Fannin County TXGenWeb
The City of Honey Grove

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See also Michigan Prairie a nearby settlement

1886 by Henry Wellge

Wheeler House   |   Scott Family and Scott Store   |
 The Old Oak Tree         |   Stobaugh House

   Honey Grove is located in the southeast section of Fannin county. Honey Grove was first settled by Samuel Erwin of Tennessee in 1842. Erwin built a log cabin a short distance from the current town square. But, Samuel Erwin was not the first person to visit Honey Grove. Hunters knew it as early as 1816. In 1836, J.P. Simpson and a friend occasionally met hunters and a tale was regaled to themof the beauty & abundance of prey in at a beautiful siteseen in 1816 south of the Red River in Texas. They described an area with a
beautiful grove having an immense amount of honey deposits in addition to the large numbersof wildlife. Hence, the name of the place....Honey Grove.

     J.P. Simpson wasn't the only visitor to make a trek to HoneyGrove. A hunting party led by a 17 year old scout named Henry Stout from Tennessee with a friend named Davy Crockett through the area on a bear hunting expedition. Crockett had hoped to visit a friend in the area John Stiles but his friend wasn't home. Davy found himselfin Honey Grove & liked the area. He planned to return tosettle there after the Alamo issue was resolved. We know he died at the Alamo, so didn't get a chance to settle in Honey Grove, but the name Honey Grove remained with Davy's old campsite. Erwin's first neighbors were Captain  Yeary who lived three miles south of the grove and Dr.Nicholson who came to Texas in 1837 with his brother,A.J. Nicholson. Other original settlers were John McKinzie Junior, J.T.Allen, James Gilmer, Wilson Allen,Dr. Gambill, J. Fuqua, David Drennen, and Thomas Hobbs.Gilmer purchased 320 acres from John Nicholson in 1845 at the price of $2.19 per acre. The land was the southernhalf  of Honey Grove. Gilmer built a home of logs for his family near the west side of the present public square. He died in 1845 shortly after the cabin was completed. His pregnant wife & three small sons survived him.
  The baby, a fourth son, was born 3 months after James Gilmer died.A Benjamin Walcott soon came to town arriving in1846. Walcott was a millwright who had left New England for Ohio, then traveled on to Mississippi finally settling in Honey Grove. He formed a partnership with Erwin & then with James Gilmer's widow. He shared a business with Erwin & in 1848 Walcott married the widow Gilmer.   Walcott may have been the first Texas land developer. He & Erwin  surveyed the area & began acquiring additional land
which was partitioned & then sold insmaller lots tothe influx of new Texas settlers. By 1856, Honey Grovehad grown enough that a 2 story hotel was built in the southeast corner of the square by a Granville Tucker. The hotel was directly south of Walcott's store. In 1858, Orville Smith took over the hotel and from that time, the hotel was known as the Smith Hotel. HoneyGrove was Confederate through & through, so when the CSA calledfor volunteers, many of Honey Grove's able-bodied men joined up with Company "F" of the Texas 11th Calvary. Several units trained near HoneyGrove before departingfor battle areas. After the Late Unpleasantness also known as the War between the States and now known as the Civil War, Honey Grove's population bloomed growing from 300 rapidly to 400.
    A newspaper called the Semi-Weekly Texas Citizen was published by John B. McCraw. The town had72 businesses including 12 dry goods stores, 2 cotton gins,2 railroads,2 lumber yards, 2 banks, 7 churches, 4 hotels, and an assortment of boarding houses and
eateries. Honey Grove was incorporated in 1873 with J.H. Smith as the first mayor.

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