Jabez and Harriet Haning

The marker guesses the town's name came from a railroad official. The Handbook of Texas says the Houston and Texas Central had a switch here called Summit, supposed at 810 feet to be the highest point between the Red River and the Gulf. Jabes Haning, as the Handbook spells him, persuaded the railroad to build a depot on his land by giving it every second lot in his new town. In 1876 the depot, store and post office took the name Howe, for F. M. Howe, who worked for the railroad.

What the plaque says

Jabez and Harriet Haning Jabez Haning (1827-1883) came to Grayson County with his family in 1846. In the 1850s Jabez Haning obtained a grant of 320 acres of land from the Peters colony. His land was located about nine miles south of the town of Sherman. Harriet Campbell (1834-1880) and Jabez Haning were married in 1854 and established a farm. In 1873 the Houston & Texas Central Railway established a line south of Sherman. The route went through the Haning property, and they donated land for a town site in 1876. The town was named Howe, probably in honor of a railroad official. (1994)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 18 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.
• Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site — 19 mi
  The small frame house beside the Katy tracks in Denison where Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890, bought by townspeople in 1946 and given to Texas in 1958.
• Eisenhower State Park — 22 mi
  A bluff-top park on Lake Texoma opened in 1958 on land leased from the Corps of Engineers, in the Red River country of Fort Johnson, Colbert's Ferry and the Butterfield stages.
• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 23 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.

More markers nearby

• First Christian Church of Howe — 2.5 mi
• Dorchester School — 3.2 mi
• Boy Scout Troop 1 (Troop 44) — 6.4 mi
• Site of Campus of Old Columbia College — 6.5 mi