Miller's Spring
Denison, Grayson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
On homesite bought Oct. 15, 1866, by J. K. Miller (1826-1908), this spring supplied his household, neighbors, travelers on nearby ferry road. Civic -minded Miller gave alternate business area lots to the city of Denison; also sites for each early church, first public school, Forest Park.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When J. K. Miller bought this homesite in 1866, its spring watered his household, his neighbors, and travelers passing on the nearby ferry road. As the town of Denison took shape, the civic-minded Miller gave the city alternating business lots along with sites for its early churches, its first public school, and Forest Park. The humble spring anchored a settlement that Miller helped deliberately build into a town.
Why it matters
Miller's Spring shows how a single settler's water source and generosity could seed a whole town, a reminder that many American cities grew from one landowner's decisions about where the wells, schools, and churches would stand.
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Related people
- · J. K. Miller
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
J. K. Miller House
Denison, TX
James Kinsey Miller and his wife Orrena came from North Carolina in 1852 and settled by 1860 near the future Denison, where about 1866 they and their sons raised a two-room dogtrot house of oak logs over a stone cellar — complete with gun ports for defense against Indian raids. A daughter born in the house is remembered as the first known native of Denison. The heavy log construction and gun ports capture just how exposed north Texas settlement still was after the Civil War.
Waples Memorial United Methodist Church
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When the newly established railroad town of Denison counted forty Methodists in 1873, the North Texas conference sent the Rev. Alexander Jamison to organize them, and the little frame mission church was chartered in 1881. It took the name of E.B. Waples, a benefactor who cleared its debt for a single dollar and funded a larger building shortly before his death in 1898. Today it is remembered as the oldest continuing Methodist congregation in Denison.
St. Luke's Church
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