Binion Homestead
Pilot Grove, Grayson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Georgia natives Thomas Noel Binion (1827-1900) and Pauline Walker Binion (1829-1915) migrated to Texas after the Civil War. They moved to the Oxford community in Grayson County where they purchased this 107-acre farm in 1871. Thomas and Pauline reared four children here: Zeph (1856-1928), Homer (1865-1926), Robert E. Lee "Eddie" (1869-1945), and Sarah (1872-1955). After Thomas and Pauline died, they were buried in the family cemetery northwest of their homestead. The farm was inherited by their children. Eddie Binion became a merchant in nearby Pilot Grove, but moved back to the family homestead with his sister Sarah after the death of his wife. Eddie raised sugar cane and operated a syrup mill here from the turn of the century until the 1940s. The mill first used mules to operate the crusher, and wood fires to cook the molasses. When fuel oil and coal were readily available in the 1920s, a piston engine replaced the mule, and coal replaced the wood fires. During the Depression years, cane continued to arrive but money to purchase coal and fuel oil diminished. The mule was reinstated, but the Binion Syrup Mill foundered in the 1940s. The mill was dismantled and the iron and steel sold for use in World War II.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Georgia natives Thomas and Pauline Binion moved to Grayson County after the Civil War, buying this 107-acre farm in 1871 and raising four children on it. Their son "Eddie" ran a syrup mill here from around 1900 into the 1940s, crushing sugar cane with mules and cooking molasses over wood fires — later swapping mule and wood for a piston engine and coal as fuel became available. Hard times during the Depression reversed those improvements, and the failing mill was finally dismantled, its iron and steel sold as scrap for World War II.
Why it matters
The homestead traces a single farm family's arc from Reconstruction-era migration through hand-powered agriculture to the wartime scrap drives, a small mirror of rural America's changing fortunes.
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Related people
- · Thomas Noel Binion
- · Pauline Walker Binion
- · Robert E. Lee "Eddie" Binion
Themes & tags
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