Property records confirm Massey family land in Gunter but not who runs the tomato stand

_By GvilleTX Newsroom_

GUNTER — Public property records confirm that the Massey family holds land along Massey Road in Gunter, but the Grayson Central Appraisal District's files do not verify Julie Massey as the owner of a roadside tomato stand there, and no public document reviewed by GvilleTX Newsroom for this report identifies who runs it.

An account shared with the newsroom describes a Gunter stand where tomatoes are set out with no fixed prices and left for visitors to take as they choose, and it connects that stand to a similar one in Pottsboro. To check it, the newsroom reviewed county appraisal rolls, a statewide municipal directory and state food-permitting guidance. No interview or other source of record turned up to support the account's descriptions, so this report is limited to what the public documents show.

The documents run along Massey Road. The appraisal district's entry for 277 Massey Road in Gunter names Robert N. Massey as the property's owner. A second parcel on the same road appears in the district's records under Robert N. and Sharon E. Massey. Both parcels sit on the rolls for the 2026 tax year, and Julie Massey is named in neither. Appraisal files identify who holds title to land, not who tends a produce stand on it, so the question of the stand's operation sits outside the public file.

Geography places that file in a neighboring county. Gunter lies in south-central Grayson County, according to the history page published by the city's government. The Texas Municipal League's directory lists Pottsboro as a Grayson County municipality as well. A Gainesville reader looking for official filings tied to either town would find them in Grayson County offices, not in Cooke County records.

State rules help explain why a stand selling garden produce can leave little paperwork behind. The Texas Department of State Health Services says that under its jurisdiction, no temporary food-establishment permit is required to sell whole, intact fruits and vegetables at farmers markets, provided the produce has not been cut or otherwise processed. Farmers-market guidelines published by nearby Valley View apply the same rule and reserve temporary permits for foods the state classifies as potentially hazardous. Neither document is a permit record for any stand in Gunter; both describe how Texas treats uncut produce offered directly to buyers.

What remains open is what the account claimed in the first place. No record examined for this report establishes who built the Gunter stand, and none documents a Pottsboro counterpart. The newsroom will update this report if a source of record for either becomes available.