HistoricSiteMarkers
Civil War

Jesse Elvis Hendricks Log Cabin

Denison, Grayson County, Texas

Marker Inscription

A native of Missouri, Jesse Elvis Hendricks (1837-1920) came to Grayson County in 1846. In 1863-64, he built this log home five miles southeast of this site. It was originally a one-room cabin with a loft, but Hendricks and his wife, Susan Matilda (Dumas), added more rooms about 1870 after the birth of their fourth child. The Hendricks' log cabin was moved to this site and restored in 1978. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Jesse Elvis Hendricks, a Missouri native, came to Grayson County as a boy in 1846 and built this log home during the Civil War years of 1863–64. What began as a single room with a loft grew as he and his wife Susan added rooms for their expanding family around 1870. Moved and restored in 1978, the cabin survives as a tangible piece of North Texas pioneer life.

Why it matters

Hand-built log homes like this document the everyday craftsmanship and family growth of the settlers who put down roots on the mid-nineteenth-century Texas frontier.

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Related people

  • · Jesse Elvis Hendricks
  • · Susan Matilda Dumas Hendricks

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionFrontier HistoryHome

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Built in 1830 of white oak logs near Preston Bend, a key crossing on the Red River, the Thompson home is counted the oldest house in Grayson County and once held the county's first post office. Its builder, James G. Thompson, served as the county's first chief justice and founded a line of local business and civic leaders. Craftsmanship survives in its walnut chair rails and pegged Salem "cross and Bible" doors; it was moved from the future site of Lake Texoma and restored in 1950.

Davis-Ansley Log Cabin Home

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Around 1840, blacksmith Micajah C. Davis (1790–1860), one of Grayson County's founders, raised this cabin of hand-hewn oak logs at the Iron Ore Creek settlement near present Denison. Passing to the Ansley family in 1870 and occupied by their descendants into the 1950s, the pioneer home was later donated to the Old Settlers Village to be preserved.

Cold Springs Log Cabin School

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The Fitzgerald Home

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George S. Fitzgerald moved his family from Virginia to Texas in 1857 and cut the building timber for this house on his own 800-acre farm in 1859. Interrupted by service in the Confederate army, he finally raised the pegged-oak house in 1866 and went on to prosper as a respected Grayson County commissioner. Its sturdy 20-foot rooms and twin staircases reflect the substance of a rebuilding postwar household.