Skip to content

Leigh, Texas

Everything Leigh is known for

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

Music in Leigh

Songs About Leigh

No songs reference Leigh yet.

Know one? Add it →

Rivers & Roads in Song near Leigh

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

Musical Heritage

Boogie Woogie Fest RoadyGoat

That rolling, hard-driving piano — the boogie-woogie — they'll tell you it was born right here in Marshall. It came up out of the East Texas logging camps, where formerly enslaved men sat down at whatever piano they could find and played. Two of the greats came straight off these streets: Floyd Dixon and Dave Alexander. So it fits that Marshall finally got its own Boogie Woogie Fest — an idea Dale Watson floated and Alan Loudermilk, who runs the restaurant Gnocchio in town, talked him into making real. One September weekend, the lineup runs Dale Watson, Linda Gail Lewis, Wayne Hancock, Scott Biram, Jason D. Williams, and more. It's a party, sure. But it's also Marshall finally taking a bow for something it handed the whole world.

RoadyGoat → · 14.3 mi away

History of Leigh

A Name With No Certain Origin RoadyGoat

You're in Uncertain, Texas, so here's the uncertainty tangent behind the name: the town's naming story is appropriately unresolved. One tradition says steamboat captains found the Caddo Lake landing difficult to moor at. Another points to uncertainty over whether residents belonged to the United States or Republic of Texas before the boundary was settled. Former officials offered still another version involving uncertainty during the town's nineteen sixty one incorporation. These are traditions, not one proven answer. The useful lesson is that honest history sometimes ends with competing explanations, and choosing the catchiest one would create confidence without evidence.

6.6 mi away

A Thirty Percent Forecast Is Not a Broken Promise RoadyGoat

You're in Uncertain, Texas, so here's the uncertainty tangent behind the name: probability describes patterns or degrees of belief under stated assumptions, not a guarantee for one event. A thirty percent precipitation forecast does not mean the forecaster was wrong if it rains. Over many comparable forecasts, rain should occur about three times in ten if the system is well calibrated. Risk is often used when possible outcomes and probabilities can be estimated; uncertainty is broader when outcomes, probabilities, or even the model are unclear. Insurance works by pooling many partly predictable risks, not by predicting exactly whose roof will be hit.

6.6 mi away

Two Famous Uncertainties That Are Not the Same RoadyGoat

You're in Uncertain, Texas, so here's the uncertainty tangent behind the name: Schrodinger's cat is a thought experiment designed to expose the strangeness of applying quantum superposition to an everyday cat; it was not a proposal to test physics by harming cats. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle says certain paired quantities, such as position and momentum, cannot both have arbitrarily precise values in a quantum state. It is not merely bad instruments or an observer bumping a particle. These ideas are often recruited as metaphors for ordinary doubt, but quantum uncertainty has a precise mathematical meaning that indecision over lunch does not.

6.6 mi away

Johnson, Lyndon B., Mrs.

1912

(Wife of 36th President of the United States) On December 22, 1912, in the family home 2.7 miles south, was born Claudia Alta Taylor. She was third child (only daughter) of Thomas Jefferson and Minnie Pattillo Taylor. Her father had a general store in Karnack for many years. Young "Lady Bird" (a pet name originated by her nurse, Alice Tittle) attended public schools in Fern community, near here, and in Jefferson and Marshall, and earned Bachelor of Arts and Journalism degrees at the University of Texas. On November 17, 1934, she married Lyndon Baines Johnson, congressional staff member who became head of National Youth Administration in Texas in 1935. The Johnsons are parents of two daughters, Lynda Bird and Luci Baines. During her husband's rise to world leadership-- as United States Congressman, Senator, Senate Majority Leader, Vice President, and President-- Mrs. Johnson added to role of wife and mother that of hostess to many of the greatest statesmen of the world. As First Lady of the United States, she is true to her East Texas heritage of love for gardens, trees, unspoiled natural scenery, and historic sites. She sponsors vital national programs of conservation, beautification, and historical preservation. Outstanding Women of Texas Series, 1967.

Historical Marker → · 4.9 mi away

Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant

1941

In 1941, as the United States prepared for eventual entry into World War II, the U.S. Army Ordnance Department approached Monsanto Chemical Company of St. Louis about operating a local plant for production of explosives. Initially called Longhorn Ordnance Works, the plant produced over 400 million pounds of trinitrotolulene (TNT) from 1941 to 1945. After the war, the Army placed the plant on standby status. During the Korean War (1950-1953), the need for munitions rose again, and the Universal Match Corporation, also of St. Louis, managed the site, producing propellant fuel.In 1956, Thiokol Chemical Corporation began manufacturing solid fuel rocket motors here. This highly guarded and classified site grew in a series of five expansions. In 1964, its name changed to the Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant and employment rose to a high of nearly 3,000 personnel. The numbers declined with the end of the Vietnam War and the easing of tensions with the Soviet Union, and employment dropped to less than 1,000 by 1975.In 1987, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Treaty of Intermediate Nuclear Forces, beginning the elimination of an entire class of missiles. In 1988, the first destruction on American soil of U.S. Pershing I and II rocket motors occurred at the site. Observed by Soviet and U.S. officials, the demolition project continued until 1991. Following official deactiviation in 1995, pollution abatement has steadily provided for adaptive reuse of the former wartime site, now part of the Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge. (2007)

Historical Marker → · 4.8 mi away

Port Caddo

1806

Ancestral home of Texas Caddo Indians, this region gained a distinctive character in the 19th century. From 1806 to 1845 it lay in an area disputed by various countries and designated, from 1819, as the "neutral ground." Settlers living here were far from neutral, however. They became independent and resisted paying taxes levied by any "outside" authority. Port Caddo, founded 1838 on Caddo Lake, soon grew to importance, and its rowdy reputation grew too, as ship's crews, gamblers, and Indians filled its streets. Meanwhile, new towns and roads sprung up nearby. Continuing upheaval led to the assassination of the tax collector in 1840 and the townsmen joined in the factional "Regulator-Moderator War" from 1840 to 1844. When Texas proposed to join the Union in 1845, Port Caddoans saw a chance to end their problems and voted strongly in favor of statehood. From 1845 to the 1850's Port caddo thrived, growing to 500, but then declined as the Port of Jefferson and the county seat of Marshall drew away business. With the end of the great plantations after the Civil War, falling of the water level in Caddo Lake, and coming of the railroad to nearby Karnack (1900), Port Caddo gradually faded out of existence.

Historical Marker → · 5.8 mi away

Uncertain, TX

Uncertain, also known as Uncertain Landing, is an incorporated community on the shores of Caddo Lake seventeen miles northeast of Marshall in northeastern Harrison County. The site was once known as Uncertain Landing, so named, according to one local tradition, because of the difficulty steamboat captains in earlier days had in mooring their vessels there. Another tradition has it that the town name came from the uncertainty that residents had about their citizenship before the boundary between the United States and the Republic of Texas had been established. The latter uncertainty was a substantial benefit to residents who did not like paying taxes. In the early 1900s the site included a hunting, fishing, and boating society called the Uncertain Club. During the 1940s the community had scattered dwellings, a sawmill, several camping lodges, and some five other businesses. In a bid to promote tourism by providing an area with legal alcohol consumption, the community was incorporated as Uncertain in 1961. Former city officials claimed that uncertainty at the time of incorporation led to the community name. That year many of its 213 citizens were fishing-camp operators. The population of Uncertain was estimated at 189 in 1988, and the town limits were irregularly shaped, as they were designed to include most of the restaurants and fishing camps along that part of the Caddo Lake shoreline. Beer Smith's Caddo Lake Airport, known as the Fly and Fish, also lay within the boundaries of the community. In 1990 the population of Uncertain was 194. The population was 150 in 2000, but fell to 97 by 2015.

Tsha Handbook → · 6.7 mi away

Caddo Lake

The only natural lake in Texas, originally formed by the Great Raft log jam on the Red River. A mysterious bald cypress swamp draped in Spanish moss.

Natural Landmark → · 8.3 mi away

Scott, William Thomas

1840

William Thomas (Colonel Buck) Scott, legislator and planter, son of Thomas and Mary (Keller) Scott, was born in Wilkinson County, Mississippi, on December 14, 1811. His father had arrived with his widowed mother and other family members in Louisiana about 1808. After his marriage to Mary Keller, the family moved first to Wilkinson County and then to Copiah County, Mississippi. Thomas Scott never fully recovered from wounds he received at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, and he died in 1823, leaving his widow and several small children. William Thomas Scott was forced to go to work at an early age at the store owned by Judge Buckner Harris in Gallatin, Mississippi. Hard work and perseverance resulted in his gaining a lucrative partnership with Harris. Profits from the business also enabled him to acquire land and additional capital. On March 8, 1834, he married Mary Washington Rose, daughter of William Pinckney Rose . Scott and his brothers were accused of the murder of Robert Potter by the state of Mississippi in July 1839, but the charges were not proven. William and Mary Rose Scott had three children while living in Mississippi. The Scott family, along with several members of the Rose and Scott families, immigrated to Texas in June 1840 and settled in Harrison County. He built the first wood frame plantation style home in Harrison County, which was maintained by the Bettie Scott Youree Foundation. Scott reserved nine acres for the Rock Spring Methodist Church, a community cemetery, and a slave cemetery. He later provided an additional three acres for a Methodist tabernacle to host the annual Methodist Holiness Camp Meeting. Scott quickly acquired several large parcels of land totally nearing 25,000 acres and established five cotton plantations, including Scottsville Plantation, near Scottsville, a town he founded. He was the largest slave owner in the county and his family grew to include nine more children. His production in 1859 of 356 bales of cotton was the largest in Harrison County. In addition to his agricultural pursuits Scott was a partner in a New Orleans cotton-brokerage firm. For several years before the Civil War he maintained a home on Apollo Street during the winter as he worked with the firm. This also enabled his children to take advantage of the schools in the city. Scott was elected to the House of Representatives of the last Congress of the Republic of Texas and was a member of the Senate of the First Texas Legislature in 1846. He declined reelection the next term because of an eye affliction, but he was elected to the state Senate in 1851 and served until 1856. He was a member of the Secession Convention of 1861. After his disfranchisement was lifted by President Andrew Johnson he again entered political life. He served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1879 to 1883. During his legislative career Scott championed the cause of railroad construction. In 1852 he introduced the bill chartering the Vicksburg and El Paso Railroad. He, along with eight other men, was listed as an incorporator of the company. A charter amendment in 1856, achieved over the veto of Governor E. M. Pease , renamed the company the Southern Pacific Railroad Company (no connection with the modern company of the same name). Scott served on the board of directors of the company and as vice president from 1859 to 1861. Only about twenty-seven miles of track were actually laid before the onset of the Civil War, but the railroad survived the war and by 1872 extended from the Louisiana state line to Longview in Gregg County. In the early 1870s, however, most of the incorporators, including Scott, lost most of their assets. Stock and control of the line were sold to other investors, who then began construction under the reorganized company called the Texas and Pacific Railway. Scott died at Scottsville Plantation on November 1, 1887, and he was buried in the Scottsville Cemetery next to his wife.

Tsha Handbook → · 7.7 mi away

Things to Do in Leigh

quirky 7.9 mi away
Caddo Lake

The only natural lake in Texas is also the most haunted-looking -- twenty-five thousand acres of bald cypress swamp draped in Spanish moss straddling the…

quirky 16.3 mi away
Jay Goulds Curse on Jefferson

When railroad baron Jay Gould rolled into Jefferson in the 1870s he had a simple proposition: let me bring my railroad through town. The city fathers flush…

historical 16.4 mi away
The Great Raft That Built a City

For centuries an 80-mile logjam called the Great Raft choked the Red River so completely that it backed water all the way up into Caddo Lake. That accidental…

historical 20.0 mi away
The Diamond Bessie Murder

On a winter day in 1877 a well-dressed couple crossed the bridge over Cypress Bayou carrying a picnic basket. He was Abraham Rothschild heir to a jewelry…

nature 7.0 mi away
Caddo Lake

The only natural lake in Texas. Spanish moss-draped cypress trees and alligators.

quirky 16.4 mi away
Spielberg Fled the Excelsior House

The Excelsior House has been hosting guests since the 1850s and most of them sleep just fine. Steven Spielberg was not one of them. The story goes that the…

historical 16.4 mi away
Last Confederate Powder Magazine in Texas

In 1863 with the Civil War grinding on the Confederacy needed a safe place to store gunpowder and ammunition deep in the Texas interior. They built an ordnance…

quirky 16.5 mi away
The Grove — Americas Most Haunted House

Built in 1861 in the middle of Jeffersons boom years The Grove looks like any other graceful Southern home from the outside. Inside is another story entirely.…

Everything Near Leigh

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

  • Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant · 4.8 mi · Historical Marker

    In 1941, as the United States prepared for eventual entry into World War II, the U.S. Army Ordnance Department approached Monsanto Chemical Company of St. Louis about operating a local plant for production of…

  • Johnson, Lyndon B., Mrs. · 4.9 mi · Historical Marker

    (Wife of 36th President of the United States) On December 22, 1912, in the family home 2.7 miles south, was born Claudia Alta Taylor. She was third child (only daughter) of Thomas Jefferson and Minnie Pattillo Taylor.…

  • Port Caddo · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker

    Ancestral home of Texas Caddo Indians, this region gained a distinctive character in the 19th century. From 1806 to 1845 it lay in an area disputed by various countries and designated, from 1819, as the "neutral…

  • Swanson's Landing · 6.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising past the historic site of Swanson's Landing, a bustling port on Caddo Lake back in the 1830s. Founded by Peter Swanson, this was the gateway for goods heading to New Orleans and supplies for settlers. By…

  • Vaughan, Samuel Floyd, Dr. · 6.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the home of Dr. Samuel Floyd Vaughan, a physician who served Harrison County for decades. He bought this house back in 1870, after serving as a Civil War veteran. The home itself started much…

  • Concord Methodist Church and Concord Masonic Lodge · 6.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Concord, a community that started in the 1850s with both a Masonic Lodge and a Methodist Church sharing the same building. Concord Lodge No. 77 was chartered in January of <say-as interpret-as="date"…

  • A Name With No Certain Origin · 6.6 mi

    You're in Uncertain, Texas, so here's the uncertainty tangent behind the name: the town's naming story is appropriately unresolved. One tradition says steamboat captains found the Caddo Lake landing difficult to moor…

  • A Thirty Percent Forecast Is Not a Broken Promise · 6.6 mi

    You're in Uncertain, Texas, so here's the uncertainty tangent behind the name: probability describes patterns or degrees of belief under stated assumptions, not a guarantee for one event. A thirty percent precipitation…

  • Two Famous Uncertainties That Are Not the Same · 6.6 mi

    You're in Uncertain, Texas, so here's the uncertainty tangent behind the name: Schrodinger's cat is a thought experiment designed to expose the strangeness of applying quantum superposition to an everyday cat; it was…

  • Why Not Knowing Feels So Bad · 6.6 mi

    You're in Uncertain, Texas, so here's the uncertainty tangent behind the name: human brains constantly predict what comes next. Uncertainty can keep attention and stress systems active because no response can yet be…

  • Certain, Vivid, and Wrong · 6.6 mi

    You're in Uncertain, Texas, so here's the uncertainty tangent behind the name: memory is reconstruction, not a perfect recording. Suggestive questions, repeated retelling, stress, expectations, and later information can…

  • Uncertain, TX · 6.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Uncertain, also known as Uncertain Landing, is an incorporated community on the shores of Caddo Lake seventeen miles northeast of Marshall in northeastern Harrison County. The site was once known as Uncertain Landing,…

Show all 200 nearby places
  • Caddo Lake · 7.0 mi · Things to Do

    The only natural lake in Texas. Spanish moss-draped cypress trees and alligators.

  • Trees Older Than the Nation, Fish Older Than Dinosaurs · 7.3 mi

    The dark, mirror-still water around Uncertain hides two of the oldest living things you will ever drift past. First, the trees. Those flared, knobby-kneed bald cypress rising straight out of the water, draped in gray…

  • A Bayou So Special the World Made a List for It · 7.3 mi

    For a town of fewer than one hundred people, Uncertain sits beside something with genuine global standing. In nineteen ninety-three, Caddo Lake was named a Wetland of International Importance under an international…

  • When Steamboats Ruled This Swamp · 7.3 mi

    It is hard to picture now, looking at this sleepy cypress maze, but Caddo Lake was once a genuine highway for steamboats, and that history ties right back to why this shoreline was ever called a landing at all. In the…

  • T.C. Lindsey & Co. — Open Since 1847 · 7.4 mi · Community Sourced

    This general store has been in continuous operation since 1847 — before the Civil War, before Texas had been a state for two years, before the railroad reached East Texas. T.C. Lindsey and Company in Jonesville is one…

  • Hand-hewn timbers, handmade brick · 7.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Scottsville, founded by William Thomas Scott, an 1834 Texas settler. Scott was a key player, serving as a Congressman and Senator for the Republic of Texas. He even helped charter a railroad…

  • Scott, William Thomas · 7.5 mi · Historical Marker

    (1811-1887), an 1834 Texas settler, and founder of Scottsville. Through father of his wife, Mary Rose, he was embroiled in local 1840s Regulator-Moderator Feud. Congressman and Senator in the Republic of Texas, he…

  • Scottsville, TX · 7.6 mi

    Scottsville was founded in June 1840 by William Thomas Scott, his wife Mary Rose, and other members of their families. Scott quickly acquired several large parcels of land and established five cotton plantations,…

  • Dick and Charlie's Tea Room · 7.6 mi · Web

    On a stretch of Caddo Lake just east of Uncertain, a weathered shack stands on stilts over the dark water. Dick and Charlie's Tea Room. The cabin went up around nineteen hundred, sitting right on the line between Marion…

  • Scottsville · 7.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Scottsville, a town founded way back in 1834 by William Thomas Scott. Scott wasn't just a pioneer; he was a statesman who helped shape this part of Texas. He lived until 1887, seeing a lot of…

  • Scott, William Thomas · 7.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    William Thomas (Colonel Buck) Scott, legislator and planter, son of Thomas and Mary (Keller) Scott, was born in Wilkinson County, Mississippi, on December 14, 1811. His father had arrived with his widowed mother and…

  • Buard, Rebecca J. · 7.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, near Scottsville, a place that was home to Rebecca Buard. Born in 1909, she grew up on her grandfather's farm, a man who bought land in 1867 thanks to his fishing income from…

  • Stagecoach Road · 7.8 mi

    Outside Marshall, in deep East Texas, Stagecoach Road is the real eighteen-fifties stage line that ran cotton and passengers down to Shreveport — run by planter William Bradfield until the railroad killed it off in the…

  • Uncertain - The Town With No Answers · 7.8 mi · Historical Marker

    Uncertain, Texas has a population of about ninety-four people and a name that nobody can fully explain. The most popular story is that steamboat captains on Caddo Lake were uncertain about where to land, but other…

  • Marshall-Shreveport Stagecoach Road · 7.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the old route of the Marshall-Shreveport Stagecoach Road. Before the Civil War, this dusty track was Texas's superhighway, connecting Marshall to Shreveport and then on to New Orleans markets.…

  • Caddo Lake · 7.9 mi · Things to Do

    The only natural lake in Texas is also the most haunted-looking -- twenty-five thousand acres of bald cypress swamp draped in Spanish moss straddling the…

  • Caddo Lake · 8.3 mi · Natural Landmark

    The only natural lake in Texas, originally formed by the Great Raft log jam on the Red River. A mysterious bald cypress swamp draped in Spanish moss.

  • Reagan's Name Across East Texas · 8.5 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…

  • The Wartime Highway Name That Waited Sixty Years · 8.7 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…

  • Harrison County · 9.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Harrison County, Texas, formed way back in 1839. It's named for Jonas Harrison, a New Jersey statesman who arrived in Texas in 1820. He was part of the First Convention of Texas in 1832 and died…

  • The Border Town Hustle · 9.5 mi

    Waskom's nickname is 'The Gateway to Texas,' and that gateway has always been a place of opportunity. Because it's the first town you hit coming from Louisiana on I-20, its economy is uniquely tied to the differences…

  • The Waskom Gas Boom · 9.5 mi

    In the early 1900s Waskom was a quiet railroad town on the Louisiana line, a couple hundred people, sawmills and cotton gins. That ended in 1924, when wildcatters brought in oil right outside town. Waskom went from…

  • Waskom, TX · 9.5 mi

    In June 2019, the city council voted to outlaw abortion in the city, declaring Waskom a 'sanctuary city for the unborn', the first such city to designate itself as such. This ordinance has led other small cities in…

  • Sanctuary City for the Unborn · 9.5 mi

    In 2019, Waskom's city leaders put their town at the center of a national debate. Worried that a new abortion clinic might open just across the state line in Shreveport, the city council took a dramatic step: they…

  • Dehahuit’s Caddo Village · 9.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Harrison County, near Waskom. Right here, between 1799 and 1800, the Kadohadacho Caddo people established Dehahuit's village. Their chief, Dehahuit, lived here from at least 1805 until…

  • Waskom, TX · 9.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Waskom, right on the Louisiana border. This town started as Powell Town around 1850, named for a landowner. It became Waskom Station in 1872, and then just Waskom to honor a railroad director who…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Elysian Fields (Elysian Fields) · 10.0 mi

    Elysian Fields (Elysian Fields, TX) placed on the 2A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: John Beavers (2 HR).

  • The Most Haunted Road in Texas · 10.8 mi · Community Sourced

    Stagecoach Road is an old dirt track that once carried travelers between Marshall and Shreveport in the mid-1800s. Today, it is called the most haunted road in Texas. The eight-mile stretch cuts through dense East Texas…

  • Caddo Lake Drawbridge · 11.9 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Ever wonder how early 20th-century oil rigs got around? You're about to cross a bridge built specifically for them! This isn't just any old bridge; the Caddo Lake Drawbridge, also known as the Mooringsport Bridge, was…

  • Henderson, John Barry · 12.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, and to your right, you're passing the John Barry Henderson home. This place has a story that bridges the Civil War. The rear wing was built before 1861, serving as a way station on the…

  • A Town Built on the Right Kind of Dirt · 12.6 mi

    Marshall Pottery exists because of what lies underground. When W. F. Rocker founded it in 1895, he chose this spot for two natural ingredients: abundant water and vast beds of fine white clay. That clay is why it…

  • Marshall Pottery · 12.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Marshall Pottery, a business that put this East Texas town on the map for clay garden pots. It all started back in 1895 when W.F. Rocker, a Kentucky native, saw the potential in this…

  • A Star in the Window, a Marker by the Road · 12.7 mi

    This road carries a Blue Star Memorial Highway designation, one of a string of them across Texas. The name comes from a family tradition. When someone in a household was serving in the armed forces, the family displayed…

  • Cumberland Presbyterians in Harrison County · 12.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, the site of the first Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Harrison County, established in 1848 by Reverend James Sampson and 22 members. Over the next century, congregations spread, but…

  • Marshall · 12.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Marshall, Texas, a town that played a surprisingly significant role in the Civil War. Founded back in 1839 and named for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, this city became a major…

  • Woodlawn Baptist Church · 12.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Woodlawn Baptist Church, originally organized as Bethesda Baptist Church back on July 21, 1850, with thirteen charter members. The original church building was moved in 1877, and for…

  • Potter's Point · 13.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Smithland, and we're heading toward Caddo Lake, where a famous Texas figure met a violent end. Robert Potter was a big deal: a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, a key architect of the…

  • Wiley College · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, home to Wiley College, founded back in 1873. It's the oldest African-American institute of higher education west of the Mississippi River. But Wiley is perhaps most famous for its…

  • Farmer, James Leonard, Jr. · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    James Leonard Farmer, Jr., civil rights leader and founder of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), was born on January 12, 1920, in Marshall, Texas, to James Leonard Farmer, Sr. , and Pearl Marion Houston Farmer. His…

  • Sweatt, Heman Marion · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Heman Marion Sweatt, civil-rights plaintiff, was born on December 11, 1912, in Houston, the fourth of six children of James Leonard and Ella Rose (Perry) Sweatt. Like other Black Houstonians, Sweatt attended racially…

  • Burke, John · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, maybe not far from Marshall, where John Burke started his incredible life. He arrived here a cobbler, studied law at night, and became a criminal defense attorney. But when the Civil…

  • Conerly, Ruth · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, birthplace of Ruth Conerly. Born in 1908, Ruth overcame childhood polio, her father's death, and poverty to become a celebrated artist. By age fourteen, she was a child prodigy in…

  • Dixon, Floyd · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, the birthplace of Floyd Dixon, a jump-blues piano player and singer who called himself 'Mr. Magnificent.' Born Jay Riggins, Jr., in 1928, Dixon taught himself piano listening to…

  • Hagerty, Rebecca McIntosh Hawkins · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, where Rebecca Hagerty built an empire. Born in 1815 to a Creek chief, she survived the murder of her father and the forced migration of her people. After two husbands died, she…

  • Lane, Walter Paye · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, and right here is the stomping ground of Walter P. Lane, a soldier who saw more action than most! Lane fought in the Texas Revolution, earning a promotion at the Battle of San…

  • Pemberton Henry B., Sr. · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, where you can still feel the legacy of Henry B. Pemberton, Sr. Born to former slaves in 1866, Pemberton became Wiley College's very first graduate in 1888. But he didn't stop…

  • Rose, William Pinckney · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, Texas, a place that was once the stage for a legendary feud. Meet William Pinckney Rose, a man so tough they called him 'Hell-roarin' Rose.' He arrived here in 1839, right as the…

  • Wells, Henrietta Pauline Bell · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, and right here near Marshall, you're passing through the birthplace of a groundbreaking moment in American collegiate history. In 1930, a young woman named Henrietta Bell, a student at…

  • Whetstone, Peter · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, on your way to Marshall, a town that owes its existence to a man named Peter Whetstone. Born in Indiana in 1790, Whetstone was described as a 'rough character,' even serving time…

  • Porter-Barrymore Shooting · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, where a night of theater turned deadly back in 1879. After a performance, actors Benjamin Porter and Maurice Barrymore, grandfather of John and Ethel Barrymore, stopped for a late…

  • Marshall, TX · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, a town that played a surprising role in the Civil War. In 1861, Marshall unanimously voted for secession, becoming a hotbed of Confederate activity. The Confederate government of…

  • Elam, David Alexander [Omar Shariff] · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Omar Shariff, blues pianist and “Boogie Woogie Man,” was born David Alexander Elam on March 10, 1938, in Shreveport, Louisiana, to Tom and Susie (Hill) Elam. Shariff was originally named after his father’s good friend…

  • Lewis, Fred Edward · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Fred Edward Lewis, educator, civil rights activist, and NAACP officer, was born on December 19, 1912, in Marion County. He was the son of Governor Edward Lewis. His parents died when he was young, and he lived with…

  • Williams, Romeo Marcus · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Romeo Marcus Williams, civil-rights attorney, was born to Josie P. and Milton Williams, Sr., on June 14, 1919, on the outskirts of Marshall, Texas, in a black community called Sunny South. Williams attended Marshall's…

  • Abner, David, Sr. · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, a town that was home to David Abner, Sr. Born into slavery in Alabama in 1826, Abner was brought to Texas in 1843. After the Civil War, he settled here in Marshall. He started as…

  • Abrams, William H. · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, maybe near Marshall or Dallas, and you're passing through the legacy of William H. Abrams. He wasn't just a railroad man, helping lay tracks and establish towns across Texas. When oil…

  • Bishop College · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Right here in Marshall, Texas, you're passing by the site of Bishop College. Founded in 1881 by the Baptist Home Mission Society, it was established for black Baptists, thanks to a generous donation from the widow of…

  • Caesar, Lois Towles · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, a town that was home to an incredible talent: Lois Towles Caesar. Born in Arkansas, her family moved to Texarkana, Texas, when she was young. After graduating from Wiley College…

  • Clough, Jeremiah Morrill · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Marshall, Texas, and right here is a story about Jeremiah Morrill Clough, a lawyer who became a Confederate lieutenant colonel. Clough enlisted at the start of the Civil War, but he quickly became…

  • Countee, Samuel Albert · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, the birthplace of Samuel Albert Countee. Born in 1909, Countee grew up to become a prominent artist of the New Negro Movement. His paintings and sculptures celebrated…

  • Finch, Mildred Newton · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Dallas right now, past places that Mildred Newton Finch called home. Born in Marshall in 1922, she was a brilliant math teacher and a community leader. After earning her degree, she even taught…

  • Greer, Elkanah Bracken · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, a town that was home to Elkanah Bracken Greer, a Confederate general and a man deeply involved in the politics of his time. Greer fought in the Mexican War with Jefferson Davis's…

  • Harrison County · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, and right here, in the heart of East Texas, you're passing through a place that was once the wealthiest county in Texas before the Civil War. By 1860, Harrison County had more…

  • Heartsill, William Williston · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, a town that was home to William Williston Heartsill, a Confederate soldier and author. Heartsill enlisted in 1861 and served on the frontier, but his most harrowing experience…

  • Kendall, Mitchell · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, a town that was home to Mitchell Kendall, a man born into slavery in Georgia around 1822. After arriving here, he became a blacksmith and a property owner. In the years following…

  • Kennedy, John J. · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, and right here in Marshall, you're passing through the heart of a wild frontier conflict known as the Regulator-Moderator War. In the mid-1840s, John J. Kennedy, a lawyer and a…

  • Marshall Conferences · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, a town that became a crucial meeting point for the Confederacy during the Civil War. With Union forces threatening to cut the western states off by controlling the Mississippi…

  • Payne, Ellen Evans Lewis · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, near Marshall, where Ellen Evans Lewis Payne lived most of her life. Born into slavery around 1849, Ellen's story is unique because it was recorded. In the late 1930s, she was…

  • Randal, Horace · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Randall County, Texas, a place named for Horace Randal. Born in Tennessee, Randal moved to Texas as a boy and became one of the first Texans appointed to West Point. After graduating…

  • Rhoads, Joseph J. · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, the birthplace of Joseph J. Rhoads. Rhoads was more than just a school administrator; he was a champion for equality. He became the president of Bishop College in 1929, the first…

  • Richardson, Samuel J. · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, maybe near Marshall, and you might be passing right by the site of a dramatic moment in Texas Reconstruction. Samuel J. Richardson was a Confederate officer, but after the war, he…

  • Scott, Isaiah Benjamin · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, right where a pivotal moment in education history happened. Back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1893</say-as>, Isaiah Benjamin Scott, a prominent Black Methodist…

  • Seventh Texas Infantry · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, right near Marshall, where the Seventh Texas Volunteer Infantry Regiment was born in October of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1861</say-as>. This regiment, organized by John…

  • Sims, Frankie Lee · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, and right here, you're passing through the stomping grounds of Frankie Lee Sims, a blues legend who helped define the Texas country blues sound. Born in Louisiana in 1917, Sims moved…

  • Texas and Pacific Railway · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, and right here, the story of the Texas and Pacific Railway begins. Chartered by Congress in 1871, this wasn't just any railroad; it was destined to be a southern transcontinental line…

  • Van Zandt, Isaac · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, a town that owes its very existence to Isaac Van Zandt. He arrived here in 1839, a lawyer looking for opportunity. He convinced Peter Whetstone to donate land for a new townsite…

  • Willie, Carrie Sykes · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Dallas, and right here is a story about dedication to education. Carrie Sykes Willie was one of the very first Black women in Texas to earn a college degree. She started her studies at Wiley…

  • Wyalucing Plantation · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, where you're passing the site of Wyalucing Plantation. Built between 1848 and 1850 by enslaved laborers, this grand brick home was designed to look like a Grecian temple, complete…

  • Reves, Wyn-Nelle Russell [Wendy] · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, not far from Marshall, the hometown of Wyn-Nelle "Wendy" Russell Reves. Born in 1916, Wendy was more than just a model gracing the covers of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. She was a savvy…

  • Bass, Frederick Samuel · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, and right here in Marshall, Frederick Samuel Bass was building a military career long before the Civil War. He taught at a local military academy and then, in 1861, enlisted as…

  • Baxter, Eli Harris, Jr. · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, and right here is where Eli Harris Baxter, Jr. hung his shingle as a lawyer in the town of Marshall back in 1858. He was a young man, fresh out of law school and a stint at West…

  • Beall, Thomas J. · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, perhaps near Marshall, where Thomas J. Beall began his legal career. But when the Civil War broke out, Beall traded his law books for a rifle. He joined the Confederate Army, fighting…

  • Caven, William John · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, Texas, where William John Caven started his journey. Born in Georgia in 1833, his family moved here before the Civil War. Caven joined the Third Texas Cavalry in 1861, fighting…

  • Christian Methodist Episcopal Church · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, and right here in Marshall is where the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church first put down roots in Texas. It was organized back in December of 1870 in Jackson, Tennessee, and…

  • Constitutional Union Party · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, near Marshall, where in 1860 a new political party held its state convention: the Constitutional Union Party. This party was a last-ditch effort by former Whigs and disaffected…

  • Dogan, Matthew Winfred · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, and right here is where Matthew Winfred Dogan turned a struggling college into one of the nation's best for African Americans. Dogan arrived in 1896 to lead Wiley College. For…

  • Dunaway, George Opie · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, Texas, maybe near Marshall. Right here, George Opie Dunaway was living the life of a saddler before the Civil War. But when conflict called, he traded his tools for a saber. He…

  • Hall, Montreville Jefferson · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Marshall, Texas, in Harrison County. Right here is where Montreville Jefferson Hall lived. A lawyer and planter, he was elected to the Texas House in 1853. He was so trusted by his neighbors that…

  • Hill, William Pinckney · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, and right here is Marshall, where William Pinckney Hill built a life before the Civil War. He was a lawyer, a slave owner, and a delegate to the Texas Secession Convention. But…

  • Jamison, Monroe Franklin · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, and right here, you're passing through the territory served by Bishop Monroe Franklin Jamison. Born into slavery in Georgia in 1848, Jamison moved to Marshall, Texas, in 1872. He…

  • Lancaster, Cornelius Granbery · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, the hometown of Cornelius Granbery Lancaster. Born in 1863, Lancaster became a notable architect, designing dozens of buildings that still stand across East Texas. You might have…

  • Lane, George · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Marshall, Texas, and right here in Harrison County, George Lane made a name for himself as a jurist and public servant. Arriving in Texas in 1837, Lane quickly became district attorney, prosecuting…

  • Rains, George Perry · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, the hometown of George Perry Rains. Born here in 1872, Rains was a doctor who also answered the call to arms. He enlisted in the Marshall Light Infantry in 1890, serving on the…

  • Starr, Amory Reily · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, Texas, and right here is Marshall, where Amory Reily Starr made his mark. Born in Nacogdoches in 1847, Starr was a determined young man. He ran away from home four times to join…

  • Stoneware Pottery · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, and right here, you're passing through a place that was home to one of the earliest industries in the state: stoneware pottery. Back in the 1840s, craftsmen like Tanner set up shop…

  • Tarleton, William A. · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, near Marshall, where William A. Tarleton was a major player in antebellum Texas politics. He served as a state representative from <say-as interpret-as="date"…

  • Blanch, Ezekiel Alfred · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County right now, near Marshall, where Ezekiel Alfred Blanch made his mark not just as a state senator, but as a railroad visionary. In 1854, the Southern Pacific Railroad sent Blanch to…

  • Sam Houston School · 13.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Sam Houston School in Marshall. Purchased in 1903, this eight-room brick building was designed by architect C. G. Lancaster and opened in 1905 as the East Side School. It served Anglo…

  • Banks, Melvin James · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Melvin James Banks, African-American historian and educator, was born on May 17, 1903, in Montgomery, Alabama. He graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Howard University of Washington, D.C., and later…

  • Taylor, James Franklin · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    James Franklin Taylor, planter, state representative, and state senator, son of Robert Taylor and Letitia (Pipes) Taylor, was born in Adams County, Mississippi, on February 25, 1812. He was raised in Mississippi and…

  • Texas Council of Negro Organizations · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Texas Council of Negro Organizations was first conceived by Antonio Maceo Smith on May 8, 1941, in Dallas. Smith, a civil rights activist, called upon the various Texas organizations devoted to civil rights and…

  • Abrams, Lucien · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, and right here, in Marshall, is where a significant Texas artist likely began his journey. Lucien Abrams was born in Kansas in 1870, but his family moved to Marshall around 1874. He…

  • Allen, Roderick Random · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, and right here in Marshall, Roderick Random Allen was born. This guy had a military career that spanned three wars, from World War I to Korea. He served in France, saw action in…

  • Blalock, Myron Geer · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, near Marshall, where Myron Geer Blalock built a long career in Texas politics and military service. He first entered the Texas House of Representatives way back in 1913, while…

  • Craig, Eli Taylor · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, Texas, a place that was home to Eli Taylor Craig. Born in Tennessee in 1812, Craig moved his family here in 1846, settling about eleven miles south of Marshall. He established a…

  • Evans, William F. · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, and right here in Marshall, Dr. William F. Evans was the first physician to settle. He arrived in Texas in 1842, establishing not just his medical practice, but also a drugstore…

  • Groner, Frank Shelby · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, perhaps near Marshall, where Frank Shelby Groner spent the last years of his career. Born in Collin County in 1877, Groner was a lawyer and a Baptist minister before becoming a major…

  • Marshall and East Texas Railway · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, passing through places like Marshall and Winnsboro. Back in the day, the Marshall and East Texas Railway was chartered in 1908, connecting these communities. It stretched nearly 97…

  • Ware, Henry · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Harrison County, near Marshall, where Henry Ware built more than just a plantation. In the 1850s, this wealthy planter invested ten thousand dollars into a steam-powered textile mill. Imagine it:…

  • Williams, Richard Gene [Notes] · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, a place that helped launch the career of jazz trumpeter Richard Gene Williams, known as "Notes" Williams. Born in Galveston in 1931, Williams honed his skills on the trumpet after…

  • Blalock, Bryan · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Bryan Blalock, leader in the dairy industry , son of William Meredith and Willie (Boothe) Blalock, was born on November 16, 1895, on a farm four miles south of Marshall. He finished high school in Marshall, then…

  • Fraley-Garland House · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Marshall, and right here, you're passing the Fraley-Garland House. Built in 1896 for Clinton Fraley, this home is a classic American Four-Square with Colonial Revival touches. Fraley was a…

  • Ewing Chapel Cemetery · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Ewing Chapel Cemetery, the final resting place for many early settlers. Established in January 1855, the earliest confirmed burial here dates back to July 1853. The grounds hold Civil War…

  • St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Marshall. While the exact start date is unknown, the oldest graves here date back to 1872. This cemetery served Catholics across Harrison County and surrounding towns.…

  • Hagerty-Harris House · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Hagerty-Harris House in Marshall, built in 1889 by skilled craftsmen from the Texas & Pacific Railroad shops. This home was originally built for William P. Hagerty, who served as the personal…

  • Marshall, C.S.A. · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, a town that was a critical hub for the Confederacy west of the Mississippi. During the Civil War, this East Texas city hosted the Trans-Mississippi Department's Medical Bureau and Postal…

  • Lane, Walter Paye · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of a true Texas military hero: Walter Paye Lane. Lane fought for Texas independence, serving as a soldier in the Texas War for Independence. Later, he rose to the rank of Major in the…

  • Marshall Cemetery · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Marshall Cemetery, a final resting place for some serious Texas history. This place was incorporated way back on December 12, 1849. Look for the graves of Edward Clark, who served as Governor of…

  • Site of Central School · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, and right here is the site of Central School, a landmark in African American education. Before 1894, classes were scattered in homes and churches. But Professor H. B. Pemberton, Sr. saw…

  • Clark, Edward, Governor · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, where Edward Clark called home. Born in Georgia in 1815, Clark arrived in Texas in 1842, quickly becoming a key figure. He served in the war with Mexico and held nearly every major state…

  • Robert W. Loughery · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, and right here is where Robert W. Loughery made his mark. Born in 1820, Loughery was a firebrand journalist in East Texas. As owner and editor of the "Texas Republican," he fearlessly…

  • Perry, Solomon Ruffin · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, where Solomon Ruffin Perry served as sheriff for a remarkable 27 years, and even longer if you count his first term starting in 1848. He took the job after his predecessor was…

  • Horace Randal · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the birthplace of Brigadier General Horace Randal, a notable Confederate officer. Randal played a key role in the Vicksburg Campaign and later commanded troops in the battles of Mansfield and…

  • Mills, John T. · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the resting place of John T. Mills, a man who helped shape early Texas law. Born in Ireland in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1817</say-as>, Mills served as an Associate Justice on the…

  • The Chief Justice's Namesake by the Tracks · 14.2 mi

    Marshall was laid out in early 1841 to serve as a seat of justice, and Peter Whetstone helped clinch the choice by offering land for a courthouse, church, and school. Isaac Van Zandt named the town for John Marshall,…

  • The Ginocchio · 14.2 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Pull over here for a sec, because this place has some serious history! This is the Ginocchio Hotel, right next to the old Texas and Pacific Railway station. Built in 1896 by the Ginocchio family, it was *the* place to…

  • Marshall - Birthplace of Boogie Woogie · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, the birthplace of Boogie Woogie! Back in the early 1870s, this railroad hub was a center for logging camps where African American laborers found entertainment in barrel houses. It's…

  • Ginocchio Hotel and Restaurant · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Ginocchio Hotel and Restaurant in Marshall. Italian immigrant Charles Ginocchio built this grand three-story brick building between 1893 and 1896, right near the railroad depot. It housed stores,…

  • First Methodist Church · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Marshall, and the history of this First Methodist Church is quite a story. It began way back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1839</say-as> with Littleton Fowler. Fast forward to the Civil…

  • William Patillo House · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the William Patillo House, built in 1846. Patillo was a major player in the booming transportation industry of East Texas. He was a teaming and transport contractor, meaning he moved goods and people…

  • Texas & Pacific Depot · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Marshall's historic Texas & Pacific Depot. Authorized by Congress in 1871, the Texas & Pacific Railway aimed for a transcontinental route along the 32nd parallel. By 1911, this impressive…

  • Magnolia Hall · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Magnolia Hall, a beautiful New Orleans-style raised cottage right here in Marshall. Built in 1866 by John H. Lee as a wedding gift for his daughter, Anna E. Pierce, this home was constructed with…

  • The Allen House · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Allen House, a Greek Revival residence built in 1879 by the Rev. Walker Montecue Allen. He was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, author, and teacher who moved to Marshall with his wife and nine…

  • Ginocchio-Cook-Pedison House · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Ginocchio-Cook-Pedison House. Italian-American business leader Charles Ginocchio (1844-98) and wife Roxana settled in Marshall in 1871; built this home, 1886. Architect: C. G. Lancaster, designer of…

  • The Great Debaters of Wiley College · 14.3 mi

    Right here in Marshall, at Wiley College, one of the most inspiring stories of the Jim Crow era unfolded. In 1935, the college’s debate team, coached by the brilliant and fiery professor Melvin B. Tolson, did the…

  • The Engineering Heart of the Texas & Pacific Railway · 14.3 mi

    For more than a century, Marshall was the mechanical heart of the Texas and Pacific Railway. In the 1870s, T&P officials agreed to move their Texas offices and shops here in exchange for local support, and the town…

  • Birthplace of Boogie Woogie · 14.3 mi · Community Sourced

    You're at the Texas and Pacific Railway Depot, where the sound that changed American music was born. In the early 1900s, African American railroad workers waiting at this depot began hammering out a new piano style —…

  • Birthplace of Boogie Woogie · 14.3 mi

    Marshall, Texas is the birthplace of Boogie Woogie music, a piano-driven style that became a precursor to Rock and Roll. The city celebrates this heritage with an annual Boogie Woogie Festival and the Boogie Woogie…

  • Boogie Woogie Fest · 14.3 mi

    That rolling, hard-driving piano — the boogie-woogie — they'll tell you it was born right here in Marshall. It came up out of the East Texas logging camps, where formerly enslaved men sat down at whatever piano they…

  • Dale Watson · 14.3 mi

    Dale Watson's got the pompadour, the truck-driving country, the rockabilly snarl — and after decades in Austin and a stretch in Memphis, he landed in Marshall, East Texas, in twenty twenty. His thirtieth studio album is…

  • Marshall · 14.3 mi

    Marshall, East Texas — twenty-three thousand people, deep in the Piney Woods, a town a lot of freedmen made home after the Civil War. You'll hear it called the birthplace of boogie woogie. Careful with that one: that…

  • Marshall as the birthplace of boogie-woogie · 14.3 mi

    Marshall, Texas, founded 1841, calls itself the birthplace of boogie-woogie — and sure, a few other towns raise a hand at that. But hear Marshall out. The Texas and Pacific Railway rolled in about thirty years after the…

  • The Confederate Capital of Missouri · 14.3 mi

    Picture an East Texas county seat serving as the capital of a state seven hundred miles away. During the Civil War, that is exactly what Marshall was. Missouri's pro-Confederate government lost control of its own state…

  • Marshall, TX · 14.3 mi

    Marshall, Texas, has a rich history deeply intertwined with the American Civil War. As a crucial political and production area for the Confederate States, the city and its county were pivotal in the cotton plantation…

  • The 1901 Courthouse and the Patent Law Capital · 14.3 mi · Community Sourced

    Two courthouses tell the story of Marshall, Texas, and they sit just a block apart. The Harrison County Courthouse, built in 1901 in Renaissance Revival style, is the kind of building that makes you stop the car.…

  • A Wish Answered From France · 14.3 mi

    In 1987, with local unemployment near 20 percent, Marshall News Messenger editor George S. Smith crossed the courthouse square and imagined it wrapped in light. He wrote an editorial: picture every tree, every bush, and…

  • Confederate Capitol of Missouri · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, but just for a moment, imagine you're in exile. Right here, in November of 1863, this spot became the Confederate Capitol of Missouri. Governor Thomas C. Reynolds and his staff…

  • Powder Mill Cemetery · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the old Powder Mill Cemetery, just outside Marshall. This ground has a complex history, starting with a Confederate gunpowder factory. When the factory was destroyed in <say-as…

  • C. G. Lancaster · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, the hometown of Cornelius Granberry Lancaster, a renowned architect born right here in 1863. He studied at Texas A&M and went on to design buildings across the state, from courthouses to…

  • Harrison County · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Harrison County, once the most populous and richest in antebellum Texas. Settlers arrived in the 1830s, and by 1850, cotton was king, fueled by slavery. Later, the railroad arrived, making…

  • Confederate Hat Factory in Marshall, C.S.A. · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Marshall, where Texas had precious few factories when the Civil War broke out. Right here, in the basement of a house, a factory employed about 40 men, making military hats from high-quality fur…

  • Capitol Hotel · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Marshall's Capitol Hotel, built in 1857 as the Adkins House. This fine hotel served as a depot for stage lines, including the southern branch of the Butterfield Mail from 1858 to 1861.…

  • The Hub Shoe Store · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past The Hub Shoe Store. Mose Weisman opened Hub Shoe Store on E. Austin Street in 1897. The Weisman family emigrated from Bavaria, Germany, to Syracuse, New York, and then to Marshall in the late 1840s,…

  • Marshall · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Marshall. Two years after Harrison County was created by the Republic of Texas Congress in 1839, landowner Peter Whetstone offered property for a courthouse, a church, and a school in an effort to…

  • Webster-Mimosa Hall Cemetery · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Webster-Mimosa Hall Cemetery, a burial ground established around <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1844</say-as> on the Mimosa Hall Plantation. The first person laid to rest here was the…

  • Joe Weisman and Company · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Joe Weisman and Company, a Marshall mercantile that grew into a department store. Joe Weisman arrived in town in 1866, starting his business in 1878. His family and successors ran the…

  • Elks Building · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the historic Elks Building in Marshall. Designed by architect Cornelius Granville Lancaster, this 1903 structure was the grand headquarters for the Benevolent Paternal Order of Elks, Lodge 683. The…

  • Hockwald, Isaac · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the former home of Isaac "Ike" Hockwald, a prominent Marshall businessman who arrived here as an orphan in 1877. He went on to become a school trustee and helped organize the East Texas Baseball…

  • Harrison County Courthouse · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Harrison County Courthouse in Marshall, a grand structure built in 1900 for $62,000. This is the third courthouse on this site, following a wooden one from 1851 and a brick Gothic building that…

  • Whetstone Memorial · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Harrison County, near where Peter and Dicey Whetstone made their home. These pioneer settlers were the donors in 1843 of the land for the City of Marshall, which was part of Peter Whetstone's…

  • Pickens, Lucy H. · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Wyalucing, the former home of Lucy Pickens. She's the only 19th-century Texas woman to ever be honored on money, appearing on a Confederate $100 bill! In the 1850s, Lucy brought ice tea…

  • Clark, Edward, Governor · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the hometown of Edward Clark, Texas's first Confederate Governor. He took office in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1861</say-as> when Governor Sam Houston opposed secession. Clark's main job…

  • Starr, James Harper · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the area where James Harper Starr, a Connecticut doctor who came to Texas in 1837, faced a monumental challenge during the Civil War. As Postmaster General for the western Confederacy, he had to keep…

  • Turner, James · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the former home of James Turner, a prominent Marshall lawyer and mayor whose claim to this house came not from a deed, but from a poker game. In 1866, after the Civil War, Turner reportedly won this…

  • Sam Houston's 1857 Campaign in Marshall · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, Texas, where in 1857, Sam Houston came to debate his opponent, Hardin Runnels. Houston, a Unionist speaking in this overwhelmingly secessionist town, delivered such a powerful speech…

  • Library Movement in Marshall · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, where a remarkable library movement began. Back in 1887, twenty-five ladies formed a book club, sparking a civic goal for a city library. They opened their first library in 1900 with…

  • Greer, Elkanah, General · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Greer, Elkanah, General. (1825-1877) Born Tennessee. Fought Mexican War. Came to Texas 1848. Commissioned colonel and raised 3rd Texas Cavalry.

  • Trammel's Trace Cabin · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past what's left of Trammel's Trace Cabin, built even before 1842. Imagine this place, constructed from hand-hewn logs chinked with pipe clay, a real piece of frontier engineering. It was part of a…

  • Weisman-Hirsch House · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Marshall, and just ahead is the Weisman-Hirsch House. The first home on this spot burned down, but this structure rose from the ashes in 1901. Interestingly, the architect, C. G. Lancaster, also…

  • Albert & Katie Van Hook House · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Albert and Katie Van Hook House, built around 1880. It was a wedding present designed by Katie's father, architect N. S. Allen, who designed many important buildings in Shreveport. The house,…

  • Marshall Masonic Female Institute · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, where the story of the Marshall Masonic Female Institute began. It started in 1842 as the Female Department of Marshall University, chartered by the Republic of Texas. The Marshall…

  • First Baptist Church · 14.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, and right here is the site of the First Baptist Church, founded way back in 1845. But this isn't just any church history. Its founders include John Bryce, a Baptist missionary who was…

  • Marshall Powder Mill · 14.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Marshall Powder Mill, a critical Confederate operation during the Civil War. After Vicksburg fell, cutting off supplies, the Confederacy had to scramble. By late 1863, this plant was…

  • Van Zandt Hill · 14.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the homesite of Isaac Van Zandt, a man who wore many hats. He was a founder of Marshall, a frontiersman, a lawyer, and a statesman who served in the Congress of the Republic of Texas. Van Zandt even…

  • Arnot, Albert M. · 14.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Albert M. Arnot house, built way back in 1848. Arnot was a blacksmith, and his home blended Greek Revival and Creole styles. Originally, it had four rooms upstairs, but the basement was something…

  • Gaines, Belle Fry · 14.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the former home of Belle Fry Gaines, a woman who turned her living space into a vibrant antique shop for many years. The house itself was built in 1875 for John R. and Sallie Stinson. John was a…

  • Fry-Barry House · 14.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Fry-Barry House in Marshall, a beautiful example of Greek Revival architecture. It was built starting in 1853 by Fidel Bircher, designed by W. R. D. Ward. Then, in 1872, Edwin James Fry, a…

  • Temple Moses Montefiore · 14.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, and right here is the site of a unique place: Temple Moses Montefiore. In 1887, local Jewish residents formed the Adath Israel congregation, naming it after the famous English…

  • Marshall Hall · 14.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Marshall Hall, the oldest building on the East Texas Baptist University campus. Built on the site of a former plantation, this structure was part of a 1912 plan to create a southern Baptist college.…

  • Starr Family Home State Historic Site · 14.6 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Imagine being at the center of Texas history – that's exactly what this spot was for the Starr family. Between 1846 and 1848, Dr. James Harper Starr served as Secretary of the Treasury for the Republic of Texas, and…

  • Matthew Duncan Ector · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the resting place of Matthew Duncan Ector, a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army. Ector's military career saw him participate in some of the Civil War's most significant battles, including…

  • Murrah, Pendleton · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, heading into a tough chapter of Texas history. Pendleton Murrah, a successful lawyer and businessman here in town, stepped up to lead Texas as governor in <say-as interpret-as="date"…

  • Lt. Gen. George Perry Rains · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Marshall, where Lt. Gen. George Perry Rains was born and lived most of his life. Rains wasn't just a local doctor; he had a remarkable 49-year military career. He joined the local militia in <say-as…

  • Todd-McKay-Wheat House · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, and just ahead is the Todd-McKay-Wheat House, a home that's seen more than a century of Texas history. It was built sometime before the Civil War, possibly by Judge William S. Todd, who…

  • Kahn Memorial Hospital · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Marshall, and right here is the site of the Kahn Memorial Hospital, a true community effort that shaped healthcare in East Texas. Back in 1909, local doctors saw a growing need for a proper…

  • Wigfall House · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Wigfall House in Marshall, the oldest part of which was built around 1856. It was home to Louis T. Wigfall, a fiery leader who championed secession and states' rights. He served Texas as a state…

  • Greenwood Cemetery · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Greenwood Cemetery in Marshall. This isn't just any graveyard; it's the final resting place for some of the earliest leaders and patriots of Texas. It began in 1840 as a private burial ground for the…

  • Adams House · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Adams House, a home with deep roots in Marshall's history. Attorney and plantation owner Chesley Meredith Adams first bought this land in the 1850s, building a log house. After his…

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