Caldwell is named for Mathew Caldwell, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence who was nicknamed Old Paint because his whiskers were spotted. The famous cowboy song Goodbye, Old Paint isn't about him, but it has a Texas story of its own. Charley Willis was born enslaved in Milam County around eighteen forty seven, and after emancipation he broke horses and rode on a trail drive north to Wyoming. His great-grandson told NPR that his voice was real soothing to the cattle, which is why trail bosses wanted him along. He came home singing Goodbye, Old Paint, and he taught it to a rancher's young son, Jess Morris. Morris grew up to be a fiddler, and he always said he'd learned the song from Charley Willis. The folklorist John Lomax recorded Morris singing it for the Library of Congress, and credited the song to Black cowboys, though, as NPR noted, he never recorded a Black man playing it.

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History of Caldwell

The Buff-Brick Courthouse With a Skylight in Its Heart RoadyGoat

The buff-colored landmark anchoring the square at 100 West Buck Street is Burleson County's fifth courthouse, and the one that finally lasted. Earlier versions went up in 1846 and 1850, and a two-story brick building served from around 1890, but in 1926 the county commissioned Houston architect J.M. Glover to design something grander. Built 1926 to 1927 by the T.B. Hubbard Construction Company for about 200,000 dollars, the three-story Classical Revival building is faced in buff brick over concrete. Step inside and the surprise is overhead: a central atrium rises the full height of the third floor to a skylight, so daylight pours straight down into the heart of the building, and the plasterwork carries the flowing, foliage-style Sullivanesque detail named for architect Louis Sullivan. The county seal is set into the lobby floor and the district courtroom occupies the northeast corner of the top story. Nearly a century on, it still does the job it was built for, the working center of county government in the Kolache Capital. (Source: courthouses.co; Handbook of Texas.)

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Named for Old Paint, the Paul Revere of the Texas Revolution RoadyGoat

The town you're rolling through carries the name of a man who never lived here. Caldwell was laid out by surveyor George B. Erath on a site first settled by Lewis L. Chiles, west of Davidson Creek and parallel to the Old San Antonio Road, the wagon route that once linked the Texas missions. It was named for Mathew Caldwell, born in Kentucky in 1798, who came to Texas with the Green DeWitt colony in 1831. Nicknamed Old Paint for the white patches in his prematurely gray hair and beard, he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos in 1836 and earned the title Paul Revere of the Texas Revolution for riding the alarm before the Battle of Gonzales. He later led the force that beat back General Adrian Woll at the Battle of Salado Creek in 1842, then died that same year of wounds and hardship. Caldwell County near Lockhart also bears his name, but this Burleson County seat got it first, fixed to the map by 1840. (Source: Handbook of Texas; Mathew Caldwell biography.)

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How a Moravian Pastry Made Caldwell the Kolache Capital RoadyGoat

In the 1880s, large numbers of Czech immigrants poured into Burleson County and settled the land around Caldwell, founding all-Czech communities like Frenstat, New Tabor, and Sebesta, the last later renamed Snook. Unlike most Czech colonies in America, these families came from Moravia rather than Bohemia and stayed deeply religious, mostly Catholic with a strong Moravian Brethren minority. What they carried with them in their kitchens turned out to matter as much as what they raised in their fields: the kolache, a soft, slightly sweet yeast pastry pressed with a thumb-deep well and filled with poppy seed, prune, apricot, or farmer's cheese. A century later, their descendants worried the language and customs were fading, so they launched the Caldwell Kolache Festival, held the second Saturday of September and now drawing roughly 15,000 people for a single day. In 1989 the state made it official, designating Caldwell the Kolache Capital of Texas, a title the town still defends with flour on its hands. (Source: Handbook of Texas; KBTX; Texas Time Travel.)

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Burleson County in World War II

1941

During World War II, out of a population of 18,000, close to 1300 men and women of Burleson County joined the military, with 450 who attended Caldwell High School drafted or voluntarily enlisted. Many had never been outside the county before their service, but they deployed around the world in defense of freedom. Area residents sacrificed for the war effort abroad and at home from the onset of American combat. At Pearl Harbor, Seaman 2/C Thomas J. Gary of Somerville died aboard the U.S.S. California while giving his life to save his crewmates from burning. The Navy posthumously awarded Gary the Navy Cross and named two ships in his honor. Local National Guard Unit Company E, 143rd Infantry, 36th Division, sustained heavy losses at Salerno, Italy, with dozens of men killed, wounded, or captured. Other prisoners of war included 1st Lt. Hubert Womble, shot down over Romania during the Ploesti Oil Field raids, and USMC Major Paul Brown, who survived the Bataan Death March in the Philippines but died in a Japanese prison camp. The county’s citizen soldiers stormed Normandy Beaches on D-Day and fought in European and Pacific Theaters. Many women joined the Army and Navy Nurse Corps, and scores more worked in defense plants. Recycling drives around the county maximized the homefront war support effort. Some families received citations as “Agriculture Victory Leaders” for continuing farming operations during the war, even while short-handed at least five county families had five children at once serving in the military. Dozens of Burleson County men were killed during World War II, on battlefields overseas and in training accidents on American soil. Through countless heroic and unselfish acts, citizens demonstrated commitment to restoring liberty to the world. (2008)

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Erath, George Bernard

1833

George Bernard Erath, soldier, surveyor, and legislator, was born on January 1, 1813, in Vienna, Austria, and attended Vienna Polytechnic Institute, where he studied English and Spanish. He sailed for America after graduation and landed in New Orleans on July 8, 1832, then moved upriver to Cincinnati, where he established his home. On March 22, 1833, he moved to the Republic of Texas , where he became a surveyor in Tenoxtitlán, in Robertson's colony . In 1835 he joined John H. Moore 's ranger company to deal with marauding Indians, and on March 1, 1836, he enlisted as a private in Capt. Jesse Billingsley 's Company C of Col. Edward Burleson 's First Regiment, Texan Volunteers, for service in the Texas Revolution . After fighting in the battle of San Jacinto he joined Capt. William H. Hill's ranger company and continued surveying. He platted the town of Caldwell in 1840. By 1841 he had become the captain of the Milam County minute company. In 1842 he participated in the botched Somervell and Mier expeditions but was on guard duty on the Rio Grande during the battle of Mier and thus escaped capture. As a member of the House of Representatives of the Eighth and Ninth congresses of the republic, 1843–1845, Erath represented Milam County and was energetic and effective in his support of the annexation of Texas to the United States. After statehood, he was elected to the First Legislature. In 1846 he returned to surveying and laid out the towns of Waco and Stephenville. He was elected to the Senate of the Seventh Legislature in 1857 and subsequently reelected to the Eighth and Ninth. On January 20, 1858, Governor Hardin R. Runnels was authorized to recruit a force of 100 Texas Rangers under Capt. John S. Ford for the protection of the frontier. According to the Austin State Gazette , "To the untiring exertions of Senator Erath, whose sympathies were warmly interested in the measure, are they more indebted than to any one else for the passage of this much needed act." In 1861 Erath resigned from the Senate in order to serve on a committee of two chosen to arbitrate disagreements between the state and its reservation Indians. At the outbreak of the Civil War Erath raised a company for Col. Joseph W. Speight 's Fifteenth Texas Infantry regiment, but was discharged due to ill health and returned to his home at Waco. In 1864, however, Governor Pendleton Murrah appointed him to the command of a regiment in the Second Frontier District with the rank of major. This regiment, recruited in Brown and Coryell counties, was responsible for the defense of its home region. Erath returned to the Senate for the final time in 1874, to represent the Nineteenth District in the Fourteenth Legislature. He married Lucinda Chambers of New York in December 1845. He died on May 13, 1891, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Waco. Erath County is named in his honor. Erath dictated his memoirs to his daughter Lucy in 1886; they were first published in 1923 in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly and later that year in an edition of about 100 copies by the Texas State Historical Association ; they were reprinted in Waco in 1956. They provide one of the most important sources on the Texas Revolution and on pioneer days in the 1830s and 1840s. Although Erath was "seventy-three years of age, in very poor health and blind" at the time he dictated his memoirs, his daughter maintained that his mental vigor "was the same as it had always been."

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Fort Tenoxtitlan

1830

Founded by Mexico as a bulwark against Anglo-American immigration, this fort and its nearby city were twice proposed for the capital of Texas. Alarmed by the influx of Anglo settlers into Texas, Mexico in 1830 sought to erect a line of forts to keep out the intruders. The ancient Aztec name for Mexico City (originally pronounced "Tex-ox-teet-lan") was given this site; it means "prickly pear place". So hopeful of the fort's success was the military commandant of the region that he envisioned it as the capital of Texas. But Anglo immigration did not cease. Instead it thrived on the friendship of the local soldiers and incoming pioneers. The colonizer Sterling C. Robertson introduced scores of settlers. In 1832 the soldiers were withdrawn and the fort finally defaulted to the Anglos. Subsequently it was a supply center and mustering point for expeditions against the Indians. During its brief life many Texas patriots lived here, including 5 signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence, a martyr of the Alamo siege, and 7 soldiers of the Battle of San Jacinto. Tenoxtitlan was again suggested for the capital of Texas during the Republic, but Austin won out. In 1841, after many Indian raids, the site was abandoned.

Historical Marker → · 4.9 mi away

Swisher, James Gibson

1834

James Gibson Swisher, early Texas patriot, son of Henry and Annie (Gibson) Swisher, was born near Franklin, Williamson County, Tennessee, on November 6, 1794. His father, a German immigrant, participated in the organization of Tennessee Territory as a state. After receiving a good education in Tennessee, Swisher worked as a land surveyor and gained experience dealing with Indians in his native state. In the War of 1812 he served as a private in Capt. David Mason's company of Tennessee militia from August 18, 1813, to May 21, 1814, and in Capt. John Donelson's company of United States Mounted Rangers from September 2, 1814, to September 1, 1815. Swisher participated in the two battles of New Orleans. After hostilities ceased, he married Elizabeth Boyd in Knoxville, Tennessee, on September 14, 1815. In 1833 he arrived in Texas with his brother Harvey H. Swisher, who later participated in the battle of San Jacinto . Between January and October 1834 Swisher and his family settled at Tenoxtitlán in Robertson's colony , in what is now Burleson County. He successfully led a retaliatory attack after a Comanche Indian raid on the settlement in April 1834. By October 1834 Swisher and his family had moved to Chriesman Settlement ( see GAY HILL, TEXAS) in what became Washington County. On July 2, 1835, Swisher was one of the petitioners who requested a separate municipality for the area that later became Washington Municipality. Swisher was elected captain of a military company organized in Washington Municipality at the beginning of the Texas Revolution . His Texas military service began on October 8, 1835. His company participated in the siege of Bexar in December 1835. Gen. Edward Burleson appointed Swisher one of the three commissioners to negotiate the surrender of Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos on December 11, 1835. Swisher remained with the revolutionary army until he was elected one of four delegates from Washington Municipality to the Convention of 1836 on February 1, 1836. At the convention he participated in debates and urged payment of land bounties to reward military service as well as careful examination of all bounty claims. His proposals influenced future Texas land policy. Swisher also served on the defense committee; he opposed Sam Houston 's policy of retreat and urged immediate engagement of the enemy. Swisher signed the Texas Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the Republic of Texas . After the convention he accompanied his family in the Runaway Scrape and assisted in the evacuation of Washington-on-the-Brazos. Swisher later served in Capt. William W. Hill 's company of rangers on the frontier from July to October 1836. Between 1839 and 1841 he served as a justice of the peace in Washington County. He was also an incorporator and trustee of Union Academy, a Washington County school chartered in February 1840. In 1846 Swisher moved to Austin, where he operated a tavern, a hotel, and after 1852 a ferry. In his later years he also farmed. In 1848 he was registrar of an Austin high school. He was a member of the building committee of the First Presbyterian Church in Austin in 1851 and one of five members of a vigilance committee formed by the Austin vigilante movement in October 1854 to enforce slave-control laws. After Swisher's death in Austin on November 14, 1862, his wife, Elizabeth, continued to operate the important ferry transportation link on the Austin-San Antonio Road. Swisher had four children who lived to adulthood, including John Milton Swisher , who held many appointive offices in the republic and state of Texas, and James Monroe Swisher, an Indian fighter and later a state legislator. Swisher County and a street in Austin were named for James Swisher.

Tsha Handbook → · 5.0 mi away

Twin Sisters

1835

The Twin Sisters were two iron cannons that were used by Sam Houston 's forces at the battle of San Jacinto . The original pair, manufactured in Cincinnati, have since been confused with other pairs of cannons, and various sources have described the Twin Sisters as four-pounders and six-pounders-a feature that has been the subject of debate between researchers. The artillery pieces' path through history in the decades after the Texas Revolution is nebulous and continues to fuel discussion among scholars and history buffs. By October 1835 the Texans faced an ever growing threat from Mexican forces to tighten their control over Texas. Due to the warlike atmosphere, committees of safety were assigned, and Stephen F. Austin , after returning from the long detention in Mexico, was named commander of the Texas forces. With Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos 's army arrival in September and the subsequent battle of Gonzales occurring on October 2, news of the conflict spread throughout Texas and led to further war preparations. William Francis "Picayune" Smith, a Brazos River trader located in the Tenoxtitlan area of Burleson County, was enlisted as an agent in a "secret service" for the Texas cause. The mission was to raise funding for the forging and supply of two iron field pieces from the "Friends of Texas" supporters in Cincinnati, Ohio. Departing in mid-October from Coles Settlement in Washington County, Smith arrived in Cincinnati just prior to November 11. The Cincinnati Republican on November 11 announced his arrival and the proposal for a meeting at the courthouse on November 12. Smith made his case for the cause of Texas and appealed to the citizens of Cincinnati to aid him in "raising funds to purchase a pair of field pieces to take to Texas...." Local attorney Edward Woodruff immediately established committees by wards of the city. Key citizens and city leaders involved included William Corry, Pulaski Smith, David T. Disney, Robert T. Lytle, Nicholas Clopper, Henry Tatem, Benjamin Chase, Dr. Daniel Drake, and Israel Ludlow. Cincinnati was also the home of David Burnet 's older brothers, Mayor Isaac Burnet and Judge Jacob Burnet, who arranged use of the courthouse for the meetings that were held on November 12 and 17. Lytle on November 17 offered multiple resolutions, and all resolutions were unanimously adopted, including the following key resolution regarding the cannons: Resolved, That we approve of and recommend to the citizen[s] of this meeting a plan by which the citizens of Texas shall be supplied through their agent, Mr. Smith, by our contributions, with such an amount of HOLLOW WARE as he may deem sufficient, to contain other provisions by which they shall be filled according to his judgment and sound discretion. In a handwritten letter, the son of Thomas Stansbury, a Cincinnati merchant, confirmed that the cannons were forged and mounted by the Tatem brothers (Willis and Henry) at the Phoenix Foundry . Stansbury played a key role in negotiating shipment of the cannons after much delay. At the fifty-year anniversary of the battle of San Jacinto, the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette collected the "memories" of the cannons' origin. The committee of citizens had ordered "two four-pounders cast and delivered as soon as it was possible to furnish them" for an agreed price of $600. The committee consulted Miles Greenwood as to what kind of shot would be provided, and Greenwood, at his foundry, then cast six barrels of eight ounce iron balls (grape shot) and presented them as his donation. The guns were sent to fire engine manufacturers Benjamin Chase and Jeffrey Seymour for boring of the barrels and then returned to the Tatem brothers. Committee members David T. Disney, William Curry, and Robert T. Lytle called upon Francis Cassat (also spelled Cassatt and Cassett), a well-known blacksmith and carriage maker, to make carriages for the two guns, and the carriages, "rough but substantial," were on hand on December 30, 1835. The ca

Tsha Handbook → · 5.0 mi away

Burleson County

1825

In rich Brazos River basin; had settlers early as 1825. Site in 1830 of Tenoxtitlan, one of 3 forts built by Mexico in Texas, situated above El Camino Real (The King's Highway) crossing on Brazos River. North of the road was Sterling Robertson's Colony; south, the colony of Stephen F. Austin. In 1840 on the Old Road, Civil Engineer George B. Erath (1813-1891) platted town of Caldwell, named for noted Indian fighter Mathew ("Old Paint") Caldwell. In 1846, Erath introduced in First Legislature of State of Texas a bill creating Burleson County out of land then in Milam and Washington counties. It was named for Gen. Edward Burleson (1793-1851), under whom many local men had fought in the Texas War for Independence and in Indian Wars. Gen. Burleson was a congressman, senator and vice president of the Republic of Texas; also was in first State Senate. Plantation system prevailed until Civil War (1861-1865). Burleson lost some area when Lee County was created in 1874. In 1880 the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway built into county; soon afterward, Houston & Texas Central added more rail mileage. This is fourth courthouse for county. Economy is based on farming, oil, and miscellaneous products. (1970)

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Things to Do in Caldwell

food 20.5 mi away

Snow's BBQ

Texas Monthly's #1 BBQ. Only open Saturday mornings in tiny Lexington.

historical 24.2 mi away

The Lone Grave

A single 1911 grave of formerly enslaved woman Hollie Tatnell sits in the median of Wheelock Street and is the last remnant of a Black cemetery whose other…

Everything Near Caldwell

271 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Burleson County in World War II · Historical Marker
During World War II, out of a population of 18,000, close to 1300 men and women of Burleson County joined the military, with 450 who attended Caldwell High School drafted or voluntarily enlisted. Many had never been…
Burleson County · Historical Marker
In rich Brazos River basin; had settlers early as 1825. Site in 1830 of Tenoxtitlan, one of 3 forts built by Mexico in Texas, situated above El Camino Real (The King's Highway) crossing on Brazos River. North of the…
John Mitchell · Historical Marker
You're driving through Caldwell, and right here is the story of John Mitchell, a man who shaped Texas history. Born in Tennessee around <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1836</say-as>, Mitchell arrived in Texas in…
Caldwell, City of · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Caldwell, a town named for Mathew 'Old Paint' Caldwell, a pioneer and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Back in 1840, this spot was chosen for a new settlement right on the Old San…
Caldwell National Bank · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Caldwell National Bank, which opened its doors right here in Caldwell back in 1903. It wasn't just any bank; it was the first and oldest publicly owned financial institution in…
Warren Lodge No. 56, A.F. & A.M. · Historical Marker
You're driving through Caldwell, the historic heart of Burleson County. Back in 1848, nine local Freemasons wanted their own lodge. They petitioned the Grand Master of Texas, and by 1849, Burleson Lodge Number 59 was up…
The Buff-Brick Courthouse With a Skylight in Its Heart · 0.1 mi
The buff-colored landmark anchoring the square at 100 West Buck Street is Burleson County's fifth courthouse, and the one that finally lasted. Earlier versions went up in 1846 and 1850, and a two-story brick building…
Burleson County C.S.A. · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Caldwell, and right here is the marker for Burleson County's role in the Civil War. Back on February 23rd, 1861, the citizens voted overwhelmingly for secession, 422 to 84. Just days later, the…
Caldwell Volunteer Fire Department · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Caldwell's first organized fire department! Back on July 22nd, 1886, five years before the city was even incorporated, the Caldwell Hook & Ladder Company No. 1 was formed. Twenty-two…
Early Settlers of Burleson County in the Texas War for Independence · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burleson County, not far from where history was made during the Texas War for Independence. When dictator Santa Anna started revoking rights, over thirty men from this sparsely settled area didn't…
Named for Old Paint, the Paul Revere of the Texas Revolution · 0.2 mi
The town you're rolling through carries the name of a man who never lived here. Caldwell was laid out by surveyor George B. Erath on a site first settled by Lewis L. Chiles, west of Davidson Creek and parallel to the…
How a Moravian Pastry Made Caldwell the Kolache Capital · 0.2 mi
In the 1880s, large numbers of Czech immigrants poured into Burleson County and settled the land around Caldwell, founding all-Czech communities like Frenstat, New Tabor, and Sebesta, the last later renamed Snook.…

Show all 200 nearby places

The Caldwell Kid Who Anchored the 49ers for 15 Years · 0.2 mi
Charles Andrew Krueger was born in Caldwell in 1937, the second oldest of eight children raised here in Burleson County. He played his high school ball in Caldwell before heading to Texas A&M, where he became a two-time…
The Day Two Rail Lines Turned Caldwell Into a Cotton Hub · 0.2 mi
For its first decades Caldwell lived off the Old San Antonio Road, a wagon town with a famous hotel and a red-brick courthouse. Everything changed in 1880, when the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway pushed its main…
Two Texas Towns, One Pastry, and a Title Fight · 0.2 mi
Caldwell has spent decades in a low-simmering rivalry over a sweet roll. The town proclaimed itself the kolache capital back in the 1980s, and in 1989 the Texas Legislature made Caldwell the official Kolache Capital of…
The Ghost in the Spotlight Booth They Call George · 0.2 mi
Local theater lore says the Caldwell High auditorium out on Highway 21 keeps an extra crew member nobody hired. Students who worked the spotlight and sound booth over the years gave the presence a name, George, and told…
Jake's Bakery: Czech Kolaches Since 1956 · 0.2 mi
If you want a kolache with real Caldwell pedigree, Jake's Bakery at 160 Highway 36 North has been pulling them out of the oven since 1956. It's a family operation, run today by Christine Campbell and her family, and…
The Caldwell-Born Pitcher Who Made the Big Leagues After the War · 0.2 mi
Melvin Elliott Deutsch was born in Caldwell in 1915, a tall right-hander who stood six foot four. He pitched at the University of Texas in Austin and signed with the Boston Red Sox, but like a whole generation of…
The Edible Chemistry Lab Behind a Perfect Kolache · 0.2 mi
Every kolache that comes out of a Caldwell oven is a small chemistry experiment. A real kolache isn't bread, it's an enriched dough, loaded with butter, eggs, milk, and sugar, which puts it in the same family as…
Chiles, Lewis L. · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the spot where Lewis L. Chiles, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto, made his home. Born in Virginia in 1811, Chiles fought for Texas independence and later founded the city of Caldwell right…
A Settler's House Turned Czech Heritage Museum · 0.2 mi
At 200 East Fawn Street, on the corner of Shaw and Fawn just off the main route through town, sits a nineteenth-century house that now holds the memory of Caldwell's founding culture. The Burleson County Czech Heritage…
Kraitchar, Jr., Thomas, House · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Thomas Kraitchar, Jr. House, built back in 1891. This fine Victorian cottage was the home of a merchant who also served as Burleson County Tax Collector and a Caldwell City Alderman. Notice the…
Reeves-Womack House · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Caldwell, and right here is the Reeves-Womack House. Built before <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1900</say-as> by William Reeves, a big-time merchant and banker born right here in town in…
First United Methodist Church of Caldwell · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the First United Methodist Church of Caldwell, a congregation that’s been a part of Texas history since 1840. That makes it one of the oldest Methodist churches in the entire state! Can…
Porter House · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Porter House in Caldwell, folks. This imposing farmhouse echoes the Kentucky mansions of Robert Porter's childhood. Porter came to Texas with his parents way back in 1833, eventually taking over…
City Cemetery, Old · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Caldwell's original cemetery, established way back in 1840, the same year this town was founded. Lots three and twelve were set aside as a 'Grave Yard and Church lot' forever. Look for the final…
First Baptist Church · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Caldwell's First Baptist Church, a congregation with deep roots in Texas. It all started way back on May 14, 1843, in the home of Laban Rice, with just six charter members. This frontier…
First Presbyterian Church of Caldwell · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Caldwell, Burleson County, where one of the first Presbyterian congregations in Texas took root. Organized sometime after the city was founded in 1840, this church has a long history. Early on,…
Erath, George Bernard · 0.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
George Bernard Erath, soldier, surveyor, and legislator, was born on January 1, 1813, in Vienna, Austria, and attended Vienna Polytechnic Institute, where he studied English and Spanish. He sailed for America after…
The Sunday Tornado · 0.4 mi
On Sunday, the fifteenth of November, nineteen eighty seven, a string of tornadoes tore across East Texas, and a little after noon one of them touched down just north of Caldwell, as people were coming home from church.…
Thomson, Alexander, Jr. · 0.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Central Texas, where in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1835</say-as>, Alexander Thomson Jr. helped make history. While serving as chairman of the local Methodist Church, he spearheaded an…
The Smallest Town With a Full Company · 0.4 mi
From eighteen ninety eight to nineteen forty, Caldwell was home to Company E of the Texas National Guard, and according to the Handbook of Texas, it was the smallest town in Texas to have a full infantry company. Its…
The Caldwell Boy Who Read the Arctic in Tree Rings · 0.4 mi
James Louis Giddings was born in Caldwell on the tenth of April, nineteen oh nine, and he became one of the great archaeologists of the Arctic. He was the first to use tree ring dating up there, working from living…
Goodbye, Old Paint · 0.4 mi
Caldwell is named for Mathew Caldwell, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence who was nicknamed Old Paint because his whiskers were spotted. The famous cowboy song Goodbye, Old Paint isn't about him, but it…
Hunting the Murder Hornet · 0.4 mi
The Caldwell Hornets get their name from a stinging insect, so here's the story of the hornet America went hunting for. In August of twenty nineteen, a nest of the world's largest hornet was found and destroyed in…
The Painter Who Named the Robots · 0.4 mi
Caldwell is the Kolache Capital of Texas, thanks to the Czech families who settled Burleson County, so here's a Czech story you use every day. The word robot comes from a Czech play, R U R, by the writer Karel Čapek,…
Contact Lenses From a Toy Building Set · 0.4 mi
Another Czech story, for Caldwell's Czech heritage. In the nineteen fifties, a Czech chemist named Otto Wichterle developed a clear gel that soaks up water, and he thought it would make a soft contact lens. After a…
Shot Through the Smokehouse Wall · 0.4 mi
In May of eighteen fifty seven, a Burleson County constable had a warrant for a man named John Carroway, suspected of stealing a mule from a widow, and a justice of the peace, William Barbee, rode along with him. They…
Burleson County · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burleson County, a place with roots stretching back to 1744 when Native Americans were farming here under Spanish missionaries. Later, in 1830, Fort Tenoxtitlan popped up to guard a crucial…
Woodson Lumber Company · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Woodson Lumber Company, a business that helped build Caldwell and much of the region. Brothers Jim and Harrie Woodson partnered to open this lumberyard in 1913, and it grew into a…
The State Police at Caldwell · 0.4 mi
After the Civil War, no federal soldiers were stationed in Burleson County, but a company of the Texas State Police was, here in Caldwell, and it was made up almost entirely of Black officers. Their job was to protect…
The White Inn on the Cattle Trail · 0.4 mi
About ten miles southwest of Caldwell, near where State Highway twenty one meets Farm Road six ninety six, the White family ran a two story stagecoach inn by the early eighteen sixties, called the White Inn. It sat…
Why Tunis Was Called Dogtown · 0.4 mi
East of Caldwell, toward the Brazos, is the old community of Tunis, which grew up in the eighteen hundreds as the trading center for several large plantations. It had another name, too. According to the Handbook of…
The Night Twister of Two Thousand · 0.4 mi
On the evening of the tenth of March, two thousand, an F Three tornado touched down south of Caldwell, around seven fifty five, and tracked east across the county for about twenty one miles, as much as eight hundred…
Six Trips That Were One · 0.4 mi
In nineteen thirty, two men indicted in Burleson County were arrested in Dallas, on six different warrants between them. A county constable brought them both back to Caldwell on one trip, in one car. But the sheriff,…
Turner, Thomas Fontaine · 0.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Caldwell, Texas, the birthplace of Thomas Fontaine Turner. Born in 1864, Turner became a lawyer, a civic leader, and a passionate supporter of history. He helped found the Panhandle-Plains…
The Post Office Mural That Moved to the Courthouse · 0.4 mi
In nineteen thirty nine, a California artist named Suzanne Scheuer painted a mural called Indians Moving for the Caldwell post office, one of the Depression-era murals the federal government commissioned for small-town…
The Lady Hornets' Titles · 0.4 mi
The Caldwell Lady Hornets have been to the state volleyball tournament seven times, and they came home champions twice, in nineteen ninety eight and in two thousand. In the two thousand title game, according to a…
Frenstat · 0.4 mi
South of Caldwell is Frenstat, named in eighteen eighty six after the town of Frenštát in Moravia, where most of its first families came from. By eighteen eighty nine the settlers had built Holy Rosary Catholic Church,…
The Two Hundred Dollar Calaboose · 0.4 mi
Caldwell still has its little concrete city jail, a two cell calaboose built in nineteen thirty five. The local paper reported at the time that it would cost about two hundred dollars, and that the builders were using…
Oil in the Chalk · 0.4 mi
Oil was found in Burleson County in nineteen thirty eight, but for decades only token amounts came up, because it was locked in deep rock like the Austin Chalk. Then the energy crisis of the nineteen seventies made it…
The Secret Society at Caldwell · 0.4 mi
On the eve of the Civil War, a chapter of a secret pro-slavery order, the Knights of the Golden Circle, was formed here at Caldwell, and it pushed for Texas to leave the Union. Not everyone agreed; a local legislator…
St. Mary's Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Caldwell, and right here is the site of St. Mary's Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. It all started in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1893</say-as>, when priests from nearby towns began…
Caldwell, City of · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Caldwell, a town with roots stretching back to 1840. Lewis L. Chiles, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto, founded this place. It was named for Mathew 'Old Paint' Caldwell, a tough Indian fighter…
St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Caldwell. Early priests served the Catholic community here, meeting in homes before a church was built in 1895. Four years later, this land was purchased for the…
Henslee, Lee W. · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the old Burleson County Jail, where Sheriff Lee W. Henslee and his family once lived. Born and raised right here, Henslee became sheriff in 1902, serving during a tough time for law and order.…
Caldwell Masonic Cemetery · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Caldwell, Texas, where this cemetery holds over 2,700 stories. It started in 1890 as a Masonic cemetery, but people were buried here even earlier, as far back as 1860. Look closely at the stones –…
The Kolache Capital of Texas · 1.3 mi
Every September, the courthouse square here in Caldwell transforms. The normal quiet of a county seat gives way to the sound of polka music and the smell of baking dough. This is the Kolache Festival, always the second…
How the Railroad Re-Engineered Caldwell · 1.3 mi
In 1880, the sound of progress arrived in Caldwell: a steam locomotive. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway was building its main line up through Burleson County, and its engineers laid the tracks right through…
Driving on the King's Highway · 1.3 mi
The road you're on right now, Texas Highway 21, is more than just asphalt. You're traveling along the same corridor as one of North America's oldest and most important roads: the El Camino Real de los Tejas, or the…
Caldwell, TX · 1.3 mi
Caldwell sits comfortably within the rolling hills of the Brazos River watershed, a land shaped by slow, patient erosion over millennia. The lay of the land here isn't dramatic — no jagged peaks or deep canyons — but a…
The Texas Division and the Rapido River · 1.4 mi
State Highway Thirty Six and U S Highway One Ninety both carry the name Thirty Sixth Division Memorial Highway. The Thirty Sixth Infantry Division was called the Texas Division, because when it entered federal service…
Josef Masik · 2.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Caldwell, and right here is the story of Josef Masik, the very first Czech teacher in Texas. Born way back in 1810 in Moravia, he was certified to teach at just sixteen! He came to Texas in 1855,…
New Tabor Brethren Church · 2.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burleson County, passing a piece of Czech-American history. Around 1870, immigrants seeking fertile land and religious freedom settled here. For years, Joseph Macat hosted informal services in his…
New Tabor Cemetery · 3.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the New Tabor Cemetery, a final resting place for Czech and German immigrants who settled this area in the late 1800s. The community itself was named for a town in Czechoslovakia. In 1888, this land…
Duewall House · 4.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Duewall House, a home built with history right into its walls. Rudolph and Anna Duewall settled this land in the 1880s, starting a family farm. Their son Edward and his wife Lizzie kept the farm…
Waugh Campground · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Waugh Campground, a place that saw more than just Sunday sermons. Originally given to the Methodist church by the Isaac S. Addison family, this spot was named for Bishop Beverly Waugh,…
Cooks Point United Methodist Church · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Cooks Point, Texas, a community with roots stretching back to 1881. This United Methodist Church began as a beacon for German-speaking immigrants, organized by Anna Duewall, who arrived here just…
Fort Tenoxtitlan · 4.9 mi · Historical Marker
Founded by Mexico as a bulwark against Anglo-American immigration, this fort and its nearby city were twice proposed for the capital of Texas. Alarmed by the influx of Anglo settlers into Texas, Mexico in 1830 sought to…
Elizabeth Chapel Methodist Church · 4.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the very first Methodist Church in Burleson County. It all started around 1839, not in a building, but as a Sunday School held in the home of Isaac Addison. Later, it moved to the home of…
Swisher, James Gibson · 5.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
James Gibson Swisher, early Texas patriot, son of Henry and Annie (Gibson) Swisher, was born near Franklin, Williamson County, Tennessee, on November 6, 1794. His father, a German immigrant, participated in the…
Twin Sisters · 5.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
The Twin Sisters were two iron cannons that were used by Sam Houston 's forces at the battle of San Jacinto . The original pair, manufactured in Cincinnati, have since been confused with other pairs of cannons, and…
Fort Tenoxtitlan · 5.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burleson County, near where the Old San Antonio Road once crossed the Brazos River. Right here, in 1830, stood Fort Tenoxtitlan. It was built by the Mexican government, part of a plan to bring…
Isbell, William · 5.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Central Texas, and right here, in what is now Burleson County, is Prairie Mound, the final resting place of William Isbell. Isbell fought for Texas independence, serving in the battle of San…
Oldham, William · 5.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burleson County, and right here is the site of Fort Oldham. In the 1830s and 40s, Major William Oldham's homestead became a refuge for settlers during Indian alarms. It was known as 'Fort Oldham.'…
Olney, Joseph Graves · 5.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once Burleson County, the birthplace of Joseph Graves Olney. Born in 1849, Olney wasn't your average rancher. By 1874, he was embroiled in a dispute that ended with him shooting a man in…
Woman Suffrage · 5.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Texas, a land where women have long been partners in hardship and work, but not in politics. For decades, the idea of woman suffrage was a radical notion, seen by many as a threat to the social…
Moseley's Ferry · 5.0 mi
You're driving near the Brazos River, right where a vital crossing once served travelers on the Old San Antonio Road. For generations a ferry was the only way most people could get across a river this wide, since few…
Cooks Point, TX · 5.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
Cooks (Cookes) Point, on State Highway 21 eight miles east of Caldwell in Burleson County, is one of the oldest communities in the county. It was named for Silas L. Cooke, a surveyor who lived in the area during the…
Frenstat, TX · 5.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
Frenstat, also known as Friendsted, is on Big Creek and Farm Road 2774 some seven miles northwest of Somerville in southern Burleson County. Settlement in the area began in the mid-1830s. The community was founded by…
Hogg, TX · 5.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
Hogg is a tiny rural community located near the junction of State Highway 21 and Farm Road 696 about ten miles southwest of Caldwell in western Burleson County. Settlement began in the area by the early 1860s when the…
Pittsbridge, TX · 5.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
Pittsbridge, also known as Evans Ferry and Pitt's Ferry, was on the west bank of the Brazos River thirteen miles northeast of Caldwell in extreme eastern Burleson County. It sprang up after the Civil War at the site of…
Chriesman, TX · 5.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
Chriesman is on the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway just west of State Highway 36 seven miles northwest of Caldwell in northwestern Burleson County. In the 1830s Alexander Thomson, Jr. , brought a group of…
Sebesta, TX · 5.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
In the mid-1880s Czech families settled in the southeastern part of Burleson County in a small pocket of Blackland Prairie soil located in a larger area generally known as Mound Prairie; there they formed an all-Czech…
Whittaker, TX · 5.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
Whittaker was a small farming community on the west bank of the Brazos River five miles east of Snook in southeastern Burleson County. Anglo-American settlement in the vicinity began in the early 1820s. The town itself…
The Road Between Two Presidents · 5.9 mi
U S Highway Two Ninety from Interstate Thirty Five, and then State Highway Twenty One on to State Highway Six, together make up the Presidential Corridor. The Legislature drew it in nineteen ninety seven, in recognition…
Chriesman, Horatio · 6.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a true Texas pioneer! Horatio Chriesman arrived in 1822, long before Texas was even a republic. He served as a surveyor for Austin's Colony, fought in Indian conflicts, and even marched…
The Surveyor Behind the Name on the Road Sign · 6.6 mi
Drive a few miles out of Caldwell and you'll cross paths with the name Chriesman, stamped on a road, a cemetery, and a tiny crossroads community. It traces to Horatio Chriesman, a Virginia-born surveyor who came to…
Broaddus, Andrew S., Judge · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're passing through Cooks Point, the home of Judge Andrew S. Broaddus, a true pioneer leader. Back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1854</say-as>, he piloted a mile-long wagon train carrying 200 people all…
Alexander Thomson, Jr. · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burleson County, passing the spot where Alexander Thomson, Jr. once surveyed this land. Born in South Carolina in 1785, Thomson came to Texas in 1830, partnering with Sterling C. Robertson to…
Town of Chriesman · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the former town of Chriesman, though its story really begins as Yellow Prairie. Settled by Alexander Thomson, Jr., a patriot and partner of Sterling C. Robertson, this community thrived…
Cooks Point · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Cooks Point, a community founded around 1840. Imagine this spot as a crucial crossroads, where the colonial road from the southeast met the San Antonio Road. The first settler here, Gabriel…
Fort Oldham · 6.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Fort Oldham, built back in 1836 and 1837. Settlers, seeking safety from Indian raids, found refuge here with Major William Oldham. He was a veteran of the Texas War for Independence, and…
Providence Baptist Church · 6.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Caldwell, and right here is the site of Providence Baptist Church, organized way back in 1841, during the Republic of Texas. Imagine, 32 members meeting just a few times a year, with planters and…
Providence Cemetery · 6.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Providence Cemetery, a final resting place for folks in this area since the 1830s. The oldest marked grave is Elizabeth Hughes, who died in 1841, but oral tradition says burials started even earlier.…
Deanville · 7.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Deanville, a town that owes its start to the legendary Chisholm Cattle Trail. Merchant James L. Dean founded this spot in 1872. Imagine the cowboys and cattle passing right through here! The post…
St. John's Lutheran Church · 7.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of St. John's Lutheran Church in Deanville. Organized in 1910 with 35 charter members, services were first held in a schoolhouse. Look for the tower – it still houses the original 800-pound…
Deanville, TX · 8.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Deanville, a community that owes its existence to a general store. In 1872, James L. Dean set up shop right here, and the town grew up around it. This spot was also a handy place for cattlemen…
Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church · 8.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Cooks Point, home to the Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church. Its story begins not with a building, but with people. In 1854, enslaved families, led by A.S. Broaddus, made a grueling six-month wagon…
Chisholm Cattle Trail, An Arm of The · 9.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past a key junction on the Chisholm Trail, folks! Developed after the Civil War, this famous route brought Texas cattle north to Kansas railheads for shipment east. An arm of that celebrated trail,…
Frenstat Cemetery · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Caldwell, and just off the road is Frenstat Cemetery. It all started back in 1884 when Moravian Czech families settled here, calling their new home Frenstat. Two years later, Adolf and Veronica…
Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church, a testament to the faith of Czech immigrants who settled this area. <break time="400ms"/> Arriving in 1884, they named their new home…
Brazos Bottom Baptist Church Cemetery · 9.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Brazos Bottom Baptist Church Cemetery, also known as the Old Tunis Cemetery. Graves here date back to the 1840s, and land was formally set aside in 1867 for this graveyard and a Baptist Church…
Carrington Creek · 9.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burleson County, near the community of Tunis. Right here, Carrington Creek was the lifeblood for Italian immigrants who settled this area in the 1890s. They came from Sicily to work the…
Tunis, TX · 9.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through eastern Burleson County, and right here is the site of Tunis. Settlement began in the early 1820s, but the town itself was founded in the mid-1800s as a trading center for several large…
Sweet Home Church Outlasted a Flooded Town · 10.4 mi
North of Somerville, Sweet Home Baptist Church still stands in the community once known simply as Birch, on FM 60 along Birch Creek in southern Burleson County. The congregation was organized around 1890 by formerly…
Site of Camino Real · 10.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past a stretch of highway that's been a major route for over 300 years! This road, El Camino Real, started as an ancient Indian and buffalo trail. By 1691, it was known as the 'Trail of the Padres,'…
Moseley's Ferry · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past where the Old San Antonio Road once crossed the Brazos River. Back in 1846, Michael Boren started a public ferry right here. Four years later, Daniel Moseley took over, and his family kept the ferry…
The Lady in Black · 11.0 mi
Off Farm to Market fifty, in the Brazos bottom north of Snook, stands a small mission church built with cotton, and, if you believe one family, with a vision. The Sicilian families who settled this stretch of the Brazos…
San Salvador Mission Church · 11.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Caldwell, and right here is the San Salvador Mission Church. This place tells a story of Italian immigrants who arrived in Texas back in 1894, hailing from Cefalu, Sicily. They named this mission…
Brazos River Levee · 11.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a devastating flood that reshaped life in Burleson County. In <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1899</say-as>, a massive rainstorm caused devastating floods, killing 35 people and…
New Hope Missionary Baptist Church · 11.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, a cornerstone of the Teals Prairie community for over a century. Organized in 1870 under a brush arbor, this church wasn't just a place of worship, but…
Black Jack Baptist Church · 11.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Black Jack Baptist Church near Caldwell. Organized in May of 1885 with just 17 members, this congregation was sponsored by its neighbor, Liberty Baptist Church. For nine years, they met…
King's Highway - El Camino Real · 11.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving along a road that's been a lifeline for centuries! This is part of the King's Highway, or El Camino Real. First established by Spanish explorers in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1716</say-as>,…
Lone Oak Baptist Church · 11.5 mi · Historical Marker
Look to your right, past the highway sign for Snook. You're driving by the site of the Lone Oak Baptist Church. Traveling preachers held early services here, and in 1905, locals officially organized this Baptist church.…
El Camino Real de los Tejas · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker
Before there were highways, before there were railroads, before there was a Texas, there was El Camino Real. The Royal Road was the main artery of Spanish colonial Texas, stretching from Mexico City through San Antonio,…
Macedonia Hix Baptist Church · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Macedonia Hix Baptist Church, a congregation with roots stretching back to the 1840s. Traveling ministers held services here even before the church was officially organized around 1852.…
Mt. Homer Baptist Church Cemetery · 11.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Mt. Homer Baptist Church Cemetery, a place with a deep history. Originally the Watson Cemetery, it transferred to the Mt. Homer Baptist Church in 1866. The earliest marked grave here belongs to…
Giesenschlag Cemetery · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Giesenschlag Cemetery, a final resting place established by a Prussian immigrant. Johann Joachim Giesenschlag arrived in Texas in 1855 with his wife and children. They settled in Washington…
A Car in Lyons Before There Were Cars in Texas · 12.5 mi
The historical marker in front of the Lyons Community Center makes a surprising claim. It says that in eighteen ninety four, Lyons hosted the first automobile ever seen in this county, with rides for the daring. Here's…
Lyons Methodist Church · 12.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Lyons, Texas, where this building stands as a testament to faith and community. Organized before 1880 out at High Prairie, the congregation moved here when the railroad arrived. The structure you see…
Lyons, TX (Burleson County) · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burleson County, and right here is the town of Lyons. It didn't start as a town at all, but as a rough-and-tumble railroad workers' camp called Camp Pennington back in 1880. Saloons popped up to…
The Tie Plant that Built and Poisoned · 12.7 mi
For more than a century, Somerville has been home to one of the largest wood-preserving plants in the country. It started in the mid-1890s as the Texas Tie and Lumber Preserving Company, and for most of the twentieth…
When the Steam Ran Out · 12.7 mi
Imagine a town built around one technology. For Somerville, that technology was the steam locomotive. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe put a rail yard, repair shops and a roundhouse here -- a red brick half-circle…
Engineering a Lake to Tame a River · 12.7 mi
Just outside of town lies a massive work of civil engineering that reshaped this entire region: Somerville Dam. Built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and completed in 1967, it isn't a concrete wall but an enormous…
The Store on Highway 36 They Robbed Twice · 12.7 mi
There is a store on Highway 36 on the south side of Somerville that got hit twice inside of a year. The first time was the twenty eighth of September, 2020. The second was the fifteenth of July, 2021, at about ten…
Somerville, TX · 12.7 mi
Somerville is situated near the southern border of Burleson County and is uniquely positioned next to Somerville Lake, a reservoir on Yegua Creek, which is part of the larger Brazos River basin. The city's total area is…
Fort Tenoxtitlan · 12.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burleson County, not far from where the Mexican government tried to put the brakes on American expansion. In July of 1830, they established Fort Tenoxtitlan right here, naming it after the ancient…
Steele's Store Community · 13.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Brazos County, passing by the site of what was once Steele's Store. It started as Mudville, a name fitting for a community often flooded by the Brazos River. But in 1855, Henry Steele built a…
Lyons · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Lyons, Texas. It started in 1878 as a simple railway work camp. By 1880, it was officially Lyon's Station, named for the man who donated the land, W. A. Lyon. This town quickly grew into…
Snook, TX · 13.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burleson County, heading southeast of Caldwell. Right here is the town of Snook, which owes its name to a postmaster. Back in 1895, this growing Czech farming settlement, originally called…
El Camino Real · 13.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past a piece of Texas history that's literally a thousand miles long! El Camino Real, the King's Highway, connected Saltillo, Mexico, all the way to Louisiana. The oldest part, the 'Trail of the Padres,'…
Ten State Titles Out of a School This Size · 13.7 mi
The gym at this school holds the record for the whole state of Texas. Ten boys basketball state championships, more than any other high school has ever won, out of a town of about five hundred people. Jimmy Horn started…
The Season They Stopped Playing, and the One After It · 13.7 mi
In September of 2025 the Snook Bluejays stopped playing varsity football in the middle of the season. They were zero and four, they had been beaten badly in all four, and eighteen of the twenty seven boys still healthy…
Snook · 13.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Snook, Texas, a town with roots stretching back to the 1880s. It started as 'Sebesta's Corner,' a gathering place for Czech immigrants. By 1895, it was officially named Snook, after John Snook,…
Snook is Czech for Sausage · 13.9 mi
You're in the heart of Texas Czech country. While many towns have historic roots, Snook's identity is still actively shaped by the culture of its Bohemian and Moravian founders. When they settled here in the…
Hank Williams's Next-to-Last Tour Stop · 13.9 mi
Just before Christmas in nineteen fifty two, Hank Williams played Snook. He was twenty nine years old, the biggest name in country music, and he was falling apart. The Grand Ole Opry had fired him that August for…
The Night Jerome Robinson Went Out to the Club at Tunis · 13.9 mi
On the twenty eighth of December, 2001, a twenty one year old named Jerome David Robinson left his grandmother's place out in the country near Snook to go get a haircut. A man gave him a ride and dropped him at a club…
The Night at the Snook Tavern · 13.9 mi
In the summer of nineteen forty seven, a Snook deputy constable went to break up a fight at a tavern and never came home. It was a Saturday night in late July. Constable Robert Vajdak got the call and asked his deputy…
The Biggest Party in a Pasture · 13.9 mi
As you drive along Farm to Market Road 60 near Snook, look out into the open fields. You might see a strange collection of permanent stages and structures sitting in a pasture. You've found the home of Chilifest. This…
Snook, TX · 13.9 mi
Since 1991, Snook has been home to Chilifest, an annual charity event that attracts some of the biggest names in country music. This two-day chili cook-off and concert draws more than 50,000 people each year. According…
How Snook Won: The Free Throw Theory · 13.9 mi
Snook's high school owns the Texas record for boys basketball, ten state championships, seven of them in a row from 1978 through 1984, out of a town of about five hundred people. So how does a school this size do that?…
The Levee That Held the Flood In · 13.9 mi
Between here and the Brazos, Burleson County once put its faith in a long wall of dirt, and it turned on them. The river flooded these bottoms in eighteen ninety nine, nineteen hundred, nineteen oh two and again in…
The Fastest Family in Snook · 13.9 mi
Everybody around here knows about Snook's basketball dynasty. Fewer people know that in the same years, some of the fastest kids in small school Texas came out of this same school, and a lot of them were named Kerr.…
From Dabney Hill to the Fight for the Ballot · 13.9 mi
A mile north of Snook is Dabney Hill, the community built by freed people after the Civil War. A boy born here in eighteen eighty six ended up in the middle of the fight over who got to vote in Texas. His name was…
Two Men Robbed the Bank in Snook and Vanished · 13.9 mi
On the seventh of October, 2011, two men walked into the Citizens State Bank here in Snook with guns and demanded money. What they did not plan on was who was walking in behind them. A local justice of the peace…
Eight Hours on Farm to Market 60 · 13.9 mi
On the fourteenth of August, 2021, somebody robbed the Dollar General out on Farm to Market 60 near County Road 410, over toward Lake Somerville, and assaulted the clerk. Four days later Burleson County deputies drove…
The Raid on County Road Two Seventy Eight · 13.9 mi
Before dawn on the nineteenth of December, twenty thirteen, a team of about eight officers went through the door of a mobile home on County Road two seventy eight, about five miles south of Snook, without knocking. They…
Merle's Ten-Foot Jail · 13.9 mi
About three miles south of Snook, where County Roads two oh one and two seventy meet, there used to be a town called Merle. It had a post office from eighteen eighty three to nineteen nineteen, Czech families and then…
Nitroglycerin at the Snook Post Office · 13.9 mi
In the first week of July, nineteen thirty nine, somebody blew the safe at the Snook post office with nitroglycerin. The post office sat inside the Fojt and Sebesta store. Early on a Tuesday morning, the burglars came…
Britain's Most Hated Fish · 13.9 mi
The word snook comes from the Dutch snoek, meaning pike, and a fish called snoek once became a national joke in Britain. This town, for the record, is named for a postmaster, not a fish. After the Second World War,…
The Fish That Starts Life Male · 13.9 mi
The town of Snook wasn't named for the fish, but the fish is worth knowing. The common snook is a silver Gulf Coast game fish with a jutting lower jaw and a dark stripe down its side, and in Florida it's one of the most…
The Bluejay Isn't Blue · 13.9 mi
The Snook Bluejays are named for a bird that isn't really blue. A blue jay has no blue pigment at all. Inside its feathers is a sponge of keratin full of tiny air pockets, and that structure throws blue light back at…
Snookered · 13.9 mi
Snook sounds a lot like snooker, and snooker has one of the stranger origin stories in sports. For years nobody knew who invented it. Then in March of nineteen thirty eight, an old soldier named Sir Neville Chamberlain,…
Jet Down Near Lone Oak · 13.9 mi
In August of nineteen fifty three, a jet came straight down out of the sky just west of Snook. It was a single seat trainer out of Bryan Air Force Base. A neighbor, Theodore Novosad, said he saw it explode in the air.…
Snook Brethren Church · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Snook, a community settled in the 1870s by Czech immigrants. They brought their traditions, including beliefs of the Brethren Church, which officially organized here in 1886. By 1913, they had…
The Town The Dimes Marched On · 14.3 mi
Here in Dime Box, Texas, the name once paid off in a way nobody could have planned. In nineteen forty-five, the national polio fundraising drive known as the March of Dimes needed a hook, and some clever organizer…
A Dime In The Box · 14.3 mi
You're rolling into Dime Box, Texas, a town that wears its own origin story right on the sign. Before there was a post office out here, back in the eighteen seventies, folks around Joseph Brown's sawmill had a problem:…
The Slavs Who Sailed To Serbin · 14.3 mi
The mixed settlement that grew up around Dime Box, Texas, included a group called the Wends, and that thread deserves a story of its own, because it points at one of the most remarkable little migrations in Texas…
What A Dime Bought · 14.3 mi
You're passing through Dime Box, Texas, the little town whose name got borrowed by the national March of Dimes polio campaign back in the nineteen forties. That connection is worth a short detour, because it is worth…
Oil Trapped In The Chalk · 14.3 mi
Let's talk about what is underneath you here in Dime Box, Texas, because this quiet farm country sat on top of a genuine oil drama. Late in the nineteen seventies, the land around Dime Box and nearby Giddings became…
The Name That Confused The Mail · 14.3 mi
You're in Dime Box, Texas, but this place almost carried a different name entirely. So why isn't it still called Brown's Mill? Blame the post office and a spelling problem. Joseph Brown put up his sawmill somewhere…
How The Railroad Split A Town · 14.3 mi
Look at a map around Dime Box, Texas, and you will notice a wrinkle: there is a Dime Box and an Old Dime Box, three miles apart. That split happened in nineteen thirteen, and it is a story that played out in hundreds of…
Two Words On A Sign · 14.3 mi
So look at everything one small, odd town name can hold. Pull on the words Dime Box and the whole thread unspools. It starts with a wooden box and a ten-cent coin at a frontier sawmill, and a carrier riding to Giddings…
Dime Box, TX · 14.3 mi
In 1913, a pivotal moment in the history of Dime Box occurred when the Southern Pacific Railroad constructed a line three miles southeast of the original settlement. This development prompted most residents and…
Dime Box - A Wooden Box and a Dime · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker
Dime Box is a small community in Lee County, in Central Texas. Before the railroad reached the area in 1913, the settlers on Brown's Mill Creek had no post office. To get a letter to Giddings, they used the next best…
Dime Box, TX · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Lee County, and you might be wondering how this place got its name: Dime Box. It all started back in the 1870s when folks here needed a post office. Until it opened, settlers would leave their…
60 Acres Became Dabney Hill · 14.6 mi
By 1870, Daniel Dabney Sr. — born in Virginia in 1815, enslaved in Burleson County before emancipation — bought 60 acres on a hill near what's now Snook. He kept buying land for his family, and together they built…
Oaklawn Cemetery · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Oaklawn Cemetery, a resting place with a story etched in loss. It began in 1900, when a father purchased land for a graveyard after his two-year-old son, Charles, died. Originally called Somerville…
Snook Cemetery · 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Snook Cemetery, a final resting place for generations of settlers here in Burleson County. This community, originally known as Sebesta's Corners, was renamed Snook in honor of the Caldwell…
Old Dime Box · 15.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Dime Box, Texas, a community with a name as unique as its origin story! Originally known as Browne's Mills, this spot was part of Stephen F. Austin's original "Old Three Hundred" colony. But how…
Bryan Air Force Base · 15.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Bryan Army Air Field, which began construction in August 1942. This was the only instrument instructor school for a time, and it hosted over a thousand Women Army Service Pilots.…
The Town Sold to Seven Thousand People · 15.3 mi
Somewhere along Highway Seventy-Nine east of Milano is a town that thousands of people owned, and almost nobody ever saw. In eighteen seventy seven, a Cincinnati outfit called the Texas Land and Colonization Company…
The Milano Diamond: An Engineering Crossroads · 15.3 mi
The heart of Milano isn't a town square; it's a piece of railway engineering called a 'diamond.' If you could see the tracks from above, you'd watch the Union Pacific's east-west line — the old International-Great…
The Deputy Who Met Bill Longley · 15.3 mi
On a Sunday morning in November eighteen seventy six, a Milam County deputy riding home to Milano offered to keep three strangers company. His name was Matt Shelton, and he was about sixty-two years old. He was coming…
The Day the Storm Found the Junction · 15.3 mi
On an April afternoon in eighteen eighty three, the same storm system that had struck Belton dropped back down south of Cameron and headed for Milano Junction. It was about a quarter past four on April twenty-seventh.…
Texas Had a Treasurer Named Jesse James · 15.3 mi
For almost thirty-six years, the man in charge of the Texas treasury was named Jesse James. He was born in nineteen oh four in the Sand Grove community, just south of Milano, and grew up in Thorndale. The name was not…
The Rock House That Isn't Haunted · 15.3 mi
Two miles south of Milano, an old red sandstone house has collected more ghost stories than almost anything in Milam County, and nearly all of them are false. People have said it was a hotel and a stagecoach stop. That…
The Battle of Apache Pass · 15.3 mi
Before the railroads came and created towns like Milano, this land was already a highway. A few miles from here the San Gabriel River runs over a gravel bar northwest of Rockdale that Spanish explorers named Apache…
Milano, TX · 15.3 mi
Milano's history began in 1874 when the International-Great Northern Railroad Company laid out the original site, and a post office opened the same year. The community became a voting precinct in 1880. By the late…
Two Last Shows at the Skyline · 15.3 mi
Johnny Horton's death on the highway through Milano closed a strange circle that started at one Austin honky tonk. The Skyline Club sat on the old Dallas Highway, the road Austin now calls North Lamar Boulevard. On…
The Gig He Tried to Skip · 15.3 mi
Johnny Horton did not want to play the show that put him on the road through Milano. It was November fourth, nineteen sixty, at the Skyline Club in Austin, and he tried to get out of it and could not. By one account,…
The Tomato Girls of Milano · 15.3 mi
In August nineteen twelve, a group of farm girls set out jars of canned tomatoes at Milano, and made Texas history doing it. The woman behind them was Edna Westbrook Trigg, born in eighteen sixty eight between Milano…
The Town Almost Called Temple · 15.3 mi
Milano sits where two railroads cross, and for a little while, one of them called this place Temple. The International and Great Northern came through first, in eighteen seventy three, and the town was christened Milam…
The Wall That Stood · 15.3 mi
Milano may be named for Milan, Italy. Nobody is sure, but it gives us an excuse for this one. In Milan, at the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, there is an old dining hall, and on one wall of it, Leonardo da Vinci…
The Two Men Who Lived · 15.3 mi
Two other men were in Johnny Horton's Cadillac when it was hit in Milano in November nineteen sixty, and both of them lived. Up front was Tillman Franks, Horton's manager and bass player. Franks had played bass on the…
Five Days Before North to Alaska · 15.3 mi
When Johnny Horton died near Milano in November nineteen sixty, a John Wayne movie was about to open with his voice. Horton had sung the title song for North to Alaska. He had done movie songs before, but this was the…
A Doctor's Note for Whiskey · 15.3 mi
On a bright moonlit night in August nineteen twenty two, two officers hid beside a culvert a quarter mile outside Milano, and waited. This was Prohibition. A car came along the Milano to Hanover road with its lights…
Why a Hat Maker Is a Milliner · 15.3 mi
Milano may be named for Milan, Italy, and Milan gave English a job title. A milliner, a maker of women's hats, was most likely first a Milaner, someone from Milan, or a dealer in the goods Milan was famous for: straw…
The Bread a Doctor Prescribed · 15.3 mi
Milano shares its name with a cookie, though the town is definitely not named for it. The Milano cookie comes from Pepperidge Farm, and Pepperidge Farm started with a sick little boy. In nineteen thirty seven, Margaret…
Newton, James Oscar · 15.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Milam County, near Milano, where James Oscar Newton was born in 1875. He grew up to become the Texas Adjutant General, a brigadier general, in 1907. He organized rifle teams and established rifle…
First United Methodist Church of Somerville · 15.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Somerville, and right here is the site of the First United Methodist Church. It got its start way back in 1901, with just 29 members. Imagine, their first prayer meetings were held in homes, and…
Mumford, Population One Hundred Fifty · 16.0 mi
When John Randle went into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in two thousand ten, one of the first things he did was thank his hometown: Mumford, Texas, population one hundred fifty. A no-stoplight town, he called it. John…
Still Public School Champions · 16.0 mi
In March of two thousand thirteen, the boys from Mumford High School walked into the Frank Erwin Center in Austin with thirty nine wins and one loss. Across the floor in the state final was Triple A Academy from…
Something on the Shoulder at the Brazos Bridge · 16.0 mi
If you're crossing the Brazos on Farm to Market sixty in the middle of the night, here's something to think about. At two forty five in the morning on the second of September, twenty seventeen, a driver heading west had…
Cotton Country on the Brazos · 16.0 mi
Mumford grew up in a plantation area on the east bank of the Brazos River, in the far southeastern corner of Robertson County. The county's Brazos Bottom holds about one hundred fifty thousand acres of fertile delta…
The Half Billion Dollar Rail Yard · 16.0 mi
North of the Mumford school, just off Farm to Market Fifty, is a rail yard that was supposed to be the biggest thing Union Pacific ever built in one place. Work started in January two thousand eighteen. Brazos Yard…
Five Hundred Fifty, Then the River · 16.0 mi
In the eighteen nineties, Mumford was going places. By eighteen ninety three this little river town had a lumberyard, a brick kiln, a broom factory, two saloons, two barbershops and two drugstores. In eighteen ninety…
The Band With No Sons · 16.0 mi
The most famous Mumford in music is a band, and it has nothing to do with this town. In December two thousand seven, four musicians in London formed a folk rock group and called it Mumford and Sons. Nobody's father was…
Johnny Horton's Last Ride · 16.1 mi
In the early morning hours of the fifth of November, nineteen sixty, country star Johnny Horton, the voice of The Battle of New Orleans, was driving east through Milano, headed home to Shreveport after a show at the…

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