School News
Honey Grove fourth graders join Pennies for Patriots cause
By Bill Hankins, The Paris News
Sep 27, 2011

HONEY GROVE - Fourth graders at Honey Grove Elementary School are busy collecting $300 in pennies to purchase a paver honoring Texas revolutionary veteran Meredith Hart.

The paver will be placed at the Red River Valley Veterans Memorial being built near Love Civic Center in Paris.

Meredith Hart was an early Texas settler, soldier and cattleman. He moved to Texas about 1833 by way of Arkansas, where he married Mary Riley in 1831; they had six children. He lived in a part of Red River County that later became Fannin County.

Meredith was mustered into the Texas militia on July 20, 1836, serving in a cavalry company commanded by his brother, John Hart. He was discharged Oct. 20, 1836, and later served as a Texas Ranger.

After that he became a cattleman in Red River County and in Fannin County.

The Honey Grove fourth graders will collect 30,000 pennies in a campaign to present the granite paver with information about Meredith Hart on it to the Veterans Memorial during a Veterans Day ceremony at Love Civic Center.

Students will be bringing pennies of their own and taking donations of pennies in the Honey Grove area.

Fourth graders at Honey Grove Elementary School are busy collecting $300 in pennies to purchase a paver honoring Texas revolutionary veteran Meredith Hart. photo courtesy of The Paris News