Georgia natives Thomas Noel Binion and Pauline Walker Binion migrated to Texas after the Civil War and moved to the Oxford community in Grayson County, where they purchased a 107-acre farm in 1871 and reared four children: Zeph, Homer, Robert E. Lee "Eddie," and Sarah. After Thomas and Pauline died, they were buried in the family cemetery northwest of their homestead, and the farm was inherited by their children. Eddie Binion became a merchant in nearby Pilot Grove but returned to the family homestead with his sister Sarah after his wife died. From the turn of the century until the 1940s, Eddie raised sugar cane and operated a syrup mill there, first using mules to power the crusher and wood fires to cook the molasses. When fuel oil and coal became readily available in the 1920s, a piston engine replaced the mule and coal replaced the wood fires. During the Depression, cane continued to arrive, but money to purchase coal and fuel oil diminished, so the mule was reinstated, and the Binion Syrup Mill foundered in the 1940s. The mill was dismantled, and the iron and steel were sold for use in World War Two.