James G. Gilmer
Honey Grove, Fannin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1814-1846) One of the courageous men who helped civilize the wilderness. Moved here from Kentucky in 1845 with his wife Elizabeth (Parrish) and children William S., George A., and Thomas S. James P. Gilmer, the fourth son, is said to have been first Anglo-American born at present Honey Grove. A few months after he settled here, James G. Gilmer died; his burial established this cemetery. On his land grant, left to his wife, the town was later built.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
James G. Gilmer moved from Kentucky in 1845 with his wife Elizabeth and their children, part of the wave of Anglo-American settlers pushing into North Texas; his son James P. is said to have been the first such child born at present-day Honey Grove. Gilmer died only months after settling, and his burial founded the local cemetery, while the town later rose on the land grant he left to his wife.
Why it matters
Gilmer's brief, hard-luck settlement embodies the risks of frontier migration, where a single family's arrival — and even a first grave — could lay the literal groundwork for a future town.
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Related people
- · James G. Gilmer
- · Elizabeth Parrish Gilmer
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Benjamin Stuart Walcott
Honey Grove, TX
A New Englander who came to Fannin County in 1846, Benjamin Stuart Walcott founded and developed the town of Honey Grove. He opened its first store in a settler's log cabin, built the first frame store when the town was platted in 1848, erected its first school in 1853, and gave land for a Union Church in 1856. His sons went on to become community leaders in their own right.
Samuel Augustus Erwin
Honey Grove, TX
Virginia-born Samuel Erwin, married in Tennessee in a ceremony performed by the frontiersman David Crockett, became the first settler of the Honey Grove area when he arrived in 1837. A surveyor by trade, he laid out land grants for fellow pioneers and platted the townsite for his friend B. S. Walcott in 1848. He also served as the town's first postmaster and one of Fannin County's earliest justices of the peace.
Erwin Evans Smith
Honey Grove, TX
A Fannin County native, Erwin Evans Smith was captivated as a youth by the culture and folklore of Southwestern ranching. He studied art in Chicago and Boston hoping to become a Western sculptor, and through the early 1900s spent his summers on working ranches, sketching and photographing cowboys at their labor and leisure. Though he never realized his dream of sculpting, he left behind more than two thousand photographs that stand as a priceless record of life on the open range.
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.