michiganprairie2

Fannin County Texas History of Michigan Prairie By Ms. Flora Brode McKee

Michigan Prairie

Honey Grove History

Zinnecker Family

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN PRAIRIE

By Ms. Flora Brode McKee

In 1877, there were only two or three families living

on a broad prairie of several square miles along the eastern edge of Fannin County, about eight miles northeast of

Honey Grove.

That year two brothers Warren and Philetus

Weydemeyer came from Michigan looking for

new country. They learned of this prairie as Public

School lands available for $2.50 per acre and

immediately bought, prepared to build and sent for

their families.

Glowing reports reached Michigan and soon other

families sold and headed for the Lone Star State.

They came bv train, the Texas & Pacific Railway

having been built through Honey Grove about 1873.

Among the first to come in the Spring of 1878 were

the David Kane and Charles Zinnecker families. They

were followed by Jerry and John Miller, Robert Brode,

the Saylors, Birdsalls, Hixons, Meyers, Morrises, Foxes, Sherwoods, and others – 25 to 30 families. All bought

land, some a section, some a half or quarter section.

They erected substantial and some handsome homes.

They engaged in farming, some, especially the Weydemeyers and Zinneckers, in cattle and horses. At

first the wild land was unfenced, but soon the pastures

had to be fenced and grazing was not so profitable.

The community was called "Michigan Prairie" and

had a Church and School District for many years. The church burned in the 1920's, but the school operated

until consolidation with Honey Grove in about 1935 or

1940.

Gradually the farming land changed to grazing.

People moved and houses

were deserted, so that the area lost its identity as a neighborhood. It is identifiable now by names of land surveys on the Fannin County Map, such as: Thos. Sherwood, John Miller, John Kane, Massengale and Weidedenger (this last one being in error for the original Weydemeyer which can be found on an older map cica 1890).