A PAST
WORTH REMEMBERING
By
Sara Etgen-Baker
The town of Anna was created by an act of the Texas State
legislature on April 3, 1886, shortly after Texas was admitted into
statehood. Prior to statehood, the
Republic of Texas made land grants available to agents for establishing
colonies in Texas. The Peters Colony (on
the Red River) was one such colony.
Grayson, Collin, and Dallas counties were on the eastern side of Peters
Colony. (HOWELL, page 1)
But some 40 years prior to Anna’s formal inception, a
number of pioneers settled on farms in Peters Colony near present day
Anna. These early settlers came to the
region not only because of the ease of cultivating crops like cotton and corn but
also because of the abundant streams and springs that provided both water and
an ample supply of trees that could be cut for fuel and building. Many came because of the free land and the
promise of high cotton yields. These
early settlers—full of hopes and dreams—traveled here via boat or wagon from
faraway Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama, and North and South
Carolina. (HOWELL, page 1) Most remained—inspired by the wide
open spaces and the lavender sunsets sinking into fields of cotton and corn.
Among the first and best known settlers was Collin
McKinney for whom both the county and present-day county seat were named. (THOMPSON, page 41 and HOWELL, page 2) McKinney was a member of the First, Second,
and Fourth Congresses of the Republic of Texas; he represented the Red River
County at the convention in 1836. In
1846 Collin and his family moved to a point north of Anna near the Grayson
County line. Today a Texas Historical Marker located along State Highway 5,
about 2.7 miles north of Anna, denotes the location of Collin McKinney’s
original homestead. (COLLIN HOMESTEAD)
As early as 1845,
Collin knew (as witnessed in a letter to his nephew) that the railroad was
headed this way. But at that time no
surveys had been made for an exact route.
(THOMPSON, PAGE 41) At this same time, “there was a town named
Mantua, laid out by Scott McKinney. This
town was to have an important effect on future towns in the area like Anna, but
would experience a relatively brief life itself. Mantua residents apparently did not want the
railroad to come through their town, so engineers surveyed the line to the east
and north of Mantua. (THOMPSON,
PAGE 41) So in 1872 the Houston
and Texas Central Railroad (HT&C) ran a line from Dallas to Denison through
McKinney and Sherman. In 1873 the
railroad line was completed and established a stop in present day Anna that was
nothing more than a railroad stop because there were no buildings there. But in 1873 that stop became the town of Anna
when some 20 people moved there. A post office
was established that year, and C.P Huntington (former superintendent of the H&TC
railroad) named the town Anna for his daughter, Anna. (HOWELL, page 3 and Introduction) Anna’s train depot was completed in 1880 and
with it came the beginning of Anna’s growth.
Mantua, on the other hand, disappeared from the landscape. (THOMPSON, PAGE 41 and 42)
John F. Greer built the first store and residence in Anna
and is credited with being Anna’s founding father. Greer, born in Alabama in 1850, moved into
Collin County in 1867 and settled in Mantua.
When the H&TC Railroad bypassed Mantua, Greer moved to Anna in 1883
and built his store and residence. Greer
also donated the tract of land onto which the H&TC built its original depot
and switch yard. The town’s post office
was inside Greer’s store, and Greer’s business partner, William Y. Barnett, was
appointed Anna’s first postmaster in January 1885. When Anna was incorporated in 1913, Greer
became Anna’s first mayor. (HOWELL, page 3)
After the HT&C depot was built in 1885, Anna had a
second spurt of growth.
Other
stores included ones built by Guinn and Davis and Copeland and Powell. These original stores were all in separate
wood frame buildings located on the west side of the railroad tracks and facing
the road that ran parallel to the tracks.
(HOWELL, page 3)
Later,
the Sherleys moved their store to a larger frame building east of the tracks;
and eventually “in 1894, they built a building that still stands today and was
Collin County’s first brick building. In
its lifetime, the building, always under ownership of the Sherley family,
served many functions. While primarily a hardware store, the "A. Sherley
& Bro. Hardware Store, as it's known,
“Shortly
before the turn of the 21st century, and over 100 years after the store was
first opened, current owners Jan Sherley Miller and her husband Virgil decided
it was time to do something with the old two-story building and the hundred
year’s worth of treasures, inventory, and “stuff” sitting inside. In the effort
to preserve the history, the building and its contents were turned into a
museum. In an interview Mrs. Miller explained, ‘We’re going to hang on to
everything we can for as long as we can so people will have something to see.’ (SHERLEY STORE)
“Around
that time, in 1999, the state of Texas also honored the special building by
making it an official historic landmark. Today, and by appointment only, those
passing through Anna can stop in and immerse themselves in Texas history and
Americana going back as far as the state’s roots themselves.” (SHERLEY STORE)
As
Anna grew and prospered, other commercial buildings were constructed, including
a two-story brick structure that housed Anna’s first bank. That building was razed, but others from that
original group remain. In 1908, the
Texas Traction Company completed the construction of an interurban line from
Dallas to Sherman. This interurban line
ran through Anna and operated from July 1, 1908, until December 31, 1948. (HOWELL, page 5) Evidence
of the interurban line still exists as one drives down Highway 5 through
downtown Van Alstyne.
In 1883, the town’s new residents established a
school. As was the custom in those days,
schools were placed in private homes with the first school being housed in the
residence of one “Uncle Jimmie” Strother.
A second school was established in the residence of Mr. Carter. (HOWELL, pages 5 and 6). “In
1885 a one-room frame building was constructed for $125 on 2 1/2 acres of land
donated by J. L. Greer. Anna’s first
brick school building was erected in 1910 on the same site to replace the
wooden structure at the cost of $17,000.
It contained eight classrooms on the first two floors and an auditorium
on the third floor. It served all grades
until 1939 when (on the same campus) a new brick building was built under the
Works Progress Administration (WPA) Program and served high school students. This building currently houses AISD
administrative offices.” (AAHPS BROCHURE)
The ever-expanding
railroad system provided opportunities for Anna area farms to respond to the
nation’s and the world’s demand for cotton.
Cotton production ruled the farming industry in Anna in the late 1800s
and early 1900s. (BRITTON)
But
once farmers harvested their cotton, they needed to convert the harvested
cotton into marketable products (fiber and seed). This conversion process is known as cotton
ginning. (COTTON) Subsequently,
cotton gins were as important to communities like Anna as were its mercantile
stores and railroad depot. Over the
decades, several cotton gins were built in Anna to handle ginning in the
area. The Dysart Brothers built the
first cotton gin in Anna in approximately 1887.
Sometime later, “Uncle Charlie” Wysong built the second one, and a Mr.
Pear built a third one in about 1900.
The Kimball (Cottonseed) Oil Company later owned a cotton gin located on
land on the east side of town. (HOWELL, page 6)
During
the 1940’s, William Bently “Bill” Powell, Sr. purchased that cotton gin; then in
the early to mid 1950s he moved parts of the original Kimball Cotton Gin over
to the west side of Hwy 5 and developed a more modern cotton gin. That gin is still known today as the Powell
Cotton Gin.
Early
Anna pioneers, like many other Texas pioneers, established churches in their
communities to serve their spiritual and social needs. “The First Christian Church was a pioneer denomination
brought to Texas by Collin McKinney and his family. (It is a branch of the disbanded Mantua
Liberty Church started by the McKinney, Wilmeth and other families.) The church, made of cypress wood was built in
1893, with additions in 1949-50 and in 2009.”
(AAHPS BROCHURE)
In
1883 the Methodists living in the Anna area met at the First Christian Church
(the only church in Anna at the time).
In 1890 land was purchased from the H&TC Railroad, and John Goforth
constructed a church building at the cost of approximately $1,500. When the building was completed, there were 32
members. The current building was built
at the same location in 1930-1931. (AAHPS BROCHURE)
The
First Baptist Church—previously established at Highland and moved to Anna in
1892—is the oldest historically in Anna but was the last of the three
denominations to be built in Anna. It
went by several names and was located in several places prior to being moved to
Anna in 1892. (HOWELL, page 8) and (AAHPS BROCHURE) A Presbyterian Church was established in 1898
but later closed. (HOWELL, page 8)
Three
denominations—the First Christians, Baptists, and Methodists—remain and are still
a rich and vital part of the Anna community today.
While
the days of wide open spaces and sunsets sinking into fields of cotton and corn
are gone, the churches, schools, train depot, cotton gin, and many of the
original buildings remain. They serve as reminders, though, of Anna’s past—a past
worth remembering, for it has given depth, character, and strength to this
quaint, quiet, and unassuming community where folks still migrate as a place
where they can fulfill their hopes and dreams.
CITATIONS
Anna Area
Historical Preservation Society brochure.
Britton, Karen
Gerhardt, "Cotton Ginning," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/abcjz),
accessed February 02, 2015. Uploaded on June 12, 2010. Modified on September 4,
2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
Collin McKinney
Homestead Site location. http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMHYW5_Site_of_Collin_McKinney_Homestead,
accessed February 4, 2015.
The Cotton
Industry. http://www.cottoninc.com, accessed February
3, 2015.
Howell,
Chester A. “A Town Named Anna,” October
19, 1985.
“Sherley Store,
Anna, Texas,” http://www.professionalcarsociety.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-7151.html,
accessed February 4, 2015.
Thompson,
Woffard. “Railroad Spurs Anna Growth.”
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