Greenville's Growth
Historians Give Facts From Early Days to Present
(Editor's Note: This article, prepared in 1944 by W. Walworth Harrison, is based upon a "History of Greenville and Hunt County" written in 1916 by Mrs. Will N. Harrison. Mr Harrison has brought it up to date for the Banner's Centennial edition.)
Greenville, Texas, known throughout the nation for it's unique slogan--"Blackest Land- Whitest People"- was founded by McQuinney Howell Wright who donated the land for the county seat of Hunt county following creation of the county by the First Legislature of Texas at its first meeting in Austin. The act creating the county was approved April 11, 1846 by Texas' first govenor, James Pinckney Henderson.
The new county was named for Gen. Memucan Hunt and the county seat for Gen. Thomas Jefferson Green, honoring two of Govenor Henderson's closest friends who were prominent in early Texas history. Hunt was instrumental in the annexation of Texas to the Union and Green, a Mier prisoner, who escaped from the Mexican prison at Perote, is accredited with the immortal tribute to the Alamo--"Thermopylae had its messanger of defeat; the Alamo had none."
The act creating Hunt county named five men as Town Commissioners who were to organize the county and locate the county seat. They were James Hooker, Isaac C. Banta, Meridith Hart, James Hobbs and John W. Lane. Hunt county was organized on July 12 1846 and the first election was held next day. The county seat of Greenville was located on a townsite donated by Mr. Wright out of his homestead tract of 640 acres. The first town lot sale was held on January 12, 1847, and the next day the contract was let for the erection of the first tiny, log courthouse measuring 20 by 22 feet.
Wright from Tennessee.
McQuinney Howell Wright, founder of Greenville, was the father of Mrs. John D. Middleton, a present citizen of Greenville. He was one of that band of courageous men who left the old Southern States to make the journey into Texas in the years that immediately followed the birth of the new Republic. Being men of vision they were quick to grasp the great possibilties of that vast domain which had hitherto lain dormant and abandoned to the Indian and wild game.
It was in the year 1839 that Mr. Wright, then 26, left Gibson County, Tennessee, old home of Davey Crockett, in a train of covered wagons headed for Texas.
He was a young, unmarried man traveling with his brother-in-law, Gibson Valsane Harrison and the latter's wife, Zada, and their cmall children. On December 20 of that year the party crossed the Red River into Texas and settled in what is now Lamar County.
In 1843 Wright married America Orr and not long after they fared forth into that section which was later to become the county of Hunt.
The Republic of Texas had adopted the policy, later followed by the States, of offering lands "without money and without price" to all families that would locate homesteads within its boundaries. Patents to 640 acres were issued to all heads of families and these might be located on any unclaimed lands.
M. H. Wright had aquired the certificate of John Gillespie and realizing the possibilties of land lying along the old National Road from Jefferson to Austin, he located his tract on and around the spot where Greenville now stands.
Builds First Home.
He built a rough home of logs, on this road, which then and for years after, wound in from the east entering Greenville just north of what if now East Mount cemetery, and following the curve which passed the Hal Horton Feed Mill, the Oil Mill and then into what is now Washington street. For years this was the only road out to the east.
Wright's first home was within a half a mile of where the old Indian Chief, Cowleach, had formerly had his village, the latter having moved away only about six months before Miss Till Moore, who was one of the two survivors of Greenville's founding when the Diamond Jubilee was celebrated in 1926, related that her mother told her that for two or three years after Mr. Wright made his location he had continually to drive Indians away.
A biography of Mr. Wright writtern in 1889 shortly before his death, stated that when he built his home his nearest neighbor on the east was 10 miles and on the west 30 miles. There were several families to the north and south, however, and the number now began to increase rapidly.
The final act in that unique drama of the Republic of Texas was drawing to a close and the stage was being set for a great imigration to the new domain where homes where obtained "without money and without price."
In 1845 Texas enter the Union and in 1846 the First Legislature of the new state met in the new capitol at Austin. One of the bills passed by this First Legislature was "An Act Creating the County of Hunt" providing for a county seat to be "called by the name of Greenville." On April 11 1846, Texas' first Govenor, James Pickney Henderson, approved the act which specified that the new county should be formed from parts of the districts of Fannin and Nacogdoches. Five men were named in the act as Town Commissioners. It was to be their duty to organize the county and locate the county seat near the center of the county. These Town Commissioners were James Hooker, Meredith Hart, Isaac C. Banta, James Hobbs and John W. Lane.
Location of the Town
Under the legislature act, the Commissioners were instructed to "find the center of said county and select two places within three miles of said center, having due respect for donations that might be offered." Then an election should be held, the act directed, to determine the site.
Wright's proposed donation was one of the two sites. The other is what is known today as Center Point, about three miles southeast of Greenville. When the election was held the Wright donation won, possibly because it was nearer the water supply than the other location which was claimed to be nearer the exact center of the county.
Donation Changed
In the begining Mr. Wright agreed to donate a tract of 160 acres in a solid body for the town site. It extened as far west as what is now King street and as far north as what is now Church street, as far east as 200 feet east of the present Bois d'Arc street and south to the Mercer's Colony Line which is about 50 north of the Cotton Belt Railroad track on South Stonewall street.
The commissioner soon decided that some timbered land was needed apparently for fuel for public buildings and probably for building material. Accordingly Mr. Wright sought to remedy the situation by donating 60 acres of timbered land in Sabine bottom some distance east of the square and in exchange for this he took back 60 acres off north and west sides of the First Donation Tract, leaving 100 acres for the townsite proper. It is this 100 acres surrounding the public square which came to be officially known as the Original Town Donation.
It retained the same east and south boundries as the first donation but was reduced to the west to the point 54 feet west of Wesley street and reduced on the north to about 180 feet south of what is now Henry street.
Deed Delayed
The first donation was made in 1846. The county was formally organized on July 13 1846 and by January 1847 was functioning sufficiantly to launch the first "Town Lot sale in Greenville and let contracts for a courthouse and well. It was not until March 22, 1850, that M. H. Wright finally executed the deed to the Town Commissioners conveying the 100 acres donation. This delay is explained by the new trade which was enter into and described above and also probably was partially due to perfecting the title to the land. John Gillespie, whose certicficate Wright had aquired, had to be located. He assigned his interest, the patent was then issued by the state, and the Wright made his formal deed, although the town was in operation and numerous lots had then been sold. March 22 has come to be officially recognized as Greenville Day because the deed was formally executed on that day. It also marks the begining of spring and has been considered an appropriate time for celebration.
Col. James Bourland
It has been claimed that Colonel James Bourland of Lamar county, was the first owner of the certificate of John Gillespie to the 640 acres of land out of which the Greenville townsite was donated and that he engaged the young M. H. Wright to locate the tract, giving him half of the land for hsi services. This was a cutomary fee for surveyors and both Wright and Bourland acquired considerable land in this way. Wright was by profession a surveyor when he came to Texas in 1839. Bourland, a much older man, arrived in Lamar county the same year. He became a state senator in the First Legislature and was chairman of the committee to create Hunt county.
After Greenville was located on the Wright land the search for John Gillespie began. He was found in Harris county in 1848 and executed a transfer of his certificate to Bourland for a consideration of $50.00. On May 15 1848 Bourland conveyed this to M. H. Wright for a consideration of $100.00. Then the patent was issued to Wright by the state in January 1850 and on March 23, 1850 Wright made the deed to the Town Commissioners. However, on July 8, 1853, Wright deeded 380 ............
Sorry folks! It cuts off here to the next page which was NOT sent to me.
Greenville Evening Banner May 7 1950
Bandits Failed Bank Robbery Attempt in 1893
One of the most exciting events in Greenville of the "Gay 90's" wasn't so "gay" for those directly envolved. It was the attempted robbery of the First National Bank which happened about 1893.
The story goes that several men engaged in the attempted robbery which was frustrated by discovery, the men being forced to flee from the building of shots awakening the tenants near the buisiness district early one morning. The robbers had ? the safe and removed approxmately eleven thousand dollars to the outside when they were discovered and fled, abadoning the money.
One man was injured by a shot in the leg and another of the bandits was believed mortally wounded. Officers traced blood ? to were a buggy, pulled by fast? horses, had been secreted, and efferts to trace the bandits were abandoned after many days. Years later it was reported that a skeleton of a man had been found in a shallow grave south of the city, and it was believed to by ? that it was the body of the bandit that had died from his wounds before his compainions courld ?ure medical attention for him.
