Denison Historical Firsts
- First
Texas Free Graded Public School: Denison has the distinction of being the first
city in Texas to have a free graded public school. The first
public school opened her Feb. 6, 1873. On May, 7 1873, the Denison City
Council selected the Main Street location of what was to become Texas'
first free graded public school. Known as "The Educational Institute," the
school was formally opened Oct. 12, 1874, with Nat Sommerville as first
superintendent.
- Tallest building
in Texas in the late 1800's, the
Security Building was located on the northeast corner of Main
and Burnett.
- First ice factory
in North Texas in 1876. An
electric refrigerator sent ice wagons to the barn, however, when
a Denison company
owned by J.R. Barret, pioneered in the shipping of slaughtered beef
across the country in refrigerated cars.
- Texas' first
free delivery of rural mail. Denison
was the first town in Texas to provide free rural mail delivery in 1901.
- First federated
women's club in Texas. Though
an endowment by the late J.T. Munson, the XXI Club constructed a club
building at the corner of Gandy and Scullin in 1896. This building
which housed the Denison Library was razed in the 1930's. The club
operated its own clubhouse at 1101 West Morgan until it was sold in
1996.
- First inter-city
electric line in Texas: The interurban line
between Denison and Sherman was the built
in the state. It had its beginning in 1896 when J.P. Crearer purchased
electric lines in Sherman and began construction of an electric railway
between the two points. To further increase business Crearer built
Woodlake Park, which was the mecca of pleasure seeking residents for
many years.
- First
Flying Saucer: Daylight
Disk - Denison, Texas, USA - 2 January 1878 -The
term 'flying saucer' was made popular by a journalist covering Kenneth
Arnolds's
Sighting of nine flying disks in June of 1947. A farmer John Martin
used the term 70 years earlier to describe what he saw on a hunting
expedition in Texas. John Marton saw
a dark object high in the Northern sky. He first noticed it to be
about the size of an orange, that grew in size as it got closer to
him. After
a while it had increased considerably in size and appeared to be
going quite fast. When it was over him it was the size of a large
saucer
and at a great height. Because
this UFO was dark, and not a mysterious light, reflective, or silvery,
many scientists believe he saw a solid object against the sky,
with
the light behind it.
The flying saucer information was provided courtesy of Mission
Control
Denison in
Air and Space: Denison's contribution to the NASA Space Program. During
its 30 year tenure, Perrin
field (now Grayson County Airport) trained 49 United States astronauts.
On July 28th, 1968, seventeen of Americas top astronauts began a condensed
two-day survival training course at Perrin Air Force Bases support
school. The astronauts that attended where Allan Sheppard, David Scott,
James McDivott, Charles Conrad, L. Gordon Cooper, Richard F Gordon,
William Andrews, Neal Armstrong, Frank Borman, James Lovell, Harrison
Schmidt, Joseph Algranti, Jerry Cobb, Harold Ream, Kenneth Thompson,
Robert Leet, and John Proban. Around the World: During a Nine
month period from July 1 1949 to March 31 1950, Perrin planes flew
8,692,800 miles, more than 347 times the distance around the earth,
the planes where in the air more that 57,952 hours, that is equivalent
to 2,414 full 24 hour days. But in 1951 Perrins Pilot students broke
this record with more than 86,000 hours in the air and 12,972,000
air miles. This would equal to 510 flights around the earth. Information
gathered from the Red River historical museum, Sherman Texas by Shannon
Thomas.
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