The Stories Collin County Forgot to Notice

Every time I drive through Princeton, I pass the same brown sign.

You probably know the kind. White lettering. An arrow pointing toward something that’s apparently very important. A quick reminder from the State of Texas that history of some sort happened here. Usually, I glance at it and keep driving. Life has a funny way of convincing us that whatever is at the end of the arrow can wait until another day.

A few weeks ago, another day finally arrived.

The sign pointed toward the Princeton POW camp, so I decided to follow it. After a few turns, I arrived at a familiar site: J.M. Caldwell Sr. Community Park. As most people in Princeton know, baseball diamonds and soccer pitches stretch across the property. 

When I arrived, parents sat in folding chairs watching youth baseball and soccer games while coaches barked instructions from dugouts. It looked like the type of scene that plays out every weekend in communities across Texas.

Then I remembered why I was there. I started my quest to find the prisoner-of-war camp. The problem was that there wasn’t much to find.

After wandering around the complex for a few minutes, I finally found the historical marker. It wasn’t standing prominently at the entrance or positioned where every visitor would naturally see it. Instead, it sat underneath a pavilion, tucked away from the baseball fields that draw hundreds of people to the park every weekend.

As I stood there reading about German prisoners of war who once lived on that property, the contrast was impossible to ignore. Life was happening all around the marker, yet not a single person except for me seemed to notice that it existed.

Whether they had seen it before, were focused on the game or simply didn’t notice it, life continued around this small piece of history without a second glance.

That’s not meant as a criticism. It’s human nature. Most of us don’t spend our weekends thinking about what happened on a patch of land 80 years ago. But standing there, watching hundreds of  people enjoy a beautiful afternoon while a World War II story sat quietly beneath a pavilion, I couldn’t help but wonder how many important stories throughout Collin County are hiding in plain sight.

The answer is probably more than we’d like to admit.

This isn’t because the stories aren’t important. It’s because Collin County has become one of the fastest-growing regions in America. New neighborhoods appear overnight, roads that once connected small farming communities now carry thousands of commuters and entire sections of the county are almost unrecognizable compared to a decade ago.

That’s why historical markers matter. They serve as reminders that the places we consider ordinary today weren’t always ordinary.

The Princeton POW Camp may be the best example of this phenomenon anywhere in Collin County. Long before baseball tournaments and community events filled the property, the site served as a migrant labor camp built in 1940 to house workers who traveled to Princeton to harvest cotton and onions. During 1945, the facility briefly became a prisoner-of-war camp for German soldiers captured during World War II. Today, one of the most visible remnants of that era is an old, rusted 30,000-gallon water tower that still stands nearby. Beyond that, there is little to suggest the role the site once played in both local agriculture and global conflict.

Eighty years ago, German prisoners spent their days on that property. Today, children play baseball and soccer while parents cheer from the stands. They represent different chapters of the same story. The challenge is ensuring earlier chapters aren’t forgotten because newer ones have become more visible. 

It’s a conversation that extends far beyond Princeton.

That concern has already caught the attention of Princeton leaders, who have discussed ways to better preserve and document local history before significant sites and artifacts are lost to growth.

Drive a few miles to the southwest to Wylie and you’ll find another example of history hiding in plain sight. Every day, thousands of drivers cross railroad tracks running through the heart of town. Most don’t think much about them. 

Yet the railroad is the whole reason Wylie exists.

Like many communities throughout North Texas and the United States, Wylie grew because of the railroad. The arrival of the tracks brought transportation, commerce and opportunity – the holy trinity of growth. Businesses and families followed the tracks, forming a town that more than a century later is one of the largest in the entire county. And although most of Wylie’s original landscape has changed, the tracks remain. The trains that interrupt traffic today are descendants of the very thing that made the community possible in the first place.

That’s what makes historical markers so fascinating. They force us to look at familiar places differently. The railroad tracks aren’t just railroad tracks anymore. They’re a reminder that cities don’t simply appear out of thin air. They are built, often by people whose names have long since disappeared from public memory.

The same idea becomes even more apparent when visiting Sugar Hill near Farmersville.

Unlike Princeton or Wylie, there isn’t much left to see. There are no baseball fields. There’s no bustling downtown with shops and restaurants. There’s no active railroad spurring commerce and transportation. In fact, if not for the historical marker sitting near the road, most people would have no reason to believe anything significant ever stood there.

Long before Farmersville became one of the most important communities in eastern Collin County, Sugar Hill was the area’s center of commerce. Established around 1849 near the intersection of two major roads, the community grew around a store owned by Captain John Yeary. 

Its location made it a natural gathering place for settlers moving into the region, and by 1857 Sugar Hill had become a thriving frontier community. If not for a tragic incident one Christmas Eve, perhaps Sugar Hill would still be on the map.

On Dec. 24, 1854, a fight broke out at a local saloon. By the time the dust settled, Yeary was dead and another one of his sons was also killed while pursuing the men responsible. Two other innocent bystanders also lost their lives.

In the aftermath, many of Sugar Hill’s merchants wanted to distance themselves from the town’s blood-stained reputation. Rather than rebuild in the same place, they moved away and established a new settlement: Farmersville.

Today, Farmersville – not Sugar Hill – has an established downtown, historic buildings and a population measured in the thousands. Yet the community’s origins can be traced back to a town that no longer exists. Now all that’s left is a historical marker.

The Princeton POW Camp, Wylie’s railroad marker and Sugar Hill tell different stories, but they point toward the same reality: history rarely disappears all at once. It fades quietly as generations pass, landscapes change and memories give way to new chapters. That’s especially true in a place like Collin County, where growth has transformed communities at a remarkable pace. While progress isn’t the enemy of history, it can make it easier to overlook.

Maybe that’s the real purpose of a historical marker. It’s not to teach a history lesson or test somebody’s knowledge of local trivia – it’s simply a reminder to look a little closer. Because sometimes a baseball field is more than a baseball field. Sometimes a railroad track is more than a railroad track. Sometimes an empty patch of land is all that’s left of a town.

As America approaches its 250th anniversary, perhaps there’s no better time to follow the arrow on the brown sign or pull over to that historical marker and discover the stories that have been hiding in plain sight all along. 

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Visitors may stop by between 1:30-3:30 p.m. at the Homer and Marie Adams Room. A ribbon-cutting will be held at 1:15 p.m. Lemonade and cake will be served, and visitors may view scrapbooks, photographs and artifacts. Also, there will be a $10 raffle for an “Old Murphy Grocery” throw blanket. The celebration includes a slide show history of the schools in Murphy. 

For the complete story, see this week’s edition of the Murphy Monitor.

By Don Munsch [email protected]

Thoughts from Coach Joey McCullough

“I saw a very resilient team,” McCullough said. “In the first half, we didn’t make them punt. Our defense came out in the second half and played lights out. I was very proud of how they performed. Offensively, we lost our quarterback early, and we’re drawing things on the sideline for [Ismail Mahdi]. Our kids responded well to that adversity.”

Impact player of the game: Mahdi

With Drew DeVillier sitting out most of the game with an injury, senior tailback Mahdi became the bell cow for the Panthers’ offense. Functioning as a wildcat quarterback, he kept Plano East going offensively, finishing with 190 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries. Mahdi also threw for a touchdown, hitting Bryan Dyer on a nine-yard pass in the end zone.

The Panthers face off against Plano West (0-2, 2-3) next Friday in a battle of winless district teams.

By Jackson King * [email protected]

For many school districts, this meant greatly expanding the technological resources of their students to support a mix of in-person and online education. For example, Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District east of Houston announced plans to buy 16,000 iPads for almost $3.1 million. The Texas Education Agency’s statewide initiative, Operation Connectivity, will pay half the cost.

Gov. Greg Abbott also announced the TEA had obtained more than 1 million personal devices and internet WiFi hotspots as part of the initiative. The effort is financed by a previously announced $200 million allocation of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding to the TEA and matched by school districts. It will ensure that students attending a Texas public school will have both a device and connection to the internet throughout the school year and beyond, Abbott said.

In other tech-related news last week, Apple became the first U.S. company to be valued at $2 trillion.

Raise your hand for public schools

The Texas Association of School Boards endorsed via Twitter a column urging people to keep supporting public schools despite the pandemic.

In the column, Michelle Smith, vice president of policy and advocacy for Raise Your Hand Texas, wrote, “Enrolling your student in your public school ensures they still have access to the best-prepared teachers, access to the best resources and systems designed to help meet the needs of all students, and, whenever we can all get back to a more normal in-school experience, access to all the other things we miss — sports, arts, academic, extracurricular, and other offerings only provided by our public schools.”

Mean Green welcoming team

Meanwhile, college students across Texas moved into residence halls with new social distancing protocols in place.

Amanda Lee, a resident assistant at the University of North Texas, encouraged Mean Green students and their families arriving at the dorms in Denton. Her advice:

“I would say that, even though this year is going to be pretty different, I would still say to put yourself out there.”

Calorie-free desserts

Big Tex will be lonelier but perhaps slimmer this year as the State Fair of Texas plans for a virtual event instead of a midway packed with people and deep-fried Twinkies.

Fair organizers are still trying to generate some virtual fun, announcing decidedly different arts, crafts and cooking contests. The four virtual arts and crafts contests are for face masks, sidewalk chalk art, nail art and a decorated mantel or shelf. The three cooking contests are for cake decorating, cookie decorating and mini butter sculpture. Because the cooking contest can’t be tasted this year, entries will be judged on their appearance.

Participants may enter their photo submissions for the virtual contests at Creative.BigTex.com. Online submissions will open Sept. 21 and run through Oct. 4. Winners will be announced Oct. 9.

From antiques to Amazon

Forney, proclaimed by the Legislature as the antique capital of Texas, is getting a thoroughly modern makeover.

Officials announced Amazon would build in 2021 a 1 million square-foot fulfillment center in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex suburb, bringing 500 jobs to the city of 26,000. Amazon also is planning in Forney a 200,000-square-foot delivery station, which is anticipated to open later this year.

“Bringing a transcendent company such as Amazon to Forney is a huge step for our community,” Forney Mayor Mary Penn said.

That’ll Be The Day

Texas music is a cure for what ails most anything.

With this prescription in mind, the Texas Music Office encourages people to drive the Texas Music Trail through the Panhandle Plains region. You can download or stream the music office’s Spotify playlist.

The first stop is the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock. The center is celebrating the rock pioneers’s 84th birthday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sept. 7.

Other stops include the Woody Guthrie Folk Music Center in Pampa, the Jimmy Dean Museum in Plainview and the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo.

Pop singer Rihanna paid a surprise visit last week, stopping by the Cadillac Ranch to spray-paint an obscenity about President Trump on one of the 10 vehicles buried nose-down in the unusual public art installation. No one independently confirmed seeing the international singing sensation in Amarillo, but she posted the photos to her Instagram page, which has 98.1 million followers.

Her message did not “shine bright like a diamond” with the president’s supporters. Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician who is running for Congress in the 13th District, tweeted in response that he had fixed her “art” by spray-painting over her message.

The Cook Partisan Voting Index identifies the 13th as the most Republican district in the country, delivering 80 percent of its vote to Trump in 2016. Jackson took note of this fact, tweeting: “Next time you’re in Texas, don’t forget, THIS IS TRUMP COUNTRY!”

For more stories like this, see the Aug. 27 issue or subscribe online.

By Chris Cobler, board member and past president of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. • [email protected]

Russia, China, North Korea, Iran. All are testing how far they can go, seeking to exploit our weaknesses and fill the vacuum they perceive in world leadership. Our allies, meanwhile, are expressing dismay at the U.S.’s inability to come to grips with the pandemic – symbolized most acutely by the prospect that Americans will be barred from traveling to a partially reopened Europe this summer – and at our withdrawal from world organizations, treaties, and involvement in places where we have traditionally been central to keeping the peace.

There are good reasons we have turned inward. As a nation, we have botched the response to the coronavirus, as its recent sharp upward trajectory illustrates. We are still feeling our way through the economic impact, with every likelihood that millions of people will be struggling for a long time. And, of course, street protests, concern about policing, and turmoil over the nation’s racial practices are occupying many people’s attention.

Any one of these things would have been enough to try us as a country; all together make this a desperately difficult time. We’ve been through times like this in the past, and no doubt will again in the future, but at this moment, our mettle is being tested as it rarely has been. The country won’t be out of control if each of us steps up to the challenges we see in our own neighborhoods and our nation.

Oddly, I find something bracing about this. Not long ago I was meeting with a group of young graduate students, who asked what troubled me most about the problems we confront, and the word that instantly came to mind was “complacency.” As Americans, we have a tendency to feel that we’ve always come through hard times and always will. The result is often a sense that we can leave things to others; to our leaders, to our nonprofits, churches, and community groups, to our more involved neighbors. We ourselves don’t set out to do the things we know need to be done.

But here’s the thing about a representative democracy like ours; it doesn’t work unless citizens do their part, and I include our leaders in this. At its heart, it asks of us that we find a niche where we can improve things. It’s disheartening to see recent polls that suggest huge percentages of Americans believe things in the country are out of control – 80% of respondents in a recent NBC News/Wall St. Journal poll – but it’s heartening to know there’s something we can do about it. The country won’t be out of control if each of us steps up to the challenges we see in our own neighborhoods and our nation.

I began my political career because I felt like I needed to do something to help my community in southern Indiana and didn’t know where to start. So, I asked my precinct committeeman, who enlisted me to go door to door to try to get voters involved. That led eventually to Congress, and ultimately to a committee chairmanship trying to resolve some of the country’s knottiest foreign affairs challenges. You never know where these things are going to lead.

My point in saying this is that we can all start somewhere. We are divided as a nation on political, economic, and racial lines. We face the existential challenge of climate change. Many of us on both the right and the left worry about a lack of moral perspective in how we approach our problems.

All of these are ripe for actions that we, as individuals, can take. If you’re white, for instance, how much time have you spent talking to Black people or Latinos about the hostility and difficulties they face? Making the effort to understand as best you can is an important step toward recognizing how deep-seated these problems are, and at the same time how they might be overcome.

This time of testing is an opportunity. It’s a chance to shake off the complacency we’d settled into, and to exercise the gift that our system gives us, the ability to make a difference.

For more stories like this, see the Aug. 13 issue or subscribe online.

By Lee H. Hamilton, Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years.

“Though this year has been in­credibly difficult for families, it’s inspiring to see how they have become resilient and resource­ful by choosing alternative ways and dates to take vacations,” said Lish Kennedy, vice president of brand marketing at Vrbo. “More flexibility in our work and school schedules is allowing families to enjoy a welcome change in their surroundings and a relaxing break together.”

If you missed out on your fam­ily’s annual summer trip this year or just want to take advantage of more flexibility in your work and school routines, consider these reasons to take a flexcation.

Save money and avoid crowds. Prices for vacation rent­als typically drop during shoulder season, the time period after La­bor Day and before the holiday travel season. Families not tied to strict in-person school or work commitments can benefit from fewer crowds and lower prices by choosing later travel dates. For example, you can find drops of at least 20% in average nightly rates for vacation homes in popu­lar destinations like Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Cape May, New Jersey; and Ocean City, Mary­land, through October compared to prime summer travel dates.

See familiar places in new ways. Traveling during a dif­ferent time of year lets you see favorite destinations from a dif­ferent perspective. It’s a chance to create new family experi­ences together, like seeing the leaves change colors or visiting the beach when temperatures are milder.

Stay longer. Travel data from Vrbo indicates families want to take longer vacations. With the ability to work remotely or complete online assignments anywhere there’s a Wi-Fi con­nection, there’s no need to cut a weekend trip short to get back in time for class or punch the clock on Monday morning. If a full week isn’t realistic, you might consider an extra-long weekend, extending your trip from Thurs­day-Monday instead of the more traditional Friday-Sunday.

Enjoy a change of scenery. According to a study from New York University, people feel hap­pier when they have more variety in their daily routines, such as go­ing to novel places and having a wider array of experiences. After months of sheltering in place, a flexcation may be an ideal way to reestablish a healthy sense of balance.

Before you go, be sure to re­search how COVID-19 might af­fect your travel plans, including any travel restrictions, quarantine policies or changes in hours and access to popular attractions in the area. It’s also a good idea to make sure you understand and verify details about your ac­commodations before you make reservations, such as enhanced cleaning procedures at the prop­erty and flexible cancellation policies.

Start planning your next trip at vrbo.com.

Source: Vrbo/Family Features

For more stories like this, see the Aug. 13 issue or subscribe online.

“This year, as long as we stay healthy, we will be able to show the true talent of our team and level up from last year,” Manderson said.

The Lady Panthers lost three seniors from 2019, as well as, London Cummings, who is choosing to play club ball.

For the full story, see the Aug. 13 issue or subscribe online.

By Derdrick White • Special contributor

Her first book, “Levity,” published earlier this summer on Amazon and is coming soon on Audible.

“I had a lot of group chats and we realized we were all feeling similar things [at the start of the pandemic],” she said. “‘Levity’ was for my friends but also for myself. Everyone needed a moment to process things and not think about the pandemic. We’re not denying it, though.”

For the full story, see the Aug. 13 issue or subscribe online.

By Morgan Howard • [email protected]

The 340,000 square foot campus was built from the ground up on a Country Club Road site near the Wylie Municipal Complex and features three main buildings: the Student Center, Library, and Commons.

“We are excited. It allows us to reach into that part of the county,” Collin College Board President Bob Collins said.

For the full story, see the Aug. 13 issue or subscribe online.

By Joe Reavis • [email protected]

The sense of community, plentiful open space and great quality of life — all found in places like West Texas and the Panhandle — have sustained families for generations. We also power the state’s econo­my, supplying energy, food and fiber to the world.

Yet West Texas, and particu­larly rural West Texas, faces challenges that range from shuttering hospitals to inad­equate infrastructure; these issues could spell trouble for all of Texas unless we come together as a state to address them head on.

Many of these issues have been illuminated by the coro­navirus. Shaping Our Future, the seminal strategic frame­work just released by the non-profit group Texas 2036, makes such challenges facing Texas even clearer.

The two of us serve on the board of Texas 2036, which encourages long-term, data-driven planning at the state and local level to ensure Texas re­mains the best place to live and work a generation from now. The report, coupled with the pandemic, shows how badly West Texans need that kind of far-sighted planning and prep­aration.

The strategic framework notes that Texas is expected to add about 10 million people between now and 2036, the year of Texas’ bicentennial. But 90 percent of that popula­tion growth is expected to oc­cur in urban areas. And while the number of jobs in Texas could grow by nearly 20 per­cent over the next decade, jobs in almost half of Texas’ coun­ties — mostly rural counties — will actually shrink unless action is taken.

In the meantime, rural Tex­ans struggle to access resources that their urban and suburban counterparts take for granted.

Preparing the next genera­tion is key, yet many students in rural communities have less access to postsecondary educa­tion. Nearly 60 percent of ru­ral school districts do not offer Advanced Placement courses, and the distance from a high school to a higher education institution can stretch well over 100 miles.

Rural Texans also lack ac­cess to health care and face worsening health outcomes. Texas ranks last among its peer states in rural access to care — 63 counties have no hospitals at all, and 35 have no primary care physicians. Obesity also is more common in rural regions, and rural Texans die of heart disease and stroke at rates far higher than Texans overall.

Then there’s broadband in­ternet access — which in recent months has offered a lifeline to millions of Texans through home offices, virtual school classrooms and telemedicine appointments with physicians. In Texas’ urban areas, 97 per­cent of the population can at least access broadband, but nearly one-third of rural Tex­ans cannot say the same.

Fortunately, we’re Texans — more than that, we’re small-town and small-city Texans — and we’ve never shied away from a challenge. The truth is that every one of these num­bers stands as an opportunity to make West Texas even more of a powerhouse than it’s ever been. The state just needs the backing of its people.

Show your support by go­ing to Texas 2036’s website — www.texas2036.org/Future-Of-Rural — and signing up to support rural Texas. The orga­nization will keep you up-to-date on key issues facing rural areas and the rest of the state, and we’ll share opportunities to help Texas communities thrive.

It’s always been easy to see Texas’ past in its rolling plains, small towns, farms and ranch­es. Look a little closer and you’ll see the future there as well. We simply need to come together as a state and grasp it.

For more stories like this, see the Aug. 6 issue or subscribe online.

By Trent McKnight and Abel Castro • Trent McKnight is a rancher in Throckmorton and former candidate for the state legisla­ture, and Abel Castro is the im­mediate past chair of the Lub­bock Chamber of Commerce.