Fannin County, Texas -- In April 1898 the US Congress declared war on Spain. The sinking of the battleship Maine in Havanna had set off the War. President William McKinley issued a call for volunteers and the Texas Volunteer Guard was nationalized and mustered into service in May 1898 in Austin.

Company M of the First Texas Volunteer Infantry was called the Fannin Guards. More than 100 Fannin County young men left Bonham from the Texas &Pacific
Depot on a spring morning while the Bonham Band with three of Bailey Inglish’s grandsons, Charlie, George and Percy Inglish played “The Girl I Left Behind.”

Imagine the scene at the Depot as parents, grandparents, girlfriends and friends gathered to witness the send-off.

The Fannin Guard traveled to Mobile Alabama and then to Florida where it remained until August 8. An armistice to end the fighting was signed less than a week after its arrival. The soldiers were sent to Cuba as part of an occupation force.

The soldiers returned home in 1899. At least one of the Fannin soldiers died along the way of dysentery. Another
contracted malaria and died shortly after returning home. But most made it home and lived full lives.

Over 40 are buried in Fannin County, with most in Willow Wild but others throughout the County.

Sam Howard owned Bonham Wholesale Grocery. He commissioned a memorial to the Fannin County men who were in the Spanish-American War and had it placed on the building in 1898. You can see the memorial in white on the right side of the building.

He mailed a photo of the memorial to Admiral George Dewey who wrote back and called it a “splendid testimonial.”

Bonham Wholesale Grocery burned. In 1976 the memorial was moved to the Courthouse lawn. Today it sits on the northwest corner of the Courthouse lawn.