Cumby, Texas

You're driving through Cumby, and right here is the site of Mt. Zion, a place where two churches once stood side-by-side. The Methodist Episcopal Church organized here way back before Hopkins County was even created, in…

You're driving past Stewart Cemetery, a final resting place for some of Hunt County's earliest settlers. John and Ellen Stewart arrived around 1843, with John reportedly building the very first pioneer home in eastern…

Imagine standing in downtown Campbell in 1925. You'd hear a steam whistle on the old East Line and Red River tracks — a road the Missouri-Kansas-Texas bought back in 1881, so folks here just called it the Katy. The…

State Highway Twenty Four near Commerce carries a local name, the Flying Tiger Memorial Highway. And Commerce has a real claim on the Flying Tigers. Claire Lee Chennault, the man who organized them, was born in Commerce…

You're driving through Greenville, a town that was once a hub for higher learning. Look around, and imagine a time when this area hosted not one, but several colleges. Henry College started it all back in 1892, founded…

A genuine American hero was born in tiny Campbell. Fred Kenneth Moore came into the world here in 1921, joined the Navy, and found himself aboard the battleship USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor on the morning of December…

Campbell was born from a railroad in 1880, when a new line reached east from Greenville and a town grew up around the station. Its first official name was a curious one: Oliverea. But the locals never took to it,…

You're driving through Hopkins County, and you're passing the site of the Oakland Cumberland Presbyterian Church. After the Civil War, the Stewart family fled Alabama when their church was burned. In 1882, they settled…

It is hard to imagine now, but this little farm town once had a college, and then lost it, twice, in just fourteen years. Henry College opened in 1892 to give a real education to the poor boys and girls of the county,…

You're driving through Campbell, Texas, where in 1892, Henry College opened its doors. It was founded by two men named Henry, aiming to give a first-class education to local boys and girls. But just four years later, in…

You're driving through Campbell, Texas, a town that once had big dreams of becoming an educational hub. Back in 1903, Emerson College opened its doors, named for the famous writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was a private…

You're driving through Hunt County, just east of Greenville. Right here is Campbell, a town born from the railroad. It started in the fall of 1880 when the East Line and Red River Railroad pushed through. A post office…

You're driving by the old Stewart Cemetery, known earlier as Birdwell's Graveyard. The earliest marked grave dates to 1879, though the site was used as early as 1870. The last burial here was in 1915.

You're driving past the site of the Miller Grove Methodist Church. Organized in 1870, the congregation met in the schoolhouse before building their own sanctuary here in 1900. The church was renamed Miller Grove United…

You're driving past Commerce, where John T. Knight arrived way back in 1878. For decades, he was a powerhouse here, serving on the school board for over thirty years, running a grocery store, and heading up local banks.…

You're driving past Miller Grove Cemetery, serving the community since before Hopkins County was formed in 1846. The oldest known burials here date to 1869, and the cemetery features monuments for Woodmen of the World…

You're driving through Commerce, Texas, hometown of Claire Lee Chennault. He was a retired U.S. Army Air Corps captain who, in the lead-up to World War II, organized and commanded the First American Volunteer Group of…

Mickey Mantle, major-league baseball star, was born in Spavinaw, Oklahoma, on October 20, 1931, the son of Elvin Clark "Mutt" and Lovell (Richardson) Mantle. Baseball was part of Mickey Mantle's heritage; Mutt Mantle…

You're driving through Commerce, Texas, the birthplace of Claire Lee Chennault. He was a Texas aviator who became a legend in World War II, organizing the famous Flying Tigers in China. Despite disagreements over…

You're driving near Commerce, Texas, the birthplace of Clarence T. English, a transportation pioneer who started his freight business with just one truck in 1933. By 1937, he had grown that fleet to 108 trucks, and by…

Right here in Commerce, you're driving past a place with a connection to a pioneering Texas artist and educator, Stella La Mond. In 1940, La Mond helped found the Printmakers Guild, a group that was originally limited…

You're driving through Hunt County, near Commerce, the home of Texas A&M University-Commerce. But this campus has a dramatic origin story, all thanks to William Leonidas Mayo. He arrived in Pecan Gap in 1886, nearly…

You're driving through Commerce, Texas, and right here is where Mary Carroll Austin, the eighth First Lady of East Texas State University, left her mark. She arrived in 1982 with her husband, the new university…

You're driving through Commerce, Texas, the birthplace of a unique educational experiment. It all started back in 1889 in nearby Cooper, when William L. Mayo founded his 'democratic school.' But disaster struck when the…

You're driving through Commerce, Texas, a town whose very name tells its story. Back in 1872, pioneer merchant William Jernigin opened a store right here, on the corner of what's now the town square. He needed a place…

You're driving through Commerce, Texas, a town that owes a lot to the leaders of its educational institutions. Right here, Claire Rush Ferguson served as president of the Woman's Culture Club from 1949 to 1951. This…

You're driving through Commerce, Texas, the home of Charles Ternay Neu, a historian who dedicated his life to preserving the past. Born in Brenham in 1885, Neu earned degrees from the University of Texas and later a…

You're driving through Hunt County, perhaps near Commerce, Texas. Right here, Lucie Braden Love Whitley lived a life dedicated to education and heritage. She was the first lady of East Texas State Teachers College,…

Martha Jo Lee McDowell, educator and civic leader, was well-known for her position within East Texas State University (now Texas A&M University-Commerce) as a teacher, administrator, and wife of the seventh president of…

You're driving past the President's House in Commerce, a building with a story stretching back to 1927. Designed by Greenville architects, this home showcases a subtle Georgian revival style with its dark red brick and…

Commerce, Texas, was founded in 1872 by two merchants, William Jernigan and Josiah Jackson, who established a trading post and mercantile store where the present-day downtown area is. The town was named 'Commerce' due…

You're driving past where Commerce's schools have been educating kids for over a century. By 1883, the town's first public school was already too small. So, the Commerce Educational Association bought land right here…

You're driving through Commerce, Texas, but this area owes its start to Josiah Hart Jackson. Born in Kentucky, he arrived in Texas back in 1839. By the 1850s, he opened Jackson's store just a mile northeast of here.…

You're driving past Lebanon Cemetery, a burial ground used since the 1860s. Rebecca Hart Williams Little deeded this land for church and school in 1871. The adjacent Lebanon School stood here until 1945.

You're driving through Commerce, and right here is the site of East Texas State University. It started way back in 1889 as the Mayo School, just 16 miles north in Cooper. It reopened here in 1894 in a brick store on the…

You're driving through Commerce, Texas, a town that owes its very name to a merchant named William Jernigin. He arrived here in 1856, a former legislator from Tennessee. After establishing himself as a pioneer merchant…

You're driving past the site of the very first American Legion Post in Texas! It was established right here in Commerce back in 1919, the same year the national organization got its start. The idea came after the…

You're driving past the old Commerce Post Office, a building that went up during World War I. Construction started in July 1917 and finished in August 1918, facing delays because of the war. It served as the city's main…

You're driving through Commerce, Texas, where this First Baptist Church started back on November 15th, 1883. Nine charter members kicked things off as the Missionary Baptist Church of Commerce. They met in a shared…

You're driving through Commerce, Texas, and right here is the site of the First Christian Church. Back in the 1850s, families from the Christian Church, also known as the Disciples of Christ, started settling in this…

You're driving past the site of Methodism's long history in Commerce. The earliest settlers here were served by two Methodist congregations, Lebanon and Mt. Zion. As the community grew, local Methodists gathered in a…

You're driving past the birthplace of Claire Chennault, the legendary commander of the Flying Tigers. In 1937, this Commerce native was asked by China's Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek to build an air force to fight off…

You're driving through Commerce, Texas, a town that owes its name and existence to a shift in traffic and a vote in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1885</say-as>. It all started back in <say-as…

You're driving past the site of several churches that have occupied this land. The Missionary Baptist Church built here in 1893, followed by the Commerce Church of Christ in 1913. Later, Baptist congregations from Paris…

As you look around Commerce, you're in the heart of a unique kingdom—the kingdom of a tree. Commerce is the official 'Bois d'Arc Capital of Texas.' That's 'bow-dark,' and the tree, also known as Osage orange, is a…

Listen for a train horn in Commerce. That sound is most of the reason this town is what it is. The settlement came first, just barely: William Jernigin opened a mercantile store in 1872 at what is now the town square,…

In the 1920s, the strip of Commerce east of Park Street was one long cotton-processing yard: gins, seed-oil mills, and cotton presses lined up beside the railroad. The compress was the piece of machinery that mattered…

Commerce was named the 'Bois d'Arc Capital of Texas' because of its location in the geographic center of the indigenous range of the bois d'arc tree. The second largest bois d'arc tree in Texas, 'Big Max', is located…

You're driving past the site of Commerce's First Presbyterian Church, organized way back in November of 1888. Seventeen charter members, led by Reverend J.C. Grow, got together to start the congregation. They met in the…

You're driving past the Humboldt Cemetery, a final resting place that tells a story of early Texas life. The community here really took off in 1866, when families arrived from Tennessee. The first burial was likely…

You're driving through Hunt County, passing the site of what was once called Shady Grove. It all started back in 1844, when President Sam Houston granted land for Mercer's Colony, right around here. The Concord…

You're driving past the site of Greenview, a community that started as a pioneer settlement back in 1839. Reverend Green Weaver, a traveling minister and merchant, settled here with his sons, building a log cabin near…

You're driving through Hunt County, passing the site of Cherry Hill, home of Thomas N. Waul. A South Carolinian by birth, Waul became a Texas lawyer and plantation owner. He served in the first Confederate Congress and…

You're driving through Scatter Branch, Texas, and you might just pass right by a unique piece of local history. <break time="400ms"/> Look around, because this community's Methodist and Baptist congregations have been…

You're driving past the site of a long-running Texas tradition: the Fourth-Sunday Singing. It started around 1885 or 1890, right near here. A traveling music teacher from Arkansas held a 20-day singing school, and it…

You're driving through Neylandville, a community with roots stretching back to the 1850s. After emancipation, former slaves like James Brigham settled here, building churches and a school. That school, St. Paul School,…

You're driving through Hunt County, a place that was home to the Caddo people between 800 and 1700 AD. These weren't just any early Texans; they were skilled farmers, potters, and traders who built distinctive…

You're driving past Lone Oak, where the Baptist Church has been a cornerstone since 1858. Organized by W. M. Pickett and Benj. Watson, its first pastor was Thos. Hooker. The McBride family donated the land for the first…

You're driving through Hunt County, heading southeast of Greenville. Right here, you're passing through Lone Oak. This community got its start in the late 1850s, named for a single, impressive oak tree that stood alone…

You're driving through what was once County Line Prairie, settled by John Garrett in 1842. In 1897, this area got its third school district, and Lige Garrett designed a new two-story building. The second floor hosted…

You're driving through Cooper, and right here is the story of Abel Morgan, born Thomas Smith in North Carolina back in 1792. He arrived in Bexar in late 1835, joining Captain Blair's company. After being discharged, he…

You're driving past Farmers Electric Cooperative. In 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) to fund the expansion of electricity to rural America. With federal funding,…

You're driving through Terrell, Texas, but the story of Dr. William Knox Flowers, Sr. takes us to Sulphur Springs. In 1918, a devastating influenza epidemic swept the nation. While other doctors struggled, Dr. Flowers,…

You're driving through Rains County, passing the birthplace of a national organization. In 1902, local farmer and editor Isaac Newton Gresham called a meeting in a barn, hoping to help farmers organize for better…

You're driving through Northeast Texas, and right here, you're passing through the area where Dr. Edwin Pinckney Becton lived and worked. Born in Tennessee in 1834, Becton moved to San Augustine County, Texas, with his…

You're driving through Hopkins County, near Sulphur Springs, where a Confederate officer named Wilburn Hill King made his home. King started as a private in the Civil War, but his bravery saw him rise to colonel. He was…

You're driving through Hopkins County, Texas, near Sulphur Springs, where James A. Weaver made his mark. Born in Georgia in 1826, Weaver moved his family to Texas in 1855. When the Civil War broke out, he enlisted as a…

You're driving through Northeast Texas, and right here in what is now Hopkins County, you're passing through Sulphur Springs, the final home of Turner Lundy Green. Green was a lawyer and politician who served in both…

You're driving through Sulphur Springs, a town that started life as Bright Star. Back in the 1850s, this was a popular camping spot for teamsters hauling goods west from Jefferson. A post office opened, and the…

You're driving through Hopkins County, Texas, near Sulphur Springs, where a young John Walter Cranford arrived in 1865. His parents died here within years, leaving him orphaned at thirteen. But Cranford didn't just…

You're driving through Hopkins County, Texas, where Hudson William Nelson made his mark. Nelson, a farmer and businessman, came to Texas from Alabama in 1861. He settled near Bright Star, investing heavily in local real…

You're driving through Sulphur Springs, the oldest town in Hopkins County. Right here, John Abram Bryant Putnam, a lawyer and Confederate soldier, helped shape this community. After serving in the Civil War, he returned…

You're driving through Sulphur Springs, the heart of Hopkins County, where the local newspaper has been a constant companion for generations. It all started back in 1854 with the Texas Star. Just a year later, William…

You're driving through Hopkins County, heading toward Sulphur Springs. Right here, you're passing through the stomping grounds of William Amos Wortham, a man who traded his printing press for a soldier's rifle during…

You're driving past the home of Texas's oldest surviving savings and loan! Chartered way back on August 13, 1890, the Sulphur Springs Loan and Building Association opened its doors to support the booming growth brought…

You're driving through Sulphur Springs, and right here is the site of the Union Stockade. After the Civil War, this area was plagued by outlaws whipping and killing Black citizens. In August of <say-as…

You're driving past the site of the First Christian Church in Sulphur Springs. This congregation was organized in 1870 by evangelists Charles Carlton and J. M. Baird. Over the years, the church built multiple…

Now for the strangest thing this town ever built, and it has nothing to do with sulfur, though it fits a town that always knew how to turn heads. Right on the courthouse square sit two public restrooms made entirely of…

On Celebration Plaza in downtown Sulphur Springs stand two of the strangest public restrooms in Texas. Built in 2012, they're made entirely of two-way mirror glass, the same kind used in interrogation rooms. Step inside…

Here is a name with a real backstory. This town was not born as Sulphur Springs. Its first name was Bright Star, and there was a Bright Star post office serving folks here as far back as eighteen fifty-four. So what…

The name says sulfur, so let me tell you why sulfur water smells the way it does. That unmistakable rotten-egg odor is a gas called hydrogen sulfide, and the surprising truth is that tiny living creatures make it. Deep…

The springs may have named this town, but the courthouse on the square is its crown jewel, and there is a wonderful story buried in its stones. The building you see today went up in eighteen ninety-four and eighteen…

Here's a fact that trips up almost everyone: pure sulfur doesn't smell. The element is a bright-yellow solid, and on its own it's completely odorless. So what's that rotten-egg stench at a sulfur spring? It's hydrogen…

Picture Texas in the eighteen eighties, and this town in the middle of a genuine boom, all because of the water in its name. Back then there was a national craze called taking the waters. People truly believed that…

The word springs is right there in the name, so here is what a spring really is, because most folks picture it wrong. A spring is not water shooting up from some hidden fountain. It is simply an aquifer that has filled…

The springs gave this town its name and its first fame, but what put it on the map for a whole other generation was milk. Hopkins County, where Sulphur Springs sits, proudly calls itself the Dairy Capital of Texas. This…

Sulphur Springs' founding is marked by the arrival of European-American settlers like Eli Bib, who ran a store from his cabin, selling staples and beverages. Dr. and Mrs. Davis moved into the area in 1849, with Dr.…

Sulphur Springs has been significantly shaped by its transportation infrastructure. The construction of a railroad line from Mineola in 1872 was a key factor in the city's growth, attracting settlers with the promise of…

You're driving through Sulphur Springs, where news has been a business for over a century. Back in 1854, the "Texas Star" was the first paper in Hopkins County. Then, in 1855, William Wortham bought the presses, moved…

You're driving through Sulphur Springs, and right here on the town square, you're passing the site of the City National Bank. Organized way back in 1889, it's the oldest banking institution in town. Led by W. W. Jones,…

You're driving through what was once Union Community, a farming settlement that grew up around the Union Church, founded about 1850. This rural hub boasted a school, post office, and store over the years. The earliest…

You're driving through Hopkins County, near where James Selen Stout settled. Born in Arkansas in 1818, Stout served three months in the Republic of Texas cavalry in 1836, earning a land grant. He was a frontier scout…

You're driving past Pine Forest Church and Cemetery, founded around 1855 in the Stout Creek neighborhood. It started on land deeded by attorney Thomas Willison, with James S. Stout, a major landowner, serving as one of…

You're driving past the site of Sulphur Springs' first Methodist church, established way back in 1850. They erected their first building around 1852, eventually sharing it with the Baptists. This congregation has…

You're driving through Point, Texas, a town that started as a railroad stop back in the 1880s. But what makes this place really interesting happened on August 28, 1902. Right here, ten men gathered to sign a charter…

Sulphur Springs didn't start with that name. The town grew up around a teamster camping spot, where wagon drivers rested near more than a hundred natural springs. The first post office, opened in 1854, was called Bright…

Sulphur Springs sits in the heart of Texas dairy country, and its Southwest Dairy Museum wears that history on the outside. The ten-thousand-square-foot building is shaped like a dairy farmstead, right down to a…

You're driving past the site of the third Hopkins County Courthouse, right here in Sulphur Springs. Built in 1882, this grand building met a fiery end on February 11th, 1894. The blaze didn't just take the courthouse;…

Isaac Newton (Newt) Gresham, agrarian spokesman and founder of the Farmers' Union , was born near Florence, Alabama, on February 20, 1858. Shortly after the Civil War his family moved to Kaufman County, Texas, where…

Every fourth Saturday in October, Sulphur Springs fills with woodsmoke for the World Champion Hopkins County Stew Contest. More than a hundred and fifty four-person teams set up cast-iron pots over open wood fires and…

You're driving through Rains County, and right here in the town of Point, a movement was born that would echo across the nation. In 1902, Isaac Newton Gresham, a local newspaper editor, founded the Farmers' Educational…

You're driving through Sulphur Springs, home of General W.H. King, a true Texas Confederate hero. Born in Georgia in 1839, King moved to Texas in 1861 and quickly rose through the ranks of the 18th Texas Infantry. He…

You're driving through Sulphur Springs, and just ahead is a piece of the town's history that rang loud and clear. Back in 1889, this 500-pound brass bell was the high-tech alarm system for the volunteer fire department.…

You're driving through Rains County, near Point, where David Edwin Johnson was born in 1901. He grew up to become a prominent Baptist minister and educator. Johnson pastored churches across Texas and Oklahoma, then…

You're driving near Fairlie, Hunt County. Look for the Sonora Cemetery, which began in 1872 with the burial of S. B. McBee, believed to be a child of early settlers. By 1880, this burial ground had grown to over seven…

You're driving past the site of Morning Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Sulphur Springs. African-American residents began meeting for worship in 1868, establishing Old Tarrant Baptist Church. The congregation moved…

You're driving past the site of the First Presbyterian Church of Sulphur Springs. Organized in 1852 with just eight members, this congregation faced challenges, including a sanctuary fire in 1873. They rebuilt at this…

You're passing the site of a true Texas original, the Atkins House! Built in the late 1870s by Sarah Hamilton Crouch Atkins, this wasn't just any house. It's believed to be the very first brick building constructed in…

You're driving past the heart of Sulphur Springs, where George and Myra Wilson started making their mark back in 1880. George and his brother's brick plant built many of the town's prominent structures, like the City…

You're driving near Emory, where the Dougherty family has a long history. Robert Newberry Dougherty took over his father's farm in the 1860s and by 1870 owned it outright. He built this home between 1880 and 1881, and…

You're driving past the Ashcroft House, a beautiful example of Colonial Revival architecture in Sulphur Springs. Commissioned in 1938 by civic leaders Charles and Ruth Ashcroft, this home was designed by prominent…

You're driving through Rains County, near Emory. This cemetery began in 1877 when Robert N. Dougherty donated one acre for public burial. The cemetery association later acquired two more tracts of land in 1935 and 1964.

You're driving through Hunt County, Texas, the birthplace of Wilds Preston Richardson. He was a West Point graduate and a decorated Army officer who spent twenty years in Alaska. His most significant achievement?…

You're driving through East Texas, and right alongside you flows the Sabine River. This waterway gets its name from the Spanish word for cypress, 'sabinas,' because of the massive cypress trees that once lined its…

You're driving through East Texas, maybe near Henderson or Anderson County, and you might be passing near the story of John Honeycutt's ill-fated expedition. In 1865, at the tail end of the Civil War, Honeycutt led a…

Charles A. Warfield, fur trapper and officer in the Republic of Texas army, was the son of a New Orleans merchant. Little is known of his early life, but by 1832 or 1833 he was fur trapping in the Rocky Mountains. He…

You're driving through Hunt County, a place that started as a frontier outpost in 1839. When the first Anglo settlers arrived, they found small bands of Kiowa Indians, who soon moved on. The county was officially formed…

You're driving through Hunt County, named for a man who gave his fortune to the cause of Texas. Memucan Hunt arrived in 1836, just after San Jacinto, and immediately put his talents to work for the young republic. He…

You're driving through Hunt County, Texas, a place that saw some real Civil War drama. James G. Stevens, a local county judge and Confederate officer, found himself in a tough spot. In late 1862, he led his regiment at…

You're driving through Hunt County, and right here is where the Texas Midland Railroad Company got its start, chartered back in 1892 to connect Garrett with Greenville. It was actually born from an earlier, failed…

You're driving through North Texas, and right here, you're passing through the territory where Mary Frances McClure Burleson built an empire. Starting as a part-time secretary in 1958 for Ebby Halliday Realtors, she…

Kingston is on U.S. Highway 69 and Farm roads 3427 and 903, Hickory Creek, and the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad, ten miles northwest of Greenville in northwestern Hunt County. The Cowleach Fork of the Sabine…

You're driving through Hunt County, heading north of Greenville. Right here is White Rock, a community that got its name from the very ground beneath your tires. Back in 1868, settlers established a post office and…

Floyd is on U.S. Highway 380 eight miles west of Greenville in west central Hunt County. The settlement that became Floyd was established in 1882, when the East Line and Red River Railroad extended its tracks westward…

Scatter Branch is a small rural community off Farm Road 2874 about eleven miles northeast of Greenville and four miles west of Commerce in northeastern Hunt County. Settlement began in this area between the South…

If you find yourself needing a restroom in downtown Sulphur Springs, prepare for a unique experience. On the corner of the town square, known as Celebration Plaza, sit two cubes of mirrored glass. These are the public…

For its first forty years, Sulphur Springs was a remote health spa, difficult to reach by muddy wagon roads. That all changed in 1887 with an engineering marvel: the arrival of the St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas Railway,…

Imagine this town at the turn of the twentieth century. Instead of pickups and SUVs, the streets are full of visitors in Victorian dress, and they are all here for one reason: the water. This place used to be called…

Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, was famously hard to please. But of all the Hall of Fame players he coached, he called one man the finest player he ever coached. That man was Forrest Gregg,…

You're driving past the site of the oldest institution in Hunt County: Concord Baptist Church. Organized way back in 1844 by Reverend Ben Watson, the first members met under a tree near Shady Grove. After a few moves,…

You're driving past Klondike, and just ahead is the Klondike Cemetery. This burial ground started with a tragedy in 1852, when a neighbor child named Eliza Armstrong died. John and Nancy Hunt, who had come to Texas from…

You're driving past the site of Shook's Chapel Methodist Church. Area settlers organized a congregation here in 1886, naming it for the Rev. W. A. Shook, who held the first revival. The church met in temporary locations…

You're driving through Greenville, and right here is the Ende-Gaillard House. Built between 1857 and 1859, this home was constructed by Charles Frederick von Ende, a German immigrant who became a major civic leader…

You're driving past the site of Majors Army Airfield, a crucial World War II training ground right here in Hunt County. It started in 1941 as a civilian airport project, but quickly ballooned into a massive Army Air…

You're driving past Union Cemetery, which served the farm and ranch communities of Gough, Yowell, and Antioch. The earliest burial here was in 1859, and the last recorded burial was in 1946. It contains over 90 marked…

You're driving past the site of the old Douglass School, established in the early 1900s as the East Colored School. It was one of three schools for Black students during segregation, teaching grades one through eight.…

You're driving past the site of St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Sulphur Springs. Episcopal missionaries first preached here in the 1860s, and the church was officially founded in 1872. For over twenty years, the…

You're driving past the spot where Lallie P. Briscoe made Texas history. Back in 1902, when women couldn't even vote in Texas, she was appointed to finish her late husband's term as clerk of Hunt County. The…

You're driving past the site of a Texas legend: the Greenville Cotton Compress. In its day, this was the biggest inland cotton press in the world! On September 30, 1912, workers here set an incredible record, pressing…

You're driving past the first two-story brick house ever built in Greenville. Look for that Victorian style, constructed between 1885 and 1887 by the pioneering Will N. Harrisons. The bricks themselves were made right…

You're cruising through Greenville, and right here is where Benjamin D. Martin called home. Born in Virginia, he arrived in Hunt County in the 1850s and quickly made his mark. During the Civil War, he organized the…

You're driving past the site of Tarrant, the original county seat of Hopkins County. Eldridge Hopkins donated this land back in 1846, and it was named for General Edward H. Tarrant, a Texas Ranger and Mexican War…

You're driving past the site of Greenville's historic Phillips Field, later Majors Stadium. It all started in 1929 when Eula Lasater Phillips donated money to build an athletic field in her late husband's memory. The…

As you drive along Lee Street, you're on the same path where for nearly 40 years, a sign greeted visitors with a chilling message: 'The Blackest Land, The Whitest People.' It was a slogan with a dark double meaning. On…

In 1942, a skinny, baby-faced teenager from nearby Kingston walked into the U.S. Army recruiting office in Greenville. His name was Audie Murphy. He was only 17 and had been turned down by the Marines and paratroopers…

Greenville is home to one of the most sophisticated aviation engineering operations in the world, centered around the company L3Harris. Here, at their massive facility next to Majors Airport, engineers don't build…

The airport on the edge of Greenville has a story that explains the town's modern identity. Majors Field opened on June 26th, 1942, an Army Air Forces training field named for Lieutenant Truett Majors, the first Hunt…

The most decorated American soldier of World War II grew up dirt poor on a sharecropper's farm near here. Audie Leon Murphy was born in Hunt County in 1925, one of twelve children. His father abandoned the family. His…

If you could go back to Greenville in 1910, the sound, the sight and the smell of this city would be all about cotton. This wasn't just a farming town; it was an industrial operation, and the machine at the center of it…

Greenville, the county seat and most populous city in Hunt County, was founded in 1846 and named after Thomas J. Green, a key figure in the establishment of the Texas Republic. Green's contributions to the founding of…

The State Highway Nineteen bridge over Lake Fork Reservoir, north of Emory, is the Mildred McMillan Garrett Memorial Bridge. Mildred McMillan was born in Emory on September fifth, nineteen twenty three, one of seven…

You're driving past the site of Grace Presbyterian Church in Greenville, a congregation that began way back in 1863. Organized as the Cumberland Presbyterian Church by the Rev. John Nicholson, it holds the distinction…

You're driving through Greenville, the town where Mary Jim Morris dedicated her life to education. Born in Georgia in 1876, she earned her teaching certificate here in 1899 and taught for 45 years, first at North School…

In Greenville, Interstate Thirty is the Martin Luther King, Jr., Freeway. The City of Greenville asked for the name, backed by a city council resolution, and the Texas Legislature approved it in two thousand nine. In…

You're cruising through Greenville, and right here, you're passing the birthplace of a local library movement that started with a book club! Back in 1897, the Women's Review Club began with members donating their own…

You're driving through Greenville, the county seat of Hunt County. Since 1846, this town has been the center of county government, but the courthouses themselves have had a wild ride! The very first court sessions were…

You're driving through Greenville right now, and that grand building you see is the 1929 Hunt County Courthouse. It was the seventh courthouse for the county, designed by local architects W. R. Ragsdale & Sons, with…

You're driving past the former home of William R. J. Camp, a respected Greenville banker. He and his wife, Dora, built this impressive two-story brick house back in 1914. Take a look at those giant Ionic columns…

You're driving past the Bourland-Stevens-Samuell House in Greenville. This grand southern colonial structure has roots going back to 1854, when Colonel James Bourland deeded this land to his daughter, Virginia. She…

You're driving through Greenville, a town that got its start in 1846, named for a Texas hero. This spot was chosen by McQuinney Wright, and the townsite was platted that same year. Greenville officially incorporated in…

You're driving past Kavanaugh Methodist Church in Greenville. It started as a simple Methodist Mission Sunday School way back in 1892. Four years later, in 1896, it officially chartered and was named for Bishop H. H.…

You're driving past the site of Greenville's oldest organized congregation, Wesley United Methodist Church. Methodists were gathering here as early as 1848, served by traveling preachers. By 1850, thirteen charter…

You're driving through Greenville, where the First Presbyterian Church was organized way back in 1880. For over a century, this congregation has been a spiritual center, meeting in various places like the courthouse and…

You're driving past the old Greenville Post Office, a building with a story that goes way beyond mail delivery. Built in 1910 and later enlarged, this Neo-classic structure was a hub for the city. But on June 20, 1942,…

You're driving past Greenville, and right here, you're passing a piece of Texas history! In 1891, this town flipped the switch on the very first municipally owned electric plant in the entire state. Imagine that! It…

You're driving past Central Christian Church, a landmark right here in Greenville. Organized way back in 1879 as the First Christian Church, it started meeting in a simple Union Church building. By 1898, they were ready…

You're driving past the site of the Greenville Herald, the oldest business institution in Hunt County! It was established way back in April of 1869 by J. C. Bayne. The paper really picked up steam when E. W. Harris took…

You're driving past the site of Greenville's First Baptist Church, a congregation that got its start way back in September of 1858. Nineteen charter members gathered in the local Masonic Hall to form this community,…

Greenville, Texas, has a rich history that dates back to its founding in 1846. Named after Thomas J. Green, a key figure in the establishment of the Texas Republic, the city has seen its fair share of pivotal moments.…

You're driving through North Texas, maybe near Greenville, where a true gospel music pioneer was born. Arizona Juanita Dranes, known as "Blind Arizona," lost her sight as a child but gained a powerful musical vision.…

You're driving through Hunt County, Texas, and right here is where a wealthy lawyer and state senator named Martin D. Hart made his final stand. Hart was a Unionist, and when Texas voted to secede in 1861, he publicly…

You're driving through Hunt County, and right here in Greenville, Franklin Pierce Alexander was making waves. He wasn't just a newspaper editor; he was a state legislator who took on the powerful railroads. In the late…

You're driving through Hunt County, the birthplace of John Boles, a true Texas star of stage and screen. Born in Greenville in 1895, Boles defied his parents' wishes for him to become a doctor, pursuing instead a career…

You're driving through North Texas, and right here, in places like Greenville, a transportation revolution was taking root. Back in 1923, Joseph Wylie Bowman and his partner were among the very first to bring buses to…

You're driving through Northeast Texas, and right here is a story of resilience. Andrew Jackson Hurdle was born into slavery in North Carolina in 1847. Sold away from his family, he escaped during the Civil War,…

You're driving through Hunt County, near Greenville. Right here, Majors Field was a crucial flight-training center for the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. Opened in June of 1942, it was named for Lt. Truett…

You're driving through North Texas, maybe not too far from where Solon D. Neal earned the Medal of Honor. It was July 1870, and Neal was a private with the Sixth Cavalry near the Little Wichita River. After days of…

You're driving through North Texas, not far from where the Shelton Brothers got their start. Born on a cotton farm in Reilly Springs, these musicians, originally the Attlesey brothers, transformed themselves into a…

You're driving through Texas, but the story of the Thirty-Second Texas Cavalry is one of battles fought far from home. Organized in May of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1862</say-as>, this regiment saw some of…

You're driving through Greenville, Texas, a town that became a commercial hub partly thanks to the railroad. But back in 1908, this city was the scene of a horrific act of violence. A Black man, accused of raping a…

You're driving through Greenville, and right here is where Hunt County got its first taste of the railroad age. <break time="400ms"/> It was the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway, or the Katy, that laid the first tracks.…

You're driving through Greenville, Texas, the site of Burleson College. It was founded in 1895, named after Rufus C. Burleson, and took over the faculty and students from the already-closed Greenville College. The…

You're driving through what was once a hotbed of Confederate activity. Hamilton C. Dial, a farmer from Hopkins County, answered the call to arms in 1861. He enlisted as a third lieutenant in the Ninth Texas Cavalry,…

You're driving through North Texas, and right here is Greenville, the birthplace of Ed Hagan. Born in 1919, Hagan was a musical chameleon. He started on saxophone, hated it, and found his calling in percussion. By his…

You're driving through Hopkins County, a place settled by pioneers seeking a new life after conflicts with Native American tribes. In 1839, General Kelsey H. Douglass led troops that defeated the Cherokees in this area,…

You're driving through Greenville, Texas, the birthplace of Edward Mangum. <break time="400ms"/> Born in 1913, Mangum wasn't just a drama professor; he was a pioneer. <break time="400ms"/> He helped cofound Washington…

You're driving through North Texas, not far from where William J. McClanahan was born in Greenville back in 1907. After serving in World War II, McClanahan found his true calling as a cartoonist for The Dallas Morning…

You're driving through Northeast Texas, a land that was once home to the Caddo and Cherokee people. It was here, between 1834 and 1835, that Mary Polly Madden Hamilton Moore and her first husband, John, arrived from…