TexasEscapes.com HOME Welcome to Texas Escapes
A magazine written by Texas
Custom Search
New   |   Texas Towns   |   Ghost Towns   |   Counties   |   Trips   |   Features   |   Columns   |   Architecture   |   Images   |   Archives   |   Site Map

Collin County TX
Collin County


Texas Towns
A - Z

McKinney Hotels

More Hotels

SQUEEZEPENNY, TEXAS

Collin County, North Central Texas

FM 2933
About 5 Miles NE of Mckinney the county seat
N of New Hope
Population: Unknown

Book Hotel Here › McKinney Hotels

Squeezepenny city limit sign,  Squeezepenny  TX
Squeezepenny Road Sign
Photo courtesy Jordan Gibson, 2008
More Texas Signs

Photographer's Note:
"There is not much to Squeezepenney, just a couple of houses and ranches and I don't know how many people live [here]. I thought it was interesting because I had never heard of it." - Jordan Gibson, April 2008

Stiff Chapel Cemetery

Squeezepenny Texas
Squeezepenny
Photo courtesy Jordan Gibson, 2008

“Squeezepenny, sitting under the long hill to the east, is a locality, but a locality with a name.” – Captain Roy F. Hall


Photographer Jordan Gibson researched Squeezepenny until he unearthed an article in the pages of the Collin County Genealogical site concerning the naming of the community. Written by Captain Roy F. Hall and originally published in the Collin County Daily Courier Gazette on April 25, 1952, it provides some facts on Squeezepenny, but unfortunately, there’s still no clue to the origin of its name. – Editor


From Captain Hall’s 1952 Article:

“Nobody knows how Squeezepenny got its name. This writer was told several different source facts for this, but none of them elite enough to bear the scrutiny of an educated public - a sensitive public, that is. Squeezepenny, sitting under the long hill to the east, is a locality, but a locality with a name.

Anyway the place got its start in 1855 when William Hampton and family came there from Bonham and established a mill. This mill ground corn and carded wool for yarn. During the Civil War the mill actually made cloth to supply the Confederate forces in the Indian Territory. It became quite famous as the Hampton & Harris mill. Horse powered.

Mr. Hampton later moved to Weston, and the mill passed into the hands, eventually, of Tom Craft, who had come to Squeezepenny from Alabama (via) old Pilot Grove. Mr. Craft turned the mill into a grist mill and cotton gin, and it remained as such till about 1900, when it was abandoned, and the machinery sold. Not a vestige of the old mill remains today.

Squeezepenny never had a school, church or other public building, and only one little store, run by Joe Bassham for a few years. The school children have always gone to the Melissa school nearly four miles away. There has never been even a collection of houses there, yet the place is known far and wide. The long hill mentioned had so many settlers right after the Civil War from the North that it took the name of Lincoln Ridge and was known by that name for a half century.

The only stagecoach robbery, or attack we have record of as occurring in Collin County, happened on the old Neal homestead. This is the supposedly haunted crossing, mentioned in these columns before. Here it was during the Civil War that a traveler and his small son was killed by the patrol from McKinney one moonlight night 90-some-odd years ago. The old road ran over the rock crossing till Mr. Neal had it moved westward to its present location about 1910.”

Historic Texas Cemetery medallion, Stiff Chapel Cemetery ,  Squeezepenny Texas

The Historic Stiff Chapel Cemetery
Squeezepenny, Texas

On private property
Photographer's Note:

Stiff Chapel Cemetery is located on CR 412. Less than a mile from the sprawling metropolis of Squeezepenny. The last burial was in the 30's. When I first saw it last summer, it was completely overgrown and looked like it hadn't seen any human activity in 10 years." - Jordan Gibson, April 2008

Stiff Chapel Cemetery Gate,  Squeezepenny Texas
Stiff Chapel Cemetery
Photo courtesy Jordan Gibson, 2008

Historical Marker: Near CR 412, cemetery is on private property

Stiff Chapel Cemetery

Jesse Stiff (1796-1871) came to Texas from Virginia in 1835 and settled on several thousand acres of land in this area. His brother, Louis, arrived in 1849, and a community known as Stiff Chapel developed around their homesteads. In 1847, Jesse's son, James, died while serving as a Texas Ranger. He was buried near his father's house on land that later was deeded as the Stiff Chapel Cemetery. Most of the graves in the two-acre family burial ground date from the 1800s. The last burial in the Stiff Chapel Cemetery, that of Minnie Swaim, took place in 1935.
(1984)

Stiff Chapel Cemetery historical marker,  Squeezepenny Texas
Stiff Chapel Cemetery historical marker
Photos courtesy Jordan Gibson, 2008
More Texas Cemeteries

Stiff Chapel Cemetery tombstones,  Squeezepenny Texas
Stiff Chapel Cemetery
Photo courtesy Jordan Gibson, 2008

Stiff Chapel Cemetery,  Squeezepenny Texas
Stiff Chapel Cemetery
Photo courtesy Jordan Gibson, 2008

Stiff Tombstone, Stiff Chapel Cemetery ,  Squeezepenny Texas
Stiff Tombstone
Photo courtesy Jordan Gibson, 2008

Stiff Chapel Cemetery tombstones ,  Squeezepenny Texas
Stiff Chapel Cemetery Tombstones
Photo courtesy Jordan Gibson, 2008

Stiff Chapel Cemetery  tombstones,  Squeezepenny Texas
Stiff Chapel Cemetery Graves
Photo courtesy Jordan Gibson, 2008
More Texas Cemeteries

Squeezepenny Texas
Photo courtesy Jordan Gibson, 2008

Take a road trip

North Central Texas

Squeezepenny, Texas Nearby Towns:
Mckinney the county seat
See Collin County

Book Hotel Here:
McKinney Hotels | More Hotels


Texas Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories, landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Texas Escapes Online Magazine »   Archive Issues » Home »
TEXAS TOWNS & COUNTIES TEXAS LANDMARKS & IMAGES TEXAS HISTORY & CULTURE TEXAS OUTDOORS MORE
Texas Counties
Texas Towns A-Z
Texas Ghost Towns

TEXAS REGIONS:
Central Texas North
Central Texas South
Texas Gulf Coast
Texas Panhandle
Texas Hill Country
East Texas
South Texas
West Texas

Courthouses
Jails
Churches
Schoolhouses
Bridges
Theaters
Depots
Rooms with a Past
Monuments
Statues

Gas Stations
Post Offices
Museums
Water Towers
Grain Elevators
Cotton Gins
Lodges
Stores
Banks

Vintage Photos
Historic Trees
Cemeteries
Old Neon
Ghost Signs
Signs
Murals
Gargoyles
Pitted Dates
Cornerstones
Then & Now

Columns: History/Opinion
Texas History
Small Town Sagas
Black History
WWII
Texas Centennial
Ghosts
People
Animals
Food
Music
Art

Books
Cotton
Texas Railroads

Texas Trips
Texas Drives
Texas State Parks
Texas Rivers
Texas Lakes
Texas Forts
Texas Trails
Texas Maps
USA
MEXICO
HOTELS

Site Map
About Us
Privacy Statement
Disclaimer
Contributors
Staff
Contact Us

 
Website Content Copyright Texas Escapes LLC. All Rights Reserved