Metz House
Sherman, Grayson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Edward Metz (1854-1913) came to Texas from Michigan as a young man to join his brother, Charles, in a leather goods business. In the 1870s, they built a profitable trade, buying buffalo hides and other furs from Indian tribes in Oklahoma to sell to eastern markets. Metz is credited with helping keep peace between the Indians and settlers in Grayson County. In 1883 he built this house, with Victorian fish scale siding, as a present for his bride, Lillian (Craycroft). Occupied from 1909 to 1939 by prominent local physician Dr. J. D. Meadow, it was restored in 1975-76 by Byron Rice (b. 1957). Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1976
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Edward Metz came from Michigan as a young man to join his brother Charles in the leather trade, and in the 1870s the pair built a thriving business buying buffalo hides and furs from tribes in Oklahoma for sale to eastern markets. Credited with helping keep peace between Native peoples and settlers in Grayson County, Metz built this Victorian house with fish-scale siding in 1883 as a gift for his bride. Later home to a prominent local physician, it was restored in the mid-1970s.
Why it matters
The house links the vanishing buffalo-hide trade of the frontier economy to the settled Victorian prosperity that followed it in North Texas.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1870s, North Texas sat at the edge of two worlds. Just across the Red River lay Indian Territory, in what is now Oklahoma, home to many Native nations, some of whom had been forcibly relocated there from their eastern homelands. On the Texas side, towns like Sherman in Grayson County were growing into busy commercial centers.
This was also the era of the great buffalo hide trade. Demand from eastern markets for hides and leather drove a massive commercial hunt on the southern plains during the 1870s, and the huge herds that had sustained Plains peoples for generations were nearly wiped out within a few years. Traders who bought and shipped hides stood at the crossroads of that frontier economy.
By the 1880s, the frontier was fading. Railroads had arrived, towns were settling into prosperity, and successful merchants began building homes that showed off the fashionable styles of the Victorian age.
People & events
Edward Metz was a young man when he left Michigan for Texas to join his brother Charles in a leather goods business. In the 1870s the brothers built a profitable trade buying buffalo hides and other furs from Indian tribes in what is now Oklahoma, then selling them to markets back east.
That business put Metz in regular contact with Native traders, and the marker credits him with helping keep the peace between Indians and settlers in Grayson County. The historical record behind that reputation is not spelled out, but in a borderland region, trusted go-betweens could matter a great deal.
In 1883, Metz built this house as a gift for his bride, Lillian Craycroft, dressing it in decorative fish-scale siding that was fashionable at the time. Later, from 1909 to 1939, it was home to Dr. J. D. Meadow, a prominent local physician. By the 1970s the house needed rescuing, and it was restored in 1975 and 1976 by Byron Rice, who, born in 1957, would have been still in his teens. The state recognized it as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1976.
Its place in the American story
The Metz House tells a story much bigger than one family. The buffalo hide trade was one of the defining, and most devastating, episodes of the American West. It brought money to traders and markets, but the near-destruction of the herds upended the lives of Plains nations and helped force them onto reservations.
The house also shows how quickly frontier fortunes turned into settled town life. Within a decade of trading in hides, Metz was building a stylish Victorian home, the kind of house that signaled a merchant's arrival in the respectable middle class.
Finally, its restoration in the 1970s is part of the preservation movement that swept the country around the nation's bicentennial, when many Americans, young and old, set out to save the historic buildings in their own towns.
If you visit
Look closely at the siding. The fish-scale shingles, overlapping like the scales of a fish, are a signature decorative touch of Victorian-era homes, and they were chosen as part of a wedding gift more than a century ago.
As you take in the house, think about the path that paid for it: hides and furs traded across the Red River, shipped east, and turned into a comfortable home in a growing Texas town. Then remember the teenager who helped bring it back in the 1970s.
Sherman makes a good base for exploring the Red River borderland, where Texas and Oklahoma meet. Unless it is marked as open to the public, treat the house as a private residence and enjoy it from the street.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
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Themes & tags
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