Dial Home
Honey Grove, Fannin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This Queen Anne house was built in 1890, seventeen years after the town of Honey Grove was chartered. It was constructed for William H. and Martha (O'Kelley) gross. A prominent area lawyer, Gross served as the first city attorney for Honey Grove. In 1905 the property was purchased by local merchant Samuel M. Dial and his wife Ruby (Rutherford). Dial was a native of the nearby community of Lane's Academy, later renamed Dial in honor of his family. Deeded to the Dials' son Harry in 1932, the residence remained in the family for over sixty years.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This Queen Anne house rose in 1890, less than two decades after Honey Grove was chartered, built for lawyer William H. Gross, the town's first city attorney. In 1905 merchant Samuel M. Dial and his wife Ruby bought the home; Dial hailed from the nearby community of Lane's Academy, later renamed Dial for his family. Passed to their son Harry in 1932, the residence stayed in the family for more than sixty years.
Why it matters
It ties a fine example of Victorian Queen Anne architecture to the lawyers and merchants who built up a prospering North Texas town.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · William H. Gross
- · Samuel M. Dial
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.
James Thomas Holt
Honey Grove, TX
James Thomas "Tank" Holt came to Fannin County as a boy in 1849 and, after riding with the Confederate cavalry in the Civil War, turned a freighting business into a diversified fortune. He invested in ranching, a cotton oil mill, and a national bank, and even built Honey Grove's first public water system. His career traces the arc of a frontier veteran becoming a pillar of a growing Gilded Age Texas town.
Bank of Windom
Windom, TX
Local businessmen opened a private bank in Windom in 1900 to serve a growing farm community, first inside a store and then, from 1902, in a brick building at Main and 2nd. Under changing names it remained the town's only bank for generations, financing homes, farms, and businesses before moving to a modern facility in 1976.
Old Baldwin Home
Windom, TX
John Baldwin raised this mid-Victorian home in the 1890s beside a busy cotton gin that drew seventy or eighty patrons a day — many of whom stayed for a meal at the Baldwin table. In the early 1940s the house welcomed a stream of legislators and two Texas governors, Coke Stevenson and W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel, who were entertained beneath its roof.