by Linda Ashby (Author)
Sherman was founded in 1846, but because of a lack of wood and water, the town moved east to its present location in 1848. The county seat of Grayson County, Sherman was named for Gen. Sidney Sherman, a hero of the Texas Revolution. From the beginning, Sherman was known as an educational center and was nicknamed "The Athens of Texas." The home of Kidd-Key Conservatory of Music, Mary Nash College, North Texas Male and Female Academy, Carr-Burdette College, and today the prestigious Austin College, Sherman has long been an educational mecca. Sherman was incorporated in 1858, the same year the Butterfield-Overland Stage arrived. The stage line was the first mail route west of the Mississippi and covered a distance of 2,795 miles from St. Louis to San Francisco. As Sherman progressed, industry became a mainstay of the community, which continues to thrive today through companies such as Texas Instruments, GlobiTech, Sunny Delight, Progress Rail, Tyson Foods, Fisher Controls, Kaiser Aluminum, and CertainTeed Corporation.