Benjamin Stuart Walcott

Historical marker location:

Honey Grove, Texas

( on FM 100 in Oakwood Cemetery (near main entrance))

Marker installed: 1971

(October 17, 1809 - November 22, 1878)

Founder and developer of Honey Grove, B. S. Walcott was a native of New England. He came to this area in 1846 and in 1848 married elizabeth (Betsey) Gilmer (1815-65). Walcott opened the first store here in Samuel Erwin's log cabin and constructed the first frame store building when the town was laid out in 1848. He erected the first school building in 1853 and gave land for a Union Church in 1856. Walcott's two sons also became community leaders.

pioneers

Texas has been a major oil-producing state for over a century. The first big oil discovery in Texas was the Spindletop field near Beaumont in 1901, which set off a massive oil boom that transformed the state's economy and made Texas one of the wealthiest states in the country.