Denison

By Donna Hord Hunt and Mavis Anne Bryant

Denison is known as "Katy's Baby," "The Infant Wonder," and "The Gateway City to Texas." Founded in 1872 as the first Lone Star stop on the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad, the city rapidly grew to 3,000 residents in its first 100 days. Citizens of the new town wanted a quality education for their children, and in 1873 they opened the first free, graded public school in the state. From Denison came many influential people, including Allied Forces supreme commander and U.S. president Dwight David Eisenhower, born here in 1890. The Perrin Air Force Base served as an important military training facility from 1941 until the 1970s. Denison is now home to numerous industries and major providers of medical services, and the Denison Dam across the Red River has formed a major recreation area for local citizens.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439626030

Donna Hord Hunt

Donna Hord Hunt is the retired editor of the Denison-Sherman Herald Democrat. Today she is a historian, columnist, and freelance writer. Mavis Anne Bryant is a fifth-generation Grayson County resident who draws on lifelong experience as a professional writer and clinical psychologist. Both are products of Denison schools.

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1909.

One

GATEWAY TO TEXAS

Taken in 1872, this is the earliest known photograph of Denison’s downtown. A clothing store and grocery already have been established. One tent, bearing the Original Star logo, offers Lodging, Boarding, Feed. Here Samuel Star and Charles Waterman will build a prosperous company. On the right is a carpentry shop. Note the side of beef hanging next to the street. The town drew 3,000 inhabitants during its first 100 days. (HD.)

In 1872, the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad built its tracks southward across the Red River into Texas. To house its first depot in Texas, the company carved the town of Denison out of prairie, grasslands, and woodlands in the Cross Timbers ecological region. This photograph, published around 1895, shows an unpaved road—dusty when dry and muddy when wet—taken by travelers coming from the east toward the railhead at Denison. (AWGC.)