Blue Ridge

By May 1895 Blue Ridge had 170 pupils and two teachers, Prof. C. F. Trotter and his sister Hattie, and a visiting correspondent ranked the village second to none in the county. Citizens petitioned the commissioners for the school building and grounds so a chartered company could improve them at their own cost. That spring the school held monthly Demorest elocution contests, and on May 9 five students competed for a silver medal at the Methodist church. Fannie Norwood won with a recitation titled Man's Soliloquy.

What the plaque says

Blue Ridge Located in northeast Collin County and positioned between Desert and Pilot Grove Creeks, Blue Ridge was named for its hilltop location and the blue-flowering grass in the area. From a distance, the grass looked like a blue haze. Pioneers began to settle this area in the 1830s. Deed records date back to Matthew Mowry who received a Republic of Texas land grant for services in the war for Independence from Mexico. Other early settlers were Isadore Boren, who settled seven miles southeast of town in present-day Arnold Community, Wilson McDonald, John Bowman and W.C. Holmes, the first doctor. In the 1870s, the first store in a one-room log cabin opened just south of the town square, operated by William and James Moyers. Other early establishments were a one-room school, the Blue Ridge Masonic Lodge No. 490 and the J.A. Barnett Cotton Gin, along with the variety store, dentist office, Blue Ridge National Bank and hardware store on the town square. Many people in the area were farmers and ranchers and flocked to the two gins located here. Raising cotton, corn, wheat, oats, hay and cattle provided the livelihood for many. The first Methodist church was organized in 1880 and the first Baptist church organized in 1885. Citizens recall an active Church of Christ as early as 1890. Until 1895, all church services were held in the schoolhouse, with each denomination taking turns. In 1937, the high school was constructed with works progress administration labor. With an increase in population, new schools and businesses have been established as the beautiful countryside of Blue Ridge continues to attract people to the area. (2015)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 16 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 22 mi
  A Greenville museum of Hunt County's military heroes, including Audie Murphy, and of cotton, which keeps the engine of what it says was the world's largest inland cotton compress.
• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 22 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.

More markers nearby

• Blue Ridge Methodist Church — 0.3 mi
• George Washington Smith — 0.6 mi
• Frognot Community — 2.7 mi
• Verona Methodist Church — 3.7 mi