Whitewright, Texas

Whitewright is a town in Fannin and Grayson Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 1,725 at the 2020 census, up from 1,604 at the 2010 census.

The Grayson County portion of Whitewright is part of the Sherman–Denison Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The settlement was established in 1878, when New York investor and financier William Whitewright Jr. (1815–1898), after whom the community was named, purchased a tract of land in the path of the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad, which was then extending its tracks across the county from Sherman to Greenville. Whitewright had the land surveyed as a townsite and left two of his agents, Jim Reeves and Jim Batsell, to sell lots in the new community. Likely due to the combination of its rail connection and its location in the center of perhaps the richest farmland in the county near the headwaters of Bois d' Arc Creek, Whitewright soon attracted settlers and businesses.

Within 10 years of its founding, the community had incorporated and supported a private school, Grayson College, a public school, a newspaper, and several businesses, including three hotels, two cotton gins, and two banks. Jas. A. Batsell served as the first postmaster beginning on April 8, 1878. In 1885, Peter McKenna took over as postmaster, and the facility was officially commissioned as the Whitewright post office on December 7, 1888.

By 1900, the population of Whitewright was 1,804. Although the population declined slightly, to 1,563 in 1910 and 1,666 in 1920, the business community flourished. By the mid-1920s, both the Missouri-Kansas-Texas and the Cotton Belt served the town, and 68 businesses, including two banks and manufacturers of cottonseed oil and flour, operated locally. Whitewright served as a marketing, retail, and commercial center for the farmers of the surrounding area, who produced such crops as cotton, wheat, and corn.

The population rose from 1,480 in 1936 to 1,537 by the late 1940s. The number of businesses, however, declined from 60 to 46. During the 1970s and 1980s, seven factories, producing goods ranging from sausage to clothing to fertilizers, employed local workers. By 1989, Whitewright had 26 businesses, and in 1990, the population was 1,713. In 2000, the community had 1,740 inhabitants and 106 businesses.

On June 12, 1911, a fire that started in a trash pile and was fanned by high winds destroyed most of the Whitewright business district. Along with the fire station and city hall, 43 business were destroyed and 75 residences were damaged, 27 of those destroyed. Units from the Denison and Sherman fire departments were called to assist, but the fire was reported under control before the Sherman department could get underway.

Whitewright was the home of US Lieutenant Joe Tom Meador, who after World War II looted several major pieces of art from a cave near Quedlinburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. On April 19, 1945, American troops occupied Quedlinburg. Various treasures of art were secured in a cave near the castle Altenburg. Meador was responsible for the security of the cave. Meador, a soldier with good knowledge of art, recognized the importance of the treasures (among them being the Gospel of Samuel and the Crystals of Constantinople). He sent the treasures to Whitewright via army mail, and the art was placed in a safe at the First National Bank of Whitewright.