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History
in a Pecan Shell
The community was named - not after a grandmother's anatomical feature
- but a "neck" of land that jutted into the South Sulphur River.
Granny was Mary "Granny" Sinclair, matriarch of a settler family that
raised goats on this neck of land. Hence Granny's Neck.
Granny's Neck was a crossing on the once important Bonham-Jefferson
road. Brigidier DeSpain, and his wife, Narcissa, arrived in 1846 to
claim land that had been awarded to a relative who had been killed
at Goliad.
Since their grant included both sides of the river, they built a bridge
and made a living charging people to cross.
A flood destroyed the bridge in the 1870s and the crossing was then
named after the state appointed tollkeeper - G. W. Harper. After enough
tolls were collected to pay off the bridge, the tollkeeper was relieved
of duties and the bordering counties maintained the bridge. As the
population dwindled, the road was closed.
Granny's Neck once had a school, but was later moved to nearby Pecan
Grove. |
Granny's
Neck
by Bob Bowman ("All Things Historical" Column)
Granny's Neck is one of the oddest names ever given to a piece of
East Texas real estate. Also known as Old Granny's Neck and Harper's
Crossing, the small community was six miles southeast of Cooper, where
the Old Bonham-Jefferson Road crossed the Suphur River in Delta County....In
1970, the Delta County Historical Commission placed a Texas historical
marker at the intersection of State Highways 154 and 19 to mark the
site of Granny's Neck... more |
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