Crisp, Texas

Everything Crisp is known for

6 songs mention this city 1 artist from here

RoadyGoat plays music like this when you drive through Crisp. It's free on iPhone, and full songs play through Apple Music.

Music in Crisp

Songs About Crisp

Drivin’ Nails in My Coffin

Ernest Tubb

45%

Soldier’s Last Letter

Ernest Tubb

45%

Thanks a Lot

Ernest Tubb

45%

Walking the Floor Over You

Ernest Tubb

45%

Montana Café

Hank Williams, Jr.

"There's names like Johnny Cash and Ernest Tubb"

My Name Is Bocephus

Hank Williams, Jr.

"I learned something from Lynyrd Skynyrd, from my Daddy and Ernest Tubb too"

Artists From Crisp

Ernest Tubb

country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Crisp

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Crisp.

Interstate 45 8 songs Trinity River 11 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Interstate 35 45 songs

Musical Heritage

Ernest Tubb, Born Near Crisp RoadyGoat

A few miles north of Ennis is the little community of Crisp, and that's where Ernest Tubb was born, on a cotton farm, on the ninth of February, nineteen fourteen, into a sharecropper's family. He grew up idolizing Jimmie Rodgers and taught himself to sing and yodel like him. Then, in nineteen thirty nine, he had his tonsils taken out, and afterward he couldn't yodel anymore. So he sang the way he could, low and easy and conversational, and that became his trademark. In nineteen forty one he recorded Walking the Floor Over You, which sold four hundred thousand copies in its first year. He joined the Grand Ole Opry, and in nineteen forty seven he opened the Ernest Tubb Record Shop in Nashville. And Crisp itself was named for Charles Crisp, a Speaker of the United States House.

RoadyGoat → · 5.4 mi away

History of Crisp

Bristol, TX RoadyGoat

The founding of Bristol is rooted in the 1840s when Joshua Brock of Missouri first settled the area. Initially called Brockville, the community was named after its first postmaster general, Joshua Brock. The town was later known as Heelstring before Captain Steven Mills, who had business ties to Bristol, England, named his store and eventually the town after the English city. The original town was destroyed by a fire in the late 1800s and was relocated to its current location. Bristol's history is one of resilience and reinvention, reflecting the spirit of its early settlers.

4.4 mi away

Bristol, TX RoadyGoat

Bristol's history is marked by resilience and transformation. The community was first settled in the 1840s by Joshua Brock, who named it Brockville. After a devastating fire in the late 1800s, the town was relocated to its current location. The name changed to Bristol after Captain Steven Mills, who had done business in Bristol, England, opened a store and the community adopted the name. Over the years, Bristol has grown from a small farming community of 200 residents in 1890 to a supply and service center for local farmers and beef ranches. Today, it retains its small-town charm with events like the Bristol Opry and 4 July Celebration.

4.4 mi away

Bristol, TX RoadyGoat

The name Bristol has an interesting origin, inspired by Captain Steven Mills who had done business in Bristol, England. He opened a store in the area and named it after the English city. The community eventually adopted the name, and thus, Bristol, Texas, came to be.

4.4 mi away

Phillip R. Pierce

1836

Born September 18, 1813 in North Carolina. Soldier in the Texas War of Independence. Member Madisonville Cavalry, Texas Volunteers. Died in Ellis County December 2, 1891. Erected by the State of Texas 1962

Historical Marker →

Telico Church, The

1867

Built in 1867 for the Kirkpatrick Presbyterian Church, this sanctuary later served other denominations. It was a Baptist church from 1909 to 1961. Designed in the Greek Revival style with high Victorian Italianate details, it features shoulder architraves, paired brackets in the cornice, and six-over-six windows. The building was stabilized after a 1960 tornado tore it from its foundation. A 1986 restoration project returned the church to its historic appearance.

Historical Marker → · 4.7 mi away

Telico Cemetery

1867

The first burial in this cemetery was that of the Rev. William J. Kirkpatrick, a local Cumberland Presbyterian Minister, who died on May 1, 1867. Shortly after his death, a congregation organized by the Rev. W.G.L. Quaite was named in Kirkpatrick's honor, and a place of worship was constructed later near the gravesite. Land surrounding Kirkpatrick's grave was part of the plantation of Confederate veteran Major Henry Pannill. Pannill's son Joseph died in October 1867 and was buried near Kirkpatrick's gravesite. The following year Pannill deeded some of his land around the burial sites to trustees of the Kirkpatrick Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Within the next decade the community of Telico grew up around the church building and cemetery. After the turn of the century, however, people began abandoning the village for the conveniences of the railroad town of Ennis (6 mi. W), and the cemetery fell into a period of neglect. Telico Cemetery serves as a reminder of the hardships faced by area pioneers. Of the more than 300 known graves, 45 date before 1882 and almost half are of children under the age of ten. Since 1937 the Telico Cemetery Association has cared for the grounds.

Historical Marker → · 4.7 mi away

Lummus, Andrew Jackson, Jr. [Jack]

1945

Medal of Honor recipient, Andrew Jackson Lummus, Jr., referred to as Jack, was born on October 22, 1915, in Ennis, Texas, a cotton-farming town. He was the son of Andrew Jackson Lummus, Sr., a cotton farmer, and Laura Francis (Warren) Lummus. The Lummus family experienced hardship during the Great Depression . As a youngster, Jack Lummus enjoyed athletic success in both football and baseball at Ennis High School in the early 1930s. Lummus dropped out of high school after his second year due to the family's financial situation. Texas Military College at Terrell offered Lummus an athletic scholarship where he was able to finish his final two years of high school in 1937. In 1937 Lummus accepted an athletic scholarship to Baylor University where he played football and baseball for the next four years. In football, Lummus (standing at 6' 3" and weighing 195 pounds) played end, and his play and speed attracted the attention of the New York Giants of the National Football League. As a senior, he was selected to the All-Southwest Conference football team. Playing centerfield in baseball, Lummus earned spots on the All-Southwest Conference team in 1938, 1939, and 1940. Jack Lummus's career took a number of turns in 1941. With the nation moving closer to war, he mulled his military options as well as his options as a professional athlete. In May Lummus enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps to attend flight school and dropped out of Baylor before earning his degree. While waiting on orders for flight school, Lummus signed a contract to play outfield with the Wichita Falls Spudders, a semiprofessional baseball club in the West Texas-New Mexico League . He played in twenty-six games for the Spudders until July 6 when he received orders to report to flight training at Hicks Field northwest of Fort Worth. During flight training, he received numerous phone calls from the New York Giants inviting him to their training camp in Wisconsin. After successfully completing the preflight training, Lummus washed out of flight training on his solo flight when the wing of his P-19 Fairchild clipped a fence on landing. Given an honorable discharge, Lummus headed to Wisconsin where he won a spot on the New York Giants 1941 roster as a backup end. As a rookie, he saw considerable playing time as a defensive end. Lummus first became aware of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during a game between the Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers at the Polo Grounds on December 7, 1941. The Texan played his final game with the New York Giants in the NFL championship game against the Chicago Bears at Wrigley Field on December 21; which the Bears won, 37-9. A few days later, Lummus drove home to Texas. On January 30, 1942, Lummus went to Dallas and enlisted in the Marine Corps. After completing recruit training in San Diego, California, he was assigned to Mare Island, California, where he was promoted to private first class and then corporal. In October Lummus was selected for Officer Candidates School at Quantico, Virginia, from which he was commissioned a second lieutenant on December 30, 1942. In 1943 he served as an instructor in the Infantry School at Camp Elliot in San Diego. In June he was assigned as a student officer in the elite Raider Battalion at Camp Pendleton where he also served as an instructor. After the Raider Battalions were disbanded in early 1944, Lummus was reassigned to the Fifth Marine Division. In the Fifth Marine Division, Jack Lummus was among the first wave of marines that landed on Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945. As a rifle platoon leader, Lummus's actions on March 8 against stubborn Japanese defenders on the island's west coast, the Nishi Ridge, earned him the Medal of Honor. After a failed initial attempt to break through enemy lines, Lummus called for tank support to provide added firepower. After personally guiding the tanks into position in rugged terrain and ignoring hostile fire, he directed his men against the enemy. Moving forwa

Tsha Handbook → · 5.9 mi away

National Polka Festival

1966

The National Polka Festival, an annual music festival held each May in Ennis, Texas, was first organized in 1966 by Raymond Zapletal, Len Gehrig, and Joe Liska, in conjunction with Jack McKay, head of the local Chamber of Commerce. As the largest Czech polka festival in the United States, in the 2010s it attracts approximately 50,000 people who join together in dancing, singing, and celebrating Czech cultural heritage every Memorial Day weekend. The tradition of Czech polka music spread throughout the Lone Star State soon after the first large groups of Czech immigrants began arriving in the 1850s. Three other major waves of immigration during the 1870s, 1880s, and early 1900s helped give Czech culture a strong presence throughout the Southwest. Most Czechs settled in Central and North Central Texas, where they set up farms, schools, social and cultural organizations, and newspapers to help maintain their language and ethnic identity. For these new Texas Czechs, music played a vital role in their day-to-day lives. Dancing was an important part of this musical culture, providing entertainment, exercise, and recreational time with the family. At first dances were held in private homes, but as the Texas-Czech population grew, several organizations began building dance halls which regularly hosted dances and other celebrations of Czech culture. Ennis, which is about forty miles south of Dallas, is one of the most northern Czech settlements in Texas. The town has four large Czech fraternal halls, three of which participate in the festival—the Knights of Columbus , the Sokol Activity Center, and Katolicka Jednota Texaska (Catholic Union of Texas) known as the KJT—which provide centrally-located venues for all the festival’s music and dancing. Because it has maintained a thriving Czech culture, Ennis is ideally suited for hosting the National Polka Festival. The festival kicks off on Friday with a dancing competition, followed by a King and Queen contest that evening. The parade starts on Saturday morning at 10:00 A.M. and includes clowns, cheerleaders, bands, floats, and horses. The festival also offers traditional food, dancing, costumes, music, arts and crafts, and a horseshoe tournament. On Sunday, Mass is held at 10:00 A.M. at the Knights of Columbus, followed by more dancing, food, and music at all three halls. Typically the festival features anywhere from eight to fourteen bands performing different styles of polka music , ranging from traditional to modern. Participants have included Grammy-award-winning groups as well as bands from across the United States and as far away as the Czech Republic. A few of the more popular groups include Grammy-award-winning Brave Combo, Czech and Then Some, the Jodie Mikula Orchestra, Dujka Brothers, Texas Dutchmen, the Czechaholics, and the Ennis Czech Boys. The National Polka Festival focuses on involving the entire family in the weekend’s events, thereby encouraging all generations to better understand and appreciate Czech history and culture. The influence of Czech musical traditions can be seen throughout the Southwest, as traditional Czech instruments and song styles, including the accordion and the polka, have been incorporated into Texas-Mexican conjunto , East Texas zydeco , and even western swing.

Tsha Handbook → · 5.9 mi away

Coronado, Sam Zaragosa, Jr.

1946

The son of Sam Zaragosa and Margarita Coronado, Sam Z. Coronado, Jr., artist, educator, and cultural activist, was born on July 12, 1946, in the small farm town of Ennis, Texas. His maternal grandparents were cotton pickers who taught him the value of a strong work ethic. He attended Crozier Tech High School in Dallas and voluntarily enlisted in the United States Army; he served from 1964 to 1967. As part of the Cold War effort, he served in Germany with an artillery company that included a nuclear weapons arsenal. After his stint in the army he attended El Centro College in Dallas and studied drafting and design. He secured his first drawing job as a technical illustrator for Texas Instruments in 1969 and earned an Associate of Applied Science degree from El Centro in 1970. Coronado eventually went to the University of Texas at Austin and attended college on the G.I. Bill. Along with his colleagues Vicki Plata, Rey Gaytan, and Sylvia Orozco, he cofounded the Chicano Art Students Association. In 1975 he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.F.A. in painting and printmaking. Throughout his career, Coronado also worked in other occupations, either as a technical illustrator or as an educator, to financially support his artistic endeavors. Coronado is best known for his artistic contributions in the field of Chicana/o and U.S. Latino art. He began in oils and acrylics. His paintings are intimate portraits of the Mexican American experience. However, his most memorable and influential work was in the field of graphic arts. He was a painter turned printmaker following two residencies with Self Help Graphics in East Los Angeles in 1991. Drawing on Mexican Social Realism, American Pop Art, and the iconographic traditions of Chicano art, he produced groundbreaking series such as Guerrillera , World War II , and Hearts that spoke on the politics of identity, autobiography, and Tejano history. Coronado also illustrated for books and magazines, and he created company logos. His lifework has been the subject of numerous exhibitions and publications across the United States, Europe, Africa, and Latin America, including retrospectives at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center , San Antonio (1987); Mexic-Arte Museum , Austin (2011); and the Latino Cultural Center, Dallas (2012). He mastered the art of serigraphy (also known as screen printing and silkscreening) with draughtsmanship and humor, and became one of its most ardent promoters by founding Coronado Studio, a collaborative print workshop dedicated to the production of fine art serigraphy, in the early 1990s. The workshop became a training ground for a number of accomplished master printers including Pepe Coronado, Brian Johnson, Paul Fucik, and Brian Rice. However, his greatest intervention for the field came in 1993 with the founding of Serie Project, a nonprofit printmaking residency program that awards competitive fellowships to artists wishing to explore the technique with the assistance of a master printer. Serie Project has hosted more than 300 artist residencies and has introduced a new generation of artists to a graphic tradition of historical importance to the Chicano art movement (1965–1985). The roster of resident artists includes Malaquias Montoya, Ester Hernández, César Martínez, Celia Alvarez Muñoz, Juan Sánchez, Diógenes Ballester, and Scherezade Garcia. Coronado’s cultural activism fostered community-building and exhibition opportunities for underrepresented artists. As someone who experienced first-hand the discriminatory practices against Mexican American artists in the Southwest, he was committed to promoting cultural democracy in the arts. Coronado was part of a generation of artists who came of age during the 1960s and believed that establishing alternative and culturally-specific institutions was the first step toward equality. In 1980 he founded Arcoiris , a statewide network for Mexican American artists based in Houston that promoted exhibition

Tsha Handbook → · 5.9 mi away

Things to Do in Crisp

food 22.2 mi away

Collin Street Bakery

August Weidmann arrived in Corsicana from Bavaria in 1896 and opened a little bakery on Collin Street. His DeLuxe Fruitcake packed with pecans cherries and…

food 22.0 mi away

Wolf Brand Chili Origin Corner

Lyman T. Davis parked his lunch wagon at this corner of Beaton Street and 5th Avenue in 1895, ladling out five-cent bowls of chili in front of the Blue Front…

Everything Near Crisp

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

Phillip R. Pierce · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker
Born September 18, 1813 in North Carolina. Soldier in the Texas War of Independence. Member Madisonville Cavalry, Texas Volunteers. Died in Ellis County December 2, 1891. Erected by the State of Texas 1962
Bristol School · 4.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Bristol School. The community's first school started in a multi-purpose building here in 1870, with the district officially established in 1877. Later schools were built in 1886 and…
Bristol, TX · 4.4 mi
The founding of Bristol is rooted in the 1840s when Joshua Brock of Missouri first settled the area. Initially called Brockville, the community was named after its first postmaster general, Joshua Brock. The town was…
Telico Church, The · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker
Built in 1867 for the Kirkpatrick Presbyterian Church, this sanctuary later served other denominations. It was a Baptist church from 1909 to 1961. Designed in the Greek Revival style with high Victorian Italianate…
Telico Cemetery · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker
The first burial in this cemetery was that of the Rev. William J. Kirkpatrick, a local Cumberland Presbyterian Minister, who died on May 1, 1867. Shortly after his death, a congregation organized by the Rev. W.G.L.…
A Town Made by the Railroad · 4.9 mi
Garrett didn't start out with the name it has now. Before the tracks came through, people called this place Guide. Then in the early 1870s the Houston and Texas Central Railway pushed north toward Dallas, and right here…
Engineering the Prairie Lifeline · 4.9 mi
The tracks running beside the road here weren't just passing through. This was a crossing. In the early 1870s the Houston and Texas Central Railway, working north toward Dallas, met the Waxahachie Tap Road right at this…
Two Dozen Kinds of Kolache on Ennis Avenue · 4.9 mi
You cannot really understand Ennis until you have eaten its Czech heritage, and the easiest place to do that is the Kolache Depot Bakery at 1103 East Ennis Avenue. The kolache is the classic Czech breakfast pastry, a…
The Engineering of the Cotton Compress · 5.1 mi
The reason Ennis became a global cotton power wasn't just the soil; it was a piece of industrial engineering: the steam-powered cotton compress. A standard bale of ginned cotton weighs 500 pounds but is incredibly…
Ennis, TX · 5.1 mi
Ennis sits at the edge of one of America's most infamous criminal sagas. Clyde Barrow was born about ten miles up the road from here, at Telico in Ellis County, in March of 1909, before his family gave up farming for…
When Cotton Was King · 5.1 mi
Look at the railroad tracks that run through the center of Ennis. This town exists because of them. The Houston and Texas Central pushed through in 1871 and made Ennis its northern division headquarters, building…
The Official Bluebonnet City · 5.1 mi
If you're driving through Ennis in the springtime, you're in for a treat. In 1997, the Texas Legislature declared Ennis the 'Official Bluebonnet City of Texas,' and it’s a title the town takes seriously. Every April,…

Show all 200 nearby places

The Falcons Who Rebuilt in a Year · 5.1 mi
Two miles east of downtown on Highway 34 stands the Sokol Activity Center, home to a Czech tradition Ennis has kept alive since 1908. Sokol is the Czech word for falcon, chosen for the bird's strength and independence,…
Ennis, TX · 5.4 mi
Ennis has a rich Czech and Slovak heritage, with many early settlers coming from war-torn European nations that later became Czechoslovakia. This influx of immigrants not only contributed to the city's population growth…
The Town the Railroad Drew on a Map · 5.4 mi
Ennis exists because a railroad needed a place to stop. In 1871 the Houston and Texas Central Railway pushed north into Ellis County and bought roughly 647 acres of farmland at about five dollars an acre to anchor its…
The Day the Frost Tornado Came to Ennis · 5.4 mi
On the afternoon of May 6, 1930, one of the deadliest tornadoes in Texas history tore a path straight toward Ennis. The storm touched down near Bynum in Hill County, crossed into Navarro County and flattened the little…
A Little Bit of Old Czechoslovakia, Every Memorial Day · 5.4 mi
Ennis is one of the great Czech towns of Texas, settled in waves by immigrants from the lands that became Czechoslovakia, and every Memorial Day weekend it throws the party that proves it: the National Polka Festival.…
The Ennis-Born Surgeon Who Got to Connally First · 5.4 mi
James Henry Duke Junior, the surgeon everybody called Red, was born in Ennis on the sixteenth of November, nineteen twenty eight, though his family moved to Hillsboro, where he grew up. He was head yell leader at Texas…
Ernest Tubb, Born Near Crisp · 5.4 mi
A few miles north of Ennis is the little community of Crisp, and that's where Ernest Tubb was born, on a cotton farm, on the ninth of February, nineteen fourteen, into a sharecropper's family. He grew up idolizing…
The Barrel Racer Who Came Back · 5.4 mi
Mary Walker, a barrel racer based in Ennis, had been competing for decades when two blows landed in the same year. In April of twenty eleven, her son Reagon was killed in a car crash on his way to a rodeo. Two months…
The Engine That Blew Up South of Town · 5.4 mi
Early on the morning of the third of November, nineteen oh five, a Houston and Texas Central freight train was about three miles out of Ennis when its engine blew up. The firebox exploded, the train went into the ditch,…
The Bank Sam Bass Decided Not to Rob · 5.4 mi
In July of eighteen seventy eight, the outlaw Sam Bass and his gang rode south toward what turned out to be his last stand, and along the way they sized up banks. One of the riders, Jim Murphy, was secretly working for…
The Handshake That Was Really About Water · 5.4 mi
What kept Ennis alive after the first trains was a deal about water. When the Houston and Texas Central made Ennis the headquarters of its northern division around 1891, it built large machine shops and a roundhouse…
Where Railroads and Cotton Fields Meet · 5.4 mi
For its first sixty years Ennis lived inside a single slogan the Chamber of Commerce eventually made official: Where Railroads and Cotton Fields Meet. It was no exaggeration. The black Blackland Prairie soil around here…
The Town That Got Skipped Came Back Shooting · 5.4 mi
Founding a railroad town created winners and losers, and the losers did not always go quietly. When the Houston and Texas Central chose this spot for its new community in the early 1870s, it bypassed the nearby…
The Night a Twister Walked Down Ennis Avenue · 5.4 mi
Just after midnight on May 15, 2013, an EF1 tornado dropped onto Ennis and walked roughly two and a half miles right down Ennis Avenue, the commercial spine between downtown and Interstate 45. Packing winds near 90…
From a Railroad Engineer's Son to Running AT&T and GM · 5.4 mi
One of the most powerful executives in modern American business was born in this railroad town. Edward Whitacre Jr. was born in Ennis on November 4, 1941, the son of a railroad engineer, in a place still defined by the…
The Dam That Catches the Creek Before It Floods You · 5.4 mi
About five miles south of town, Waxahachie Creek runs into a wall of engineered earth called Lake Bardwell, and the whole thing is a lesson in flood control. Authorized by the federal Flood Control Act of 1960 and built…
The All-Woman Supreme Court · 5.4 mi
Hattie Henenberg was born in Ennis on the sixteenth of February, eighteen ninety three, and she ended up on one of the strangest courts in American history. In nineteen twenty four, a land case reached the Texas Supreme…
The Movie Chain That Started in Ennis · 5.4 mi
The movie theater company Cinemark traces its roots to downtown Ennis. The Plaza Theatre opened on North Dallas Street in nineteen thirty three and later became the Tara, and in nineteen sixty it became the first indoor…
The Ennis Drummer Behind a Blues Standard · 5.4 mi
Rabon Tarrant was born in Ennis on Christmas Day, nineteen oh eight, and he grew up to be a drummer and singer in the jump blues scene in Los Angeles, with saxophonist Jack McVea's band. In nineteen forty six that band…
The Night Ennis Ended the Streak · 5.4 mi
In nineteen seventy five the Cuero Gobblers were the most feared team in Texas high school football. Under coach Buster Gilbreth they had won forty four games in a row. Ennis met them in the Class Three A state…
The Yankees Who Came South and Woke Up to Snow · 5.4 mi
Southeast of Ennis is the little town of Rice, and it has a few odd stories. A town history says that in eighteen seventy seven a trainload of settlers from New York and New Jersey came to Rice looking for a warmer…
The Soda Water War · 5.4 mi
John Vickery had been making soda water in Ennis for twenty years when a man named Charles Hogan opened a rival soda water plant, and Vickery told him that several others had tried to compete with him, and he'd put them…
The Morning After · 5.4 mi
On the night of the eighteenth of August, eighteen eighty, Ennis city marshal Joe Bullard arrested a man named S. B. Alexander for being drunk and boisterous and locked him up. Alexander swore he'd shoot the marshal on…
The Whittled Cartridge · 5.4 mi
One September afternoon in eighteen ninety eight, a seventeen year old sat on some barrels in front of Mr. Nichols' store in Ennis with two brothers, whittling on pistol cartridges. He held one up with the bullet end…
The Cotton Picker's Wagon · 5.4 mi
J. N. Hale was about seventy, a small man who followed the cotton harvest in a wagon, and one September evening he was seen camping with a young cotton picker. The next morning Hale's wagon was standing alone on an old…
The Factory That Vanished From the Trinity · 5.4 mi
Before there was an Ennis, there was a factory dream out on the Trinity River. A settlement called Trinity City was renamed Telico by the middle of the eighteen fifties, after Tellico Plains in Tennessee, and in…
Coaching From a Scooter · 5.4 mi
Sam Harrell took over Ennis football in nineteen ninety four and won state championships in two thousand, two thousand one and two thousand four. In two thousand nine he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and stepped…
The April Tornado · 5.4 mi
On the evening of the twenty eighth of April, nineteen seventy one, around eight o'clock, an F Two tornado touched down just north of Ennis. It was on the ground for only about a mile, a hundred yards wide, but it hurt…
The Falcon That Fell at Two Hundred Forty Two Miles an Hour · 5.4 mi
Ennis had the first Sokol lodge in Texas, founded in nineteen oh eight, and sokol is the Czech word for falcon. So here's a falcon story. Peregrine falcons hunt by diving on other birds in midair, and for years nobody…
Cactus Jack and the Great Flower Fight · 5.4 mi
Ennis is the official Bluebonnet City of Texas, but the bluebonnet had to win a fight to become the state flower. In nineteen oh one the Texas Legislature set out to pick one. Cotton was king, so some lawmakers wanted…
The Dance That Named the Polka Dot · 5.4 mi
Ennis throws the National Polka Festival, so here's how the polka took over the world. The story told in an old music dictionary is that a servant girl in Bohemia made up the dance around eighteen thirty, and a local…
Barley Home, H.P. · 5.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the H.P. Barkley Home, a Victorian beauty built right here in Ennis back in 1892. Think elaborate gingerbread detailing! It was constructed by B.F. Sargeant for Barkley, who was a conductor and…
Old Lake Dam · 5.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Old Lake Dam, built way back in 1891. Now, this wasn't just any old lake; it was a strategic move to bring the Houston and Texas Central Railroad's headquarters to Ennis. The railroad…
The Ennis Rookie in the World Series · 5.4 mi
Charles Hudson was born in Ennis in nineteen fifty nine, pitched at Prairie View A and M, and reached the major leagues with the Philadelphia Phillies in nineteen eighty three. That October, as a rookie, he started Game…
Tornado, Fire and a Czech Parish Reborn · 5.4 mi
The first Czech family in Ennis, the parish history says, was Jacob Sebesta's, in eighteen seventy three. Catholics here first worshipped in a remodeled house. In eighteen eighty seven a tornado destroyed that church,…
The Ennis Native Who Hired Carol Burnett · 5.4 mi
Bob Banner, a native of Ennis, became one of television's great producers. He started in Chicago TV in nineteen forty eight, and as director of The Garry Moore Show he hired a young Carol Burnett as a regular. He won an…
The Laundry and the Gasoline Drum · 5.4 mi
In eighteen ninety six, E. E. and Jennie Collins ran a steam laundry in Ennis that heated its machines with gas made from gasoline, bought in drums from the oil company's local agent. One drum, holding about a hundred…
The Chambers Creek Monster · 5.4 mi
Ennis has its share of Bigfoot stories, all of them witness reports sent in years later, so take them as folklore. One tells of two men fishing on Chambers Creek between Avalon and Ennis back in the nineteen sixties who…
The Czech Tune the Whole World Sang · 5.4 mi
The National Polka Festival here in Ennis celebrates Czech music, so here's the most famous Czech tune of all. In nineteen twenty seven, a bandleader named Jaromír Vejvoda, from Zbraslav on the edge of Prague, wrote a…
Near the Railroad Yards · 5.4 mi
In August of nineteen thirty one, Ellis County deputy William Warren and another deputy stopped to question a man near the railroad yards at Ennis. By the officers' account, the man opened fire as they started to…
Palmer, TX · 5.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Palmer, Texas, a town that owes its existence to the rumble of a train. <break time="400ms"/> In 1872, the Houston and Texas Central Railway laid tracks right through this area, and soon after, a…
The Grocer From Ennis · 5.4 mi
Robert Onstead grew up in Ennis, according to his obituary, and was working in the grocery business here as a young teenager. In nineteen sixty six, he and two partners opened Randalls Food Markets in Houston with two…
Ennis Style · 5.4 mi
Jodie Mikula was born in Telico, just east of Ennis, in nineteen eighteen, and learned the accordion from his uncle. In nineteen sixty seven he formed the Jodie Mikula Orchestra, a family band with his sons, his wife on…
The Wreck on the Way North · 5.4 mi
In the early morning hours of the twenty sixth of September, nineteen seventy four, two men robbed a convenience store in Houston, and one of the clerks was killed. Hours later, heading north, their car wrecked in Ellis…
The Depot That Became the Town's Memory · 5.5 mi
If you want to stand inside the thing that made Ennis, walk into the Ennis Railroad and Cultural Heritage Museum at 105 NE Main Street, in the heart of the downtown historic district just east of the tracks. The museum…
Ennis, Town of · 5.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Ennis, a town born on the railroad in 1872. Originally a market town on the Houston & Texas Central Railway, it was named for a railway official, Cornelius Ennis. Ennis quickly became a hub,…
Southern Pacific Railroad in Ennis · 5.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Ennis, a town born from the railroad. Back in 1887, this spot became the northern end of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad line. The city itself was named for Cornelius Ennis, an early…
Daffan, Katie · 5.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Ennis home of Katie Daffan, a woman who wore many hats in early 20th-century Texas. She started as a teacher, then became an author, writing books including a Texas history textbook. For years,…
Railroads in Ennis · 5.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Ennis, a town that owes its very existence to the railroad. The Houston and Texas Central Railroad laid tracks nearby in 1871, and the very next year, Captain W. G. Veale platted this town along…
Jay Justin Clarke · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Ennis, where on June 15, 1902, a Minor League Baseball game set some wild records. Because of 'Blue Laws' in Corsicana, the game was moved here. Jay Justin Clarke, playing for the Corsicana Oil…
The Doctor Who Never Lived Here · 5.6 mi
Palmer is a namesake town, but not for a family that settled here. When the Houston and Texas Central Railway pushed its rails through northeastern Ellis County in 1872, the new stop was named for D. S. Palmer, a…
Twenty Thousand Bricks a Day · 5.6 mi
The dirt under Palmer turned out to be worth something. In 1902 Robert Smith founded the Palmer Press Brick Company here, betting on the heavy local clay of the Blackland Prairie. Brickmaking is applied materials…
When the Electric Cars Ran Through · 5.6 mi
Long before the interstate, Palmer had electric commuter service. In 1913 the Southern Traction Company completed a fifty-six-mile electric interurban line from Dallas to Corsicana, and the cars ran right through…
Ennis City Hall · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Ennis City Hall, a building that's served this community since 1915. Look at that Classical Revival style, designed by Hix McCanless, a Tennessee native who became Ennis's top architect and city…
Ennis National Bank · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the historic Ennis National Bank building, constructed way back in 1883. That same year, the bank opened its doors with Joseph Baldridge at the helm. For over thirty years, until 1917, the bank ran…
Matthews - Atwood House · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Ennis, and right here is the Matthews-Atwood House. In 1900, Pearl C. Matthews and his brother Will opened a second department store in Ennis, expanding their business from McKinney. Pearl and his…
Moore House · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Moore House in Ennis, a stunning example of Neoclassical Revival architecture built back in 1905. It was home to Malinda and Hardin T. Moore. Malinda was quite a force – widowed twice, she…
First Baptist Church of Palmer · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Palmer, and right here is the site of the First Baptist Church. It all started on November 17th, 1873, when Reverend T.H. Durham preached the first sermon. Early services were held in members'…
First Christian Church of Palmer · 5.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Palmer, where a unique community effort in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1880</say-as> led to a shared church building. Members of the First Christian Church, originally organized here in…
Jack Lummus · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Ennis, where a local farm boy became a national hero. Jack Lummus was born right here in Ellis County in 1915. He was good at sports, playing football for the New York Giants before joining the…
Harkey - Payne House · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Harkey-Payne House, a home that's seen quite a bit of Texas history. Carpenter D. H. Harkey built the original four rooms around 1870. Then, in 1896, Dr. Johnson came along and added a whole…
Lummus, Andrew Jackson, Jr. [Jack] · 5.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
Medal of Honor recipient, Andrew Jackson Lummus, Jr., referred to as Jack, was born on October 22, 1915, in Ennis, Texas, a cotton-farming town. He was the son of Andrew Jackson Lummus, Sr., a cotton farmer, and Laura…
National Polka Festival · 5.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
The National Polka Festival, an annual music festival held each May in Ennis, Texas, was first organized in 1966 by Raymond Zapletal, Len Gehrig, and Joe Liska, in conjunction with Jack McKay, head of the local Chamber…
The Fake Punt That Won the Game of the Century · 5.9 mi
The throw that sent SMU to the Rose Bowl in nineteen thirty five came from a kid born in Ennis. Bob Finley was born here in nineteen fifteen. On November thirtieth, nineteen thirty five, SMU and TCU, both undefeated and…
Coronado, Sam Zaragosa, Jr. · 5.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
The son of Sam Zaragosa and Margarita Coronado, Sam Z. Coronado, Jr., artist, educator, and cultural activist, was born on July 12, 1946, in the small farm town of Ennis, Texas. His maternal grandparents were cotton…
Ivery, Marchel Lee · 5.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ennis, Texas, where jazz saxophonist Marchel Lee Ivery was born. Ivery grew up in a musical household, but it was hearing Charlie Parker that made him switch from trumpet to saxophone. After…
Ennis, TX · 5.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ennis, Texas, a town born from a railroad rivalry. Back in 1871, the Houston and Texas Central Railway reached this spot, and a new community was named for an official, Cornelius Ennis. But the…
The Ennis Cartoonist Behind Bugs and Scrooge · 5.9 mi
One of the people behind Bugs Bunny and Uncle Scrooge comic books was born in Ennis. Chase Craig was born here in nineteen ten. He studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, and in the late nineteen thirties he worked…
The Czech Valley That Named the Dollar · 5.9 mi
Ennis is one of the great Czech towns in Texas, and the word in your wallet comes from a Czech valley. In fifteen sixteen a rich silver mine opened near a town in Bohemia called Sankt Joachimsthal, Saint Joachim's…
Daffan, Lawrence Aylett · 5.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ennis, Texas, a town that was home to Lawrence Daffan. Daffan was just 16 when he enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861, heading east to Virginia to join Hood's Texas Brigade. He fought in…
Mikula, Josef Matej [Jodie] · 5.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, and right here is the story of Josef Matej Mikula, known to everyone as Jodie. Born in Telico in 1918, Jodie was a Texas-Czech musician who became a legend in the polka world. He…
Sharp, John Henry · 5.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Robertson County, and right here is where John Henry Sharp got his start. Born in 1874, he grew up on a farm, studied law, and eventually became a judge. But what's really interesting is his…
Central Texas League · 5.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Central Texas, and right here, you're passing through the heart of what was once the Central Texas League. This was a minor league baseball circuit that ran from 1914 to 1917, but it was shaky…
Rankin, Frederick Harrison · 5.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once Spanish Texas, and right here, you're near the lands granted to Frederick Harrison Rankin. He was one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, arriving in 1822. By 1824,…
Burnam Square and Cemetery · 6.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Burnam Square, a town that vanished thanks to a railroad. In 1856, William and Edeline House bought this land for the price of a slave named John. After her husband died, Edeline laid out…
Myrtle Cemetery · 6.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Myrtle Cemetery, a final resting place with roots stretching back to the very beginnings of Texas. The land was first deeded for burials in 1875, named for a child whose lone grave was part of the…
Wayman Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church · 6.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Wayman Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Ennis. Organized in 1880 by residents who moved from Telico, the congregation was led in the early 1900s by Dr. C.A. Harris. In 1905,…
Rankin, Frederick Harrison · 6.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site where Frederick Harrison Rankin lived out his long life in Texas. Born in Kentucky in 1795, Rankin was among the very first settlers to arrive with Stephen F. Austin's initial colony back in…
The Crimson Limited · 6.4 mi
Imagine a time before Interstate 45, when the most modern way to travel was electric rail. Palmer sat on the Texas Electric Railway's Dallas-to-Corsicana line — sleek electric cars running down through Hutchins, Wilmer,…
Palmer, TX · 6.4 mi
In 1983, the town of Palmer gained a moment in the spotlight when parts of the film Tender Mercies were filmed here. Directed by Bruce Beresford, the movie tells the story of a country western singer. While most of the…
Old Bardwell · 6.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Old Bardwell. In the 1880s, this area was known as Pleasant Valley, a hub for cotton farmers. A cotton gin was built here in 1883, and the town was eventually named Bardwell after its…
Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Ennis (Ennis) · 7.0 mi
Ennis (Ennis, TX) placed on the 5A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Keno Castillo (0.459 avg, 1 HR); Kevin Rodriguez (3 HR).
Staff Sergeant Cochran's Fight in the Ho Bo Woods · 7.2 mi
The bridge on State Highway Thirty Four named for Staff Sergeant Robert E. Cochran honors a Vietnam soldier whose home was Rosser, Texas. Robert Edmund Cochran was born in Kaufman County in September nineteen forty one.…
Alma · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Alma, a town that owes its very name to a little girl. The first settlers arrived here way back in 1848. But it wasn't until 1871, when the railroad came through, that Alma officially got its…
A Smokehouse on the Frontage Road · 8.2 mi
Alma is the kind of place you pass on the interstate without slowing down, but there is a reason to tap the brakes: Alma Smokehouse BBQ, a family-owned barbecue joint right on the I-45 frontage road. It has been smoking…
From a Stagecoach Pond to a Railroad Town · 8.3 mi
Before there was a town, there was a watering hole. In the 1840s a Tennessee settler bought a thousand acres beside a lake called Willow Pond, which served as a stagecoach stop on the road between Waxahachie and…
The Black Dirt That Grew an Empire of Cotton · 8.4 mi
Alma sits on the Texas Blackland Prairie, a belt of dark, clay-rich soil that runs for about three hundred miles across the state. That black dirt is some of the most fertile farmland in the world, and it is the reason…
Rosser Depot · 8.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Rosser, Texas, a town that owes its existence to the railroad. Originally called Trinidad and reliant on the Trinity River for trade, things changed in 1882 when the Houston and Texas Central…
Rosser, TX · 8.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving southwest of Kaufman on Highway 34, and you're passing through Rosser. This town owes its very existence to the railroad. Back in 1872, the Texas and Pacific Railway began construction right through this…
Moving a Town for the Train · 8.7 mi
You might think a town is a permanent thing, but Rosser has been more than one place and more than one name. Before this was Rosser, the land here was settled before 1850 and platted in 1851 as a townsite called…
King Cotton's Capital · 8.7 mi
If you could travel back to Rosser a century ago, you'd find a busier place than this. It began as Trinidad, platted in 1851 on the East Fork of the Trinity, and its first fortune was riverboats - an advantage that died…
Alma, TX · 8.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Alma, Texas, a community with roots stretching back to the early 1840s. <break time="400ms"/> It all started with settlers like Thomas Smith, who claimed land around a spot called Willow Pond.…
The Field of Dreams That Reinvented Drag Racing · 9.0 mi
Out on U.S. 287 south of town sits a piece of motorsports that changed its entire sport. The Texas Motorplex, at 7500 U.S. Highway 287, was built in 1986 by former funny-car driver Billy Meyer, and it was the first…
Grady School, Site of · 9.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the old Grady School, just outside Palmer. It started in 1895, built to educate the children of the pioneer Farrar family. The first building sat on a hill overlooking Red Oak Creek. By…
Thomas C. Neel · 9.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Ennis, where the town's name has roots right here. Thomas C. Neel, a Georgia native, settled near here in 1855 with his wife, Willia. Their cotton and wheat plantation became known as Will's Town,…
The Dam That Holds Back the Floods · 9.6 mi
Just northeast of town sits Bardwell Lake, and it is not really there for fun, it is a flood-control machine. In the 1960s the Army Corps of Engineers dammed Waxahachie Creek with an earthen embankment more than eighty…
Smith Cemetery · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Smith Cemetery, established back in 1852. It started as a burial place for pioneers on a lonely knoll, but today it overlooks nine urban areas. Nancy Owen Smith founded this spot for her family and…
The Brick Capital of Texas · 9.9 mi
As you look around Ferris, try to imagine this town with giant smokestacks belching smoke into the sky, day and night. That was the reality for decades when Ferris was called the brick capital—of Texas, and by the 1950s…
From Clay to City: The Science of a Ferris Brick · 9.9 mi
The success of Ferris wasn't just luck; it was a story of materials science. The town sits on a deposit of Taylor Marl, a clay with a near-perfect chemical composition for making strong, durable bricks. The…
Ferris, TX · 9.9 mi
The city of Ferris, Texas, was named in honor of Judge Justus Wesley Ferris of Waxahachie. He played a pivotal role in the establishment of the town when a local family deeded approximately 100 acres of land to four…
Rutherford's Crossing Bridge · 10.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Rutherford's Crossing Bridge, built back in 1919 by the Texas Bridge Company for just over 500 bucks. Before this Warren Pony truss bridge went up, locals had to ford Red Oak Creek. That crossing was…
Ferris, TX · 10.6 mi
Ferris, Texas, has a rich history that began in the early 1870s. The town was officially established on September 28, 1874, when a local family donated 100 acres for a town and railway station. The community was named…
Ferris, City of · 10.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Ferris, a town with roots stretching back to 1851. That's when the Ephriam Andrews family and their in-laws, the McKnights, settled this area on purchased land. By 1874, the Andrews family deeded…
First United Methodist Church of Ferris · 10.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Ferris, a town that sprung up around the Houston & Texas Central Railway back in 1874. Right here is the site of the First United Methodist Church. Circuit-riding ministers first served this…
First Presbyterian Church of Ferris · 10.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Ferris, and you're passing the site of the First Presbyterian Church. This congregation started way back in 1858 with just 13 members. They moved to this spot in 1875, and the building you see…
Rice Cemetery · 11.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving by the Rice Cemetery, a final resting place for folks who settled Navarro County in the late 1860s. The land was granted in 1868 by the interests of William Marsh Rice, the same guy who later founded Rice…
Duff, Virginia Elizabeth · 11.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, and right here is the story of Virginia Elizabeth Duff. Born in Ferris in 1920, she grew up with a family steeped in Texas politics. After graduating from Trinity University and…
Ferris, TX · 11.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Ferris is on Interstate Highway 45, U.S. Highway 75, and Farm roads 660, 664, and 983 fifteen miles northeast of Waxahachie in northeastern Ellis County. It was named for Judge Justus W. Ferris of Waxahachie, a county…
The Boll Weevil Line · 11.2 mi
The town of Bardwell owes its very existence to a railroad nicknamed 'The Boll Weevil Line.' In 1907, the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway laid its tracks right through here, and the town as you see it was born…
Newton Boys · 11.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Callahan County, not far from Cottonwood, where the infamous Newton Boys got their start. These brothers – Willis, Joe, Jess, and Doc – weren't just any outlaws. By the time they were done, they'd…
The Railway That Engineered a Town · 11.2 mi
The grid of streets you’re driving through in Bardwell isn’t accidental; it’s a direct result of a major engineering project from 1907: the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway. Building a railroad isn't just about laying…
The Town That Followed the Railroad · 11.2 mi
Bardwell began in the 1880s around a cotton gin built by a man named John Bardwell on the Blackland Prairie. But the town you would find today is not quite where it started. When a railroad was routed through Ellis…
Bardwell, TX · 11.2 mi
In the early 1880s, John W. Bardwell built a cotton gin one mile south of the present-day location, marking the beginning of the community. A school opened in 1892, and a post office was established in 1893. The town's…
Bardwell, TX · 11.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, not far from Waxahachie, and you're passing through Bardwell. This community got its start in the early 1880s, not with a town square, but with a cotton gin built by John W.…
Griffin, Meade Felix · 11.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
Right here in Callahan County, you're passing through the birthplace of Meade Felix Griffin, a man who reached the pinnacle of Texas law. Born in Cottonwood in 1894, Griffin wasn't just a lawyer; he was a decorated…
Herring, Benjamin Oscar · 11.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, and right here in Bardwell, Texas, is where Benjamin Oscar Herring was born in 1889. He became a Baptist pastor and a university administrator, but his biggest impact might be at…
Nordyke, Lewis Thaddeus · 11.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Callahan County, near Cottonwood, the birthplace of Lewis Thaddeus Nordyke. Born in 1905, Nordyke grew up on a farm called Nubbin Ridge. After graduating from college and teaching for a bit, he…
Boren Cemetery · 11.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Boren Cemetery, a final resting place for folks who settled this part of Texas. Michael Boren and his wife Mary Ann arrived here from Kentucky in 1847, bringing their children and enslaved people…
Cottonwood, TX (Madison County) · 11.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Madison County, and right here is Cottonwood. It started around 1880, named for the cottonwood trees that grew along Iron Creek. A schoolhouse went up on land donated by J. R. Day, and for a brief…
Burgers and Barbecue on Sycamore Street · 11.3 mi
A town of a few hundred people does not get many restaurants, so the couple Bardwell has, it earns. Out on Sycamore Street you will find the Bardwell Ice House, a local spot slinging burgers, wings, and cheesesteaks…
Cottonwood Cemetery · 11.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Cottonwood Cemetery, established way back in 1882. It started on land given by J. W. Swayze, intended for a church, a school, and this burial ground. The very first person laid to rest here was J. R.…
Rice · 11.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Rice, a town that owes its very existence to a railroad and a flood. Back in the late 1860s, settlers fleeing a devastating flood at Porter's Bluff found a new home here. Then, in 1872, the…
Haynie Memorial Methodist Church · 11.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Haynie Memorial Methodist Church. It all began in 1874 when the Rev. William Vaughn founded this congregation. The land itself was donated by W. M. Rice, a big name in railroads and…
Cottonwood Baptist Church · 11.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Cottonwood Baptist Church near Scurry. Organized in 1880 with Reverend A. M. K. Sowell as its first pastor, this congregation started worship in a simple log building. That land was donated for…
Rice, TX · 11.7 mi
Rice is a staple food that has been cultivated for thousands of years, with Asian rice domesticated in China 13,500 to 8,200 years ago and African rice independently domesticated in West Africa about 3,000 years ago. In…
Rockett Christian Church · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Rockett Christian Church, a building that's seen over a century of Texas history. The congregation started gathering way back in 1853, but they formally organized in 1894. This beautiful…
First Baptist Church of Rice · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Rice, Texas, a town named for railroadman William Marsh Rice. Back in 1875, just three years after the railroad arrived, a group of locals gathered to start their own Baptist congregation. For…
Richardson Cemetery · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Reagor Springs, a place named for a family whose descendants are buried right here. John I. Richardson, a surveyor and Confederate veteran, and his wife Ann Elizabeth, are interred in this…
The Fortson Family · 11.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past The Fortson Family. Members of the Fortson family came to Texas from Mississippi and settled in Navarro County in the 1840s. Civil War veteran James T. Fortson wed Ida Clayton, daughter of another…
Graves Cemetery · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Graves Cemetery, a final resting place for many of Ellis County's earliest pioneers. The first marked grave here belongs to Joseph Hinkle, who was laid to rest in 1859. His son-in-law, Robert Russell…
The University Born from a Murder · 12.0 mi
The name of this town, Rice, is your entry point to a Gilded Age true-crime story. It was named for William Marsh Rice, a key investor in the railroad. In 1900, the 84-year-old millionaire was living in New York City…
The Train Car on the Ballfield · 12.0 mi
On a late October evening in two thousand ten, a tornado came through Rice and left a railroad car sitting on the high school baseball field. It was October twenty-fourth. The tornado touched down about four miles…
The Liberty Bell Rolled Through in the Dark · 12.0 mi
On a November night in nineteen fifteen, the Liberty Bell rolled through Rice on a flatcar, hours late, partly because people kept slowing the train down. That year the bell toured the country by rail, to the…
The Chatfield Novelist · 12.0 mi
About five miles east of Rice, in the community of Chatfield, was born a writer whose first novel may have been the first Black nationalist novel in America. Sutton Elbert Griggs was born at Chatfield in eighteen…
The Interstate That Remade Rice · 12.0 mi
The road you are on right now, Interstate 45, is what most people notice about Rice. But this town is older than the highway by about ninety years, and it is named for a man worth knowing. Rice was settled in the late…
Rice, TX · 12.0 mi
The city's namesake is William Marsh Rice, who donated the land for a community school. He is also known for founding Rice University. The city's unofficial motto is 'The city so nice, they named it Rice.'
Does Wedding Rice Make Birds Explode? · 12.0 mi
Rice is named for William Marsh Rice, the railroad man, not the grain. But here's the grain's strangest myth. For years people have warned that rice thrown at weddings swells up inside birds and makes them explode. In…
The Texas Breeder Who Picked the Miracle Rice · 12.0 mi
Rice is named for a railroad man, not the grain. But the grain has a Texas hero. In March nineteen thirty one, Hank Beachell became the first rice breeder in Texas, at the federal and Texas A and M research station in…
The Rice That Broke the King · 12.0 mi
Rice is named for a railroad man, not the grain, but the grain stars in one of the most famous math legends ever told. The inventor of chess is offered any reward by his king. He asks for one grain on the first square…
Rice, TX (Navarro County) · 12.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving north on I-45, and right here in Navarro County is the town of Rice. It started in the late 1860s, but really took off when the Houston and Texas Central Railway arrived in 1872. The railroad owner…
Elm Branch Cemetery · 12.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Elm Branch Cemetery, a quiet resting place for generations of Ellis County settlers. The earliest marked burial here is Martha R. Tidwell, who died way back on November 28, 1877. This rural community…
Wildcat Pride: The Forging of a School · 12.4 mi
In a lot of small Texas towns, the most important institution isn't city hall; it's the school. And here, that school has a story. For decades Scurry and the nearby town of Rosser each had their own schools and their…
Engineering the Prairie: Laying the T&NO Line · 12.4 mi
The railroad tracks that cut through Scurry represent a real feat of nineteenth-century civil engineering, and a real gamble. The Texas Trunk Railroad was chartered in November of 1879 with a grand plan: Dallas…
Scurry, TX · 12.4 mi
Scurry is named in honor of Scurry Dean, who was killed during the Civil War. When local residents requested a post office, they submitted the name 'Scurry' in his memory.
Ellis County Farm Cemetery · 12.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Ellis County Farm Cemetery, also known as the Pauper Cemetery. This burial ground was part of a county farm established in the 1890s to support the needy. Between 1890 and 1946, it served as the…
Pleasant Grove Cemetery · 12.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Kaufman County, past Pleasant Grove Cemetery. The earliest burial here is Harriet Mathis, who died in 1873 at just eight years old. Her parents later donated land for a school and early churches,…
Tubb, Ernest Dale · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, not far from where Ernest Tubb, the legendary "Gold Chain Troubador," was born in Crisp back in 1914. He learned guitar on his own, got a break from Jimmie Rodgers' widow, and landed…
Texas National Research Laboratory Commission · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, near the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, where a massive scientific endeavor once promised to put Texas on the map. Back in 1985, the Texas National Research Laboratory Commission was…
Burnham, TX · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Burnham (Burnam) was on the Ascensión Gonsaba land grant six miles southwest of Ennis in southeastern Ellis County. In 1861 the House family received a portion of this grant in exchange for a slave called John. Edeline…
Lyman's Wagontrain · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
The five-day siege of Capt. Wyllys Lyman's wagontrain, sometimes known as the battle of the Upper Washita, was the longest and one of the most publicized engagements of the Red River War . During Col. Nelson A. Miles's…
Smith, Thomas Ingles · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Thomas I. (often J.) Smith, Texas Ranger and Indian agent, was born on May 30, 1800, in Montgomery, Virginia, the son of Bird B. Smith and Rhoda Ingles. He reportedly experienced his first combat as a young boy during…
Telico, TX · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Telico is on Farm Road 1181 five miles east of Ennis in east central Ellis County. The site that became Telico was settled before 1856 and, as it lay near the banks of the Trinity River, was originally called Trinity…
Bells' Chapel Cemetery · 13.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Bells' Chapel Cemetery, founded way back in 1875. Local landowners John and Elizabeth Gibbons gave the land for the church and cemetery on December 27th of that year, deeding it to the Methodist…
Nineteenth Texas Cavalry · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through North Texas, the heart of where the Nineteenth Texas Cavalry was formed during the Civil War. Fear of the draft pushed many men to join this mounted regiment in March of 1862, hoping to keep their…
Young, Harvey W. · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what is now Ellis County, a place that saw a lot of action in the 19th century. Harvey W. Young arrived here in 1842 and quickly became a key figure. He served as the sheriff of Ellis County in…
Forreston, TX · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Forreston is on U.S. Highway 77 and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas tracks eight miles south of Waxahachie in south central Ellis County. At first the site was called Howe's Settlement, after William R. Howe, who arrived…
Trumbull, TX · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Trumbull is near Interstate Highway 45 and U.S. Highway 75 ten miles north of Ennis in northeastern Ellis County. The area that became Trumbull was settled in 1872, when the Houston and Texas Central Railway established…
Beall, James Andrew [Jack] · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, near Mountain Peak, the birthplace of James Andrew Beall. Born in 1866, Beall became a lawyer and a politician, serving in both the Texas Legislature and the U.S. Congress. But his…
Auburn, TX · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Auburn was sixteen miles southwest of Waxahachie in western Ellis County. Some of its first settlers were from a caravan of 105 covered wagons that originated in Arkansas in 1852. They were attracted by the water supply…
Avalon, TX (Ellis County) · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Avalon is an agricultural community located at State Highway 34 and Farm Road 55 about fourteen miles southeast of Waxahachie in southern Ellis County. Settlers began to arrive in the area along Chambers Creek in the…
Byrd, TX (Ellis County) · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Byrd was on Farm Road 985 near Clear Creek sixteen miles southeast of Waxahachie and eight miles southwest of Ennis in Ellis County. The original settlers to the Byrd area included H. L. Parker, Dan Faulk, Rube Warren,…
Oak, TX · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
The Oak community, also known as Oak Branch, was on the Oak Branch of Chambers Creek three miles northeast of Maypearl in the southwest corner of Ellis County. Oak was once a prosperous farming community with a cotton…
The Gift and Curse of the Blackland Soil · 13.4 mi
The reason Pecan Hill exists is a story of soil science. You're on the Blackland Prairie, famous for dark, clay-rich ground weathered out of Taylor Marl. This soil is packed with a mineral called montmorillonite, and it…
Pecan Hill, TX · 13.4 mi
Pecan Hill is a community in Texas.
A City Born to Block Dallas · 13.8 mi
For its first eighty-odd years, the community of Combine didn't have a mayor or a city council. It was just a scattering of farms straddling the Dallas and Kaufman county line, with a post office that had come and gone…
The Living Clay Under Scurry · 13.9 mi
The dark earth around Scurry is one of the most famous soils on the planet. This is the Texas Blackland Prairie, and its signature clay, Houston Black, is the official Texas state soil and a textbook example of a…
The Name Behind Scurry · 13.9 mi
Scurry sits on State Highway 34, about four miles southwest of Kaufman. The first settlers reached this stretch of blackland in the mid-1840s, and over the next twenty-five years a scattering of farms grew into a…
From Cotton Boom to Comeback · 13.9 mi
For its first decades, Scurry ran on cotton. When the Texas and Pacific Railway reached the area in the 1870s, the town became a shipping point where surrounding farmers loaded their bales and grain for market. Kaufman…
Scurry, TX · 14.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Scurry, Texas, a town that owes its name to a Civil War soldier. Back in the mid-1840s, settlers started farming this land. By the 1870s, the railroad arrived, turning the area into a shipping…
Higgins, Michael Francis · 14.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, not far from Red Oak, the birthplace of Michael Francis "Pinky" Higgins. He earned his nickname in a unique way, reportedly showing up for a sandlot football game wearing his clothes…
Fry - Butcher House · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising past the Fry-Butcher House, a beautiful example of Queen Anne architecture right here in Red Oak. Sam and Sarah Jane Fry bought this land in 1882 and, with the help of carpenter Lewis Butcher, built this…
Red Oak, TX · 14.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving south of Dallas on I-35, and right here is Red Oak. This town started out as Possum Trot back in 1844, named for the critters that were everywhere. The first settlers were the James E. Patton family, who…
First Bapist Church of Waxahachie · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Waxahachie, and right here is the site of the First Baptist Church, a community cornerstone for over 150 years. It all started way back in 1861, with just twelve members meeting in the local…
Chatfield Baptist Church · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Chatfield, Texas, where a remarkable story of faith and community unfolded. Back in 1849, Robert Hodge, a wealthy landowner, allowed his enslaved people to organize their own churches. They shared a…
Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Scurry, a place that's been a cornerstone of this community since 1860. Imagine this: during the Civil War, this congregation was meeting in a simple log…
Kaufman Lodge No. 726, A.F. & A.M. · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Scurry, a town that got its start in the 1880s. Back then, heavy rains could make roads impassable, which was a problem for the Masons in Kaufman. So, in 1890, sixteen members petitioned for a new…
Winniford House · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Winniford House, a testament to Texas grit and good design. William Johnson Winniford arrived here in 1853, chasing opportunity after a stint in the California Gold Rush. He homesteaded 320…
General Lucian K. Truscott, Jr. · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Chatfield, the hometown of General Lucian K. Truscott, Jr. This Texas native was a true military powerhouse, serving from World War I all the way through the Cold War. What makes him stand out?…
Chatfield United Methodist Church · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Chatfield, and right here is the site of the Chatfield United Methodist Church. It all started way back in 1846 when Reverend J.E. Ferguson preached to Methodists in this area. Robert Hodge, the…
Red Oak High's Father-Daughter Olympic Medalists · 14.9 mi
Red Oak High School can claim something almost no school anywhere can: a father and daughter who both stood on an Olympic medal stand in the same event. Michelle Carter grew up in Red Oak and graduated from Red Oak High…
Oak Lawn School · 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the former site of Oak Lawn School, a beacon for Black education in Waxahachie. It started in 1887 as an elementary school, moving to this very location in 1893. By the turn of the century, high…
The Courthouse and the Sculptor's Revenge · 15.0 mi
The magnificent building in the center of the square is the Ellis County Courthouse — cornerstone laid on the Fourth of July, 1895, and finished in 1897. It's a masterpiece, but the real story is in the stone. Look…
Catching Lightning in a Camera · 15.0 mi
As you roll into Waxahachie, look toward the middle of the square, because you are about to see one of the most photographed landmarks in all of Texas. Rising over the downtown is the Ellis County Courthouse, a red…
Waxahachie, TX · 15.0 mi
Waxahachie, a city in Ellis County, Texas, has a rich history that dates back to its founding in 1850. The city, which became the county seat, was incorporated in 1871. A pivotal moment in its development came in 1875…
Hollywood in the Heart of Texas · 15.0 mi
In 1983, Hollywood came to Waxahachie, but it felt more like a homecoming. Director Robert Benton, raised right here, chose his hometown for 'Places in the Heart,' a Depression-era story about a widow fighting to keep…
The Inland Port: An Engineering Marvel · 15.1 mi
As you drive along I-45, you're passing one of the most important pieces of modern infrastructure in Texas: the Union Pacific Dallas Intermodal Terminal, a hundred-million-dollar, 360-acre yard that opened in September…
Joshua Chapel, A.M.E. Church · 15.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Joshua Chapel, an important landmark in Waxahachie's African American community. Organized in 1876, this congregation was named for its first pastor, the Reverend Joshua Goins, a man who started many…
Wilmer, TX · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Wilmer, Texas, a town that started as a railroad stop called Prairie Valley. It got its current name in 1884, named after a Houston and Texas Central conductor who passed through. By 1890, it was…

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Crisp, Texas

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Phillip R. Pierce

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Lummus, Andrew Jackson, Jr. [Jack]

National Polka Festival

Coronado, Sam Zaragosa, Jr.

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