HoweEnterprise.com
May 25, 2020
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HOWE Brief Resume of its History, Resources, Industries—And Citizens Originally published in the Howe Herald, approximately 1908. “Far to the south, my countrymen, lies the fairest and richest domain of the earth,” Grayson County, Texas, and particularly the country surrounding Howe bears living testimony of the truthfulness of that statement by the lamented Grady of the Boston Mercantile Society. Certainly there is no section to which nature has been more generous in its distribution of good qualities than this. The productiveness of its deep, black, waxy soil is unsurpassed. No costly process of irrigation, no dry farming experiments, no fertilizing stimulus are necessary to its successful growth of abundant crops. No country more susceptible to diversity in products, no section with a larger percent of tillable soil. The principal resources of the country tributary to Howe are corn, oats, wheat and cotton, the staples that rule the world’s commerce, but it is no less adapted to the successful cultivation of many other crops equally as valuable for home consumption, but not as much in demand for exportation, to say nothing of its fruits, vegetables, stock raising, etc.
Howe is also the home of the famous Texas red rust-proof oats, so much in demand throughout the Southern States, and its heavy shipments of this commodity alone has brought the town into commercial prominence with the grain dealers of the country. Howe is located ten miles south of Sherman, Grayson County, Texas on the Houston and Texas Central steam railway and the Sherman-Dallas Interurban line. It occupies the highest elevation between Denison and the Gulf, being 860 feet above the level of the sea. The town’s history dates from 1874 when a small shanty was erected on the3 site of Will Conn’s present home in the northern part of the town and a small stock of groceries opened under the firm name of Root & Page. Six months later these gentlemen were succeeded by S.W. Young who enlarged the quarters and added a stock of general merchandise. The place was named Summit because of its high eminence and commanding view of the surrounding country, the government later establishing a post office by that title. A platform of railroad cross ties served as a depot for
Summit during its brief existence. The railroad company desired to establish a town on the property now owned and occupied by J.F. Yeury, (editor’s note: this is the present are of Cassandra and Castlegate Streets) but were unsuccessful in their efforts to obtain possession of the land. The company finally accepted an offer from Jabez Haning to locate the
station on its present site. Mr. Haning then resided in a cottage near where the Baptist Church is located (editor’s note: this is now the property of 200 S. Denny) and owned a large tract of land including that on which Howe is situated. He donated to the railroad every alternate lot of the old town plot with the understanding (Continued on page 7)
