Godley, Texas

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Austin Upchurch

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Rivers & Roads in Song near Godley

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

Brazos River 43 songs Chisholm Trail 8 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Texas State Highway 199 8 songs Interstate 35 45 songs Trinity River 11 songs

History of Godley

The Rock Under Town That Rewrote Energy RoadyGoat

1981

Godley sits over the Barnett Shale, a black Mississippian-age rock roughly 350 million years old, buried about 6,500 to 8,500 feet down across the Fort Worth Basin. Johnson County is one of just four core counties of that gas field and ranks among the top gas-producing counties in all of Texas. The rock was known but useless: too tight to give up its gas. Starting in 1981, George Mitchell's company drilled the Fort Worth Basin for years chasing a fix. The breakthrough came in 1997 and 1998, when engineer Nick Steinsberger tried slickwater fracturing, pumping mostly water, sand, and pressure to crack the shale and prop the fractures open. Paired with horizontal drilling, it worked. By 2008, drillers completed roughly 2,900 horizontal wells across the field in a single year. The technique that unlocked the shale beneath towns like Godley later spread worldwide.

The Lumberman Who Bought a Town Onto the Map RoadyGoat

1886

Godley owes its name and its start to a railroad deal. In 1886, R.B. Godley, a lumber merchant from nearby Cleburne, donated an eight-acre tract for a townsite and another twenty acres as right-of-way to the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. The railroad built a station that same year, and the town that grew up around it took the donor's name. Within two years the place had teeth: by 1888, when the post office opened, Godley already ran a gristmill, three cotton gins, and two dairy-processing plants. That mix tells you what northwestern Johnson County lived on then, cotton and cattle, milled and shipped out along fresh Santa Fe rails toward Cleburne, nine miles to the southeast.

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From Cow Pastures to Subdivisions RoadyGoat

As you drive along Highway 171, you're seeing a story of massive change unfold in real time. For most of its history, Godley was a small, quiet town with a population that rarely topped 1,000 people. It was surrounded by farms and ranches. But look around you now. The main story of modern Godley is its explosive growth as a Dallas-Fort Worth exurb. There were 879 people here at the 2000 census and about 1,450 in 2020. By 2025 the estimate was over 5,000 — nearly six times bigger, with most of that jump landing in just the last few years. What was once pasture land is now a landscape of new housing developments with names that evoke the rural past they replaced. This boom has put immense pressure on local infrastructure, especially the Godley ISD school system, which has been in a constant state of expansion. You're witnessing the profound, rapid transformation of a rural community into a bustling suburb, a story happening all across the fringes of Texas's major cities.

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Godley School

1884

The town of Godley began in 1886, as rancher and lumber merchant B. B. Godley donated land for a townsite and right-of-way to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad. Predating the railroad town was the local school, as Johnson County Commissioners Court formed Godley Independent School District in July 1884. Dr. John I. Pearson was one of the earliest teachers. Godley College began in 1899 in a three-story frame building, becoming Godley High School three years later. A three-story brick building opened in time for graduation in 1916. Godley School experienced great growth in the late 1930s through rural school consolidation and federal New Deal agency aid. A 1937 gymnasium and 1939 auditorium enlarged the existing campus. The auditorium (later a library) was completed with financial and labor assistance through the National Youth Administration. A new main building, completed in 1940 with Works Progress Administration funds, joined the gymnasium and auditorium into a single building and an unusually large facility for a rural school. School buildings from Bruce, Pleasant View and Cottonwood were moved here as part of the new construction. Godley School housed all grades until 1967 when a new elementary school was built. After 1984 the school became a middle school, then an intermediate school in 2000. The Godley School consists of one-story wings connecting a two-story main building and an auditorium and gymnasium in a modified rectangular plan. The exterior is clad with native stone in a giraffe rock pattern. Dark brick is laid in a stack bond variation, with alternating runners and stretchers. Multi-pane windows and Spanish Colonial-style entries are also prominent.

Historical Marker →

Acton Cemetery

1855

Location of Acton historic site, smallest state park in Texas. Includes the grave of Mrs. Elizabeth P. Crockett (1788-1860), widow of the Alamo hero David Crockett, and 2 of his children. In 1911 a monument and statue were erected to her memory. Acton (formerly Comanche Peak post office) was named in 1855 by C.P. Hollis, first merchant in town. In spite of early name, Acton had few Comanche raids. After erecting a building for church and school, area pioneers selected this plot as cemetery. First person buried here was Mrs. Wash Hutcheson, in 1855. (1968)

Historical Marker → · 9.3 mi away

Crockett, Elizabeth, Grave of

1816

Mrs. Elizabeth Crockett, wife of David Crockett, born in Buncombe Co., NC, May 22, 1788, married to David Crockett in Lawrence Co., Tenn., 1816; died in Johnson Co.--now Hood Co.--Jan. 31, 1860, age 72 years. (death date and age are incorrect, see marker #6256, 6257 (On right and left sides) 1788 1860 1911 (Rear) Crockett

Historical Marker → · 9.3 mi away

Joshua, TX

1881

Joshua is at the intersection of State Highway 174 and Farm Road 917, on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad seven miles southeast of Burleson and eight miles north of Cleburne in north central Johnson County. It is in the Cross Timbers region on land patented by W. W. Byers in 1867. The section was sold in 1874 to John Powell. Caddo Grove, two miles west of Joshua, was the first community in the area. It had its own post office and was a thriving town until the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway was completed from Cleburne to Fort Worth in 1881. The railroad missed Caddo Grove, and a station was built on the tracks at the site of future Joshua. The station was originally called Caddo Peak, but the name was rejected by the post office because of another Caddo Peak. The name Joshua was chosen, purportedly by Dr. D. B. McMillan, after the biblical Joshua. W. L. West was the first postmaster when the community received a post office in 1882. In 1883 Caddo Grove's post office was withdrawn. The plat for Joshua was first surveyed in 1880, and the community was organized in 1881 when the railroad arrived. The first store, opened in 1882 by W. L. West, also housed the post office. By 1890 Joshua had a population of 300, two steam corn mill- cotton gins, a hotel, a general store, and a newspaper, the Johnson County Record . The railroad shipped farm produce, Joshua's largest export. The first one-room school opened in 1890, and in 1899 it moved into a new building. In 1917 this school became Joshua High School. In 1900 and 1912 Joshua suffered major fires. In spite of this, new businesses continued to open. The Citizen's Banking Company, opened in 1904, was run by J. W. Spencer. Two years later a public water system began. Truck gardens, orchards, and corn and cotton farms surrounded Joshua. In 1912 the Fort Worth South Traction Line began to provide service from Cleburne to Fort Worth and had a stop in Joshua. Service stopped in 1932 because of the growing importance of automobile travel. The first car in Joshua was purchased in 1913. By 1914 the community had a population of 824, two cotton gins, an ice plant, a bank, a newspaper named the Joshua Star , and four churches. Local farms grew cotton and potatoes. In the mid-1950s Joshua was incorporated, with Ted Strube as the first mayor. The population dropped to 550 during the 1950s and rose to 924 in 1970. By 1980 it was 1,470. Because of its proximity to Fort Worth, the population grew to 3,828 by 1990 and 4,528 by 2000. Joshua had fourteen businesses in 1970 and fifty-eight in 1980, when seven local manufacturers made such items as aluminum products, boat trailers, leather goods, and windows. The Joshua Tribune began publication in 1970 and was published until the early 1990s, when it moved to Burleson. By 2000 Joshua reported 239 businesses.

Tsha Handbook → · 8.4 mi away

Carroll, John Lewis [Johnny]

1956

John Lewis (Johnny) Carroll, rockabilly guitarist, composer, and singer, was born in Cleburne, Texas, on October 23, 1937. He grew up in nearby Godley and spent much of his life on the family farm there. His surname was actually spelled Carrell, but the Decca label misspelled it as Carroll, and apparently Johnny used this spelling for the rest of his career. Carroll bought his first guitar at age nine with money he had earned by working as a water boy at a World War II POW camp. His mother, who played the fiddle, taught him basic music skills. By listening to the radio, he learned to play country music . Carroll later was introduced to rhythm and blues when a cousin in the jukebox business gave him some old 78 rpm records. In the early 1950s he performed on KCLE radio in Cleburne. By 1955 he had formed his own high school band, the Moonlighters. His group sometimes shared the stage with the South's newest singing sensation, Elvis Presley , as they performed on the Big D Jamboree and the Louisiana Hayride circuit. During a performance with Ferlin Husky, Carroll gained the attention of local radio operator Jack "Tiger" Goldman, who helped him get a contract with Decca Records. In 1956 Carroll recorded for Decca in Nashville. During this two-day recording session he was encouraged to sing in a dark and husky voice, a trademark he carried throughout his career. At the session he recorded his own "Crazy, Crazy Lovin'" along with "Hot Rock," written by Goldman. With moderate sales, Carroll embarked on a series of tours. In 1957 he starred in the motion picture Rock, Baby, Rock It! which was filmed in Dallas in 1956, and he performed several songs with his old high school band. Though panned by critics, the film later achieved cult status for its diverse and historic music performances. After a dispute with Goldman, Carroll left him and rejoined the Louisiana Hayride . He enlisted Ed McLemore , co-producer of Big D Jamboree , as his new manager in 1958 and recorded two singles for Warner Brothers, including his biggest hit, "Bandstand Doll." In 1962 he recorded his last single for more than ten years. Beginning in 1958 until the early 1970s, Carroll was music director for a series of nightclubs known as the Cellar . Originally opened in Fort Worth, the club also opened branches in other Texas cities. On May 6, 1960, Carroll married Sharon, a waitress at the Cellar. They had a son but divorced in 1966. He married Tena Mathews in 1968. In 1974, after leaving the nightclub business, Carroll returned to performing and recorded "Black Leather Rebel" (also titled "Gene Vincent Rock"), a tribute to singer and friend Gene Vincent. It was the first of several projects that reignited Carroll's career Three years later he re-released three of his Decca singles, the success of which led to several tours across Europe, where he was a rock-and-roll icon. In 1978 Carroll rekindled his 1950s rock-and-roll sound with the release of Texabilly , an album recorded on the Rollin' Rock label in Van Nuys, California, in a twenty-seven-hour marathon session. About this time he also teamed up with model and singer Judy Lindsey, and the two performed in clubs across the United States and in Europe. The city of Fort Worth proclaimed December 1, 1986, to be "Johnny Carroll Day" in honor of Carroll's success in Europe and his role as an ambassador of good will for the city. By the 1990s he had completed eleven European tours and was a popular draw on the American music festival circuit. He died of liver failure in Dallas on February 18, 1995, and was buried in Godley, Texas. Bear Family Records released Rock Baby Rock It: 1955-1960 , a compilation of Carroll's recordings, in 1996.

Tsha Handbook → · 9.3 mi away

Conway, Gordon

1915

Gordon Conway, artist, only child of John Catlett and Tommie (Johnson) Conway, was born at Cleburne, Texas, on December 18, 1894. Her father descended from colonial and revolutionary era patriots in Tidewater Virginia that included a collateral ancestral line from the mother of President James Madison. After the Civil War he moved to Texas, where he succeeded in business, became an active Episcopal layman, and served as mayor of Cleburne. Around 1900 the family moved to Dallas, where he expanded his chain of lumberyards, established lumber firms in Dallas and Fort Worth, and became a well-known civic and social leader before his death in 1906. His daughter, Gordon, the last of the family line, had no children from a seven-year marriage to businessman Blake Ozias that ended in divorce in France in 1927. Gordon Conway's mother also descended from early American leaders, including the Samuel Adams family of Massachusetts and Joseph Johnson, the first Virginia governor elected by a vote of the people. One Johnson line later moved to Texas and settled in Whitesboro, Paris, and Cleburne. Tommie Johnson Conway established the pattern of a glamorous, nomadic lifestyle that included sporadic educational efforts for Gordon at the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C., a Lausanne girls' school, and brief art lessons in Rome. She was a champion of her daughter's career and her lifelong companion. During a brief but prolific twenty-two-year career (1915-37), Gordon Conway won international acclaim in the fields of commercial graphic art and costume design for stage and film in New York, London, and Paris. She made around 5,000 finished drawings, including illustrations for at least 26 publications and 33 advertising clients. With assignments ranging from one to 80 costumes per show, she designed graphics and costumes for at least 119 stage productions for both theater and cabaret. She costumed 47 films. Conway helped democratize Parisian haute couture and popularize the severe elements of modern design. Starting out during the golden age of American illustration, she was a self-taught, free-lance artist who worked without apprentices and models. A significant but often overlooked aspect of her career-and rare for women of the era-was Conway's ability to create a popular public persona, which expanded her network of clients. She was in the vanguard of the new business enterprises of advertising and public relations at the beginning of the twentieth century. She excelled in several genres best reviewed in two stages: her New York period (1915-20) and her European period (1921-36). Highlights of her New York period included silhouette art for mass print media and color billboards, posters, and promotional graphics touting Broadway theater and cabaret productions. She was a spirited and determined twenty-year-old in 1915 when she launched her career at Vogue and Vanity Fair . Recognizing her native talent, Heyworth Campbell-publisher Condé Nast's first art director-insisted that Conway forget academic art school. He urged her to take classes at the Art Students League and to study magazine and advertising illustration with tutors. Campbell joined another Conway mentor, Vanity Fair editor Frank Crowninshield, in helping her establish a popular public image. These editors also marshaled her innate flair for whimsy and parody by commissioning covers and narrative vignette pages spoofing New York society girls involved in World War I charity work. Also publishing Conway's drawings of bright young sophisticates was Condé Nast rival Harper's Bazaar , whose editor, Henry B. Sell, encouraged Conway's talent and introduced her to the art work of their new cover artist, Erté. These successes led to other publications and diverse advertising clients such as the Delage and the Franklin motor car companies, Huylers chocolates, Neiman-Marcus , and Hallmark watches. The National City Company (New York) commissioned a series of her posters for a natio

Tsha Handbook → · 9.3 mi away

Things to Do in Godley

nature 21.9 mi away

Dinosaur Valley State Park

The Paluxy River cut down through the limestone here and exposed dinosaur tracks pressed into 113-million-year-old mud. You can wade out into the river in…

food 24.8 mi away

Joe T. Garcia's

Joe T opened his little family restaurant behind the packing plant in the Fort Worth Stockyards in 1935. There was no menu. His wife Jessie served whatever she…

quirky 16.3 mi away

Brazos Drive-In Theatre

Granbury businessmen pooled local materials in 1952 and put up a drive-in on what was then the edge of town to lure people in. It opened June 5 with Robert…

spooky 23.4 mi away

Lake Worth Monster

In 1969 dozens of witnesses reported a half-man half-goat creature prowling the shores of Lake Worth. Police investigated. The monster was never caught.

Everything Near Godley

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

First Baptist Church of Godley · Historical Marker
You're driving through Godley, and right here is the site of the First Baptist Church. It started way back in the spring of 1878, not in town, but at the home of J. P. Vickers, about four miles away. Back then, it was…
The Rock Under Town That Rewrote Energy · 0.2 mi
Godley sits over the Barnett Shale, a black Mississippian-age rock roughly 350 million years old, buried about 6,500 to 8,500 feet down across the Fort Worth Basin. Johnson County is one of just four core counties of…
The Lumberman Who Bought a Town Onto the Map · 0.2 mi
Godley owes its name and its start to a railroad deal. In 1886, R.B. Godley, a lumber merchant from nearby Cleburne, donated an eight-acre tract for a townsite and another twenty acres as right-of-way to the Gulf,…
Godley School · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
The town of Godley began in 1886, as rancher and lumber merchant B. B. Godley donated land for a townsite and right-of-way to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad. Predating the railroad town was the local school,…
From Cow Pastures to Subdivisions · 1.5 mi
As you drive along Highway 171, you're seeing a story of massive change unfold in real time. For most of its history, Godley was a small, quiet town with a population that rarely topped 1,000 people. It was surrounded…
A Town Made by the Railroad · 1.5 mi
Look at the railroad tracks that cut through the heart of Godley. They are not just passing through, they are the reason the town is here. But it did not happen the way you would guess. In 1886 the Gulf, Colorado and…
Godley, TX · 1.5 mi
Established in 1886, the city was named after R. B. Godley, a Cleburne lumber merchant who donated land for a townsite and a right-of-way to the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. By 1888, Godley had a gristmill,…
Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Godley (Godley) · 1.5 mi
Godley (Godley, TX) placed on the 4A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Tabor Anderson (0.485 avg).
A lumber merchant's eight-acre gift · 1.5 mi
The existence of Godley is as much a deal as a survey line. When the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway came through Johnson County in the eighteen-eighties, engineers were plotting the gentlest possible grades to…
Site of Buchanan · 5.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Buchanan, Johnson County's second county seat. It was founded in December of 1856, named for the U.S. president-elect. A jail and clerk's office went up in 1858. But this town couldn't…
Rejected as Caddo Peak, renamed Joshua · 7.4 mi
The railroad tracks cutting through Joshua are the reason there is a Joshua. When the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe planned its line from Cleburne up to Fort Worth in 1881, surveyors walked this ground with transits and…
Joshua, TX · 7.4 mi
Joshua's development was significantly influenced by the arrival of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway in 1881, which bypassed Caddo Grove and led to the establishment of a station at the site of what would become…

Show all 200 nearby places

The Joshua Name Game · 7.4 mi
What's in a name? In Joshua, it's a bit of a local mystery. The area's first community was Caddo Grove, two miles west of here — and it faded fast after the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway went around it in 1881 and…
Bruce-Davis House · 7.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Bruce-Davis House in Cresson, a home with roots stretching back to 1889. That's when Madison Jones, a local landowner who also donated land for a school and church, platted this neighborhood. He…
Cresson, TX · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Cresson, right where Highway 377 and 171 meet. This town owes its start to John Cresson, who led a wagon train here before the Civil War. He liked it so much, he built houses and a general store.…
Where Two Railroads Crossed, and Trains Still Turn · 7.7 mi
In 1887 two railroads reached Cresson in the same year. The Fort Worth and Rio Grande ran from Fort Worth to Granbury, and the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe ran from Cleburne to Weatherford. The two lines crossed right…
The Wagon Captain Who Left His Name · 7.7 mi
Before the Civil War, a wagon-train captain named John Cresson camped where three future counties would meet. He liked the spot, put down roots, and built a cluster of houses and a general store that became the seed of…
One Town, Three Counties · 7.7 mi
Cresson holds a rare piece of geography: its city limits touch three counties at once. Hood, Johnson, and Parker counties meet almost on top of the town, a point surveyors call a tripoint. Each county line was drawn by…
Cresson School · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Cresson School, a building that's seen a lot of history. It started as a one-room schoolhouse west of here, then grew into a two-story frame building in 1890. That was replaced by a…
Joshua, TX · 8.1 mi
Once a thriving town, Caddo Grove missed out on the railroad boom, leading to the rise of Joshua. The station, originally called 'Caddo Peak', was renamed 'Joshua' after the biblical figure. The town blossomed with the…
The Station the Railroad Named After a Bible Story · 8.1 mi
The town you're rolling through almost wasn't here, and the town that should have been is two miles west, gone. That was Caddo Grove, a thriving little settlement near the Chisholm Trail until the Gulf, Colorado and…
When the Whole Town Ran on Cotton and Corn · 8.1 mi
For its first half-century, Joshua lived and died by what the Santa Fe hauled out of town. The first store opened in 1882 under W. L. West, who doubled as the first postmaster, and the depot beside the tracks turned…
The First Mayor, the First Florist, and the Lodge They Left Behind · 8.1 mi
Joshua stayed an unincorporated farm town for the better part of 70 years before anyone pinned a government on it, and when the town finally organized as a city in the 1950s, the man holding the gavel was Theodore…
When an Electric Train Hummed Through Joshua Every Hour · 8.1 mi
Long before the highway, Joshua had something most small towns only dreamed of: a fast electric train that ran on the hour. On September 1, 1912, the Fort Worth Southern Traction Company opened its interurban line, an…
The Sandstone Lookout Above the Cattle Trail · 8.1 mi
A mile and a half northwest of town, a brown sandstone hill called Caddo Peak rises to about 1,065 feet, and its face is chiseled with inscriptions, some said to date back to 1836. This was a watching place. The Caddo…
How One Hard Cap of Rock Built the Town's Best Lookout · 8.1 mi
Caddo Peak and nearby Brushy Knob aren't mountains; they're survivors. Across most of this part of Johnson County the land rolls in low, gentle swells, but these two hills stand out sharply, Caddo Peak topping out near…
The Pioneer Graveyard on the Old Chisholm Trail · 8.1 mi
West of town, out at 6700 FM 1902 north of County Road 910, sits Caddo Cemetery, and it marks one of the few spots where you can still stand on the actual path of the Old Chisholm Trail near Joshua. The cattle road that…
Joshua's Own Ran With the Outlaws · 8.1 mi
Joshua is a small town, but it put a kid on the NASCAR circuit. Blake Mallory was born here in Joshua on March 2, 1980, and like a lot of Texas racers he came up the hard way, on dirt and asphalt long before anyone…
Why a Whole Town Roots for the Owls · 8.3 mi
Pull up to 909 South Broadway and you're at the beating heart of modern Joshua: the high school, home of the Fighting Owls in blue and white. School here goes back a long way; Joshua opened its first one-room…
The Mayor Behind the Cresson Bypass · 8.3 mi
The new relief route for U.S. Highway Three Seventy Seven around Cresson carries the name Bob Cornett Parkway. William Bob Cornett moved to Cresson in nineteen eighty three and joined the Cresson Volunteer Fire…
Methodism in Joshua · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Joshua, Texas, a town that really got its start in 1881 when the railroad came through. But Methodists here were already gathering before that, worshiping in nearby Caddo Grove and Marystown. In…
Joshua, TX · 8.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Joshua is at the intersection of State Highway 174 and Farm Road 917, on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad seven miles southeast of Burleson and eight miles north of Cleburne in north central Johnson County. It…
The Chicken-Fried-Steak Diner Locals Swear By · 8.6 mi
If you want to eat where Joshua actually eats, skip the chains and pull into D's Country Cafe at 115 Conveyor Drive. It's a small, family-run breakfast-and-lunch spot of the kind that holds a Texas town together, the…
A Town in Three Counties · 9.2 mi
Here’s a fun fact about where you are right now. The town of Cresson is a geographical oddity. It sits directly on the spot where three Texas counties meet: Hood County to the west, Johnson County to the east, and…
The Crossroads of Steel · 9.2 mi
The town of Cresson owes its existence to a 19th-century corporate showdown. In 1887, the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway laid its tracks right through here, heading for Granbury. That created a station, but not…
Acton Cemetery — Elizabeth Crockett's Grave · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
On a quiet patch of ground east of Granbury sits the smallest state park in Texas. It is only six thousandths of an acre, just enough room for a single family plot inside the old Acton Cemetery. The grave at its center…
A Country Club for Cars · 9.2 mi
If you hear a high-pitched roar in the distance, it's not just the highway. Just on the edge of town is one of Cresson's most unique and modern landmarks: MotorSport Ranch. Ground broke in 1996 and the gates opened in…
Cresson, TX · 9.2 mi
The origin of the name Cresson is shrouded in mystery. Some speculate it might be named after John Cresson, a captain of a wagon train that once camped in the area before the Civil War. Another theory suggests it could…
Acton Cemetery · 9.3 mi · Historical Marker
Location of Acton historic site, smallest state park in Texas. Includes the grave of Mrs. Elizabeth P. Crockett (1788-1860), widow of the Alamo hero David Crockett, and 2 of his children. In 1911 a monument and statue…
Crockett, Elizabeth, Grave of · 9.3 mi · Historical Marker
Mrs. Elizabeth Crockett, wife of David Crockett, born in Buncombe Co., NC, May 22, 1788, married to David Crockett in Lawrence Co., Tenn., 1816; died in Johnson Co.--now Hood Co.--Jan. 31, 1860, age 72 years. (death…
Carroll, John Lewis [Johnny] · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
John Lewis (Johnny) Carroll, rockabilly guitarist, composer, and singer, was born in Cleburne, Texas, on October 23, 1937. He grew up in nearby Godley and spent much of his life on the family farm there. His surname was…
Conway, Gordon · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
Gordon Conway, artist, only child of John Catlett and Tommie (Johnson) Conway, was born at Cleburne, Texas, on December 18, 1894. Her father descended from colonial and revolutionary era patriots in Tidewater Virginia…
Lewis, William T. · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through North Texas, and right here near Cleburne, a jazz legend got his start. William T. Lewis, born in 1905, grew up to become one of the first prominent Black jazz bandleaders in Europe. After honing…
Chambers, Barzillai J. · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving near Cleburne, Texas, a place that was once the heart of a political movement. Barzillai J. Chambers, a local politician and farmer, became a leading voice for the Greenback party in the late 1870s. He…
Ellis, Mary Heard · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Central Texas, and right here in Cleburne, Texas, Mary Heard Ellis was born in December of 1878. She was a teacher and a social reformer who became a key figure in the Texas woman suffrage…
Layland Museum · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Cleburne, and right here is a building with a story that's almost as old as Texas itself. This is the Layland Museum, housed in the magnificent 1905 Carnegie Library. It started in 1963 with a…
Acton Masonic Lodge Hall, Former · 9.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Acton, Texas, and you're passing a building that's worn a lot of hats. Built between 1866 and 1868 by the local Masons, this native stone structure was originally the Acton Lodge Hall. But look…
Cleburne, TX · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Cleburne, Texas, the county seat of Johnson County. This town owes its very existence to a crossroads and a water source on West Buffalo Creek, an important stop for travelers and cattlemen on the…
Crane, Edward E. · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through North Texas, and right here near Cleburne, Edward E. Crane was born. He became an attorney and a law professor, but his most significant contribution came when he served on the Board of Regents…
Curry, Arthur Ray · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through North Texas, and right here in Cleburne, Arthur Ray Curry got his start. He went on to become a key figure in expanding library access across the state. As supervisor of the WPA Statewide Library…
Dallas, Cleburne and Southwestern Railway · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Johnson County, maybe even near Cleburne, and you might be passing over the ghost of a railroad that once promised a direct link to Dallas. The Dallas, Cleburne and Southwestern Railway, nicknamed…
Lemmons, Reuel G. · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Cleburne, Texas, a place that was home to Reuel Lemmons for over a decade. From 1943 to 1955, Lemmons served as the minister for the Central Church of Christ right here. But his influence…
Odell, Willmot Mitchell · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving near Cleburne, the birthplace of Willmot Mitchell Odell, a man who wore many hats in Texas law and public service. Born in 1878, Odell practiced law here for years, even chairing the Johnson County…
Poindexter, William · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Johnson County, heading towards Cleburne. Right here, William Poindexter built a career. He was a lawyer, a prohibitionist, and even a bank president. Poindexter stumped for prohibition in 1887,…
Ramsey, William Franklin · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Bell County, the birthplace of William Franklin Ramsey. He was a lawyer, a judge, and even a banker, graduating with his law degree way back in 1876. Ramsey practiced law in Cleburne, married…
Acton Methodist Church · 9.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Acton Methodist Church. Settlement here began in the early 1850s, with local congregations forming a union church. The Acton Methodist Church was established by 1873 and purchased land for its own…
Acton Baptist Church (First Baptist Church of Acton) · 9.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Acton, where a Baptist congregation was organized in 1855 by the Rev. Joseph Robinson. His successor was the Rev. James Halford, son-in-law of the famous frontiersman David Crockett. The congregation…
Acton Public Square · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Acton, the oldest community in Hood County. It started life as 'Comanche Peak' when a post office opened way back in 1856. Just a dozen years later, the town was renamed 'Acton.' This public…
Pecan Plantation, TX · 9.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Hood County, and right around here is Pecan Plantation. It wasn't always a sprawling residential community. Back in the late 1940s, this land was part of the Leonard Bend Farm. O.P. Leonard, a…
Southwest Metroplex Baptist Association · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Southwest Metroplex Baptist Association. Messengers from nine Baptist churches, Shady Grove # 1 and # 2, Alvarado, Bethesda, Rock Springs, Hillsboro, Island Grove, West Fork and Union met to organize…
Dennis Methodist Church · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the former home of Dennis Methodist Church, a building with a story stretching back to the late 1800s. N.M. Dennis himself moved here from Boston in the 1890s and founded the Dennis Community. This…
Goforth Graves · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Goforth Graves, the burial place for four people on land settled by J.L. and Elizabeth Goforth in 1857. Their two-year-old son, John L. Goforth, Jr., was buried here in 1863 while his father…
The $49 Courthouse Made of Logs · 9.8 mi
At the Chisholm Trail Outdoor Museum, 101 Chisholm Trail on the south side of Cleburne, sits one of the most unassuming relics of frontier Texas government: a tiny log courthouse built in 1855, reputed to be the oldest…
Site of Wardville · 9.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Wardville, the very first county seat of Johnson County. Back in August of 1855, this spot was chosen and laid out on 80 acres donated by William O'Neal. It was named for Thomas William…
Decordova, TX · 9.8 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving near Granbury, heading into DeCordova. This community started in the late 1960s, born from the creation of Lake Granbury. It was the very first subdivision developed on the lake, envisioned as a weekend…
The Dam That Made a City · 9.9 mi
The very existence of DeCordova is a testament to a massive feat of civil engineering just down the road: the DeCordova Bend Dam. Built for the Brazos River Authority and finished in early 1969, its purpose was to…
The Spirit of Cleburne · 9.9 mi
The Santa Fe shops in Cleburne were heavy engineering on a grand scale, where crews could take a steam locomotive completely apart and rebuild it: the boiler, the firebox, the tall driving wheels, all of it. The town's…
The City That Built a Gate... Then Became a City · 9.9 mi
As you passed through the security gates to enter DeCordova, you experienced the very reason this is a city at all. For its first 30 years, DeCordova was a private development, not a town. But in the late 1990s, the…
DeCordova, TX · 9.9 mi
In the late 1960s, DeCordova Bend Estates began to take shape alongside the construction of the De Cordova Bend Dam on the Brazos River. This dam was a pivotal moment, as it controlled the river's flow downstream and…
The Texas Promoter Who Named the Bend · 9.9 mi
The name 'DeCordova' belongs to a giant of Texas history who likely never saw the community that bears his name. Jacob De Cordova was a land speculator and one of Texas's greatest champions after it became a state. Born…
The Texas World War II Home Front · 10.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Johnson County, Texas, where the home front was as vital as any battlefield during World War II. While millions of Texans served overseas, many back home kept the war machine running. Cities…
Crockett, Elizabeth, Three Miles to the Grave of · 10.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving south of Granbury, and just three miles ahead lies the final resting place of Elizabeth Crockett. She was the wife of the legendary David Crockett, hero of the Alamo. Elizabeth passed away on March 2nd,…
Arnold, Oliver Perry · 10.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Cleburne, and just ahead is the site of a man who truly saw the West unfold. Oliver Perry Arnold arrived in Texas way back in 1847, trying his hand at livestock and running a store. He even spent…
Union Hill Presbyterian Church and Cemetery · 10.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Union Hill, a community that started in the early 1850s, becoming a cotton farming hub by the 1870s. In 1879, a Presbyterian congregation formed here, building this church in 1880. Just a couple…
Yellow Jacket Stadium · 10.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Yellow Jacket Stadium, a testament to New Deal ingenuity. Back in 1939, Cleburne needed a new place for their high school football team, Rhome Field, to play. So, the Works Progress…
Field Street Baptist Church · 10.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Field Street Baptist Church in Cleburne. It began in the late 1800s as the West Side Mission, a Bible study group from Cleburne's First Baptist Church. The mission bought a lot on the…
The City of Shops: Engineering an Iron Horse · 10.5 mi
Imagine a factory the size of a small city, dedicated to one thing: keeping steam locomotives running. That was Cleburne's Santa Fe Shops, a marvel of industrial engineering. When a massive steam locomotive needed a…
The General's Forbidden Idea · 10.5 mi
The man this town is named for, Patrick Cleburne, was a brilliant Confederate general. But his most famous moment wasn't on the battlefield; it was in a private meeting. By the winter of 1864, the Confederacy was losing…
The Night the Sky Roared · 10.5 mi
On the evening of May 15, 2013, the skies over Cleburne turned violent. A powerful supercell thunderstorm, part of a larger outbreak that produced sixteen confirmed tornadoes across north and east Texas, began to rotate…
Cleburne, TX · 10.5 mi
Founded as Camp Henderson in 1862 during the Civil War, the city that would become Cleburne was initially an army camp on Colonel W.F. Henderson's land near Buffalo Creek. It was named after Patrick R. Cleburne, a…
Little Old House · 10.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Cleburne, and just ahead is the Little Old House. Built sometime between 1865 and 1870, this southern colonial cottage was close to a vital water source, City Spring. It was the first home of…
The Shops That Built the Town · 10.6 mi
In 1897 Cleburne beat out Dallas, Fort Worth, and Temple to land an enormous railroad repair complex for the Santa Fe line, said to be one of the largest such shops anywhere in the West. When it opened in 1898 it…
A Burger Stand Since 1949 · 10.6 mi
On North Anglin Street in Cleburne stands a tiny walk-up burger joint that has been flipping burgers on the very same corner since 1949. It was opened by a woman named Ora Lanman, and for forty-three years, from 1962 to…
Pecan Plantation, TX · 10.6 mi
Pecan Plantation's history is rooted in aviation. The community began as a 2,200-acre development centered around a two-runway cropdusting airstrip. What's unique is that the development preserved the runways, creating…
Buchanan, TX · 10.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
Buchanan, five miles northwest of Cleburne in central Johnson County, was established in 1856 and selected as the second county seat in a special election held on October 4 of that year, after the discovery that the…
Lillian, TX · 10.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
Lillian is on Farm Road 2738 fifteen miles northeast of Cleburne in northeastern Johnson County. In 1902 G. J. Renfro purchased land from J. W. Cunningham to establish a town that would be near the line of the…
City Spring · 10.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Cleburne, and right here is City Spring, a place that was the lifeblood of this area for generations. Imagine people traveling miles, just to get a drink, to wash their clothes, or to haul water…
Hart, Richard Meredith · 10.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Johnson County, Texas, where Richard Meredith Hart settled in 1855. He was a tough cattleman who drove his herds overland to Shreveport and downriver to New Orleans. Hart built his home on Mustang…
Johnson County · 10.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Johnson County, right on the edge of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. This land was once a hunting ground for various Native American tribes. In 1851, a Caddo-led uprising forced many early…
Shannon, William Russell · 10.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once Johnson County, Texas, a place that saw service from William Russell Shannon. He was a farmer and legislator who left his seat in the Texas House in 1861 to organize a cavalry unit…
Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway · 10.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once the heart of a new Texas railway, the Trinity and Brazos Valley. Chartered in 1902, this ambitious line aimed to connect Johnson County all the way to the Beaumont area. It started…
Bruce, Horatio Gates · 10.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Johnson County, Texas, where Horatio Gates Bruce settled in 1848. A Confederate officer and community leader, Bruce helped found the Rock Creek Baptist Church and served as captain in the…
Sand Flat, TX (Johnson County) · 10.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Johnson County, southeast of Cleburne. Right here is the area once known as Cuba, and before that, just Sand Flat. Settlers arrived in the late 1850s, and by 1868, the community had its own…
Sparks, William Fielder · 10.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Central Texas, perhaps near Cleburne, and right here is a man who saw some serious Texas history unfold. William Fielder Sparks fought at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, helping to win Texas…
First Baptist Church Of Cleburne · 10.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Cleburne, and right here is the site of the First Baptist Church, organized way back in 1868 by W. A. Mason with just 16 members. It grew fast. By 1869, they had their first pastor, J. R. Clarke,…
Bono, TX · 10.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
Bono is on Farm Road 2331 a mile west of U.S. Highway 67 in southwestern Johnson County. The site was settled in the early 1870s with the arrival of the families of Calvin L. Jones and B. H. Williamson, who donated…
Pleasant Point, TX · 10.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
Pleasant Point was a small rural settlement in northeastern Johnson County fifteen miles northeast of Cleburne, the county seat, on Farm Road 2738. Originating with the construction of a gristmill and general…
Named for the Stonewall of the West · 10.7 mi
Cleburne began as an army camp called Camp Henderson, built around a dependable spring on West Buffalo Creek that had long watered travelers and the cattlemen driving herds up the nearby Chisholm Trail. In 1867, when…
When the Rangers Came to Town · 10.7 mi
In 1922 the national railroads cut the wages of their shop workers, and all across the country the shopmen walked out. In Cleburne, a town of about thirteen thousand people built almost entirely around the Santa Fe…
A Carnegie Library Full of Cleburne's Memory · 10.7 mi
On the downtown square at 201 North Caddo Street stands one of the last original Carnegie library buildings still in use in Texas, now home to the Layland Museum of History. The story behind it is pure small-town…
The Machine Shops That Rebuilt Steam Locomotives · 10.7 mi
Cleburne is a railroad town because of what got built here in 1898 and 1899: a sprawling Santa Fe maintenance complex that became one of the largest in the Southwest, big enough to build and rebuild steam locomotives…
Carnegie Library Building · 10.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Cleburne Carnegie Library, a testament to community spirit and a touch of Gilded Age philanthropy. It all started in 1901 with local women's clubs pushing for a public library. They even met with…
City Wagon Yards · 10.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past where Cleburne's City Wagon Yards once stood. Before cars and trucks, these were the bustling hubs for rural Texans coming into town. For just two bits, farmers and travelers could get feed and water…
Picnic Grounds · 10.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Cleburne's original town square, a place that started as a simple picnic ground. After <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1854</say-as>, this spot became known as Camp Henderson, a…
The Cleburne Demands · 10.8 mi
In the summer of 1886, two hundred and forty delegates of the Texas Farmers' Alliance gathered in Cleburne and issued a seventeen-point platform that became known as the Cleburne Demands. They called for regulating the…
Where a Hall of Famer Threw His First Pro Pitch · 10.8 mi
In 1906 Cleburne fielded a Texas League club called the Railroaders, named for the Santa Fe shops that paid the town's bills, and that team won the league championship in its only full season. Its lasting fame, though,…
The Courthouse That Burned the Day the Titanic Sank · 10.8 mi
The grand courthouse anchoring Cleburne's square has a haunting coincidence in its past. The county's previous building, an ornate Second Empire courthouse completed in 1883 by noted Texas architect W. C. Dodson, burned…
Pioneer Texas Telephones · 10.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Cleburne, and right here, we're talking about the dawn of communication in Texas. Back in 1878, the very first telephones in the state connected the Galveston News office to its publisher's home.…
Dial Telephones, Years Ahead of the World · 10.8 mi
Here is a forgotten Texas first. Around 1903, a little company in Cleburne installed some of the earliest dial telephones in the entire country, machines that let people connect their own calls automatically, without an…
The Boy Who Couldn't Pitch · 10.8 mi
In 1906 the original Cleburne Railroaders won the Texas League pennant, and on that roster was a teenager from nearby Hubbard named Tris Speaker. He had signed on as a pitcher, and he was terrible at it, losing his…
The Railroaders Ride Again · 10.8 mi
More than a century after the original club folded, professional baseball came back to Cleburne. The modern Cleburne Railroaders were announced as an expansion franchise in the independent American Association on…
The Black Powder Plant That Kept Going Off · 10.8 mi
Out at the edge of Cleburne sat a black powder manufacturing plant, the kind of operation that made the explosive used in fireworks, antique firearms and blasting. On July 10, 1973, a series of explosions tore through…
The Rockabilly Wildman Born in Cleburne · 10.8 mi
Cleburne's contribution to the birth of rock and roll was a guitar-slinging kid named Johnny Carroll, born here on October 23, 1937. His family name was actually Carrell, but when the Decca label misspelled it Carroll…
Johnson, Middleton T., Colonel; General Patrick R. Cleburne · 10.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Johnson County, named for Colonel Middleton T. Johnson, a South Carolinian who came to Texas in 1840. He was a legislator, a Texas Ranger, and a surveyor. When the Civil War broke out, Johnson…
Church of the Holy Comforter · 10.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Cleburne, and right here is the Church of the Holy Comforter. Its story starts way back in 1860 when the first bishop of Texas visited Johnson County. This parish, the very first Episcopal one in…
Cleburne Town Square · 10.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Cleburne, and right here is the heart of it all: the town square. It all started back in 1854 with just a log cabin near a spring. By 1867, the county seat was moved here and renamed for…
Market Square · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Cleburne, and right here is Market Square, a tradition that started way back in the 1890s! Eleven men decided they didn't want to wait for the county to fund it, so they donated this land forever…
Joiner-Long House · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Joiner-Long House in Cleburne, a home that saw major changes over a century. John Joiner built a simple farmhouse here in 1895. Then, in 1912, banker Joseph Long and his wife Lorena bought it.…
Bethel Salter A.M.E. Church · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Bethel Salter A.M.E. Church, a testament to faith and community. It began in 1887, established by the Goodwin and Sims families, and named for Bishop Moses B. Salter. The church moved and…
Cleburne Lodge No. 315, A.F. & A.M. · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Cleburne, the county seat since 1867. Just two years later, in 1869, the Grand Lodge of Texas chartered Cleburne Masonic Lodge No. 315. The lodge built its hall in 1871 and has focused its…
Elm Flat Cemetery · 11.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Elm Flat Cemetery, a resting place established in November 1877. It began when Thomas and Elizabeth Wells buried two young sons here, near their cabin. Later, Elizabeth Wells donated land for a…
Johnson County · 11.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the heart of Johnson County, a place named for Middleton T. Johnson, a legislator from Alabama who came to Texas in the 1840s. He was a veteran of the Texas Rangers, the Mexican War, and the Civil…
John L. and Annie Upshaw Cleveland House · 11.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Cleburne, and to your right stands a beautiful Queen Anne style home, built in 1892. This was the residence of John L. and Annie Upshaw Cleveland. John owned the local cottonseed oil mill and a…
Lake Pat Cleburne · 11.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Lake Pat Cleburne, named for a famous Confederate general. This reservoir was built to supply Cleburne's water needs after a bond issue was approved in 1962. The lake, covering 2,000 acres, was…
Pat Cleburne Camp No. 88, UCV · 11.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Cleburne, where the Pat Cleburne Camp number 88 of the United Confederate Veterans was formed in 1890. This group, made up of prominent local citizens, erected a memorial arch in 1922. The UCV held…
The 1877 Farmhouse That Became an Art Colony · 11.7 mi
At 405 West County Road 714 sits a homestead older than the town of Burleson's incorporation, now reborn as a place to make art. The centerpiece is the Russell-Boren house, built in 1877, four years before the railroad…
Johnson County Sheriff's Posse · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Cleburne, where the Johnson County Sheriff's Posse got its start. On October 8th, 1951, nine men met at the Cleburne Livestock Auction barn with a mission: to promote goodwill, celebrate Western…
The Health-Food Store the Whole Town Built Its Diet Around · 11.8 mi
If you want to taste what makes Keene different, stop at the Adventist Book Center and food store at 201 South Old Betsy Road. Seventh-day Adventists have long promoted a vegetarian diet, so in Keene that conviction…
Prairie Springs Cemetery · 11.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Prairie Springs Cemetery, established way back in 1857. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2004.
Cross Timber, TX · 11.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Johnson County, near the edge of the western Cross Timbers forest. Right here, a community called Cross Timbers sprang up around 1853. It was a bustling place by the late 1800s, with a post…
The Town Where the Weekend Runs Backward · 12.0 mi
Roll through Keene on a Saturday and you'll notice something off about a Texas town: a lot of it is closed. Roll through on a Sunday and it's open. That's because Keene grew up as a Seventh-day Adventist community, and…
The Town Built on Purpose in the Dead of Winter · 12.1 mi
Most Texas towns just happened. Keene was planned. In 1892 a committee of Seventh-day Adventists from the Dallas area went looking for land to build a school, settled on roughly 800 acres east of Cleburne, and paid…
How 45,000 Wyoming Dinosaur Bones Ended Up in Keene · 12.1 mi
Tucked into this small Adventist college town is one of the largest dinosaur fossil collections in the country. For about 25 years, Southwestern Adventist University has sent a summer crew to a private cattle ranch in…
The Morning West Hall Burned · 12.1 mi
On the cold early morning of January 2, 1944, fire tore through West Hall, the boys' dormitory on the campus of what was then Southwestern Junior College. By accounts of the night, a 16-year-old student named Reginald…
The Street Named for a Steam Engine Called Old Betsy · 12.1 mi
The main drag through Keene is Old Betsy Road, and there really was an Old Betsy. On December 20, 1902, a little steam engine by that name began running a roughly ten-mile route between Cleburne and the community of…
Marystown Cemetery · 12.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Marystown Cemetery, a final resting place for many of Johnson County's earliest settlers. Families began moving into this area in the 1850s, drawn by the springs and trees near Quil Miller Creek.…
First Baptist Church of Crowley · 12.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Crowley, a congregation that started small in a rural setting way back in 1896. It was admitted into the Tarrant County Baptist Association that same year,…
The Adventist Colony of Keene · 12.2 mi
You're driving through a town that was founded as a kind of religious colony. In the 1890s the Seventh-day Adventist Church wanted a center for education in the Southwest. Leaders scouted locations, and this spot in…
A Laboratory for Longevity · 12.2 mi
The town of Keene is more than just a dot on the map; for medical researchers its whole way of life is a data point in the science of longevity. Keene grew up around a Seventh-day Adventist college and is still one of…
The Living-Well City · 12.2 mi
If Keene feels a little different from other Texas towns, you are picking up on something real. Adventists bought land here in Johnson County in 1892 to found a school, and that school is now Southwestern Adventist…
The College That Brooms Built · 12.2 mi
In the early days of Keene, most students at the Adventist academy were poor, so the school built its answer into the curriculum: you worked your way through. Keene Industrial Academy was chartered in 1894, and by 1896…
Keene, TX · 12.2 mi
Keene, Texas, is situated on a regional watershed divide, with the northern and eastern sides of the city draining to Turkey Creek, which is part of the Trinity River watershed, and the southern and western sides…
Mizpah Gate · 12.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Southwestern Adventist University in Keene, and you're looking at the Mizpah Gate. This isn't just any old entrance; it replaced a barbed wire fence that used to keep starving livestock out of…
The First Airplane in Texas Limped Out of Keene · 12.3 mi
Around 1912 a speed-mad young man named Slats Rogers, born Floyd Rodgers in Georgia and raised here as a teenager, decided he was going to build an airplane. He started the work in Cleburne and finished it in Keene,…
From Elm Grove to Keene · 12.3 mi
The town you're rolling into started under a different name. The first settler in this part of Johnson County was Jeremiah Easterwood, who arrived around 1852 and put up a Methodist meeting house that doubled as a…
The Names That Still Run the Town · 12.3 mi
Walk the old part of Keene and you're walking through a roster of its founders. The first teacher in the Adventist school, in 1893, was Ella E. Evans, who taught the settlers' children before the academy even had a…
The Petrified-Wood Gate That Watches the Campus · 12.3 mi
At the south entrance to Southwestern Adventist University stands the Mizpah Gate, and it's worth a look because of what it's made of. Completed in June 1937 as a gift from that year's graduating class, the gate was…
Rodgers, Floyd H. [Slats] · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Central Texas, and right here near Keene, you're passing through the stomping grounds of an aviation pioneer named Floyd 'Slats' Rodgers. He was largely self-taught, and in late 1912, a mere nine…
Adventist Churches · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Johnson County, and right here in Keene, you're passing through a town founded by faith. In 1893, a group of Seventh-day Adventists established this community, seeking a place to build their lives…
Keene, TX · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Keene, Texas, a town with a unique origin story tied to faith and education. Back in 1894, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists established a school here to train ministers. They built…
From Crowley High to the Super Bowl Line · 12.5 mi
Long before the big contract and the Super Bowl rings, Milton Williams was a defensive lineman terrorizing quarterbacks for Crowley High School. Born in 1999, Williams came up through the Crowley schools and earned…
The Linebacker Who Faked a Punt to the Super Bowl · 12.5 mi
Another Crowley High football product made it all the way to two Super Bowl titles. Gary Reasons, born in 1962, racked up an astonishing thirteen varsity letters at Crowley High School before going on to Northwestern…
Renfro, Henry Carty · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
Henry Carty Renfro, Baptist minister, was born near Maryville, Blount County, Tennessee, on July 18, 1831, the son of Absalom C. and Levicy (Tipton) Renfro. The family moved to Rock Spring, Walker County, Georgia,…
Burleson, TX · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burleson, Texas, a town born from the iron horse. Back in 1881, the railroad was pushing south from Fort Worth, and a man named Grenville Dodge bought land for a new depot. The deal included a…
Marystown, TX · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Johnson County, and right here was once the community of Marystown. It all started back in 1853 when the Reverend J. S. Wilshire and his family settled this fertile land along Quil Miller Creek.…
Carroll, James Milton · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Burleson County, Texas, near where James Milton Carroll settled with his family in 1858. He was orphaned young, but went on to Baylor University, pastored churches across Texas, and founded San…
George's Creek Baptist Church · 12.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past George's Creek Baptist Church. The history of the George's Creek community can be traced to two men who passed through the area on an 1841 expedition from the Republic of Texas to Santa Fe, New…
Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Crowley (Crowley) · 12.6 mi
Crowley (Crowley, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Spencer Abram (0.441 avg).
Deer Creek rolled a mile west · 12.9 mi
Imagine getting news that a new superhighway is being built, but it's going to bypass your town by a mile. That's exactly what happened here in the mid-1880s, but with a railroad. The original settlement, a farming…
Aligned to the Tracks, Not the Compass · 12.9 mi
The straight, unwavering line of the railroad tracks cutting through Crowley isn't an accident; it's a monument to 19th-century engineering. When the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway planned its route in the 1880s,…
Barnard's Trading Post No. 2 · 12.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Barnard's Trading Post No. 2. The Torrey brothers of Connecticut and their childhood friend George Barnard, with President Sam Houston as a partner, contracted to build a series of trading posts…
Crowley, TX · 13.1 mi
In the mid-19th century, the area around Deer Creek saw the arrival of pioneers who began farming. The settlement shifted westward to where downtown stands today, following the construction of pens and tracks by the…
Country Breakfast on Highway 377 · 13.1 mi
If you want an unpretentious local plate while you're rolling through, the Benbrook Cafe out on U.S. Highway 377 is the neighborhood standby. It's the kind of from-scratch country diner that opens early, around 6 a.m.,…
Crowley, TX · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Crowley, Texas, a town that owes its existence to the railroad. Back in the late 1800s, pioneers were farming near Deer Creek, but it wasn't until the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway came…
Site of Red Oak Academy · 13.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Red Oak Academy, an early Texas college founded back in 1879. Originally known as Brushy Mound, it was renamed Alta Vista College in 1885. In 1893, the Presbyterian church took over,…
W.M. Miller Cemetery · 13.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the W.M. Miller Cemetery, established in 1894. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2008.
2024 UIL 6A Division 1 Football State Champions · 13.2 mi
North Crowley High School (Fort Worth, TX): Most recent: 50-21 over Austin Westlake · 2024 6A Division 1 final.
Burgers in the Old General Store · 13.2 mi
The building at 101 North Magnolia has been feeding and supplying this town for well over a century. It first opened in 1887 as the Hays Brothers General Store and Post Office, the place where Crowley folks bought their…
First Presbyterian Church of Crowley · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Crowley, and right here is the site of the First Presbyterian Church. This congregation started way back in 1895, with simple brush arbor meetings and a Union Sunday School. They were actually one…
Named for the Man Who Ran the Trains · 13.3 mi
The town you're rolling through wears the name of a railroad man who almost certainly never lived here. Pioneers had been farming the Deer Creek bottoms since about 1848, but the settlement only became a town when the…
The Foundry Where Texas Bronze Was Born · 13.3 mi
On the edge of this dairy-and-rail town, a sculptor built one of the most important bronze foundries in Texas largely with his own hands. Harry Geffert, who ran the sculpture department at Texas Christian University,…
A Stripe of Forest Across the Prairie · 13.3 mi
Burleson sits inside a band of woods called the Eastern Cross Timbers, a narrow north-south strip of post oak and blackjack oak that cuts straight through the open prairie. Here is the science of it: those trees are not…
The 1895 Opera House Still Standing in Old Town · 13.3 mi
When you reach Old Town Burleson, you're standing in the original heart of the railroad village, and its oldest showpiece is the Burleson Opera House, built in 1895. Small-town opera houses like this one weren't grand…
Milk, Cattle, and a Line to Fort Worth · 13.3 mi
For its first half-century Crowley lived and breathed off two things: the rail line running through the middle of it and the dairy cows grazing the land around it. With Fort Worth only fifteen miles up the track, the…
A Few Hundred People, a National Bond Record · 13.3 mi
During World War II this tiny dairy town pulled off something that would impress a city ten times its size. Crowley set a per capita record for buying United States Defense Bonds, the savings bonds Americans purchased…
The Gas Monkey Wrench Was a Crowley Kid · 13.3 mi
If you ever watched the bearded mechanic quietly building the cars on Discovery Channel's Fast N' Loud, you were watching a Crowley native. Aaron Kaufman was born in Crowley in 1982 and grew into a self-taught…
Mitchell Bend Cemetery · 13.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Mitchell Bend Cemetery, the final resting place for many early settlers of Hood County. The area is named for Nelson Cooney Mitchell, who was convicted of murder in 1874 during a feud with the Truett…
Two Hollywood Careers Out of One Small Town · 13.3 mi
For a town that spent most of its life shipping milk and cattle, Crowley has put a surprising number of faces on screens. Kara Killmer, born in Crowley, became a familiar television presence as paramedic Sylvie Brett on…
The Twister on Worfield and Sharondale · 13.3 mi
Crowley sits in one of the most tornado-prone corners of one of the most tornado-prone states, and in 2008 a twister proved it on two ordinary residential streets. A confirmed EF-2 tornado, with estimated winds around…
From Ice Cream to Coffins · 13.4 mi
In Old Town Burleson, parked beside the visitors center, sits a genuine piece of that vanished railway: Interurban express car number three thirty, built around 1902 and described by the city as the oldest rail car of…
The Graveyard That Was Here Before the Town · 13.4 mi
At 300 North Hampton Road sits the oldest piece of this community, older than the name Crowley itself. The Crowley Cemetery began as the Deer Creek Cemetery, serving the farm families who had been settling these creek…
Crowley Cemetery · 13.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Crowley Cemetery, originally known as Deer Creek Cemetery. It served early settlers who arrived around 1848. The name changed to Crowley Cemetery around 1880, after the nearby settlement was…
The Preacher Who Lost His Faith · 13.5 mi
The Baptist minister who gave Burleson its name died cut off from the very church he served. Henry Renfro trained at Baylor under Rufus Burleson, served as a chaplain in the war between the states, and became a…
The Town Named From a Saloon · 13.5 mi
Burleson exists because of a railroad deal. In 1881 a railroad planned a line running from Fort Worth toward Hillsboro, and Reverend Henry Renfro sold his land for the right of way on one condition: that he be allowed…
The Interurban and the Night the Lights Came On · 13.5 mi
In 1912 an electric railway called the Interurban opened between Fort Worth and Cleburne, and Burleson was a stop on the line. On opening day, September first, the cars carried twelve hundred passengers. The line did…
Burgers in Old Town · 13.5 mi
If you are passing through and you are hungry, Old Town Burleson is where to stop. In the heart of the historic district, in a two-story building with a Texas flag painted across the roof, Grump's Burgers has become a…
Where Kelly Clarkson Found Her Voice · 13.6 mi
Before she won the very first season of American Idol in 2002 and became one of the biggest pop voices in the country, Kelly Clarkson was just a kid in Burleson. Born in Fort Worth in 1982, she grew up here in this…
The Preacher Who Sold the Land and Got to Name the Town · 13.6 mi
You're rolling into a town that exists because a railroad needed dirt and a preacher had it to sell. In 1881 the Missouri, Kansas and Texas line was pushing a route south from Fort Worth toward Hillsboro, and railroad…
From the Pulpit to Free Thought: The Man Behind the Name · 13.6 mi
The man who named this town had a stranger story than the town itself. Henry Carty Renfro, born in Tennessee in 1831, came up as a Baptist minister and a former Baylor student, and he organized churches across Johnson…
The Creek That Is Born in Burleson and Fills a City's Lake · 13.6 mi
Most people never notice it, but Burleson is the birthplace of a creek that ends up as drinking water for a city to the north. Village Creek rises right here, its headwaters tucked into northern Johnson County near…
The Hometown Voice · 13.6 mi
Burleson's most famous daughter is the singer Kelly Clarkson, who grew up here before winning the very first season of a national televised singing competition in 2002 and going on to one of the biggest pop careers of…
The 1987 Tornado · 13.6 mi
Burleson sits in tornado country, on the southern flank of the stretch of North Texas where spring storms spin up hard and fast, and the town has the scars to prove it. The most destructive twister on Burleson's record…
The Restored Rail Cars in the Heart of Old Town · 13.6 mi
The town was born from a railroad, so it's fitting that two vintage rail cars now sit restored at its center. Beside Mayor Vera Calvin Plaza in Old Town, the Burleson Visitors Center and Museum keeps a restored #330…
The Interurban in Burleson · 13.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Burleson, and right here, you're passing the site of a former community hub that was central to life here over a century ago. In the early 1900s, interurban railways were connecting Texas cities,…
Barbecue, Beer, and a Rooftop in Old Town · 13.6 mi
If you want to actually sit down in Old Town rather than just drive through it, Old Texas Brewing Company at 112 West Ellison Street is the anchor. A local family opened it in 2013 with the straightforward goal of…
The Lake They Said Would Never Fill · 13.7 mi
Southwest of town, tucked into cedar-covered limestone hills, Cleburne State Park is a Depression-era handcraft project hiding in plain sight. A group of Cleburne businessmen bought a few hundred acres in 1934 and…
The House the Donor's Family Built · 13.8 mi
At 128 North Clark Street stands a house that ties directly back to the man who named the town. After Henry C. Renfro died in 1885, his widow and their daughter, Margaret Annette Baker Clark, built this home in 1894,…
Renfro-Clark House · 13.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the former Renfro-Clark House in Burleson. This home has a direct link to the very founding of the town! Henry C. Renfro, who died in 1885, donated the land for the M.K.T. Railroad line. In exchange,…
American Idol's Hometown · 13.9 mi
In 2002, a television show called 'American Idol' became a national phenomenon, and it put Burleson, Texas, on the map. The winner was a 20-year-old from right here named Kelly Clarkson. Before she was a global…
The Ghost of the Interurban · 13.9 mi
Imagine this: it's 1915, and you want to get from Burleson to Fort Worth. You don't take a car. You walk to a stop in the middle of town and board a sleek electric railcar. This was the Interurban. The Fort Worth…

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