Old Melissa: Throckmorton's Settlement

Melissa is a Throckmorton town. The family that gave Texas a governor also helped seed this blackland settlement north of McKinney, and Dr. William Edward Throckmorton's name is fixed to its founding. What grew up here was the familiar architecture of a small railroad-era community: a schoolhouse that doubled as a church on Sundays, congregations black and white that traced their roots to the 1860s and 70s, the homes of the merchants who ran Main Street, and the cemetery where all of them came to rest. A brutal tornado tore through town on April 13, 1921, and more than one building on this walk carries that date in its story — destroyed and rebuilt, or improbably spared. This compact loop visits the school, three founding churches, a fine Victorian-era house, and the burying ground that holds the settlement's pioneers.