Crockett Park
Honey Grove, Fannin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named for David Crockett (1786-1836), the colorful Tennessee pioneer and congressman who rallied to cause of Texas in her war for independence. Late in 1835, Crockett traveled by riverboat, horseback, and on foot, entering Texas along the Red River (NE of here). Camping at a site half a mile northeast of this park, he found wild bees and honey in hollow trees. In letters to family and friends, Crockett called the campsite a "honey grove." It is said he told his friends he would settle here later, but in a few weeks he died in cause of freedom at the Alamo. One of Crockett's old friends, Tennessee surveyor Samuel A. Erwin (1786-1854), became the first settler here (1839) and first postmaster (1846). Benjamin S. Walcott, arriving in 1848, added land of his own to his wife's legacy from James Gilmer. With Erwin as co-founder, he platted town of Honey Grove on the Gilmer grant. He also erected first stone building. By 1885, Honey Grove had many businesses, including a weekly newspaper, "The Independent." Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad reached here in 1887. A peak of 4,000 inhabitants was attained in 1890. Situated on land bought from W. J. Erwin (1919) this park provides recreation for a dynamic community. (1970)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Late in 1835, frontiersman and former congressman David Crockett crossed into Texas along the Red River, camping near this spot where he found wild bees and honey in hollow trees and, in letters home, dubbed the place a "honey grove." Within weeks he died at the Alamo, but his nickname stuck. Surveyor Samuel A. Erwin settled here in 1839, and with Benjamin S. Walcott platted the town of Honey Grove, which grew to some 4,000 people by 1890 after the railroad arrived.
Why it matters
It ties a beloved frontier legend to the founding of a real Texas town, preserving the origin of a place-name born of Crockett's own pen.
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Related people
- · David Crockett
- · Samuel A. Erwin
- · Benjamin S. Walcott
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Honey Grove City Hall
Honey Grove, TX
A decade after Honey Grove incorporated, Mayor J. P. Gilmer pressed the council in 1885 to build a proper city hall and jail, and the surviving minutes record every step—choosing a lot, arranging financing, and even rejecting the county's offer of aid when commissioners demanded a quarter interest. Built of stone from the local Floyd Quarry by contractor W. N. Allen, it opened in 1889 and remains Fannin County's only original civic building still standing. It is a rare survivor of small-town self-government in the Gilded Age.
Honey Grove Lodge No. 164, A. F. & A. M.
Honey Grove, TX
Chartered in 1856 after a dispensation two years earlier, the Honey Grove Masonic Lodge met first in the attic of the old Smith Hotel and above the Walcott School before settling into its own quarters. Fire destroyed its N. 6th Street building in 1955, after which the lodge and the local newspaper rebuilt side by side at this site. For more than a century it has been a fixture of the town's civic and charitable life.
Church of St. Mark, The Evangelist, Episcopal
Honey Grove, TX
Organized in 1876 as northern Texas emerged from Reconstruction, this Episcopal congregation raised its Gothic revival sanctuary in 1883 during the Rev. J. P. Lytton's ministry. Its wood-frame form, lancet windows, and varnished pine interior beneath a cathedral ceiling reflect the modest but aspiring church architecture of a frontier Texas farming town. The building has stood as a touchstone of Honey Grove's pioneer-era community for well over a century.
First Baptist Church of Honey Grove
Honey Grove, TX
Organized in 1847 by a Southern Baptist missionary, this congregation began with nine members meeting in a log schoolhouse in the earliest years of Anglo settlement here. Its story runs through the frictions of a shared frontier meetinghouse, a congregational split, and decades in the interdenominational Union Church before the Baptists raised their own sanctuary in 1884 and a larger one in 1912. One of its former pastors even helped launch a Baptist newspaper that anticipated a statewide religious publication.