East Texas, Texas

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Music in East Texas

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Artists From East Texas

H
Hudson Westbrook
country Pop: 50

Rivers & Roads in Song near East Texas

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near East Texas.

Sabine River 13 songs Red River 84 songs Interstate 20 13 songs

History of East Texas

Commerce, TX RoadyGoat

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 to the thriving economic activity in the area. The rural area just to the northeast was an open prairie originally known as Cow Hill. The town incorporated in 1885, and two years later, a railroad was built through Commerce to transport merchandise from Fort Worth.

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Commerce, TX RoadyGoat

Commerce, Texas, is situated on the eastern edge of North Texas and the western edge of East Texas, within the Texas Blackland Prairies. The city is located on the rich, black gumbo prairie in northeast Hunt County, which is part of the reason for its name. The Middle Sulphur River, part of the Red River watershed, runs past the north side of Commerce and forms part of its northern border. The city's climate is part of the humid subtropical region, with hot, humid summers and cooler fall and winter temperatures. The geography of Commerce, with its prairie lands and river, has played a significant role in shaping the city and its history.

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Commerce, TX RoadyGoat

Commerce, Texas, is located on the eastern edge of North Texas and the western edge of East Texas, within the Texas Blackland Prairies. The city's strategic location between the Middle and South Sulphur rivers on the rich, black gumbo prairie in northeast Hunt County made it an ideal spot for commerce and trade. The thriving economic activity among the cotton fields and ideal farm and ranch lands in the area attracted settlers and merchants, leading to the establishment of the city. The city's name, 'Commerce,' reflects its origins as a center of commerce and trade in the region.

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Flying Tigers

1941

The First American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force, nicknamed "The Flying Tigers," flew combat missions in the Chinese-Burma-India theater of World War II against the invading military forces of Imperial Japan from December 20, 1941 until July 4, 1942. The Flying Tigers were composed of American pilots and technicians volunteering from the United States Army Air Corps, Navy, and Marine Corps and received financial support from the Republic of China. Claire Lee Chennault , a native of Commerce, Texas, , organized and commanded the First American Volunteer Group. The Flying Tigers volunteers earned international acclaim for their impressive combat record and contribution to the Chinese victory in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Texans serving in the Flying Tigers include Claire Lee Chennault, Charles Rankin Bond, Jr., David Lee [Tex] Hill , Paul J. Green, Mathew W. Kuykendall, Neil Martin, and Robert W. Prescott. In May 1937, the Republic of China hired Claire Lee Chennault, a retired Captain of the U.S. Army Air Corps, pilot instructor, and author of the fighter-plane tactical manual The Role of Defensive Pursuit as a consultant for the Chinese Air Force. After fighting erupted between Chinese and Japanese troops near the Marco Polo Bridge near Peking, China, on July 7, 1937, Chennault took on a new role for the Republic of China as the de facto commander of the Chinese Air Force while retaining the official position of a consultant. Finding the existing equipment, pilots, and infrastructure of the Chinese Air Force inadequate to defeat the invading Japanese forces, Chennault returned to the United States with General Chiang Kai-shek's approval to acquire planes, pilots, technicians, and materials in October 1940. Chennault received permission from the United States military to recruit and purchase the necessary personnel and materials, which began arriving in China in June 1941. Chennault spent the next six months training the volunteers and by December 7, 1941, the American Volunteer Group had nearly eighty pilots and sixty-two combat ready Curtiss P-40 fighters. The Flying Tigers flew combat missions from December 20, 1941, until July 4, 1942, delaying the advance of Japanese forces throughout Southeast China and Burma. On May 7, 1942, the Flying Tigers launched a four-day assault against Japanese forces attempting to cross the Salween River Gorge. Their efforts were instrumental in preventing the Japanese from invading China from the west and India from the east. The Flying Tigers used innovative fighter tactics that emphasized the superior armament and speed of the Curtiss P-40 and improvised early warning systems, which included ground operatives radioing plane sightings to Chennault that alerted the Flying Tigers to inbound Japanese air attacks. Outnumbered in nearly every engagement, the Flying Tigers earned an extraordinary combat record of destroying an estimated 115 Japanese aircraft in combat and another estimated 300 destroyed on the ground while losing only 12 planes in combat and 61 planes on the ground. On July 4, 1942, the First American Volunteer Group was absorbed into the United States Army Air Forces as the 23 rd Fighter Group. Many of the volunteers transferred back to their former assignments in different branches of the military. Claire Chennault rejoined the United States Army as a general and commanded the former Flying Tigers who joined the 23 rd Fighter Group until his retirement on July 8, 1945. The achievements of the Flying Tigers raised the morale of Allied Forces in the Pacific Theater of World War. The Flying Tigers have been remembered and often celebrated in popular culture in films such as John Wayne's Flying Tigers , monographs, museums and memorials both in the United States and internationally. Most recently, the Flying Tigers have been honored in Commerce, Texas, the native city of their commander, by the christening of State Highway 24 as the "Flying Tiger Memorial Highway" and b

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Mantle, Mickey Charles

1931

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 played for a semipro team on weekends and named his oldest son after Hall of Fame catcher Mickey Cochrane. Mantle was born during the Great Depression , and his family struggled financially throughout his childhood. Mutt Mantle worked as a county road grader and as a tenant farmer before moving his family to Commerce, Oklahoma, where he went to work for the Eagle-Picher Zinc and Lead Company. Mickey Mantle's prodigious athletic talent became evident at an early age. At Commerce High School he starred in baseball and football. In 1946, during practice for the latter sport, Mickey was accidentally kicked in the left shin by a teammate. The apparently minor injury turned into osteomyelitis, and doctors considered amputating the infected leg. Fortunately, Mantle was transferred to the Crippled Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City, where the new wonder drug penicillin quickly restored him to health. His legs, however, would trouble him for the rest of his athletic career. In 1948 Mantle was playing baseball for a semipro team called the Baxter Springs Whiz Kids in Kansas when he caught the eye of Tom Greenwade, a scout for the New York Yankees of the American League. Mantle signed his first professional contract immediately after graduating from high school in 1949. He began his professional career as a shortstop for the Yankee farm team at Independence (Kansas) of the Class D Kansas-Oklahoma-Missouri League and the following year moved up to Joplin (Missouri) of the Class C Western Association. Mantle proved a capable hitter from the start, batting .313 in his first year and .383 in his second, but committed a startling 102 errors in 226 games at shortstop. Still, he showed such promise that the Yankees invited him to accompany the team for the last two weeks of the 1950 season (although he didn't play) and to spring training in 1951. There, the "Commerce Comet" caught the eye of Yankee manager Casey Stengel and opened the season as New York's right fielder, flanking the immortal Joe DiMaggio, whom he would eventually succeed in center field, during the Yankee Clipper's final season. The nineteen-year-old Mantle struggled early in the season and was sent back to the Yankees' top farm team, the Class AAA Kansas City Blues, in July. Devastated by his demotion and slumping badly at the plate, Mantle briefly contemplated quitting baseball, but his father talked him out of it. Mantle rejoined the Yankees at the end of August in time for the first of his twelve World Series, against the National League champion New York Giants. Mantle's initial World Series experience was a brief one, as in the sixth inning of the second game he caught his spikes on a rubber drain cover in the Yankee Stadium outfield and tore cartilage in his right knee. While Mantle was recuperating from the operation on his knee, he learned that his father, who had come up from Oklahoma to see the World Series, was dying from Hodgkin's disease. Mutt Mantle died in 1952, and the disease eventually contributed to the early deaths of Mantle's grandfather, two uncles, and later his son Billy. Mantle himself believed that he would be dead by the age of forty. While he escaped the family curse of Hodgkin's disease, Mantle suffered an astonishing series of injuries during his career. In only four of his eighteen major-league seasons did he appear in as many as 150 games. In 1953 he tore ligaments in his right knee. In 1954 he had surgery to remove a cyst from behind his knee. In the 1957 World Series he injured his right shoulder, hampering his throwing and right-handed batting. In 1961 he and teammate Roger Maris both mounted serious challenges to Babe Ruth's 1927 record of sixty home runs in a single season, but a hip abscess cost Mantle a shot at the record.

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Chennault, Claire L.

1937

(1890-1958) Organizer-commander of the famous "Flying Tigers" of the China-Burma-India theater in World War II. An outstanding air strategist, Chennault had retired from a pioneer flying career when, in 1937, he was asked by Gen. Chaing Kai-Shek to help China develop an air force to combat threatening raids by Japan. Four years later, with World War II spreading, he received permission from the U. S. to seek a corps of American airmen to help train the Chinese. A total of 252 men-- 87 pilots and 165 ground personnel-- joined the "American volunteer group." Its popular name resulted from a misunderstanding of the sharks' teeth painted on the noses of the aircraft. The Tigers formed three squadrons-- "Adam and Eve," "Panda Bears," and "Hell's Angels"-- supported by the expert pilots of the China National Aviation Corps, a daring supply transport group. So effectively had Chennault studied Japanese air tactics that his tiny band officially destroyed 539 enemy aircraft while losing only 90 itself. During 1941-1942, they checked Japan's invasion of China, then joined regular units. Jack Cornelius, also a native of Commerce and a close friend of Chennault's, was a member of the first pursuit squadron of the Tigers.

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East Texas State University

1889

Founded 1889 as the Mayo School, in Cooper (16 mi. NE). Reopened with about 35 students in a brick store on the public square here in Commerce in 1894, still under private ownership of William Leonidas Mayo (1861-1917), a gifted teacher from Kentucky. School was underwritten by public-spirited local citizens. Its most illustrious student, Sam Rayburn (1882-1961), gained international fame as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. The Mayo School passed into state ownership in 1917 as East Texas State Normal College, Randolph B. Binnion, president. After name was changed (1923) to East Texas State Teachers College, presidents were Sam H. Whitley (1924-1946), Arthur C. Ferguson (1946-1947) and James G. Gee (1947-1966). The word "teachers" was dropped from the title in 1957; in 1965, it became East Texas State University. In 1966, D. Whitney Halladay succeeded to the presidency. East Texas State University has more than 26,000 graduates. It offers bachelor's and master's degrees in arts and science; also the Doctor of Philosophy degree. Its 1200-acre campus has 150 buildings. It is one of 23 state-supported colleges and universities in Texas enrolling over 150,000 students annually.

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Chennault, Claire Lee

1941

Claire Lee Chennault, aviator and air force general, son of John Stonewall Jackson and Jessie (Lee) Chennault, was born on September 6, 1893, in Commerce, Texas. He was a descendant of eighteenth-century Huguenot immigrants, related to Sam Houston paternally and to Robert E. Lee maternally. At the age of one month he moved with his family to Gilbert, Louisiana. His mother died when he was five. He attended Louisiana State University and graduated from Louisiana State Normal College. On Christmas Day 1911 he married Nell Thompson; they had eight children. The marriage ended in divorce in 1946. Chennault married Anna Chan on December 2, 1947, and they had two children. He taught in various southern towns, including Athens, Louisiana; Biloxi, Mississippi; and Louisville, Kentucky. With the American entry into World War I , he was commissioned a first lieutenant and became a flight instructor. From 1919 to 1923 he was with the border patrol; from 1923 to 1926 he served with the Hawaiian Pursuit Squadron; and from 1930 to 1936 he was a member of the United States Pursuit Development Board and leader of the Air Corps Exhibition Group ("Three Men on a Flying Trapeze"). Deafness and disagreements with his superiors over tactics forced his retirement in 1937. In the same year he became advisor to Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Air Force. In 1941 he organized the American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers) in China. In March 1943 Chennault was promoted to major general and to command of the Fourteenth Air Force. His tour was marked by conflicts with the theater commander, Lt. Gen. Joseph Stilwell. Chennault was retired against his will in July 1945, as the defensive tactics he favored were regarded as obsolete by air corps strategists. He then organized and was chairman of the board of Civil Air Transport. He maintained homes in Taipei, Taiwan, and near Monroe, Louisiana. He was the author of an autobiography and several works on fighter tactics. Among his many decorations were the Distinguished Flying Cross with cluster; Army and Navy Air Medal with cluster; Chinese Army, Navy, and Air Force Medal; Commander of the British Empire; Legion of Honor; Croix de Guerre with Palm; and Chevalier Polonia Restituta. He died of cancer on July 27, 1958, at the Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Monuments were erected to him in Taipei, on the grounds of the Louisiana State Capitol at Baton Rouge, and at Chennault Air Force Base, Lake Charles, Louisiana. A state historical marker was placed at his birthplace in Commerce, Texas, in 1968. On October 14, 2015, in a collaborative effort with Texas A&M University-Commerce , a second marker at the site was dedicated in two translations of Mandarin. It is the first state historical marker in Texas in Chinese.

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President's House

1927

Designed by Greenville architects George Lindsey and Roy Kilmer in 1927, the President's House was built on land purchased from Daniel and Annie Bachman. The house exhibits an understated adaptation of Georgian revival style elements in its dark red brick and white trim with simple classical details. After the construction of a new president's house in 1968, the house served as offices. In 1995, the home was renamed "Heritage House" and restored to its 1930s appearance for use as a heritage center. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1997

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Everything Near East Texas

274 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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