Tioga

Tioga, twenty miles southwest of Sherman on U.S. Highway 377 in the southwest corner of Grayson County, was founded in 1881 when the Texas and Pacific Railway reached the site. The crew used water from the local well and named the site Tioga, a New York Indian word said to mean "swift current" or "fair and beautiful." When mail service began in 1881, Dr. J. S. Nichols, a physician and druggist, became the first postmaster. In 1884 the community had two churches, a school, a cotton gin, a grocery, a general store, a pharmacist, a carpenter, a blacksmith, and a population of sixty. By 1892 the town also supported a military academy, a gin and gristmill, a physician, and a restaurant. The population was 600. The town was incorporated in 1896.