bought the land on which the town was built and moved
   down from Red River Country in 1850.
   
   Old Warren, at the edge of Fannin county was still another early town.
   The forst settler there was John Kitchens. He had a trading house
   there for several years. He said that when he first went there, the
   Red River ran close to his house on the bluff but in the course of
   years it altered its bed, moving half a mile away, leaving a lake
   where it had formerly [?] the bluff. SOME EARLY SETTLERS
   
   Frank Richards was one of the first merchants of Sherman. His store
   was on the square at the corner of Travis and Lamar street.
   
   Abraham Loving had a grocery store and saloon on West [?] Spencer E.
   Bomar ran a store on South Travis street; Benjamin W. Bradley operated
   a saloon and grocery on the square at the corner of Lamar and Travis.
   
   The Russell Hotel was on the west side of Travis at [James?] [??] and
   John Fitch were the proprietors.
   
   Caleb Horn had a saloon called the "Gebastpool". George Stamps had a
   grocery and saloon called the "Red Front." George [?] served as
   sheriff, representative and later senator. Sam Gault had 0005operated
   a wool carding machine. Uncle Jimmy Chafin was the father of seventeen
   children, eight of them being twins. Uncle Jimmy Jennings ran a farm
   on the edge of town and was a good farmer. Coonskin Roberts was the
   well digger in the town. John Shackleford was the town's shoemaker and
   was a fine story teller. Enoch Wess served as justice of the peace and
   was the leading singer in the town. Solomon Bostwich served as county
   clerk for many years. Newton made rawhide bottom chairs. Uncle Billie
   Coffee was county treasurer for several terms. Phillip Wells was a
   merchant. Uncle Jimmie Southward was a Methodist preacher. Dr. B. L.
   Bullock was the town's physician and was the father of the first child
   born in Sherman. It was called Billie and nicknamed Buster. Dr. John
   Brooks was a druggist at the corner of the square and was postmaster
   for a long time. He was an ingenious little Englishman. When anyone
   called for something he did not have in stock, he would tell them to
   come back the next day and he set about to manufacture it for them.
   
   Other names of early settlers were Andrew McElroy, Uncle Milliard
   Jennings, High F. Young, Sam Maxey, George Bond, Wesley [Lone?] and
   his brother Lannie, and Old Brother Procter. BIBLIOGRAPHY
   
   Unpublished autobiography of Jesse Pipkin Loving, for many years
   county clerk of Grayson county. [?] is in possess ion of Mrs. W.H.
   Lucas, Historian for Grayson County, Sherman, Tex.

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