Skip to content

Hamlin, Texas

Everything Hamlin is known for

1 artist from here Know a song about Hamlin? Add it →

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

Sign up for the free newsletter Get the iPhone app

Music in Hamlin

Songs About Hamlin

No songs reference Hamlin yet.

Know one? Add it →

Artists From Hamlin

S
Stuart Hamblen
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Hamlin

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

Brazos River 43 songs Interstate 20 13 songs

Musical Heritage

Harper Valley Came From Here RoadyGoat

1945

In nineteen sixty eight, a song about a widow who stands up to the gossips on her town's PTA shot to number one. It was called Harper Valley PTA, and the woman singing it was born right here in Anson, on October nineteenth, nineteen forty five. Her name then was Jeanne Carolyn Stephenson. The world knew her as Jeannie C. Riley. The record went to the top of both the Billboard pop chart and the country chart, and she was the first woman ever to top both with the same song. It won her a Grammy, it was named single of the year by the Country Music Association, and it sold more than five and a half million copies. A newspaper writer in nineteen eighty seven could not resist pointing out the irony. The singer who made a hit out of small town hypocrisy grew up in Anson, a town that at the time still would not let people dance.

RoadyGoat → · 16.5 mi away

History of Hamlin

June 26, 1284 RoadyGoat

Hamlin's mascot comes from a very old record in Germany. In the German town of Hameln, which English speakers call Hamelin, an old inscription says that on June twenty-sixth, twelve eighty four, the feast day of Saints John and Paul, a piper dressed in many colors led away a hundred and thirty children born in the town. They went to a place called Calvary, near a hill called the Koppen, and they were lost. The earliest known trace seems to be a stained glass window in Hamelin's market church, made around thirteen hundred. It was described in accounts for centuries, until it was lost around sixteen sixty. From those descriptions, a historian rebuilt the image: a colorful piper and children dressed in white. A manuscript account written in the fourteen hundreds told the same story and said the mother of a church dean had watched the children go. The town even counted its years from the day they disappeared. And notice what is missing from all of it. There are no rats.

RoadyGoat →

The Rats Came Later RoadyGoat

The rats in the Pied Piper story are latecomers. The lost children show up in records from the Middle Ages, but the town museum in Hamelin calls the rat plague an invention of the fifteen hundreds. The earliest version known to mention rats was written by a German count, Froben Christoph von Zimmern, sometime between fifteen fifty nine and fifteen sixty five. Around then, the colorful piper picked up a new name, the Rattenfänger, which means the rat catcher. In eighteen sixteen the Brothers Grimm put the tale in their book of German legends. Their piper drowns the rats in the Weser River, the town refuses to pay, and he comes back for the children. Then in eighteen forty two, the English poet Robert Browning published his version, written as a child's story for a boy named Willie Macready. It jingles with rats that fought the dogs and killed the cats. Browning even used a different date, thirteen seventy six, borrowed from an older English telling. His poem made the legend famous in English, and it is the poem Hamlin's first football coach had in mind in nineteen twenty one.

RoadyGoat →

What Happened to the Children? RoadyGoat

Nobody knows what really happened to the hundred and thirty children of Hamelin in twelve eighty four. Historians have argued about it for centuries, and there are a few main theories. One says the children died, of disease, or in a landslide, or by drowning in the Weser River, and the piper stands for Death, like the medieval Dance of Death. Another points to dancing mania. In twelve thirty seven, a crowd of children reportedly danced and leaped all the way from Erfurt to Arnstadt, about twelve miles. Others say they left on a pilgrimage, a military campaign, or a children's crusade, and never came home. The theory the town of Hamelin calls the most plausible is emigration. In the twelve hundreds, recruiters called locators roamed northern Germany signing up settlers for new lands in the East. The linguist Jürgen Udolph found family names from old Hamelin turning up north of Berlin and in what is now Poland. In that reading, the children were the town's young people, and they left to start over.

RoadyGoat →

Hamlin, TX

1902

Hamlin is on U.S. Highway 83 in northwest Jones and northeast Fisher counties. It was established in anticipation of construction of the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway. R. D. Moore conveyed land to the Orient Land Company in 1902. Town organization followed in 1905. Hamlin was named for Orient official W. H. Hamlin. The Orient reached Hamlin in 1906 and was followed by the Texas Central Railroad within a couple of years and by the Abilene and Southern in 1910. Only the Orient, later a part of the Santa Fe, has survived. The Abilene and Southern stopped service in the late 1930s, and the Southern Pacific in 1977. Business boomed with the rail service, and the town included gins, a cottonseed oil mill, and a number of other businesses. Oil discoveries in the 1920s also contributed to the economy. The population was 2,406 in 1940 and 3,564 in 1950. The Hamlin Herald was first published in 1906 and survived other papers. Hamlin gained a hospital in 1948. The county's first gypsum plant was built six miles west in 1903 and became a major area employer, in later years the Celotex Corporation. Eighty businesses were reported in 1970. The population was 3,791 in 1960 and 3,325 in 1970. Part of the 1980 population of 3,248 resided in Fisher County. Hamlin is a center for farming and varied manufacturing and part of the Abilene Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 1990 the population was 2,791, but by 2000 it had dropped to 2,248.

Tsha Handbook →

Hamlin

1902

Early settler R. D. Moore conveyed 320 acres of land to the International Construction Co. (also called the Orient Land Co.) of Kansas City, Missouri, for a town site along the Panhandle Gulf Railway in September 1902. Probably named for Orient executive W. H. Hamlin, the Hamlin community was organized in 1905, the same year it received its first post office. The Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway reached Hamlin in 1906 and a newspaper, the Hamlin Herald, was first printed that same year. Hamlin was incorporated as a town and a school system was established in 1907. By autumn 1908, Hamlin had grown to more than one thousand citizens as more railroads reached the area. Hamlin quickly became a major shipping point, with its economy based on agriculture and the railroad. Among the town's business operations were cotton compresses, a cotton oil mill, an ice plant, a cement and plaster plant, a grain elevator, several cotton gins, an electric generating plant, an ice cream factory and bottling works, and a telephone company. Churches formed in Hamlin's early days included Church of Christ, Baptist, Methodist and Church of the Nazarene. A movie theatre opened in 1907. Central Nazarene College was established in 1909. The Oscar Depriest School System for African American students began operation in 1925. Oil was discovered near Hamlin in 1928, broadening the area's economic growth with oil and gas exploration. In 1950, the town's population was 3,564. The school system was integrated in 1965. The population of Hamlin in 1990 was 2,791. At the dawn of the 21st century, Hamlin remains a center for farming and varied manufacturing. (2000)

Historical Marker →

Site of Hitson Community

1870

Ranchers John and William Hittson were among the first to settle in this area in about 1870; the area around their homes became known as Hittson or Hitson. Fisher County was created in 1876, and settlement began to increase. A post office opened in 1885. A school began operation in 1888 and by 1896 Hitson had a general store operated by C. W. Morris as well as a Methodist church. The Hittson brothers were the major landowners in the area, but the community included a number of large farming families who cleared the fertile land and planted crops. Though the post office was moved to Swedonia in 1906, the community of Hitson continued to grow. Oil was discovered in the area after World War I, providing an additional means of income for the townspeople as well as the Hitson school for a time. In 1925 there were 32 families with 120 school-age children living in the area. By 1940 the town had a school, a church, three businesses and scattered dwellings. As was the case in many small towns across Texas and the U.S. during World War II, most of the town's young people enlisted in the armed forces or moved to cities to take part in the war effort. With their labor force thus depleted, Hitson farmers were unable to survive. Small family farms were sold to larger enterprises. Most of the new owners lived in nearby Hamlin or Rotan. Hitson school was consolidated with Hamlin schools in 1947; the white frame church building used by the Hitson Baptist Church was moved to Roby in 1959 and by the end of the 20th century all that remained of the community were a few homes and a cemetery. (2000)

Historical Marker → · 4.7 mi away

Rath City

1876

(4 mi. SW) In 1876 during an international demand for buffalo hides, Charles Rath (1836-1902) founded this town. He opened the Rath, Lee & Reynolds Mercantile Store. He sold supplies and bought the hides from the buffalo hunters. On one occasion in 1877 there were 1,100,000 hides at his trading post. The town, also known as "Reynolds City", boasted a corral, hide yard, saloon and restaurant. Skins stretched across poles sheltered the hunters. A tower beside the corral was used as a lookout to ward off Indian attacks. By 1879, the buffalo disappeared and the town vanished. (1979)

Historical Marker → · 8.9 mi away

Hamblen, Carl Stuart

1926

Carl Stuart Hamblen, country and gospel singer, songwriter, bandleader, and radio-movie personality, was born in Kellyville, Texas, on October 20, 1908. He was the son of James Henry Hamblen, an itinerant Methodist preacher, and his wife Ernestine. Much of his childhood was spent traveling throughout the state as his father's ministerial work decreed, but in West Texas, where his father preached at the Methodist church in Hamlin, in Jones County, young Stuart was exposed to the lore and folk music of both the black field hands and cowboys working on area farms and ranches. Thus steeped in the"cowboy tradition," he learned to ride and rope and enjoyed some success during his teens as an amateur singer while working the rodeos. In 1925 he enrolled at McMurry College (now McMurry University) in Abilene to study for the teaching field. But country music quickly became his passion. In 1926 Hamblen reportedly became radio broadcasting's first real "singing cowboy" after landing a spot on KFYO in Abilene. In 1929, after winning the fifty-dollar prize at a talent contest in Dallas, he journeyed to Camden, New Jersey, where he auditioned for the Victor (later RCA Victor) Recording Company. The Victor Studios recorded and released four of Hamblen's early compositions––"The Boy in Blue," "Drifting Back to Dixie," "When the Moon Shines Down on the Mountain," and "The Big Rock Candy Mountain #2"––in June of that year. Shortly afterward Hamblen headed west for California, where he appeared on Los Angeles radio station KFI as "Cowboy Joe," possibly the earliest cowboy act to air in Los Angeles. In 1930 Hamblen briefly joined the Beverly Hillbillies, an early radio country-and-western singing group then broadcasting over KMPC in Los Angeles. He made a couple of recordings with them, although not as a lead vocalist. The following year he formed his own band, a group that included singing cowgirl Patsy Montana, and launched his highly successful broadcasting career over KFWB in Los Angeles. Under various names and titles such as Stuart Hamblen and His Lucky Stars , King Cowboy's Woolly West Revue , and The Covered Wagon Jubilee , his radio program remained immensely popular for the next two decades. In 1933 he met and married Suzanne (Suzy) Obee; they subsequently had two daughters. In 1934 Hamblen was the first West Coast artist to sign with Decca Records, where he recorded with his own band for the first time. His initial disc, "Texas Plains"/"Poor Unlucky Cowboy," became only the second record issued by that fledgling company. A prolific composer, Hamblen was said to be able to turn out a tune within a matter of minutes. The catalogue of songs that he either wrote or co-wrote beginning in the 1930s included such hits as "My Mary," "Texas Plains," "Walking My Fortune," "Ridin' Ole Paint," and "Golden River." Subsequent recording sessions with Decca in 1934 and 1935 further enhanced Hamblen as a true pioneer in the country genre. Although he concentrated almost solely on his radio program over the next ten years, his recording career began anew in the mid-1940s with the West Coast-based ARA label. This subsequently led to lengthier contracts with Columbia, RCA, and Coral Records. In the 1930s and 1940s Hamblen appeared in several B-Western movies, usually cast as a villain alongside such stars as Gene Autry , John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Wild Bill Elliott, and Bob Steele. During World War II his patriotism was clearly reflected in songs and recitations such as "Oklahoma Bill" and "They're Gonna Kill You." In addition, Hamblen enjoyed hunting in the wilds with his prize hounds and also began breeding thoroughbred racehorses; in 1945 he became the first person to have a horse flown to a race when he transported his prize racer, El Lobo, from Los Angeles to Bay Meadows in San Mateo, California, on Flying Tiger Airlines. El Lobo won the Burlingame Handicap and was flown back home the same day. As the pressures of his public career mounted Hamblen began

Tsha Handbook → · 18.1 mi away

Anson, TX

1881

Anson, the county seat of Jones County, is at the intersection of U.S. highways 83/277 and 180 at the center of the county. The town was established at Fort Phantom Hill but was moved to its present location when an enterprising speculator, John Merchant, anticipated that the Texas and Pacific Railway would go through the new site. Merchant's offer of land induced McD. Bowyer and P. S. Tipton to open a general store and a hotel. Though the railroad never materialized, the founding of Anson, then known as Jones City, had occurred. On July 17, 1881, Jones City was declared county seat. By 1882 the town had been renamed Anson, again in honor of Anson Jones , last president of the Republic of Texas . By 1883 Dick Davis had established the Texas Western , Anson's first newspaper. In 1909 county commissioners engaged Elmer Withers to design a new courthouse, which was completed in 1910 at a cost of $100,000. In 1926 the Phillips Petroleum Company struck oil southwest of Anson, a discovery that led to exploration throughout Jones County. The Bullard oilfield opened one mile southwest of Anson in 1950. In addition to serving as a supply center for the county's agricultural and oil industries, in 1980 Anson produced concrete, magnetic signs, and polished rock. The population of 2,831 was served by a bank, a savings and loan, 100 businesses, and a newspaper, the Western Observer . Despite its modern economic activities, the town has not forgotten its western heritage. The Cowboys' Christmas Ball, initiated in December 1885 by M. G. Rhoads at his Star Hotel, continues to be a traditional event ( see CHITTENDEN, WILLIAM LAWRENCE ). In 1990 the population was 2,644. The population decreased slightly in 2000 to 2,556.

Tsha Handbook → · 16.6 mi away

Everything Near Hamlin

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

  • Why Hamlin's Team Is the Pied Pipers

    Hamlin, Texas, was not named for the town in the old German legend. The Handbook of Texas says it was named for W. H. Hamlin, an official of the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway, the line this town was built to…

  • Precious Memories, Written Near Hamlin

    Just east of Hamlin, in January of nineteen twenty two, a farmhand and songwriter named J. B. F. Wright lost his youngest son. Everett Jackson Wright was three years old, and diphtheria took him on January twenty-third.…

  • June 26, 1284

    Hamlin's mascot comes from a very old record in Germany. In the German town of Hameln, which English speakers call Hamelin, an old inscription says that on June twenty-sixth, twelve eighty four, the feast day of Saints…

  • The Rats Came Later

    The rats in the Pied Piper story are latecomers. The lost children show up in records from the Middle Ages, but the town museum in Hamelin calls the rat plague an invention of the fifteen hundreds. The earliest version…

  • What Happened to the Children?

    Nobody knows what really happened to the hundred and thirty children of Hamelin in twelve eighty four. Historians have argued about it for centuries, and there are a few main theories. One says the children died, of…

  • The Street Without Drums

    In Hamelin, Germany, there is a street where, by long custom, music is not played. It is called the Bungelosenstrasse, which means roughly the street without drums. Tradition says it is the last place the hundred and…

  • Hamlin, TX · Tsha Handbook

    Hamlin is on U.S. Highway 83 in northwest Jones and northeast Fisher counties. It was established in anticipation of construction of the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway. R. D. Moore conveyed land to the Orient…

  • Hamlin · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker

    Early settler R. D. Moore conveyed 320 acres of land to the International Construction Co. (also called the Orient Land Co.) of Kansas City, Missouri, for a town site along the Panhandle Gulf Railway in September 1902.…

  • Hamlin, TX · 0.7 mi

    Hamlin sits a little higher than you might expect, a good vantage point at 1,716 feet. They say you can see further from here, and maybe that's why some folks who started here went on to do big things. It's quiet now, a…

  • A Railroad's Unfinished Dream · 0.7 mi

    The railroad tracks that cut through Hamlin are more than just tracks; they're the ghost of a colossal, failed dream. Hamlin was created to be a stop on the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway, or KCM&O. The vision…

  • When They Said the Piper Was the Devil · 2.1 mi

    Hamlin, Texas, cheers for the Pied Pipers, but for centuries some writers in Europe told that story with a darker name for him. In fifteen fifty six, a German book of wonders by Hiob Fincelius said the Devil himself…

  • The Children Who Came Back · 2.2 mi

    On a dark road into Hamlin, Texas, home of the Pied Pipers, think about the children the piper did not get. In the old Hameln legend, as the Brothers Grimm recorded it, a few lagged behind. Two came back. One was blind,…

Show all 100 nearby places
  • He Came Back in a Red Hat · 2.4 mi

    Hamlin, Texas, got its name from a railroad man, but its school teams are the Pied Pipers, so out here on a dark highway, here is the part of the old legend nobody puts on a jersey. The Brothers Grimm wrote it down in…

  • Site of Hitson Community · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    Ranchers John and William Hittson were among the first to settle in this area in about 1870; the area around their homes became known as Hittson or Hitson. Fisher County was created in 1876, and settlement began to…

  • Neinda Community · 6.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through what used to be Neinda, a community west of Skinout Mountain. Ranchers first settled here around 1881, calling their spot Banner. Then, in 1890, the post office opened, and they renamed it Neinda.…

  • Neinda Baptist Church · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Neinda Baptist Church. Organized in 1889 with thirteen members, the congregation met in a community building before erecting their own sanctuary in 1894. The church was renamed First…

  • Rath City · 8.9 mi · Historical Marker

    (4 mi. SW) In 1876 during an international demand for buffalo hides, Charles Rath (1836-1902) founded this town. He opened the Rath, Lee & Reynolds Mercantile Store. He sold supplies and bought the hides from the…

  • Mccaulley, TX · 9.1 mi · Local history

    Mccaulley, Texas, sits in Stonewall County, a small community carved out of the rolling plains. The town's name, like many in the region, reflects the ambitions and personalities of its early settlers. It honors Matthew…

  • Boyd Chapel Community · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Jones County, heading towards Anson. Back in 1895, this area was just starting to take shape. Reese Davis, Joe Swent, and Alex Boyd built the Boyd School right here. The community that grew up…

  • Woods Chapel Cemetery · 10.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Woods Chapel Cemetery, a final resting place established by early Fisher County settlers. A church and schoolhouse stood nearby starting in 1883, and the cemetery was in use by 1884. Look for the…

  • D. W. Stephens No. 1 Discovery Oil Well · 11.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fisher County, where for years, oil seemed just out of reach. After many dry holes, Dan W. Stephens' land became the focus. On May 21, 1927, they started drilling, and by January 19, 1928, the…

  • Royston Townsite · 11.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Royston, a town that sprang to life in 1906 with the arrival of the Texas Central Railroad. For decades, it thrived as a hub for farming and, later, oil. Imagine a 30-room hotel, a local…

  • Fisher County · 12.9 mi · Historical Marker

    Sites of old Indian trail from Mexico to settlements on Texas frontier. In this region in 1856, Colonel Robert E. Lee, then commanding the famed U.S. Second Cavalry (and later General-in-Chief of the Confederate Army),…

  • Rock House; The Old · 13.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fisher County, looking at the landscape where rancher Andy Long built his empire. Back in the 1880s, he started acquiring over ten thousand acres for his 'OB' Ranch. This one-room rock house,…

  • Adair-Steadman Site · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fisher County, near Sylvester, and you're passing over one of North America's most significant Folsom culture sites. Between nine and eleven thousand years ago, Paleo-Indians used this area as a…

  • First Presbyterian Church Building · 15.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the First Presbyterian Church of Anson. Organized in 1882, this building, their third sanctuary, was constructed in 1929. The congregation dissolved in 1984, and the building now serves…

  • The Mackenzie Trail · 16.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the area where the Mackenzie Trail once blazed a path across Texas. First used by explorers like Pierre Vial in the late 1700s, it became a vital military route by Colonel Ranald Mackenzie in the…

  • Site of the Courthouse at Rayner · 16.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Old Glory, the first county seat of Stonewall County. The courthouse was built right here in 1888. Just ten years later, in 1898, the county seat packed up and moved to Aspermont, leaving this…

  • First United Methodist Church of Anson · 16.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the First United Methodist Church of Anson. This congregation was organized in 1882 by the Rev. J. C. Strickland. The current Romanesque Revival building was constructed in 1908 by Thomas…

  • Anson, TX · 16.5 mi

    Originally named 'Jones City', the town was renamed 'Anson' in 1882 in honor of Anson Jones, the last president of the Republic of Texas. Anson has a rich history, with the first Texas Cowboys' Christmas Ball held in…

  • No Dancin' in Anson · 16.5 mi

    In nineteen thirty three, Anson passed an ordinance that made public dancing against the law. Break it, and the fine was fifteen dollars. The town was so serious that in nineteen forty, officials noticed the ban…

  • The Man This Town Is Named For · 16.5 mi

    This town is named for Anson Jones, the last president of the Republic of Texas. He was the man in charge when Texas gave up being its own country and joined the United States. Jones hoped to be rewarded with a seat in…

  • Anson Opera House · 16.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Anson, and right here is the site of the Anson Opera House, built back in 1907. This wasn't just for opera, though! Imagine a stock company performing 'The Klansman,' even borrowing the local…

  • Fort Phantom Hill, C.S.A. · 16.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Jones County, heading towards the site of Fort Phantom Hill. This wasn't just any fort; during the Civil War, it became a crucial outpost for the Confederacy. After Texas seceded, a company of the…

  • Jones County · 16.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Jones County, a place that's seen some serious Texas history unfold. This land was once a vital emigrant trail and a frontier military road, protected by Fort Phantom Hill, founded way back in…

  • Hollywood Came to Anson · 16.5 mi

    Anson has played other towns on the big screen. In nineteen eighty three, a drama called Independence Day was set in a little place called Mercury, New Mexico. But it was actually filmed right here in Anson, with…

  • Harper Valley Came From Here · 16.5 mi

    In nineteen sixty eight, a song about a widow who stands up to the gossips on her town's PTA shot to number one. It was called Harper Valley PTA, and the woman singing it was born right here in Anson, on October…

  • Captain Henry C. Lyon · 16.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Roby, Texas, home of Captain Henry C. Lyon. He fought for the Republic of Texas in its army, and later commanded a company for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Born in Tennessee in 1815, Captain…

  • Jones County Courthouse · 16.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Jones County Courthouse in Anson. Completed in 1910, this building is a fantastic example of Beaux Arts architecture, with touches of the Arts and Crafts movement. Look for the statue of Lady…

  • The Stovepipe Bomb · 16.5 mi

    Here is a story the old timers in Anson passed down, so take it as a story. Sometime in the early nineteen hundreds, the hardware store on the corner of the courthouse square was heated by a big pot bellied stove, with…

  • Anson, TX · 16.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Anson, the county seat of Jones County, is at the intersection of U.S. highways 83/277 and 180 at the center of the county. The town was established at Fort Phantom Hill but was moved to its present location when an…

  • Davis, Morgan J. · 16.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Anson, Texas, the birthplace of Morgan J. Davis, a man who helped shape the modern oil industry. Born in 1898, Davis earned his geology degree from the University of Texas and quickly joined…

  • The Cowboys' Christmas Ball · 16.9 mi

    The most famous story in Anson happens every year just before Christmas. It's the Texas Cowboys' Christmas Ball, a tradition that dates all the way back to 1885. The story begins at the Star Hotel, where a traveling…

  • Willingham Land and Cattle Company · 17.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fisher County, where the Willingham family built a ranching empire. It started in the late 1880s with a trade of sheep for land. Generations later, in 1949, the Willingham Land and Cattle Company…

  • Roby Cemetery · 17.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Roby Cemetery, the final resting place for many of Fisher County's earliest settlers. The oldest marked grave here belongs to Mable Deming, dated eighteen eighty four, before Fisher County was…

  • Cowboys' Christmas Ball · 17.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Anson, home of the famous Cowboys' Christmas Ball. Back in 1885, a local dance inspired a traveling salesman and writer named Larry Chittenden. He composed a poem, "The Cowboys' Christmas Ball,"…

  • Old Glory · 17.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Old Glory, a town with a name born from patriotism. Originally settled by German immigrants who named it Brandenburg, the community relocated for the railroad. But when World War I broke out,…

  • Fisher County, Organizaion of · 17.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fisher County, created by the Texas Legislature in eighteen seventy six. For years, settlers had to rely on neighboring counties for official business. But by eighteen eighty five, enough folks…

  • Roby · 17.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Roby, a town laid out on land first granted to Thomas H. Cosby, a veteran of the Texas War for Independence. The town was platted in eighteen eighty five by the Roby family, who hired a law firm…

  • Old Glory, TX · 17.4 mi

    Old Glory, Texas, was originally named New Brandenburg. However, during World War I, due to the rise in anti-German sentiment, residents petitioned the U.S. Postal Service to change the name to Old Glory on August 9,…

  • Roby, TX · 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Roby, the county seat of Fisher County. Right here, in 1885, a bitter struggle was underway to decide where the county government would be located. Developers M.L. and D.C. Roby wanted it at their…

  • Fisher County · 17.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fisher County, a place that once echoed with the footsteps of Native Americans on an old trail from Mexico. Back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1856</say-as>, none other than Colonel…

  • Stonewall County, TX · 17.4 mi · Local history

    Stonewall County, in the Southwestern Tablelands, is a place where ranching traditions run deep. The rolling plains and semi-arid grasslands, ideal for grazing, have supported cattle operations since the late 19th…

  • The Well Fifty Feet Over · 17.4 mi

    Fisher County, with Roby as its seat, started hunting for oil in nineteen eighteen, and for years every well came up dry. In May nineteen twenty seven the Texas Company, later Texaco, drilled on Dan W. Stephens' land…

  • Estacado and Gulf Railroad · 17.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fisher County, and right here is where folks in Roby tried to get their own railroad back in 1908. They chartered the Estacado and Gulf Railroad, dreaming of a line stretching 100 miles southeast…

  • Roby's Long Wait for Water · 17.4 mi

    Roby hit its peak as a trade town in nineteen fifty, with sixty businesses, and it still did not have enough water. The Handbook of Texas says inadequate water supplies plagued the Fisher County seat from its beginnings…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Roby (Roby) · 17.5 mi

    Roby (Roby, TX) placed on the 2A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Anthony Moreno (0.514 avg).

  • First United Methodist Church of Roby · 17.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the oldest active church in Fisher County, right here in Roby. This Methodist congregation started meeting in homes back in 1885, led by a circuit preacher. They formally organized in 1886, and…

  • Frith-Jones Cemetery · 17.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Frith-Jones Cemetery. Frith-Jones Cemetery Established 1876 Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006

  • The Ghost Town That Moved to Aspermont · 17.6 mi

    The handsome courthouse in the center of Aspermont is a monument to a victory that wiped another town off the map. When Stonewall County was first organized, the county seat was a town called Rayner. But in 1889,…

  • The Double Mountains: Sentinels of the Plains · 17.6 mi

    As you travel near Aspermont, you can’t miss the two flat-topped mesas dominating the horizon. These are the Double Mountains, and they’ve been the most important landmark in this region for centuries. Long before…

  • Aspermont, TX · 17.6 mi

    Aspermont rises from the Texas Rolling Plains, a place where the land itself tells a story of grit and adaptation. This isn't a landscape of dramatic peaks or lush forests, but one of subtle undulations, carved over…

  • Old Glory - The German Town That Renamed Itself · 17.9 mi · Historical Marker

    Old Glory is a tiny farming community in Stonewall County, in the rolling country southeast of Lubbock. It was founded by German Lutheran immigrants in the 1890s and originally named Brandenburg, after the German…

  • Hamblen, Carl Stuart · 18.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Carl Stuart Hamblen, country and gospel singer, songwriter, bandleader, and radio-movie personality, was born in Kellyville, Texas, on October 20, 1908. He was the son of James Henry Hamblen, an itinerant Methodist…

  • Fort Phantom Hill · 18.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what used to be Comanche territory, and right here, you're passing the site of Fort Phantom Hill. Established in 1851, it was part of a line of forts meant to protect settlers moving west,…

  • Stonewall County · 18.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Stonewall County, a land explored by Coronado for Spain way back in 1541! It was later mapped by a U.S. Army expedition in 1849 and became the site of the buffalo hunters' capital, Rath City, from…

  • Scarborough, George Washington · 18.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    George Washington Scarborough, pioneer Southern Baptist minister, son of Irwin and Frances (Cannon) Scarborough, was born in Lawrence County, Mississippi, on April 13, 1831. He received only the rudimentary schooling…

  • Stonewall County · 18.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Stonewall County, a place named for a Confederate general, but its story is deeply rooted in the Texas frontier. Long before it was a county, this land was home to nomadic tribes like the…

  • Aspermont, TX · 18.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Aspermont, a town with a name that means 'rough mountain' in Latin. It was platted right here in 1889, but locals used to call this place Sunflower Flat. The real drama happened when Aspermont…

  • Centerline, TX · 18.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Centerline, also known as Lystra, was a ranching and farming community in southeastern Jones County about twelve miles northeast of Abilene. Its name referred to its location near the center of the southern Jones county…

  • Horn, TX · 18.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Horn is fifteen miles north of Merkel in Jones County. Edgar Boaz, one of the first landowners in the area, was joined by R. R. Horn, D. C. Herring, and John Womack on December 6, 1890. The first school was taught in…

  • Noodle, TX · 18.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Noodle is on Farm Road 1812 ten miles north of Merkel in southwest Jones County. It took its name from Noodle Creek; according to folk tradition the name meant "nothing," signifying a dry creek bed. Settlement in the…

  • Nugent, TX · 18.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Nugent, on Farm Road 600 eighteen miles north of Abilene in southeastern Jones County, was built on land that around 1900 belonged to John A. Roberts, one of the first settlers of the county. In 1879 Roberts and his…

  • Jackson, General "Stonewall" · 18.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Stonewall County, the namesake of a legendary Civil War figure. General Barnard E. Bee, a Texan himself, first called him 'Stonewall Jackson' during the First Battle of Manassas. Bee saw Jackson…

  • Texas Cowboy Reunion Oldtimers' Association · 18.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Stamford, home of the Texas Cowboy Reunion Oldtimers' Association, founded way back in 1930. This group was formed to preserve the traditions of those early cattle people who battled drought,…

  • Chittenden, Larry -"The Poet Ranchman" · 18.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the area where Larry Chittenden, known as 'The Poet Ranchman,' developed his family's land. Born in New Jersey, Chittenden first came to Texas as a sales agent. He visited this area in 1884 and by…

  • Fisher County · 18.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fisher County, a place named for Samuel Rhoads Fisher, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. This land was once roamed by Lipan Apaches, Comanches, and Kiowas, and explored by figures…

  • Celotex, TX · 18.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Celotex is on Farm Road 668 and a branch line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway seven miles southwest of Hamlin in northeast Fisher County. The industrial town was named Plasterco for a gypsum plant that was…

  • Hobbs, TX (Fisher County) · 18.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Hobbs is at the junction of Farm roads 611 and 1614, in west central Fisher County. In the mid-1880s a number of homesteaders moved into the area, including the Wilhite, Clegg, Brown, and Martin families. Baptist…

  • North Roby, TX · 18.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    North Roby, also known as Fisher and possibly as Rainbolt, was 4½ miles north of Roby in north central Fisher County. It was founded in 1885 by land speculator E. D. Strang, who laid out the townsite on land he had…

  • Hope Cemetery · 19.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Hope Cemetery, established in 1899. It began with five graves on William Bean's farmland, including his great-uncle who died between 1883 and 1890. The cemetery has since grown to three acres.

  • Roby, TX · 19.4 mi

    A notable event in Roby's history occurred in 1996 when 42 residents put $10 each in a lottery pool and won the $46,000,000 jackpot on Thanksgiving of that year, making 6-7% of the population millionaires instantly…

  • The War for the Courthouse · 19.4 mi

    The handsome brick courthouse in the center of Roby is more than just a government building; it's a trophy from a nineteenth-century fight. When Fisher County organized, two towns wanted the county seat: Roby, and a…

  • Swenson Ranch Commissary · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Swenson Ranch Commissary, built around 1900. This utilitarian building, made of Lueders stone right by the railroad tracks, was the main supply hub for four massive Swenson ranches across West…

  • Newman Community and Cemetery · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Newman Community and Cemetery. Jim Newman, one of Fisher County's earliest settlers, established a ranch in this area about 1879. The community that developed near his ranch was named Newman when the…

  • Stamford · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Stamford. Swedish native Swante Magnus Swenson and his two sons, Eric Pierson and Swen Albin Swenson, came to Texas in 1882 to establish the SMS ranches. In 1899, Eric P. and Swen A. Swenson donated…

  • Rotan, TX · 19.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fisher County, right where State Highways 70 and 92 meet. This town, Rotan, owes its existence to a railroad. Before 1906, it was just a small settlement called White Flat. But then, the Texas…

  • Rector, Washington Swisher · 19.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fisher County, and right here is Rotan, a town that owes its beginnings to Washington Swisher Rector. Leaving Tennessee after fighting for the Confederacy and surviving prison camp, Rector came to…

  • Elvis at the Roundup Hall · 19.6 mi

    You're at the Texas Cowboy Reunion grounds in Stamford, home to Roundup Hall. This building has hosted country dances for generations, and in 1955 it hosted Elvis Presley — twice. He played Stamford that April, with a…

  • Swenson Land & Cattle Company Headquarters · 19.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Stamford, a town deeply connected to one of the most expansive ranching empires in Texas history. It all started with Swen Magnus Swenson, the first Swedish settler in Texas, who began buying up huge…

  • St. John's Methodist Church · 19.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of what was once the tallest church between Dallas and El Paso! This is St. John's Methodist Church, built in 1910. Its congregation started way back in 1900, serving students from the…

  • Rotan · 19.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Rotan, a town that really got going when the railroad arrived. Originally called White Flat, the community was waiting for the Texas Central Railway to extend its line. When the first train pulled in…

  • Rotan, TX · 19.6 mi · Local history

    Rotan sits squarely in the rolling plains of Fisher County, a West Texas landscape where mesquite and grasses dominate the horizon. The town, like many others scattered across the Central Great Plains, has seen its…

  • The Gypsum Giants · 19.8 mi

    For more than a century the pulse of Rotan has been tied to gypsum. The Rotan Gypsum Plant was founded here in 1923, turning the area's abundant gypsum rock into wallboard. In 1935 the National Gypsum Company bought it…

  • From Ancient Seabed to Your Walls · 19.8 mi

    The wallboard in millions of American homes started as a rock mined right here in Rotan, transformed by a fascinating bit of industrial chemistry. The process began at the quarry, where giant shovels dug up gypsum, a…

  • The County Seat Fight · 19.8 mi

    Fisher County's county-seat fight is one of the odder stories in this part of Texas. When the county organized in eighteen eighty six, the contest was between Roby and a place called Fisher, the settlement later called…

  • The Town the Railroad Built · 19.8 mi

    Rotan exists for one reason: it was the end of the line. In 1907, when the Texas Central Railroad laid its final stretch of track, it stopped right here. This wasn’t just a station; it was the terminus, the farthest…

  • Rotan, TX · 19.8 mi

    Rotan is a city in Fisher County, Texas, with Texas State Highway 70 passing through it. This highway leads north 34 miles to Jayton and south 9 miles to Roby, the Fisher County seat, and 30 miles to Sweetwater and…

  • Stonewall County, TX · 19.9 mi

    Stonewall County, Texas, was established in 1876 and organized in 1888, named in honor of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson. Initially attached to Young County, Throckmorton County, and Jones County, it became fully…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Stamford (Stamford) · 19.9 mi

    Stamford (Stamford, TX) placed on the 3A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Hayden Wyatt (2 HR); Jaxon Brewer (2 HR).

Explore Hamlin on the Map
All music from Texas → Find another town Vote on city songs

Sign up for the free newsletter

Longer stories, research notes, photos, videos, and where the road goes next. Free, and no iPhone needed.

Subscribe free