Crockett Park

Crockett Park began as a memorial. The Honey Grove Signal of October 24, 1919 reported that the city had bought the Sanders lots, about four acres between West Main and West Market, and credited Mayor Daniel with raising every cent by subscription. The park was dedicated to the soldiers of Honey Grove and vicinity who had volunteered in the World War. The Handbook of Texas account of Crockett's 1835 trip names Clarksville on his route to Nacogdoches but not Honey Grove.

What the plaque says

Crockett Park Named for David Crockett (1786-1836), the colorful Tennessee pioneer and congressman who rallied to cause of Texas in her war for independence. Late in 1835, Crockett traveled by riverboat, horseback, and on foot, entering Texas along the Red River (NE of here). Camping at a site half a mile northeast of this park, he found wild bees and honey in hollow trees. In letters to family and friends, Crockett called the campsite a "honey grove." It is said he told his friends he would settle here later, but in a few weeks he died in cause of freedom at the Alamo. One of Crockett's old friends, Tennessee surveyor Samuel A. Erwin (1786-1854), became the first settler here (1839) and first postmaster (1846). Benjamin S. Walcott, arriving in 1848, added land of his own to his wife's legacy from James Gilmer. With Erwin as co-founder, he platted town of Honey Grove on the Gilmer grant. He also erected first stone building. By 1885, Honey Grove had many businesses, including a weekly newspaper, "The Independent." Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad reached here in 1887. A peak of 4,000 inhabitants was attained in 1890. Situated on land bought from W. J. Erwin (1919) this park provides recreation for a dynamic community. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 17 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.
• Evergreen Cemetery — 21 mi
  Paris's town cemetery since 1866, with a carved-stone gallery that includes the Babcock monument in cowboy boots, and the grave of the three-year-old whose death led to the 1893 lynching of Henry Smith.
• Sam Bell Maxey House State Historic Site — 21 mi
  The Italian-villa-style house in Paris, finished in 1868 with a lawyer's fees, where a Confederate major general turned U.S. senator and two later generations of his family lived.
• Cooper Lake State Park — 22 mi
  Two units on Jim Chapman Lake, a Corps reservoir proposed in the late 1930s, stalled by a lawsuit until 1984 and dedicated in 1991, with a 10.5-mile equestrian trail and wildlife land around it.

More markers nearby

• Honey Grove City Hall — 0.4 mi
• Honey Grove Lodge No. 164, A. F. & A. M. — 0.4 mi
• First Baptist Church of Honey Grove — 0.5 mi
• Site of Bralley-Pendleton School — 0.5 mi