St. Paul - north of Wylie
Once Upon a Time - St. Paul
by Capt. Roy F. Hall
Some time back I inquired if anyone knew anything of the old village of St. Paul, Collin County. Several letters have been received, giving the writer's remembrance of the place and I am going to reproduce parts of a few of them for the benefit of the good many readers who have asked of the ghost town.
This is not purported to be a history of St. Paul, just notes that seem to be interesting. Its history will appear in the Collin County history I am getting together. This county history, by the way, as I have told you before, is a slow process. About when I think I have it all finished and ready to be printed something new comes up and parts of the manuscript has to be gone over and re-written. The same thing pertains to the historical county map I am also drafting. I have about arrived at the conclusion that a history is never completely and absolutely finished; something is always arising to disprove incidents taken to the proven facts.
Stambaugh, in his brief history of Collin County, does not mention St. Paul. No historian, so far as I know, has mentioned the settlement. Shortly before and after the civil War of 1861 - 65 St. Paul was an important village, having a post office, gins, churches and other public establishments. It was an over-night stopping point for freighters on the old road that ran from Millwood to McKinney, and was one of the few voting boxes in the county at the time of the war. Now, let's see what some of those who lived there or had relatives who lived there says about old St. Paul.
We'll take a letter from Mrs. J. B. Gray (Billie Anderson) who now lives 211 West College Street in Canton, Texas, to start with. Mrs. Gray says: "In your column printed in the Examiner on 'Old Grist Mills' you asked about old St. Paul, a Catholic community. I grew up a few miles southwest of St. Paul I remember the old church which was near the Catholic cemetery, which was called the St. Paul Catholic Cemetery, some five or six miles north of Wylie. I remember hearing the church bell ringing on Sunday mornings. I think there was an old school house near the church. About a mile or more west of the Catholic Church another school house has been erected, and later replaced by a new building. This was a three-teacher school. This was Morris Schoolhouse, or Dump, as it was called, and I don't know how it got that name. There was a gin and a store close by, operated by Gene Merchant, and later, by Joe Spurgin. There was a Methodist Church about 100 yards west of the store.
"After services were discontinued at the Catholic Church its membership went to church at Wylie, and the old church building was sold to Walter Bellmyre and wife, she being the former Laura Biggs. They used the lumber to build their home, which still stands south of Lucas. The Bellmyres, Dempseys, Spurgins, Galleghars and others were old (Catholic) settlers of the community.
"The Dump or Morris school consolidated some thirty years ago with the Wylie school. The old schoolhouse was sold and built into a dwelling. The Methodist Church was moved to Wylie and placed on the lot with the Wylie Methodist Church and is now used as an educational building. The gin burned several years before this and the store was later discontinued.
"Mr. And Mrs. Jack Morris of Wylie, and Mrs. Maud Smith, mother of Truett Smith, the Wylie Banker and civic leader were long time residents of the community and attended services at the Methodist Church in St. Paul. Mrs. A. J. Smith of McKinney also lived a number of years at St. Paul. I attended church there at the Methodist Church. Catholics and Protestants all sent their children to the old Dump, or Morris school.
Mr. And Mrs. Metz Williams of Allen, Collin county, writes, "I am writing this on behalf of my husband, Metz Williams, after reading your article on the old grist mill at St. Paul. Metz lived there around 1915 and he says there was a general store, gin, schoolhouse and a Catholic Church. The church stood southwest of the present cemetery, just across the road. Mr. Gene Merchant owned the store and ran the gin, hauling the cotton to Wylie. The gin stood north of the store and the schoolhouse was northwest of the store. Gene Merchant left there about 1910 and I think he went to Electra.
"The J. Westley Smith family, father-in-law of Bessie Crouch Smith, lived just west of the store. Mr. Husband, Metz Williams, father was George W. Williams, and his mother was Sarah Armstrong. My father was Joe Leach, who passed away in my infancy. My mother was Mary Whisenant, daughter of R. B. Whisenant."
Mrs. Williams is one whom I regard as very fortunate, for she goes on to say, "We are living, and have lived for 51 years on the farm where I was born, about two miles northeast of the old Cottonwood schoolhouse." Anyone who remains on the old home place are fortunate. A sentiment is attached to the place of a person's birth that can never exist elsewhere. There should be a law; and iron-clad law, to the effect that ancestral homes cannot be disposed of outside of the original owners' families.
Mrs. Gray mentions R. B. Whisenant as being among the settlers at old St. Paul. As the Whisenant family is rather prominent, and many of them still live in the county, perhaps it is best that a short sketch be written by them. This will be done in a future article. In the meantime I can say that R. B. was the son of R. C. Whisenant who came to near Allen in 1846. R. C. had three sons; John W., R. b., and Mark. John W. Whisenant, enlisted for the Civil War in Captain Dixon's Company "I", 9th Texas Infantry at McKinney and served in the Confederate Army through the war.
I have a fair history of St. Paul, but if anyone can write something on the old settlement it will be greatly appreciated. I have, too, other letters on St. Paul which will be published in this column in the future. But personel experiences like those of Mrs. Gay and Mrs. Williams are the kind that lend real interest to a history.
Attached is a sketch of old St. Paul, showing the location of the buildings there, 35 to 40 years ago. As you will note, they are not named. Can anyone fill out the names of the different housed and stores and church and mail it to me? This will enable us to compile a true history of St. Paul.
by Capt. Roy F. Hall
Some time back I inquired if anyone knew anything of the old village of St. Paul, Collin County. Several letters have been received, giving the writer's remembrance of the place and I am going to reproduce parts of a few of them for the benefit of the good many readers who have asked of the ghost town.
This is not purported to be a history of St. Paul, just notes that seem to be interesting. Its history will appear in the Collin County history I am getting together. This county history, by the way, as I have told you before, is a slow process. About when I think I have it all finished and ready to be printed something new comes up and parts of the manuscript has to be gone over and re-written. The same thing pertains to the historical county map I am also drafting. I have about arrived at the conclusion that a history is never completely and absolutely finished; something is always arising to disprove incidents taken to the proven facts.
Stambaugh, in his brief history of Collin County, does not mention St. Paul. No historian, so far as I know, has mentioned the settlement. Shortly before and after the civil War of 1861 - 65 St. Paul was an important village, having a post office, gins, churches and other public establishments. It was an over-night stopping point for freighters on the old road that ran from Millwood to McKinney, and was one of the few voting boxes in the county at the time of the war. Now, let's see what some of those who lived there or had relatives who lived there says about old St. Paul.
We'll take a letter from Mrs. J. B. Gray (Billie Anderson) who now lives 211 West College Street in Canton, Texas, to start with. Mrs. Gray says: "In your column printed in the Examiner on 'Old Grist Mills' you asked about old St. Paul, a Catholic community. I grew up a few miles southwest of St. Paul I remember the old church which was near the Catholic cemetery, which was called the St. Paul Catholic Cemetery, some five or six miles north of Wylie. I remember hearing the church bell ringing on Sunday mornings. I think there was an old school house near the church. About a mile or more west of the Catholic Church another school house has been erected, and later replaced by a new building. This was a three-teacher school. This was Morris Schoolhouse, or Dump, as it was called, and I don't know how it got that name. There was a gin and a store close by, operated by Gene Merchant, and later, by Joe Spurgin. There was a Methodist Church about 100 yards west of the store.
"After services were discontinued at the Catholic Church its membership went to church at Wylie, and the old church building was sold to Walter Bellmyre and wife, she being the former Laura Biggs. They used the lumber to build their home, which still stands south of Lucas. The Bellmyres, Dempseys, Spurgins, Galleghars and others were old (Catholic) settlers of the community.
"The Dump or Morris school consolidated some thirty years ago with the Wylie school. The old schoolhouse was sold and built into a dwelling. The Methodist Church was moved to Wylie and placed on the lot with the Wylie Methodist Church and is now used as an educational building. The gin burned several years before this and the store was later discontinued.
"Mr. And Mrs. Jack Morris of Wylie, and Mrs. Maud Smith, mother of Truett Smith, the Wylie Banker and civic leader were long time residents of the community and attended services at the Methodist Church in St. Paul. Mrs. A. J. Smith of McKinney also lived a number of years at St. Paul. I attended church there at the Methodist Church. Catholics and Protestants all sent their children to the old Dump, or Morris school.
Mr. And Mrs. Metz Williams of Allen, Collin county, writes, "I am writing this on behalf of my husband, Metz Williams, after reading your article on the old grist mill at St. Paul. Metz lived there around 1915 and he says there was a general store, gin, schoolhouse and a Catholic Church. The church stood southwest of the present cemetery, just across the road. Mr. Gene Merchant owned the store and ran the gin, hauling the cotton to Wylie. The gin stood north of the store and the schoolhouse was northwest of the store. Gene Merchant left there about 1910 and I think he went to Electra.
"The J. Westley Smith family, father-in-law of Bessie Crouch Smith, lived just west of the store. Mr. Husband, Metz Williams, father was George W. Williams, and his mother was Sarah Armstrong. My father was Joe Leach, who passed away in my infancy. My mother was Mary Whisenant, daughter of R. B. Whisenant."
Mrs. Williams is one whom I regard as very fortunate, for she goes on to say, "We are living, and have lived for 51 years on the farm where I was born, about two miles northeast of the old Cottonwood schoolhouse." Anyone who remains on the old home place are fortunate. A sentiment is attached to the place of a person's birth that can never exist elsewhere. There should be a law; and iron-clad law, to the effect that ancestral homes cannot be disposed of outside of the original owners' families.
Mrs. Gray mentions R. B. Whisenant as being among the settlers at old St. Paul. As the Whisenant family is rather prominent, and many of them still live in the county, perhaps it is best that a short sketch be written by them. This will be done in a future article. In the meantime I can say that R. B. was the son of R. C. Whisenant who came to near Allen in 1846. R. C. had three sons; John W., R. b., and Mark. John W. Whisenant, enlisted for the Civil War in Captain Dixon's Company "I", 9th Texas Infantry at McKinney and served in the Confederate Army through the war.
I have a fair history of St. Paul, but if anyone can write something on the old settlement it will be greatly appreciated. I have, too, other letters on St. Paul which will be published in this column in the future. But personel experiences like those of Mrs. Gay and Mrs. Williams are the kind that lend real interest to a history.
Attached is a sketch of old St. Paul, showing the location of the buildings there, 35 to 40 years ago. As you will note, they are not named. Can anyone fill out the names of the different housed and stores and church and mail it to me? This will enable us to compile a true history of St. Paul.
Irish Settlers in Collin County
by Joy Gough
About 1855 an extended family of Irish immigrants came to Collin County and eventually settled north of present-day Wylie near the East Fork of the Trinity River at St. Paul. Their family names were Gallagher, Miller, and Neilon. The Gallaghers were straight from Roscommon, Ireland, their ship landing in New Orleans. From there they went by boat to Mexico and then Houston. They rode in covered wagons from Houston to McKinney. The trip from New Orleans took nine months. The money from the sale of the homeplace in Ireland accompanied them in a cedar box and was used to purchase 400 acres of land from Mark L. Morris for $5 an acre. James Gallagher received his American citizenship in McKinney in 1858.
Later residents of the St. Paul community included the Boylans, Burnses, Corbitts, Cotters, Dempseys, Harnetts, Howreys, Marchants, Marriotts, Morrises, Peaces, Scanlans, Spurgins, and Whites. They were subsistence farmers until the coming of railroads to Collin County, and especially Wylie, which opened new markets for them. They grew some cotton for the family, but cotton was not a big crop until after the Civil War. They were also known for raising fine horses.
As early as 1856 a Catholic church was established when services were held in the Gallagher home with the singing of hymns and teaching the Catechism. A missionary, Richard Hennessy, came from the Galveston diocese to help organize the group and served as their spiritual leader although he was not ordained until 1863.
In 1868 Father Joseph Martiniere came to the Gallagher home to celebrate the first Mass. He served as pastor of the St. Paul church but also rode horseback to Dallas to say Mass at the homes of Catholic families. He was the priest for the St. Paul congregation until 1875. Dallas was a mission of the Collin County church until 1883 when their roles were reversed.
In 1869 the Galveston diocese, which covered all of Texas, granted permission for the congregation to build a church and they named it St. Paul. On November 27, 1869, James Neilon donated land to the Galveston diocese for a church building. Also in 1869, James and Emily Spurgin Gallagher donated land for the St. Paul Catholic Cemetery, which is still active, and Andrew and Lucinda Burns donated land for a Catholic school. When the church building was completed, it was said to be the first Catholic church in Texas north of San Antonio. The school was taught by Prof. Malcomson, who later moved to Dallas.
The St. Paul Church building was destroyed several times – by tornado in 1871, by fire a couple of times. The first entry in the Baptismal Registry is dated 1876. Local sentiment did not favor the Catholics. They had to sneak in the dark of night to attend church services in fear that their neighbors would tar and feather them.
Practically all of the St. Paul community joined the Confederacy during the Civil War. Many were in Collin County’s 16th Regiment, Brigade of Volunteers with Gabriel Fitzhugh as Captain. John Spurgin was 3 Sgt. and William W. Burns was 1 Corp.
A small community named St. Paul developed around the church. Methodist services were held in the homes of the Spurgin and Morris families as early as 1865. The Protestants built a church around 1882. All denominations held services at the building. St. Paul had a post office, located in John Walden’s store, from 1876 until 1894 and a public school. The area was called various names, including Rawhide, Morris, Dump, and St. Paul: Rawhide because a sheet of rawhide was stretched over the door of the school; Morris because the Morris family owned land in the area; Dump because the mail was just dumped there; and St. Paul after the church.
After the railroads came through Wylie in 1887, the population shifted to that town.
In 1890 St. Anthony Catholic Church was started in Wylie. About 1916 Bishop Lynch of Dallas gave permission to move the St. Paul Church and school to Wylie. The building still stands on the grounds of the St. Anthony Catholic Church on Ballard Street.
This little Catholic church in Collin County was the start of the St. Paul diocese in Dallas, which did not start until 1890. The St. Paul diocese maintains the St. Paul Catholic Cemetery.
In 1957 when the East Fork of the Trinity River was dammed to create Lake Lavon, much of the farm land of these early settlers was covered by the lake.
Descendants of many of these families still reside in the St. Paul/Wylie area. Some have stayed on the farms. Others have been active in the development of Wylie and the surrounding areas.
Sources: http://www.saint-anthony.com/history.asp, Wylie Area Heritage by Beb Fulkerson, “Family History Burns Family Wylie Pioneers,” Brenda Kellow and McKinney Examiner, April 9, 1936 by Mildred Housewright and Melva Cook.
by Joy Gough
About 1855 an extended family of Irish immigrants came to Collin County and eventually settled north of present-day Wylie near the East Fork of the Trinity River at St. Paul. Their family names were Gallagher, Miller, and Neilon. The Gallaghers were straight from Roscommon, Ireland, their ship landing in New Orleans. From there they went by boat to Mexico and then Houston. They rode in covered wagons from Houston to McKinney. The trip from New Orleans took nine months. The money from the sale of the homeplace in Ireland accompanied them in a cedar box and was used to purchase 400 acres of land from Mark L. Morris for $5 an acre. James Gallagher received his American citizenship in McKinney in 1858.
Later residents of the St. Paul community included the Boylans, Burnses, Corbitts, Cotters, Dempseys, Harnetts, Howreys, Marchants, Marriotts, Morrises, Peaces, Scanlans, Spurgins, and Whites. They were subsistence farmers until the coming of railroads to Collin County, and especially Wylie, which opened new markets for them. They grew some cotton for the family, but cotton was not a big crop until after the Civil War. They were also known for raising fine horses.
As early as 1856 a Catholic church was established when services were held in the Gallagher home with the singing of hymns and teaching the Catechism. A missionary, Richard Hennessy, came from the Galveston diocese to help organize the group and served as their spiritual leader although he was not ordained until 1863.
In 1868 Father Joseph Martiniere came to the Gallagher home to celebrate the first Mass. He served as pastor of the St. Paul church but also rode horseback to Dallas to say Mass at the homes of Catholic families. He was the priest for the St. Paul congregation until 1875. Dallas was a mission of the Collin County church until 1883 when their roles were reversed.
In 1869 the Galveston diocese, which covered all of Texas, granted permission for the congregation to build a church and they named it St. Paul. On November 27, 1869, James Neilon donated land to the Galveston diocese for a church building. Also in 1869, James and Emily Spurgin Gallagher donated land for the St. Paul Catholic Cemetery, which is still active, and Andrew and Lucinda Burns donated land for a Catholic school. When the church building was completed, it was said to be the first Catholic church in Texas north of San Antonio. The school was taught by Prof. Malcomson, who later moved to Dallas.
The St. Paul Church building was destroyed several times – by tornado in 1871, by fire a couple of times. The first entry in the Baptismal Registry is dated 1876. Local sentiment did not favor the Catholics. They had to sneak in the dark of night to attend church services in fear that their neighbors would tar and feather them.
Practically all of the St. Paul community joined the Confederacy during the Civil War. Many were in Collin County’s 16th Regiment, Brigade of Volunteers with Gabriel Fitzhugh as Captain. John Spurgin was 3 Sgt. and William W. Burns was 1 Corp.
A small community named St. Paul developed around the church. Methodist services were held in the homes of the Spurgin and Morris families as early as 1865. The Protestants built a church around 1882. All denominations held services at the building. St. Paul had a post office, located in John Walden’s store, from 1876 until 1894 and a public school. The area was called various names, including Rawhide, Morris, Dump, and St. Paul: Rawhide because a sheet of rawhide was stretched over the door of the school; Morris because the Morris family owned land in the area; Dump because the mail was just dumped there; and St. Paul after the church.
After the railroads came through Wylie in 1887, the population shifted to that town.
In 1890 St. Anthony Catholic Church was started in Wylie. About 1916 Bishop Lynch of Dallas gave permission to move the St. Paul Church and school to Wylie. The building still stands on the grounds of the St. Anthony Catholic Church on Ballard Street.
This little Catholic church in Collin County was the start of the St. Paul diocese in Dallas, which did not start until 1890. The St. Paul diocese maintains the St. Paul Catholic Cemetery.
In 1957 when the East Fork of the Trinity River was dammed to create Lake Lavon, much of the farm land of these early settlers was covered by the lake.
Descendants of many of these families still reside in the St. Paul/Wylie area. Some have stayed on the farms. Others have been active in the development of Wylie and the surrounding areas.
Sources: http://www.saint-anthony.com/history.asp, Wylie Area Heritage by Beb Fulkerson, “Family History Burns Family Wylie Pioneers,” Brenda Kellow and McKinney Examiner, April 9, 1936 by Mildred Housewright and Melva Cook.
