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Kaufman, Texas

Everything Kaufman is known for

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Music in Kaufman

Songs About Kaufman

Kaufman County Lines
Shane Smith & the Saints
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Artists From Kaufman

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Rivers & Roads in Song near Kaufman

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

Interstate 20 13 songs Trinity River 11 songs Interstate 45 8 songs Sabine River 13 songs Neches River 2 songs

History of Kaufman

The Three Stooges Were Born of a Kaufman Boy RoadyGoat

Every slap, poke, and eye-jab in a Three Stooges short traces back to a man born right here in Kaufman. Ted Healy, christened Ernest Lea Nash, was born in Kaufman on October 1, 1896, into a family with deep local roots: an ancestor, John Dempsey Nash, had fought at San Jacinto and settled in Kaufman County. Healy grew up to become one of the highest-paid vaudeville comedians of the 1920s, reportedly pulling in around 8,500 dollars a week at his peak. The act he built was the one the world remembers: he met Moe Howard around 1909, recruited a rotating crew of bumbling 'stooges,' and the rough comedy he heaped on them, the slaps and shoves played for laughs, became the template the Three Stooges rode to fame. They split from him in 1934 to sign with Columbia and went on without him. Healy stayed in pictures as an MGM character actor until his death in Hollywood in December 1937. The whole slapstick empire started with a kid from this Kaufman County family. (Source: Handbook of Texas; Wikipedia.)

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Bonnie Parker's First Jail Cell RoadyGoat

Before Bonnie and Clyde were front-page outlaws, Bonnie Parker did her first real stretch behind bars right here in Kaufman. On April 19, 1932, Parker and a Barrow-gang associate named Ralph Fults tried to burglarize a Kaufman hardware store, hoping to steal guns. The job fell apart; in the chase that followed, Clyde Barrow got away, but Parker was caught and held in the Kaufman County jail. She sat here for roughly two months while prosecutors tried, and failed, to build a case. To pass the time in her cell she wrote poetry, an early hint of the verse she'd later become known for. When the grand jury declined to indict her, she walked out and rejoined Barrow within weeks, and the rest spiraled into the two-year crime spree that ended in a Louisiana ambush in 1934. So the quiet county-seat jail you're near holds a small, strange footnote: it's where the most famous woman in American outlaw history first learned what a locked door felt like. (Source: Handbook of Texas; Wikipedia.)

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King's Fort and the Widow Who Gave the Town Its Land RoadyGoat

Before there was a Kaufman, there was King's Fort, and the family behind it is the reason the county seat sits where it does. In 1840, Dr. William P. King, a physician and land speculator from Holly Springs, Mississippi, led roughly 40 pioneer families here and built a stockade of log cabins on a hilltop bluff above what became King's Creek. He had hired Nacogdoches surveyor Warren A. Ferris to lay out hundreds of thousands of acres along the Trinity, and the little fort served as the only white settlement around, a refuge in country still ranged by Caddo, Cherokee, Delaware and Kickapoo people. King didn't get to enjoy it. He died of yellow fever at Vicksburg in mid-September 1841, while back in Mississippi recruiting more settlers to come west. The town he planned might have died with him, except his widow, Frances, carried out his plans and later deeded the King's Fort site as the new county seat of Kaufman County. The streets you're driving trace lines a dead founder drew and his widow gave away. (Source: Handbook of Texas; Texas Historical Commission marker.)

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Nash, Ernest Lea [Ted Healy]

1909

Ted Healy, born Ernest Lea (later changed to Lee) Nash in Kaufman, Texas, on October 1, 1896, to Mary Eugenia (McGinty) Nash and Charles McKinney "Black Charley" Nash, was a vaudeville headliner best-known for originating the act that became the Three Stooges. He was descended from John Dempsey Nash, who took part in the battle of San Jacinto and eventually moved to Kaufman County, where his descendants led colorful if less than upright lives. By 1897 Healy and his family moved to Houston. Their Prairie Avenue neighborhood was considered a slum, and Black Charley, a morphine addict, listed his occupation as "gambler." In 1900 Healy's parents split up. His mother took Healy and his sister Marcia to relatives in Madison, Ohio, then moved to New York to pursue a career in show business. His father remained in Houston and died in 1907. Around 1908 Healy and his sister rejoined their mother in New York. She had prospered enough to lease a decent apartment and to send Healy to the De La Salle Institute, a private Catholic school. One of his classmates was Bryan Foy, son of Broadway star Eddie Foy. Joining his father in vaudeville, Foy later became a Hollywood producer and maintained a lifelong relationship with Healy. The Nash family resided in Manhattan but were regular summer visitors to Bath Beach in Brooklyn. It was on this beach around 1909 that Healy first met Moses Horwitz, later better known as Moe Howard, who lived nearby. Because both young men had shown business aspirations, they became fast friends, along with Moses's older brother Samuel, who would one day establish a comic persona as Shemp Howard. In 1913 Healy and Moses Horwitz joined the cast of an Annette Kellerman-imitation "diving girls" show. Performing in drag, they would leap from high platforms into a small pool. After a diver named Gladys Kelly was killed falling from her board, the show disbanded, and Healy and Horwitz went their separate ways. Healy adopted his stage name and found initial success as a blackface comedian-he was heavily influenced by Al Jolson. Horwitz also found steady work in vaudeville, but Healy enjoyed greater success. Reportedly earning $8,500 per week ($9,000 according to some sources), Healy was the highest-paid performer in vaudeville in the 1920s. By 1928 he was living in a twelve-bedroom house in Darien, Connecticut. He lived lavishly, indulged in gambling (he was a horse racing aficionado), and drank heavily. On June 5, 1922, Healy married Elizabeth "Betty" Braun (also billed as Brown) in Indianapolis. The couple formed a successful vaudeville duo. In 1923 Moe and Shemp Howard joined the Healys' act. In 1927 Shemp joined Healy in Lee J. J. Shubert's Broadway musical comedy revue A Night in Spain . He was replaced by Larry Fine in 1928. Healy, Fine, and the Howards were featured in Shubert's 1929 revue A Night in Venice . The following year they launched their act, known as Ted Healy and His Racketeers, Ted Healy and His Southern Gentlemen, and later as Ted Healy and His Stooges. The slaps, pokes, jabs, and other simulated abuse that Healy heaped on the Stooges were an integral part of the vaudeville routines. Healy, who had made his film debut in the 1926 Hal Roach short Wise Guys Prefer Brunettes , appeared alongside the Stooges in the Fox Film production Soup to Nuts (1930). It was the first appearance of the Stooges on film. In 1931 Healy was elected president of the National Vaudeville Artists. He reunited with the Stooges the following year. Shemp soon left the act and was replaced by another brother, Jerome "Jerry," the youngest of the Horwitz brothers, who went on to become a legendary comic after he adopted the name Curly. From 1933 to 1934 Healy and the Stooges starred in a series of shorts for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Healy and the Stooges' act was a natural fit for movie comedy. The Stooges had spats with Healy throughout the years, but the final split came in 1934. That year they signed a contract with Columbia, for

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Cuellar, Adelaida

1926

Adelaida Cuellar, founder of the tamale stand that grew into the El Chico restaurant chain, was born on May 30, 1871, in Nuevo León, Mexico. In 1892 she and Macario Cuellar crossed into Texas and were married in Laredo. At the time they spoke no English. They worked on ranches in small Texas towns before settling as sharecroppers in Kaufman. In 1926, with twelve children to support, Mrs. Cuellar decided to supplement the family income by selling homemade tamales at the Kaufman County Fair. The tamale stand was a success, and the venture was repeated the following year. Soon after, sons Frank and Amos opened a Mexican cafe in Kaufman with Mama Cuellar, as she was called, doing the cooking. The cafe closed after two years, as the Great Depression tightened its grip on the community. Eventually, using her recipes, several of the sons opened Mexican restaurants in the East Texas towns of Terrell, Wills Point, Malakoff, and Tyler, as well as in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Shreveport, Louisiana. All of these ventures closed by the end of the 1930s. In 1940 Mrs. Cuellar's sons Macario and Gilbert moved to Dallas and opened a restaurant, El Charro, in the Oak Lawn neighborhood. The menu featured Mama's tastiest recipes, and eventually most of the family moved to Dallas to help with the popular business. Within three years the restaurant was profitable, and the family began to expand its interests into other parts of Dallas and Fort Worth, Waco, and Houston. By this time, the restaurants had become known as El Chico and the Cuellar sons as "Mama's boys." The family expanded and diversified the business rapidly, entering the frozen food business in 1955 and opening restaurants throughout the Southwest. By the time Mama Cuellar died, the El Chico Corporation was involved in twenty separate business enterprises, from restaurant franchising to canning. Adelaida Cuellar was a member of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Dallas. She died on April 13, 1969, in Dallas and was buried at Calvary Hill Cemetery.

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Green, William

1914

William Green, African-American physician and community leader, son of Richard and Annie Green, was born on August 28, 1890, in Louisiana. He was the youngest of four siblings. The farming family moved to Terrell in Kaufman County, Texas. Green pursued his education and eventually graduated from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1914. He returned to Texas and opened a medical practice in Kaufman. With America's entry into World War I , on June 5, 1917, Green registered for the draft. As early as 1924 Green had a limited practice out of Dallas's McMillan Sanatorium. He maintained an arduous work schedule throughout his life. In a 1974 interview he recalled, "I would come to the office at 8 a.m. and see patients until about midday. Then I would leave to make house calls, and return to work until 9 p.m." These house calls were initially made on horseback, but shortly after arriving in Dallas, Green acquired an automobile. His increased mobility also saddled him with more responsibility as the range of his house calls extended to a 100-mile radius and included places as distant as Tyler, Texas. These demands led to Green's inability to make connections with the African-American community in Dallas, as displayed in a 1925 article in the Dallas Express . Although Green's skill was praised, the name of this "visiting doctor from Kaufman" was spelled as "Greene." Green permanently moved to Dallas in 1926. By February of that year, the Dallas Express announced Green's practice and also reported that he was on the board of directors for the newly-formed Dallas Negro Chamber of Commerce (now Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce ). By March 1926 Green had his house moved from Kaufman and established his residence at 2907 Cochran. Later that month, his membership with the Dallas Negro Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Association enabled him to perform health lectures at El Bethel Church and the York School in celebration of National Negro Health Week. From 1926 to 1929 Green continued to practice both from his office at 3313 Thomas and the McMillan Sanatorium. In 1929, while the citizens of Dallas fought over economic policy, Green worked with the politically-independent Dallas mayor, J. Waddy Tate , to maintain balance. In order to relieve tensions, Tate named Dallas's first "negro mediator," William L. Dickson , to form a committee of Black professionals to build "Co-operation and friendly relation" with Dallas's White population. Included in the list of Black professionals was Green. Through the process of successful negotiation, a new African-American clinic was proposed almost two months later. The clinic was to participate with Briggs Hall Haven Vocational School for Negroes and be staffed by Green and six other Black doctors. When the election passed, the clinic was not built, but Green built his own clinic at 3205 Thomas Avenue. On the property was an existing church which Green donated to church members provided they move it off the property. After church members moved the structure, he began construction of what would become known as the Green building. The Green building, completed in 1930, became a home for doctors to establish themselves before moving on to start their own practices. Although the Negro Chamber of Commerce had an office in his building, times were still economically tight for Green. According to Green, a main reason for this difficulty was due to his clients' inability to pay. This was an economic situation that drew Green's empathy. "It wasn't so much for the money, although I had to have some, but the people just didn't have much money then," he recalled. Green might deliver as many as three babies and "just maybe I would get paid for one," but he "never turned a patient away because they couldn't pay." Throughout the depression, Green recalled that he "waited on everybody I could, and I don't think you'll find a person in Dallas who would say that I've ever sent a patient a dun [or bill]." As

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King, Mrs. William P.

1840

(Frances A. King) (Donor, Land for County seat, Kaufman County) Wife of founder of King's Fort (in 1840), Frances A. King pioneered with great courage and enthusiasm in Republic of Texas. After King's death in 1846, she later (as Mrs. Tabor) entered and won election of Kingsborough for county seat of newly organized Kaufman County. In April 1851 she deeded 75 acres for townsite and a 75-acre timber tract to the county commissioners, James W. Love, J. Larkin Austin and John W. Terrell. King's Fort had grown into village of Kingsborough, later given same name as county. INCISE ON BACK: Erected by Clover Club and Cameo Club

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Chisum, Colonel Isham

1861

(1818-1884) One of leading early citizens of Kaufman County. Represented the county in Texas Secession Convention, Jan.-March 1861. Later in 1861, he fought in Confederate cavalry of Col. Tom Green in New Mexico campaign. As Colonel of 2nd Partisan Rangers, Walker's Division, fought at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill (La.), in Red River Campaign to prevent a Federal invasion of Texas in 1864. A cousin of Jesse Chisholm, who pioneered famous Chisholm Cattle Trail, and of cattle baron John Simpson Chisum, Col. Chisum married Charlotte Martin. They have many descendants in Texas.

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Kaufman Pioneer Cemetery (Love Family Cemetery)

1845

William and Nancy Kirk Love and their children were the earliest settlers near King's Fort, establishing themselves there in January 1845. Their son, Robert H. Love, is believed to have been the first person interred on this site upon his death in March 1849. When the Loves sold the land around this site in 1849 they set aside a quarter acre as a graveyard. Nancy Loved died in 1850, William Love in 1851; both are thought to be interred here in unmarked graves. Also buried here are other early Kaufman County settlers and T. J. Johnson, who is believed to have been the son of an African American couple for the Love family. Other burials include those of J. D. Ballew, a farmer and onetime county treasurer; Ann Burge, who may have died from complications in childbirth; and Amanada Murphy Hendley, member of a prominent pioneer family. Also interred here is James S. Loroe, who first came to Texas from New Jersey in 1846 and brought his family here in 1851. Laroe's diary describing the land, wildlife and people of the area provides a valuable firsthand account of the period. His grandson Alfred Laroe was buried here, as well. Martha Jane Rayel was the daughter of an early Kaufman County sheriff. Anna Love Campbell married James M. Carter after the death of her first husband, and research has indicated that several members of the Carter family are interred on this site. The Kaufman Pioneer Cemetery is a chronicle of Texas history. (1999)

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Everything Near Kaufman

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

  • Nash, Ernest Lea [Ted Healy] · Tsha Handbook

    Ted Healy, born Ernest Lea (later changed to Lee) Nash in Kaufman, Texas, on October 1, 1896, to Mary Eugenia (McGinty) Nash and Charles McKinney "Black Charley" Nash, was a vaudeville headliner best-known for…

  • Cuellar, Adelaida · Tsha Handbook

    Adelaida Cuellar, founder of the tamale stand that grew into the El Chico restaurant chain, was born on May 30, 1871, in Nuevo León, Mexico. In 1892 she and Macario Cuellar crossed into Texas and were married in Laredo.…

  • Green, William · Tsha Handbook

    William Green, African-American physician and community leader, son of Richard and Annie Green, was born on August 28, 1890, in Louisiana. He was the youngest of four siblings. The farming family moved to Terrell in…

  • King, William P. · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kaufman, Texas, a town that owes its very existence to a speculative doctor named William P. King. Back in 1839, King dreamed of a new city called Warwick, hiring a surveyor to lay out massive…

  • Kaufman County · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kaufman County, a place settled by pioneers seeking opportunity. Back in 1840, a group from Mississippi, led by William P. King, arrived and built a fort they called King's Fort. This early…

  • Kaufman, TX · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kaufman, Texas, a town that owes its very existence to a fort built by Dr. William P. King in 1840. He brought forty families to this area, purchased land, and built Kings Fort on a hilltop. This…

  • Adams, Jed Cobb · Tsha Handbook

    Jed Cobb Adams, lawyer and politician, the son of Z. T. and Elizabeth (Ratliff) Adams, was born on January 14, 1876, in Kaufman, Texas. He attended Southwestern University in Georgetown from 1889 to 1891 and Bingham…

  • Young, James · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, and right here in Kaufman, you're passing through the hometown of James Young. He wasn't your typical politician. Young was a staunch prohibitionist, so dedicated that he refused to…

  • Kaufman Pioneer Cemetery (Love Family Cemetery) · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    William and Nancy Kirk Love and their children were the earliest settlers near King's Fort, establishing themselves there in January 1845. Their son, Robert H. Love, is believed to have been the first person interred on…

  • First Christian Church of Kaufman · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Kaufman's first Christian Church. It all started back in 1861, the same year R. A. Hindman, who also founded Kaufman's first newspaper, arrived in the area. Services met in homes for…

  • The Three Stooges Were Born of a Kaufman Boy · 0.7 mi

    Every slap, poke, and eye-jab in a Three Stooges short traces back to a man born right here in Kaufman. Ted Healy, christened Ernest Lea Nash, was born in Kaufman on October 1, 1896, into a family with deep local roots:…

  • Bonnie Parker's First Jail Cell · 0.7 mi

    Before Bonnie and Clyde were front-page outlaws, Bonnie Parker did her first real stretch behind bars right here in Kaufman. On April 19, 1932, Parker and a Barrow-gang associate named Ralph Fults tried to burglarize a…

Show all 200 nearby places
  • King's Fort and the Widow Who Gave the Town Its Land · 0.7 mi

    Before there was a Kaufman, there was King's Fort, and the family behind it is the reason the county seat sits where it does. In 1840, Dr. William P. King, a physician and land speculator from Holly Springs,…

  • The Railroad That Reached Town and Went Broke · 0.7 mi

    Kaufman spent its first four decades as an inland farm town with no rail, hauling cotton overland to distant markets. That changed in August 1881, when the Texas Trunk Railroad pushed in from Dallas, about 36 miles…

  • The Voice of Krillin Grew Up Here · 0.7 mi

    If you grew up watching late-night anime, a voice from Kaufman has probably been in your ears for years without you knowing it. Sonny Strait was born in Kaufman on June 28, 1965, and went on to become one of the most…

  • Turning a Worthless Seed Into Salad Oil · 0.7 mi

    Kaufman grew up on cotton, and one of its mills did something that sounds like alchemy: it turned trash into food. For most of the 1800s, the seed left after ginning cotton was considered worthless. It piled up by the…

  • When Groceries Meant a Yearly Trip to San Antonio · 0.7 mi

    It's hard to imagine standing on the Kaufman square today, but in the town's first years the nearest store was effectively a different world away. When Dr. William P. King's settlers hunkered down in King's Fort around…

  • Church of Our Merciful Saviour · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Church of Our Merciful Saviour in Kaufman. This rural Gothic beauty was built in 1909, a testament to the vision of Mr. and Mrs. Woodson Nash. It was consecrated on May 2nd, 1909, by Bishop A. C.…

  • First United Methodist Church · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kaufman, and right here you're passing the site of the First United Methodist Church. It all started way back in February of 1845, when it was organized as the Kingsborough Methodist Episcopal…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Kaufman (Kaufman) · 0.8 mi

    Kaufman (Kaufman, TX) placed on the 5A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Braxton Deville (0.453 avg, 2 HR).

  • Breakfast All Day on the Kaufman Square · 0.8 mi

    If you want to eat where the town actually eats, point yourself at My Love's Diner at 215 West Mulberry Street, sitting right on the historic Kaufman square in the shadow of the courthouse. It's the small-town cafe…

  • Greenslade Drug Store · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Kaufman, and right here is the old Greenslade Drug Store, built way back in 1891. Look at that architecture – a bit of modified Spanish style, but what's really interesting is how it was built.…

  • Kaufman County Poor Farm · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kaufman, Texas, where for nearly a century, this county had a unique solution for its less fortunate residents. Back in 1883, Kaufman County opened a poor farm. It wasn't just a place to live; it…

  • First Baptist Church of Kaufman · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the First Baptist Church of Kaufman, a congregation that started with just nine members way back on November 5th, 1871. For over a decade, they met wherever they could before finally building their…

  • A Famous Claim, and What the Records Say · 0.9 mi

    Here is a piece of local lore worth handling carefully, because it is more tangled than it first appears. For generations, David Kaufman has often been described as the first Jewish person to represent Texas in…

  • Wounded at the Neches · 0.9 mi

    The politician this town is named for did not spend all his time behind a desk. In the summer of eighteen thirty-nine, David Kaufman rode out as a militia officer into one of the hardest chapters of early Texas history,…

  • How a Nation Became a State · 0.9 mi

    The name on the town connects to one of the strangest transitions in American history, the moment Texas stopped being its own country and became a state. Here is how that machinery actually worked, and where David…

  • Thirty-Seven and Gone · 0.9 mi

    For all the towns, counties, and streets that carry his name across Texas, David Kaufman himself barely made it to middle age. He served in the United States House of Representatives starting in eighteen forty-six, but…

  • Kaufman, TX · 0.9 mi

    Once known as 'Kings Fort,' the city was established by Dr. William P. King in 1840. After five years, it was renamed 'Kingsboro,' and eventually 'Kaufman' in 1852, honoring David S. Kaufman. The city holds a unique…

  • Named for the First Texan Seated in Congress · 0.9 mi

    The town you're rolling through carries the name of a man who never lived here, but who put Texas on the floor of the U.S. House. David Spangler Kaufman was born in Pennsylvania in 1813, graduated from Princeton with…

  • The Man Behind the Name · 0.9 mi

    The town you are rolling through really is named for a person, and here is the whole honest story. Back in eighteen forty-eight, the Texas legislature carved out a brand new county in this rolling blackland country and…

  • From Princeton to the Piney Woods · 0.9 mi

    The man this town is named for packed a remarkable amount of living into a short life. David Spangler Kaufman was born in Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania, in eighteen thirteen, and he was sharp. He graduated from the…

  • Why the Sign Says Kaufman · 0.9 mi

    So the next time you pass the sign that says Kaufman, you will know it is not just a random word. This town started as a rough little stockade called King's Fort, built by Mississippi settlers around eighteen forty. It…

  • King, Mrs. William P. · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    (Frances A. King) (Donor, Land for County seat, Kaufman County) Wife of founder of King's Fort (in 1840), Frances A. King pioneered with great courage and enthusiasm in Republic of Texas. After King's death in 1846, she…

  • Chisum, Colonel Isham · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    (1818-1884) One of leading early citizens of Kaufman County. Represented the county in Texas Secession Convention, Jan.-March 1861. Later in 1861, he fought in Confederate cavalry of Col. Tom Green in New Mexico…

  • A Steakhouse and Butcher Facing the Courthouse · 0.9 mi

    Right across from the courthouse, at 112 North Washington Street on the Kaufman square, B&B Steakhouse and Meat Market does the rare double act of being both a butcher counter and a sit-down steakhouse under one roof.…

  • One Name, Written All Over Texas · 0.9 mi

    One thing worth appreciating as you drive is just how far a single Texas statesman's name can travel. David Spangler Kaufman only lived thirty-seven years and served just a handful of years in Congress before his death…

  • Huff-Park House · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kaufman, and right here is the Huff-Park House, built in 1889 by W. L. Huff. But it's more famously known as the home of Dr. J. W. Park. Born right here in Texas, Dr. Park studied medicine in…

  • Kaufman County Indigent Cemetery · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Kaufman County Indigent Cemetery. This quiet place holds the stories of those often forgotten by history. It started as part of a 600-acre poor farm purchased by the county in 1883. It became the…

  • Covenant United Presbyterian Church · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kaufman, and right here stands Covenant United Presbyterian Church. It began way back in July of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1854</say-as> as the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, with…

  • Kaufman County · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kaufman County, created way back in 1848. It's named for David Spangler Kaufman, who arrived here in 1837. He was a busy man, serving in the Texas Congress for years before heading to the U.S.…

  • King's Fort · 1.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kaufman, Texas, the site of a frontier outpost called King's Fort. Back in 1840, William P. King led forty pioneers from Mississippi to this very spot, then part of the Republic of Texas. They…

  • Second Texas Partisan Rangers · 2.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, and right here, in counties around Dallas, the Second Texas Partisan Rangers were formed back in 1862. Led by Colonel Barton Warren Stone, Jr., these Confederate soldiers were…

  • Trinity River · 2.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving along the Trinity River, the longest river entirely within Texas. Its story starts way back in 1690, when Alonso De León is thought to have first called it the Trinity. But this river has seen more than…

  • College Mound, TX · 2.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    College Mound is on Farm Road 429 five miles southeast of Terrell in eastern Kaufman County. A small group of settlers from Indiana and Tennessee moved into the area in the mid-1840s to establish one of the first…

  • Prairieville, TX · 2.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Prairieville is on Farm roads 1836 and 90, near the Van Zandt county line eight miles north of Mabank and fourteen miles southeast of Kaufman in southeastern Kaufman County. In 1848 part of the Texas colony of…

  • Broughton, Dempsey W. · 2.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kaufman County, where Dempsey W. Broughton, a man of many talents, answered the call to arms during the Civil War. Born in Alabama in 1824, Broughton made his way to Texas and eventually enlisted…

  • Cedar Grove, TX (Kaufman and Van Zandt Counties) · 2.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, maybe near Terrell or Wills Point. Right here, in what's now Kaufman and Van Zandt Counties, was once Cedar Grove. It started in the mid-1840s when families, including future county…

  • Bois D'arc and Southern Railway · 2.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kaufman County, and right here is the former stomping ground of a little railroad with a big fight on its hands. The Bois d'Arc and Southern Railway was built in the mid-1920s, not for passengers,…

  • Parsons, Sylvester Gould · 2.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kaufman County, near the site of Warsaw Prairie. Right here, Sylvester Gould Parsons, a man who'd already served as sheriff in Louisiana, settled in Texas in 1844. He wasn't just a farmer and…

  • Peede, TX · 2.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Peede is on Farm Road 1388 six miles southwest of Kaufman in south central Kaufman County. Throughout its history the names Peede's, Peede, and Peede's Mill appear to have been used interchangeably. The surrounding area…

  • Bonnie Parker's Poetry · 2.7 mi

    In 1932, before she was a national celebrity, Bonnie Parker spent two months in the Kaufman County Jail. She and a small-time crook named Ralph Fults were arrested that April after a botched hardware store robbery over…

  • The Kaufman County Murders · 2.7 mi

    The Kaufman County Courthouse is usually a symbol of order, but in 2013, it was at the center of a story that shocked the nation. It began when Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was assassinated just a block from…

  • The Man Who Made the Stooges · 2.7 mi

    Imagine walking through downtown Kaufman in 1896. Somewhere in this town, on the first of October, a baby was born and named Ernest Lea Nash. The world would come to know him as Ted Healy, the creator and original…

  • The Millionaire's Model Railroad · 2.7 mi

    The railroad that transformed Kaufman in the 1890s wasn't just any railroad; it was an engineering marvel for its time. It was called the Texas Midland, and it was the pet project of Edward H.R. Green, the son of Hetty…

  • Kaufman, TX · 2.7 mi

    Kaufman, Texas, holds a unique place in American history as the first town where Bonnie Parker, of the infamous duo Bonnie and Clyde, was incarcerated. This event adds a layer of intrigue to the city's past, making it a…

  • Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Scurry, a place that's been a cornerstone of this community since 1860. Imagine this: during the Civil War, this congregation was meeting in a simple log…

  • Kaufman Lodge No. 726, A.F. & A.M. · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Scurry, a town that got its start in the 1880s. Back then, heavy rains could make roads impassable, which was a problem for the Masons in Kaufman. So, in 1890, sixteen members petitioned for a new…

  • The Living Clay Under Scurry · 6.1 mi

    The dark earth around Scurry is one of the most famous soils on the planet. This is the Texas Blackland Prairie, and its signature clay, Houston Black, is the official Texas state soil and a textbook example of a…

  • The Name Behind Scurry · 6.1 mi

    Scurry sits on State Highway 34, about four miles southwest of Kaufman. The first settlers reached this stretch of blackland in the mid-1840s, and over the next twenty-five years a scattering of farms grew into a…

  • From Cotton Boom to Comeback · 6.1 mi

    For its first decades, Scurry ran on cotton. When the Texas and Pacific Railway reached the area in the 1870s, the town became a shipping point where surrounding farmers loaded their bales and grain for market. Kaufman…

  • Scurry, TX · 6.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Scurry, Texas, a town that owes its name to a Civil War soldier. Back in the mid-1840s, settlers started farming this land. By the 1870s, the railroad arrived, turning the area into a shipping…

  • When the Creek Became a River · 6.3 mi

    The southern edge of Oak Ridge North is bordered by a beautiful, meandering waterway called Spring Creek. For most of its life, it's a peaceful ribbon of nature. But in August 2017, during Hurricane Harvey, it became a…

  • Rose Hill Cemetery · 6.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Rose Hill Cemetery, a place named for the wild roses that once covered this hillside. When settlers from Tennessee camped here in 1866, this land became a burial site after the son of W. R. Dickey…

  • Wildcat Pride: The Forging of a School · 8.0 mi

    In a lot of small Texas towns, the most important institution isn't city hall; it's the school. And here, that school has a story. For decades Scurry and the nearby town of Rosser each had their own schools and their…

  • Engineering the Prairie: Laying the T&NO Line · 8.0 mi

    The railroad tracks that cut through Scurry represent a real feat of nineteenth-century civil engineering, and a real gamble. The Texas Trunk Railroad was chartered in November of 1879 with a grand plan: Dallas…

  • Scurry, TX · 8.0 mi

    Scurry is named in honor of Scurry Dean, who was killed during the Civil War. When local residents requested a post office, they submitted the name 'Scurry' in his memory.

  • Morrow Chapel Cemetery · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Morrow Chapel Cemetery, a place that started as a family burial ground. The first person laid to rest here was Alexander Morrow, an infant, back in 1853. Fast forward to 1892, and Alexander's mother,…

  • St. Martin's: The Heart of Talty · 8.4 mi

    If you want to find the heart of Talty, look for St. Martin of Tours. It's more than a building; it's why this community holds together. Irish Catholic pioneers—the Laydens, the Vaughans, the O'Connors—settled this…

  • The Town That Voted Itself into Existence · 8.4 mi

    For most of its history, Talty wasn't officially a city. It was just a place on the map, an unincorporated community in Kaufman County. But in the 1990s, a threat appeared on the horizon: the rapid expansion of Dallas.…

  • Talty, TX · 8.4 mi

    You know, almost every town has a story about a famous outlaw, a politician, or a movie star who came from there. Talty is a little different. When you search for famous people from Talty, you won't find a long list of…

  • A Preacher's Gift of Right-of-Way · 8.8 mi

    The existence of Crandall is a feat of 19th-century civil engineering. Imagine the task in 1880: laying a straight, level path for the Texas Trunk Line Railway across the rolling, muddy Blackland Prairie. Surveyors,…

  • Crandall, TX · 8.8 mi

    Crandall's history began in the early 1880s when it developed as a railway town alongside the Texas Trunk Railroad. This development was key in shaping the city's early growth and economy. The city is named after…

  • Spikes, Captain Israel · 8.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kaufman County, where the land itself is named for a pioneer patriot: Captain Israel Spikes. Born in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1824</say-as>, Spikes was more than just a settler. He…

  • Fox Cemetery · 8.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Fox Cemetery, a quiet resting place established by Joseph Fox. His daughter, Sarah K., was the very first person buried here on August 24th, 1852. Joseph Fox himself, a physician born in London…

  • The Ground That Cracks Open Every Summer · 9.0 mi

    The dark ground under Crandall is famous among soil scientists. This is the Blackland Prairie, and the classic soil here is Houston Black, the official Texas state soil. It is a vertisol, forty to sixty percent clay,…

  • The Preacher Who Named Two Towns · 9.0 mi

    Crandall carries the name of Reverend Cornelius F. Crandall, a Methodist minister who had already put his name on a town once before. Born in 1827, he laid out Crandall, Indiana, then moved to Kaufman County in 1877 and…

  • The End of the Line for the Texas Trunk · 9.0 mi

    The town exists because of a railroad that barely made it. The Texas Trunk Railroad was chartered in 1879 with a grand plan: run from Dallas all the way southeast to the Gulf at Sabine Pass. By August 1881 the crew had…

  • Reagan's Name Across East Texas · 9.0 mi

    Interstate Twenty, from the Dallas and Kaufman county line all the way east to the Louisiana border, is the Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway. The Legislature extended the name across East Texas in two thousand seven. An…

  • Crandall, City of · 9.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Crandall, a town named for a Methodist minister who arrived here in 1877. Reverend C. F. Crandall bought 1800 acres and became the town's first postmaster when the post office opened in 1881. He…

  • Where Britain Sent Its Pilots to Learn to Fly · 9.5 mi

    In the darkest stretch of World War II, Britain's skies were too crowded and too dangerous to train new pilots, so the RAF sent its cadets here. The No. 1 British Flying Training School opened at Terrell in 1941, the…

  • Three Airplanes, One Pilot: The Trainer Pyramid Over Terrell · 9.5 mi

    The pilots who learned over these fields didn't just fly one airplane, they climbed an engineering ladder built into three machines. Primary flying started in the Stearman PT-17, an open-cockpit biplane with two wings,…

  • Major W.F. Long · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of a major World War II training ground. Major W.F. Long, sometimes called 'Mr. Love Field,' trained nearly a tenth of all U.S. Army aviators and a third of British Royal Air Force cadets in…

  • Talty, TX · 9.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kaufman County, heading northwest of Kaufman. Right here is Talty, a community that owes its existence to a wave of Irish Catholic pioneers. Originally known as Layden's Ridge, then Irish Ridge,…

  • Cottonwood Baptist Church · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Cottonwood Baptist Church near Scurry. Organized in 1880 with Reverend A. M. K. Sowell as its first pastor, this congregation started worship in a simple log building. That land was donated for…

  • Cottonwood Cemetery · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Cottonwood Cemetery, established way back in 1882. It started on land given by J. W. Swayze, intended for a church, a school, and this burial ground. The very first person laid to rest here was J. R.…

  • Lone Oak Cemetery · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Lone Oak Cemetery, a resting place with roots stretching back to 1858. That's when a traveling family lost their son here, and local pioneer Weaver Cotton offered a gravesite. He later formally…

  • Methodist Church, 1844 · 9.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past College Mound, where the story of Methodism in this area began way back in 1844. That year, settlers like A. J. Beck and Henry Beck arrived. Just a year later, in 1845, they organized a Methodist…

  • The Museum the Cadets Built for Their Lost Friends · 10.0 mi

    At 119 Silent Wings Blvd, a small museum keeps the No. 1 British Flying Training School alive. It was started by the cadets themselves, the men who came back across the Atlantic for reunions, partly to celebrate the…

  • No. 1 British Flying Training School · 10.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Terrell's No. 1 British Flying Training School, established in August 1941, before the U.S. even entered World War II. This Royal Air Force facility trained over 2,200 British and 138…

  • When the Royal Air Force Came to Texas · 10.1 mi

    During the darkest days of World War II, long before Pearl Harbor, a unique alliance formed in the skies over Terrell. The town was chosen as the site for the Number 1 British Flying Training School, the first and…

  • The City on the Hill · 10.1 mi

    For over a century, the largest and most defining landmark in Terrell wasn't a courthouse or a factory, but a hospital. Opened in 1885 as the North Texas Lunatic Asylum, the institution we now know as Terrell State…

  • A Machine for Healing · 10.1 mi

    The original main building of the Terrell State Hospital, opened in 1885, wasn't just a building; it was a piece of medical technology. Designed by J. N. Preston and Sons of Austin, it followed the Kirkbride Plan, a…

  • Newton Boys · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Callahan County, not far from Cottonwood, where the infamous Newton Boys got their start. These brothers – Willis, Joe, Jess, and Doc – weren't just any outlaws. By the time they were done, they'd…

  • The Quarterback Named Eric Bishop · 10.1 mi

    Long before the world knew him as Jamie Foxx, Terrell knew him as Eric Bishop. Abandoned seven months after he was born, he was adopted and raised right here by his mother's adoptive parents, Estelle and Mark Talley - a…

  • Terrell, TX · 10.1 mi

    Terrell's history began in 1873 with the construction of the Texas and Pacific Railroad line, which played a pivotal role in the town's development. The city was named after Robert A. Terrell, a European-American…

  • Hay Capital of the World · 10.1 mi

    Today it's hard to imagine, but for a few decades Terrell's global reputation was built on a crop. Thanks to the incredibly fertile Blackland Prairie soil, farmers here grew cotton in astonishing quantity, and the town…

  • Griffin, Meade Felix · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Right here in Callahan County, you're passing through the birthplace of Meade Felix Griffin, a man who reached the pinnacle of Texas law. Born in Cottonwood in 1894, Griffin wasn't just a lawyer; he was a decorated…

  • Nordyke, Lewis Thaddeus · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Callahan County, near Cottonwood, the birthplace of Lewis Thaddeus Nordyke. Born in 1905, Nordyke grew up on a farm called Nubbin Ridge. After graduating from college and teaching for a bit, he…

  • Cottonwood, TX (Madison County) · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Madison County, and right here is Cottonwood. It started around 1880, named for the cottonwood trees that grew along Iron Creek. A schoolhouse went up on land donated by J. R. Day, and for a brief…

  • Green, Edward Howland Robinson · 10.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kaufman County, and right here in Terrell, you're passing through the stomping grounds of a true Texas character: Edward Howland Robinson Green. Born to one of America's wealthiest and most…

  • Hunt, Archie Albert [Prince Albert] · 10.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Terrell, Texas, the birthplace of Archie Albert Hunt, better known as Prince Albert. Born in 1896, Hunt was a pioneering fiddle player and singer whose unique style helped shape early western swing.…

  • Knapp, Seaman Asahel · 10.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas right now, maybe near Terrell, and you're passing through a landscape forever changed by a crisis. Back in 1903, the dreaded boll weevil arrived, devastating cotton crops and emptying…

  • Burnett, William Henry · 10.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Terrell, Texas, a town that owes a lot to William Henry Burnett. Born in 1872, Burnett dedicated his life to educating African American children in this region. In 1900, he became the principal of…

  • Porter Farm · 10.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kaufman County, just north of Terrell, and you're passing a place that changed how Texas farmers grow food. Right here, in 1903, Seaman Knapp, a USDA agent, convinced Walter Porter to try new…

  • Boggess, Lynton Ross [Dusty] · 10.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Texas, maybe near Terrell, where Lynton Ross Boggess was born. He picked up the nickname "Dusty" on the football field, kicking up dust with his long runs. But Boggess traded the gridiron for the…

  • Roberts, Annie Lee Warren · 10.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Terrell, Texas, the birthplace of Annie Lee Warren Roberts. Born in 1895, she became a passionate philanthropist and preservationist. Her biggest legacy might be the Summerfield G. Roberts Award,…

  • Terrell, TX · 10.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Terrell, Texas, a town that owes its existence to the railroad and a bit of entrepreneurial spirit. Back in 1873, as the Texas and Pacific Railway pushed across North Texas, two local businessmen…

  • Terrell, Chester H. · 10.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Chester H. Terrell, speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, was born in Terrell, Texas, on December 2, 1882, the son of Mattie (Simpson) and J. O. Terrell , who represented Kaufman County in the Texas Senate…

  • Dashiell, Wickliffe Bond · 10.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kaufman County, and right here is where Dr. Wickliffe Bond Dashiell made his mark. He arrived in Texas in 1857, practicing medicine and farming near East Fork. But when the Civil War broke out, he…

  • Gill, Bennett Lloyd · 10.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Terrell, a town that owes a lot to a young man named Bennett L. Gill. Born in Alabama, Gill moved to Dallas as a boy, working odd jobs for next to nothing. But at sixteen, a Terrell grocer offered…

  • Home Rule Charters · 10.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Terrell, Texas, and right here, in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1911</say-as>, citizens were still being handed special charters by the state legislature. Imagine that! Your town's…

  • Pyle Prairie Cemetery · 10.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Pyle Prairie Cemetery. Family tradition says it began in 1854 with the death of J. P. McFarland, son-in-law of Republic of Texas Army veteran John Pyle, who settled here in the 1850s. This graveyard…

  • From Irish Ridge to Talty · 10.5 mi

    This bedroom town east of Dallas grew out of Irish grit. When the Texas and Pacific railway crossed northern Kaufman County in 1873, many of its laborers were Irish Catholic immigrants. Several stayed, settling the high…

  • The Church, the Convent, and the Fire · 10.5 mi

    For a tiny farming settlement, the Irish Ridge community reached high. In 1891 its Catholic families built St. Martin's Church on a tract of land donated by founder Martin Layden. A school started around the same time.…

  • Burnett, William Henry · 10.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of a Terrell landmark, named for William Henry Burnett. Born into slavery around 1872, Burnett was a farm boy who found his path through education. A Presbyterian missionary recognized his…

  • Kemp · 10.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kemp, Texas, a community that got its start way back in 1851. That's when the U.S. Postal Service approved a station named Kemp, with Levi Noble as the very first postmaster. For years, it was a…

  • The Doctor Who Bought a Railroad Town · 10.6 mi

    Kemp almost stayed a quiet post office stop. In 1870 a local doctor, A. J. Still, gambled that a railroad was coming. He bought land just north of the community, surveyed it, cut it into town lots, and then offered a…

  • Graveyard, Old, Pioneer cemetery, The · 10.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past what's known as the Old Graveyard, or the Irvine Family Cemetery. This little plot of land holds stories from before Terrell was even a town. The first person laid to rest here was Robert Alexander,…

  • Living on a Lake and Still Running Dry · 10.7 mi

    Kemp sits on the shore of Cedar Creek Reservoir, a 34,000-acre lake finished in 1965. Yet in August 2011 the town of about 1,100 shut off every faucet for two days. The reason is buried in the ground. This part of Texas…

  • Two Women Named Kemp, One Contested Town · 10.7 mi

    Kemp sits in southeastern Kaufman County near Cedar Creek Lake, and it owes its name to a woman named Kemp. Which one is a real historical puzzle. The state Handbook of Texas says the town honors Malvina Kemp Watkins,…

  • The Marine Who Went On to Wear a Badge · 10.8 mi

    The Officer Jacob Candanoza Memorial Highway follows State Highway Thirty Four in Kaufman County, between Kings Creek Drive and North Frances Street, and the legislature created it in two thousand twenty five. Jacob…

  • Wilkin, Marijohn · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kemp, Texas, birthplace of Marijohn Wilkin, a woman who became known as the 'den mother of Music Row.' Born Marijohn Melson in 1920, she learned piano young and defied expectations by joining the…

  • Guy, Leona Ruth · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, near the small town of Kemp, where Leona Ruth Guy was born back in 1913. She wasn't just any resident; Guy became a pioneer in medical technology and blood banking. She started her…

  • Bethlehem Baptist Church · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Terrell's oldest black Baptist congregation, Bethlehem Baptist Church. It all started back in 1877, with worshippers gathering under a simple brush arbor. Led by missionary A. R. Griggs…

  • Kemp, TX · 10.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kemp, Texas, a town that owes its start to a woman named Malvina Kemp Watkins. The post office opened in 1851, officially establishing the community. Early on, it was just a slow-growing…

  • Pleasant Grove Cemetery · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kaufman County, past Pleasant Grove Cemetery. The earliest burial here is Harriet Mathis, who died in 1873 at just eight years old. Her parents later donated land for a school and early churches,…

  • Terrell, Robert A. · 11.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of a truly unique Texas home! This octagon-shaped house you see replaced an 1845 log cabin. It was built in 1864 for Robert A. Terrell, the very pioneer settler the town of Terrell is named…

  • Robert A. Terrell · 11.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Terrell, a town named for the man whose land you're currently surveying! Robert Adams Terrell arrived in Texas around 1840. He was a farmer and surveyor who helped map out headright land grants…

  • Oakland Memorial Park · 11.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Oakland Memorial Park, a final resting place for Terrell's citizens since 1878. It started with seven acres sold by James R. Terrell for a community burial ground. The first souls laid to rest here…

  • Frank Reaugh · 11.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the birthplace of Frank Reaugh, the graphic historian of the American West. Born in Illinois in 1860, Reaugh moved to Kaufman County as a teen in 1876. It was here, beside his family's cotton farm,…

  • Texas & Pacific Railroad Freight Depot · 11.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the old Texas & Pacific Railroad Freight Depot in Terrell. Founded in 1873, this town owes its very existence to the railroad. Land was donated by the Terrell family and others, with the promise that…

  • Before Hollywood, He Played Piano at New Hope Baptist · 11.2 mi

    Long before the world knew Jamie Foxx, a kid named Eric Marlon Bishop was growing up in Terrell, born here on December 13, 1967, and raised by his grandmother Estelle Talley, who he later called his first acting…

  • Twenty British Boys Beneath the Texas Sod · 11.2 mi

    In Oakland Memorial Park, along West Moore Avenue, there is a plot that belongs, in a sense, to Britain. Twenty young men of the Royal Air Force who died while training at Terrell's flying school during World War II are…

  • The Richest Heir in America Drove Texas's First Car From Here · 11.2 mi

    In 1893 a young man named Edward H.R. Green, son of Hetty Green, the famously miserly Witch of Wall Street and the richest woman in America, was sent to Terrell to run the ailing Texas Midland Railroad his mother had…

  • The Town the Railroad Drew on a Cotton Prairie · 11.2 mi

    You're rolling into a town that exists because of where a rail line crossed a cotton prairie. When the Texas and Pacific Railway pushed across North Texas in 1873, two Kaufman County men, C.C. Nash and John G. Moore,…

  • The Wildwood Graves Almost No One Has a Name For · 11.2 mi

    Not long after the asylum opened in July 1885, the state set aside a piece of its grounds to bury patients who died while hospitalized, far from families who in many cases never came. The first burial in what became…

  • The Dean of Texas Painters Grew Up Among These Longhorns · 11.2 mi

    When the Reaugh family moved from Illinois to the prairie near Terrell in 1876, fifteen-year-old Charles Franklin Reaugh, known to everyone as Frank, was surrounded by the very subject that would define his life: Texas…

  • The Governor Who Ran Texas From a Terrell Newspaper Town · 11.2 mi

    Terrell can claim a Texas governor among its own. Oscar Branch Colquitt built his political base here as a newspaperman, owning and publishing the Terrell Times-Star in the 1890s when this was a thriving cotton and…

  • The 1925 Movie House That Became a Bookstore · 11.2 mi

    At 209 West Moore Avenue, in the heart of Terrell's historic downtown, stands the old Iris Theatre, built in 1925 when this brick-paved stretch of Moore Avenue was the town's bright-lights district. Back in the 1920s,…

  • American National Bank of Terrell · 11.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Terrell, a town that got its start in 1873. Just two years later, in 1875, a private bank opened its doors, laying the foundation for what would become the American National Bank. It saw a lot of…

  • Moving a Town for the Train · 11.3 mi

    You might think a town is a permanent thing, but Rosser has been more than one place and more than one name. Before this was Rosser, the land here was settled before 1850 and platted in 1851 as a townsite called…

  • King Cotton's Capital · 11.3 mi

    If you could travel back to Rosser a century ago, you'd find a busier place than this. It began as Trinidad, platted in 1851 on the East Fork of the Trinity, and its first fortune was riverboats - an advantage that died…

  • Colquitt, Oscar Branch, Gov., Homesite of · 11.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Terrell, passing the former homesite of Oscar Branch Colquitt. He was the 24th Governor of Texas, serving from 1911 to 1915. Nicknamed 'The Napoleon of Texas Politics' and 'Little Oscar' for his…

  • Texas Midland Railroad · 11.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past where the Texas Midland Railroad once ran, a line that started as part of the Houston and Texas Central in 1882. But things got interesting in 1892 when it was bought by Mrs. Hetty Green, the famous…

  • Carnegie Library Building · 11.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Carnegie Library Building in Terrell, a testament to community spirit and a touch of philanthropy. Built in 1904, this beautiful structure stands on land once owned by O. B. Colquitt, who would…

  • Carnegie Public Library · 11.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Terrell, and right here is a testament to the power of community and knowledge. This building, opened in 1904, stands as the first and only library in Kaufman County. It was the dream of local…

  • A City Born to Block Dallas · 11.4 mi

    For its first eighty-odd years, the community of Combine didn't have a mayor or a city council. It was just a scattering of farms straddling the Dallas and Kaufman county line, with a post office that had come and gone…

  • Church of the Good Shepherd · 11.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Church of the Good Shepherd in Terrell, a place that's been a spiritual anchor since 1877. It started as a mission, with services held in a local academy. By 1878, this very site saw its first…

  • Rosser Depot · 11.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Rosser, Texas, a town that owes its existence to the railroad. Originally called Trinidad and reliant on the Trinity River for trade, things changed in 1882 when the Houston and Texas Central…

  • First Baptist Church of terrell · 11.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Terrell, and right here is the site of the First Baptist Church. It all started back in 1876 when Reverend J.B. Daniel organized this congregation with just thirteen members. They met once a…

  • First Christian Church of Terrell · 11.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the First Christian Church of Terrell, a congregation that started way back in 1876 with just 18 members. They met in borrowed rooms until their first building went up in 1881. Imagine that – growing…

  • First United Methodist Church of Terrell · 11.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Terrell, and right here, you're passing the site of the First United Methodist Church. Organized way back in 1873 by the Rev. J. W. Fields, this church was founded the very same year the Texas &…

  • Rockwall and Brin Church of Christ · 11.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Terrell, and right here is the history of the Rockwall and Brin Church of Christ. This congregation got its start back in 1896, meeting in members' homes. Services moved to the Odd-Fellows Hall…

  • Lawrence Cemetery · 11.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of what used to be the town of Lawrence. Back in 1873, the Texas and Pacific Railroad pushed a line through here, and investors saw opportunity. They formed the Texas Colony Association, and…

  • Griffith House · 11.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Griffith House in Terrell, built in 1909. This home was designed by architect James E. Flanders for L.E. Griffith, Jr., a prominent businessman who led the local drug company and bank. The…

  • Rosser, TX · 11.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving southwest of Kaufman on Highway 34, and you're passing through Rosser. This town owes its very existence to the railroad. Back in 1872, the Texas and Pacific Railway began construction right through this…

  • The Asylum on the Hill Northeast of Town · 11.6 mi

    A mile northeast of downtown stands one of the oldest psychiatric institutions in Texas. After the state asylum in Austin filled past capacity, the Texas Legislature in 1883 ordered a new hospital built north of the…

  • Terrell State Hospital · 11.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of what was once the largest hospital of its kind west of the Mississippi River. Authorized by the Texas Legislature in 1883, this facility opened its doors in 1885 as the Terrell State…

  • Saint John Catholic Church · 11.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Terrell, a town that sprang up when the railroad arrived in 1873. Look around, and you might spot the site of the oldest church here, Saint John Catholic Church. The land was acquired back in…

  • Marrs, S. M. N. · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Terrell, where Starlin Marrs became a key figure in Texas education. Born in West Virginia in 1862, he moved to Texas in 1881 and eventually became superintendent of Terrell schools. He championed…

  • Terrell Elemtary School · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Terrell Elementary School, a place that's been educating local kids since 1901. The original North Primary School, a two-story building with six classrooms, opened right here in September…

  • Cartwright House · 11.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Cartwright House in Terrell, built in 1883. Matthew Cartwright, a third-generation Texan, built this home. He was a rancher, a banker, and a civic leader who even entertained artists and…

  • Warren, R. L. · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Terrell, and right here is the R. L. Warren mansion, built in 1904. This wasn't just any house; it was a statement. Imagine 18 rooms, a formal reception hall, two drawing rooms, even a…

  • Walter P. and Meck Allen House · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Walter P. and Meck Allen House, a beautiful example of Tudor Revival architecture built in 1928. Walter Allen was a prominent banker and city leader in Terrell, instrumental in developing the…

  • Corley, John H., Home · 12.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the John H. Corley Home, built in 1896 by John Neilson, a former shipbuilder. Imagine this: many of the materials for this elaborate Victorian house were shipped by boat to Jefferson, then sent on by…

  • The Wartime Highway Name That Waited Sixty Years · 12.2 mi

    The World War Two Veterans Memorial Highway is a name with an odd history. On August first, nineteen forty four, a Texas highway minute order named U S Highway Eighty the Veterans of World War Two Highway, all the way…

  • Terrell State Hospital Cemetery · 12.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Terrell State Hospital Cemetery. Soon after this hospital opened its doors in July of 1885, a section of the grounds was designated for patients who passed away during their treatment. The very…

  • First Presbyterian Church of Terrell · 12.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Terrell, and right here is the First Presbyterian Church. This congregation has deep roots, stretching back to two separate Presbyterian churches founded way back in the 1870s. Imagine that! In…

  • First Presbyterian Church of Forney · 12.3 mi · Historical Marker

    Hey road trippers! You're driving past the site of Forney's First Presbyterian Church. Believe it or not, this congregation formed from a merger of two older churches. Back in 1872, the Brooklyn Church of the Cumberland…

  • Locust Grove · 12.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through what used to be Locust Grove, a bustling Texas community founded in the 1800s. It had a saw mill, a doctor, a grocery store, and even three churches! In 1891, local leaders bought land for a…

  • Public Education in Terrell · 13.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Terrell, where a big decision was made back in 1883. The citizens voted overwhelmingly to create their own public school system. The first classes started that September, using buildings from old…

  • Forney High School — State Softball 2026 · 13.1 mi

    Forney High School in Forney, Texas qualified for the 2026 UIL state softball championships, reaching the state tournament (final four) in Class six A, Division Two.

  • The High School That Sent Players to the Pros · 13.1 mi

    For a town its size, Forney has thrown a surprising number of people onto big stages, and a lot of them passed through Forney High School first. Caleb Hanie quarterbacked the Forney team to back-to-back top-three…

  • Elmo, TX · 13.2 mi

    Elmo's history began in 1870 when the Texas and Pacific Railway laid track through the area, leading to the emergence of a community at the railhead. Named in honor of Elmo Scott, a T&P Railroad surveyor, Elmo received…

  • The Town That Incorporated to Escape Being Swallowed · 13.2 mi

    Here's a piece of municipal weirdness sitting right next door. As Seagoville grew through the twentieth century, its city limits crept outward in every direction until, by the 1970s, they had completely wrapped around a…

  • Cedarvale Cemetery · 13.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Kaufman County, nearing the site of Cedarvale Cemetery. It was established around 1850, making it a historic Texas cemetery.

  • Staff Sergeant Cochran's Fight in the Ho Bo Woods · 13.5 mi

    The bridge on State Highway Thirty Four named for Staff Sergeant Robert E. Cochran honors a Vietnam soldier whose home was Rosser, Texas. Robert Edmund Cochran was born in Kaufman County in September nineteen forty one.…

  • Porter Farms · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the birthplace of a revolution in farming! Right here, on February 26th, 1903, Walter and Mrs. Porter’s farm was chosen for the very first "farm demonstration." This project, led by Dr. Seaman A.…

  • Prairieville · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Prairieville, a town founded by Johan Reinert Reiersen in 1847. He was a Norwegian colonizer, already famous for starting Brownboro, or Normandy, back in 1845. Reiersen’s aide, Elise Tvede…

  • Dozier, Otis Marion · 14.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, and right here near Forney, you're passing through the hometown of Otis Dozier. He was a prominent painter and printmaker, a key member of the Dallas Nine group of artists. During the…

  • Spellman, Coreen Mary · 14.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Forney, Texas, the birthplace of Coreen Mary Spellman, a remarkable artist who made her mark on the Texas art scene. Born in 1905, Spellman developed a passion for art early on, nurtured by her…

  • Forney, TX · 14.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Forney, Texas, a town that owes its very name to a bit of bureaucratic confusion and a railroad. Originally called Brooklyn, the settlers applied for a post office in 1873. But there was already a…

  • Broughton, Edward Thomas · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site where the Kaufman Light Infantry mustered in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1861</say-as>. Led by Captain Edward Thomas Broughton, this company soon became the Johnson Guards and…

  • Where Discount Retail Got Started Before Walmart · 14.1 mi

    Most people credit Walmart with inventing cheap big-box shopping, but a Texas chain run out of Seagoville beat it to the punch. Herbert R. Gibson, who had built a wholesale-novelty business backed by a network of…

  • The River Locks Hiding South of Town · 14.1 mi

    A few miles south of Seagoville, the Trinity River once carried freight by barge, and the bones of an ambitious piece of engineering still lie buried in its bed. In the 1890s Dallas boosters dreamed of turning the…

  • Where the Cotton Gin Became an Antique Mall · 14.1 mi

    At 210 East Broad Street stands the most literal monument to Forney's two great industries stacked on top of each other. The metal-clad building was once the heart of a cotton-gin complex, machinery built by the Murray…

  • The $200 Store That Named a Town · 14.1 mi

    You're rolling into a town that grew up around one man's general store. T.K. Seago, born in 1836, cleared his timbered land here and in 1876 opened the first store in the area, stocked with all of $200 in dry goods and…

  • The Railroad That Made Seago, and the One That Left · 14.1 mi

    Before the rails came, farmers around here hauled cotton to Dallas by wagon and fetched their mail from Lawson, and freight floated up the Trinity River by barge to locks a few miles south of town. That all changed when…

  • The Free Graveyard at the Crossroads · 14.1 mi

    At the corner of Seagoville Road and Highway 175 sits Lee Cemetery, the oldest burial ground in southeastern Dallas County and a quiet roll call of the families who built this town. It began in 1870 when James J. Lee, a…

  • Smoke on the Highway 175 Frontage Road · 14.1 mi

    If the drive has you hungry, Shorty's Texas Bar-B-Q at 705 Highway 175 North is the kind of roadside smoke joint that Seagoville does well. The operation got its start back in 2008 over in Sunnyvale off Highway 80, and…

  • Seago, Tillman Kimsey · 14.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Seagoville, a town named for its founder, Tillman Kimsey Seago. He wasn't just a farmer; he was a Confederate soldier, a merchant, and eventually, a state legislator. But his real claim to fame…

  • Wills, Theodore Childress [Chill] · 14.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Seagoville, Texas, the hometown of Chill Wills. Born Theodore Childress Wills in 1902, he adopted the nickname 'Chill' and became a distinctive voice in Hollywood. He started his career singing…

  • World War II Internment Camps · 14.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Although many Americans are aware of the World War II imprisonment of West Coast Japanese Americans in relocation centers, few know of the smaller internment camps operated by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.…

  • Seagoville, TX · 14.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Seagoville, a town that owes its existence to a general store. T. K. Seago built that store back in 1876, and a community quickly grew around it. By 1881, the Texas Trunk Railroad arrived,…

  • Two Texas Towns Named Brooklyn · 14.6 mi

    Imagine this: the year is eighteen seventy-three, and you live in a promising little town called Brooklyn, Texas. You have a store, a church, a blacksmith shop. Then you get the news. The Texas and Pacific Railway, the…

  • Engineering a Town's Fate · 14.6 mi

    The existence of Forney in its current location is a story of 19th-century engineering and economics. When the Texas and Pacific Railway planned this stretch, its people did the cold arithmetic of grade and…

  • The 100-Year Wait to Become a Town · 14.6 mi

    Imagine a town waiting more than a century to make itself official. That's the story of Bonney. It began in 1873 as a station on the International and Great Northern Railroad, on land granted to Warren D. C. Hall and…

  • Engineering a Life on the Floodplain · 14.6 mi

    The existence of Bonney is a lesson in hydrology and engineering. You're driving on the floodplain of the Brazos River, a powerful and dynamic system. For millennia, the river has meandered across this coastal plain,…

  • The Hay Capital of the World · 14.6 mi

    In the late 19th century America ran on horsepower, and all those horses needed to eat. Forney stepped up to become their kitchen. Everybody remembers the cotton, but the town's first real fame came from hay. The deep…

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