Greenville, Texas: The Cotton Capital of the World

This week our wanderings took us to Greenville Texas which is about 50 miles Northeast of Dallas. The town has quite a history. Their motto from 1921 – 1960 was “The Blackest Land, the Whitest People”.  It’s the county seat of Hunt County. Greenville was founded in 1846 and named for Thomas Green who was a contributor in the establishment of the Republic of Texas.

Prior to the Civil War, Greenville was a farming town. Because people lived mostly on farms, growth of the town was slow. By 1850, they had a post office and a one room schoolhouse. They did not grow a lot of staple crops as it was difficult for the farmers to move their produce since there were no roads and the train hadn’t yet come to town.

While there were enslaved people in Greenville, the town was quite divided on joining the Confederacy. They voted in favor to join by a vote of 416 to 339. There’s a marker called “the spot” that describes the following, “Greenville attorney and State Senator Martin D. Hart was one of several prominent Unionists. He raised a company of men from Hunt County and other areas to fight for the Union in Arkansas. They attacked the rear guard of Hunt County's Company H., 31st Texas Cavalry (CSA) under the command of Lt. Alexander Cameron, whose home once stood on this site.” Hart was eventually captured and hung as a traitor and a spy.  After the war, the tensions were still so bad that Federal Troops were posted in Greenville.

By 1880, the train had come to Greenville. The Missouri, Kansas & Texas arrived in the fall of that year followed by the Red River Railroad and then the Dallas and Greenville Railway in 1886. This made Greenville a “railroad” town. Farmers started planting cotton and Greenville became the cotton capital of the world. Farmers would borrow against their land, kids would be taken out of school to help with the harvest and the producer of the season's first cotton bale got a prize from the town. They also had the world's largest cotton press that pressed 2,073 bales of cotton in 10 hours. They were serious about their cotton in Greenville.

If you want to dig into Greenville and Hunt County history, then you should definitely pay a visit to the Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum in Greenville. It’s fantastic. This exhibit talks about Greenville's history. This one is about the Carnegie Library that opened in 1904. Unfortunately, the building was razed when the town passed a bond for a new library in 1954. Now the chamber of commerce building sits on this site. Why they couldn't just reuse the building, I don't know.

They have these really cool exhibits that tell you what things cost, how some of the things on display actually worked and what they were used for and what a “day in the life” was like in the early days of the county.

The museum is also a tribute to Audie Murphy who was the most decorated soldier in World War II. Audie was born in Hunt County and falsified his documents so that he could join the Army after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. For all of his feats during the war, and there many, he suffered from PST. He wrote a book called “To Hell and Back” about his experiences in the war. Then he starred as himself in the movie based on the book. He had a pretty good film career spanning 20 years and starring in 40 movies. Sadly, he was killed in a plane crash in 1971. He’s buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The museum covers his life as well as Hunt county’s contributions to all the wars.

There have been seven courthouses in Hunt County. The first was built in 1847 and was a log cabin. In 1853, a 2-story frame building was erected to replace the log cabin. In 1858, the first brick courthouse was erected and was in use until it was condemned in 1874. The court moved to a building that was the United Episcopal Church. That building was eventually purchased in 1881. In 1883, a new courthouse was built. Unfortunately, 13 months later, a fire tore through downtown and destroyed everything, including the courthouse. In 1885, the courthouse in the above photo was built to resemble the previous courthouse. It was torn down in 1928.

In 1929, the current courthouse was erected and has been in use ever since. It's almost 100 years old.

Here's a photo of the banner that hung near the train station. "Greenville Welcome: The Blackest Land and the Whitest People". There was a saying back then, "That's mighty white of you" which mean that you were "honest" like Whites vs. suspect like Blacks. I've only heard that term used sarcastically. Meanwhile, the sign took on a racist meaning so it was taken down.

The Texan Theater started out as the King Opera House back in 1891. It was a venue for live performances like traveling acting troupes. In 1894, it was destroyed by a fire that demolished the building. It was rebuilt. Another fire in 1898 closed it down until 1901. In 1934, it became the Texan Theater. It was one of the many movie houses in Greenville until the 1970s when it was shut down. The building was used for retail for a short while. Then in 2014, it was purchased and renovated by Greenville local, Barbara Horan. Now you can get dinner and a show there.

This is J.P. "Punk" McNatt's old dealership. It was built in the 1930s. He sold Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs here until the 1980s. The building is empty but I love that they kept the original design and haven't torn it down. 

A Coca Cola mural always makes me happy!

This is the Greenville Texas Post Office. It was built in 1910. It was here that Audie Murphy enlisted in the Army. 

This is the Central Christian Church in Greenville. The congregation began in 1879. The current sanctuary was built in 1899 and is the oldest church in Greenville. It was restored in 1986. It's beautiful!

This is the old Masonic Temple on Stonewall Street. It was built in 1910. The Masons have moved to another building as of 2024. At least they haven't torn the building down.

This is the Katy Depot which was built in 1896 by the MKT railroad. Harry Truman made a whistle stop here. MKT stopped train service here in 1965. For a while this building was the railroad museum. Now it's a school.

This is the Fred Ende Building. Fred was a German immigrant who helped establish the International Order of Odd Fellows in 1858. This building was where they met but it was also Fred's Mercantile store. Now it's retail shops.

This is the oldest house in Greenville, Texas. Our friend Fred Ende built it in 1859 for his bride, Amelia. In 1883, he sold the house to his daughter Louisa and her husband Dr. David Gaillard. After Louisa died in 1957, it was slated to be torn down but was instead moved to the city park. It was moved to the Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum in 1996.

Fred Ende built a hotel on this site that burned down in the 1883 fire that destroyed many other buildings in the commercial district. Fred's partner, James Armistead, erected this building in 1901 in Fred's honor. The retail store on the first floor is called "My Sister's Closet". That makes me think of my own sister who was always in my closet. 

This is the Popper Building. Built in the 1880s by Edward Popper, an Austrian Immigrant, it was home to a wholesale grocer. Now it's retail.

This is the Paul Matthews Building. It was built in 1929 and housed the Greenville Exchange Bank. When it was chartered in 1879, it was a private bank. Then in 1887, it became the Greenville National Exchange Bank. The bank closed in 1990. Paul Matthews started working at the bank in 1925. He was the chairman of the board from 1970-1974 and a board member until 1990. In 2004, the building was renamed for him on his 100th birthday.

Greenville was not what I expected at all. I thought it would be more like a lot of the other small towns that we visited but there are 28K people that live here. They've had several large companies that were based here like Raytheon, for example. As you drive in from I-30, you can see all the low-to mid hotel chains, all the popular chain restaurants and other retail stores.

The biggest employers there are L3 Harris (which used to be Raytheon before several mergers), The Hunt Regional Medical Center, Greenville ISD and McKesson. They have your big grocery stores like Aldi, WalMart and Brookshires. Paris Junior College is there as well! I think I could live there. It felt very "small-town" but with access to all your standard retail chains.

What I really liked was the museum. I didn't have a chance to read about all the displays and would love to go back and just take my time. It's definitely worth a visit!