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Livingston, Texas

Everything Livingston is known for

5 songs mention this city 2 artists from here

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

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Music in Livingston

Songs About Livingston

Long King Creek
Kasey Lansdale
85%
Livingston's Gone To Texas
Don Livingston
6%
"Livingston's Gone To Texas"
Livingston’s Gone to Texas
Jimmy Buffett
6%
"And Livingston's gone to Texas"
Under The Texas Sky
Paige Lewis
5%
"Livingston dipping"
Her First Mistake
Lyle Lovett
3%
"From Livingston to Palestine"

Artists From Livingston

L
Laci Kaye Booth
country
J
Jody Booth
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Livingston

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

U.S. Route 59 9 songs Trinity River 11 songs Kickapoo Creek 4 songs Neches River 2 songs Interstate 45 8 songs

History of Livingston

Caught the Third Time, and Made to Haul It Out Himself RoadyGoat

1958

In the spring of nineteen fifty eight the Polk County Enterprise ran a story about a man named Willis Ryan, and the headline told you most of it. Whiskey still brought in by sheriff, deputy. Ryan caught for third time. Sheriff Watson Walker and Deputy Arch Holbrook had been watching a still down in the Tempo Creek bottom for some while, and they could not manage to catch Ryan actually working it, which is the whole difficulty with a still in bottom country. So they gave up on catching him at it. They walked into the bottom and tore the thing apart, on the theory that a demolished still makes no whiskey. Then they asked Ryan whether it was his. And this is the part that makes it a Polk County story rather than a crime story. He said yes. Right away, by the sheriff's own account. He admitted it and paid his third fine, a hundred and fifty dollars all told. And then there was a practical problem, because the bottom was too wet to drive anything in to haul out the wreckage of the still. So Ryan agreed to take a wagon down in there himself and bring his own still up to the road. Which he did. Think about that walk. A man hauling the evidence of his own third offense out of a creek bottom in a wagon, for the officers who just wrecked it.

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Thirty Minutes From Running Mill to Nothing RoadyGoat

1949

On a Friday morning just before Christmas in nineteen forty nine, at six in the morning, the sawmill of Livingston Woods Products burned. The paper put the value at thirty five thousand dollars. The mill had been running for thirteen months. Thirteen. It was barely more than a year old. Stackers were already on the job when it started and none of them could say what set it off. Here is the number that stops you. The entire mill collapsed in less than thirty minutes. Not burned for a day. Not smoldered. Standing industry to a heap on the ground inside half an hour, because a sawmill is essentially a building made of the driest possible wood with sawdust in every corner of it. The Livingston Volunteer Fire Department answered the alarm and got there into a second problem, which was that the water connections were frozen. In deep East Texas, in December. They were delayed by ice while a mill came down. What they did manage was to keep it off the kiln, the stacked lumber and the office, which is the difference between a bad year and the end of a company. And the owner, Ben Ogletree, told the paper before the ashes were cold that he had already bought new equipment and would be running again by the middle of January. Sixty five people worked there. That was a twenty thousand dollar payroll every month, in a county this size, and he was not going to let it stop for three weeks.

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Two Hundred and Ninety Pounds of Alligator, and Half a Caption RoadyGoat

1954

The Polk County Enterprise of late July nineteen fifty four ran a photograph across the top of its front page, above the masthead, above the election news, above everything. The subject was an alligator. The caption began, in capital letters, this huge alligator. And then the scan of that caption breaks up, the way old newsprint does, and what survives of it is three facts. The date, Wednesday the twenty first of July. A name, T. E. Collin. And a weight. Two hundred and ninety pounds. That is what is left. We do not know from the caption where he took it, or out of what water, or how, or what he did with it afterward, because those words did not make it through seventy years and a scanner. But consider what the paper decided with the space it had. Polk County that week had two runoff elections going, one for judge and one for commissioner, and the Chamber of Commerce was begging in print for the mailing addresses of Livingston High School graduates. And the editor looked at all of it and put the alligator on top. Two hundred and ninety pounds is roughly two grown men. Somebody around Livingston got one out of the water in nineteen fifty four, and the paper knew exactly what its readers wanted to look at first.

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Lt. Col. James M. Parker, Jr.

1942

Born in Houston and raised in Livingston, James Parker attended Lon Morris Junior College and Texas A&M University. He then enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, with his first assignment to fly anti-submarine patrols along the Pacific coast. As the U.S. entered WWII, Parker volunteered for the Doolittle Raid, the secret mission which was the first attack on the Japanese mainland. In April 1942, aboard Whirling Dervish with Crew #9, co-pilot Parker and the B-25 crew successfully completed their bombing mission on Japan. Low on gas, the crew bailed out and were taken into Chinese custody. Lt. Parker returned to the U.S. and, after recovering from malaria, returned to duty and served in the U.S., Africa and Europe, retiring in 1947 with numerous decorations. (2019)

Historical Marker →

Jones, Margo, Birthplace of

1911

(1911-1955) World-famed genius of drama. Won Broadway acclaim directing "The Glass Menagerie." Led move to decentralize American theatre. Established, in Dallas, theatre-in-the-round (first professional, resident, repertory theatre of its kind) and wrote book on its technique. Premiered 58 new plays. Discovered Tennessee Williams, William Inge and others. A dedicated "artistic humanist," she provided channels through which the spiritual qualities of creative people could be communicated. (1967)

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Chief John Blount

1814

John Blount was the son of William Blount, later a U.S. senator, and a Coushatta woman. While in Florida, he became principal chief of the Apalachee or Apalachicola Indians. During the First Seminole War (1814-1815), he achieved a certain level of distinction by serving as a guide to General Andrew Jackson. After Jackson became president, Blount was invited to Washington D.C. to be recognized for his zealous efforts and awarded with a silver breast-plate that claimed him as Jackson's "faithful guide." 
 In addition to his personal connection with Jackson, Blount is known for his activities during the time of the Trail of Tears when the Indian Removal Act of 1830 allowed the government to move Indians from Florida to federal territory in the West. Blount received special permission due to his ties with Jackson to take the Apalachicola Indians to Texas, then Mexican territory, where his uncle, Chief Red Shoes, was already settled on the Trinity River. Blount and 256 of his people began the long and difficult journey to the current Polk County in 1834. After paddling down the Apalachicola River, they reached a bay near "Oak Point" where they were placed on a vessel bound for New Orleans. They suffered various trials and delays which left them with no money for supplies, thus forcing them to travel the rest of the way on land. More tribulations ensued upon arrival at their destination for Blount and his group numbering 152. Chief Blount was buried at the Coushatta settlement of Red Shoes. Although some of the tribe moved to Oklahoma in 1899, many descendants of Blount's persevering people still reside in the area. 175 Years of Texas Independence * 1836-2011

Historical Marker →

Jones, Margaret Virginia

1911

Margaret Virginia (Margo) Jones, theater director-producer and pioneer of the American resident theater movement, was born on December 12, 1911, in Livingston, Texas, the second child of Richard Harper and Martha Pearl (Collins) Jones. After graduating from Livingston High School at the age of fifteen, she entered the Girls' Industrial College of Texas in Denton (now Texas Woman's University), where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in speech in 1932 and a master of arts in psychology and education in 1933. Her thesis was about Henrik Ibsen. In 1933 and 1934 she worked and studied at the Southwestern School of the Theatre in Dallas with John William Rogers, Frank Harting, and Louis Veda Quince. In the summer of 1934 she enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse Summer School to study with the director and founder, Gilmor Brown. After a directing stint at the Ojai Community Theatre, in 1935 Margo Jones traveled around the world seeing theater in Japan, China, India, Africa, England, France, and New York. She returned to Texas and became assistant director of the Houston Federal Theatre Project. In 1936 she attended the Moscow Art Theatre Festival, and on the boat home she met Brooks Atkinson, an influential New York Times theater critic, who championed her work throughout her career. Margo Jones founded the Houston Community Players in 1936 and directed the theater until 1942; during this time she discovered such talent as actors Ray Walston and Larry Blyden and writers Charles William Goyen and Cy Howard. She earned national attention as a member of the National Theatre Conference and in 1939 was named by Stage magazine as one of twelve outstanding theater directors outside of New York, the only woman selected. From 1942 until 1944 Jones taught theater and directed plays at the University of Texas. In early 1942 she met playwright Tennessee Williams, and they began their personal and professional association. She directed his play You Touched Me (cowritten with Donald Windham) at the Pasadena Playhouse and at the Cleveland Playhouse in 1943, thus bringing Williams to the attention of national theater critics. In 1944 she directed Williams's The Purification at the Pasadena Playhouse. During this time she had been formulating an idea that would change the shape of theater in America. She wanted to establish a network of nonprofit professional resident theaters outside of New York-theaters presenting new plays and the classics. In early 1944 she met with John Rosenfield, Jr. , Dallas theater critic and arts maven, who encouraged her to apply for a Rockefeller fellowship and establish her prototype theater in Dallas. She began her fellowship in 1944 studying theater around the country, but interrupted it to codirect Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie . With the commercial success of this play Jones and Rosenfield had the impetus they needed to found the first nonprofit resident theater supported by the Dallas community and such wealthy and prominent Dallasites as board members Eugene B. McDermott (who later founded Texas Instruments ) and oil geologist Everett L. DeGolyer (later the publisher of Saturday Review ), as well as board members Tennessee Williams and noted theatrical designer Jo Mielziner. The theater, incorporated in 1945 as Dallas Civic Theatre, did not open until the summer of 1947. In the interim Margo Jones raised money, looked for a suitable theater space, and directed Maxine Wood's On Whitman Avenue and Maxwell Anderson's Joan of Lorraine , staring Ingrid Bergman, on Broadway. In June 1947 the theater opened under the name Theatre '47 (the name to change with the year), and was housed in the Gulf Oil Building, a sleek stucco-and-glass-block building designed in the International style by Swiss-born architect William Lescaze, on the grounds of Fair Park in Dallas. The theater was the first professional arena theater (theater-in-the-round) in the country and was the first modern nonprofit professional resident t

Tsha Handbook →

Scott, John

1871

John Scott, principal chief of the Alabama-Coushatta Indians of Texas from 1871 to 1913 and grandson of a chief of this tribe before these Indians came to Texas, was born in 1805 near Opelousas, Louisiana. He moved with his family first to Peach Tree Village in northwestern Tyler County, Texas; then to Fenced-In Village three miles southeast of Peach Tree Village; to Jim Barclay Village in western Tyler County; to Rock Village in eastern Polk County, Texas; and finally to the present Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation. He arrived at this reservation during the winter of 1854–55. In 1862 Scott was among nineteen Alabama-Coushattas who were recruited and sworn into service with Company G, Twenty-fourth Texas Cavalry (Second Lancers), Confederate States of America Army. After brief service at Arkansas Post on the Arkansas River, the Indians were returned to Texas in December 1862. During the remainder of the Civil War Scott and the other Alabama-Coushattas served under the command of two Confederate officers, Maj. Alexander Hamilton Washington and later Capt. William Herbert Beazley . They erected barriers against federal gunboats on the Trinity River, constructed flatboats, and gathered supplies along the Trinity. In an 1871 election of tribal leaders, the Alabama-Coushattas elected John Scott and John Walker as principal chief and subchief. A partial list of the principal chief's duties included serving as the moral leader, a positive example, for the tribal members; representing the tribe at various types of meetings and functions; serving as tribal spokesman on all occasions; keeping important tribal records, including deeds to tribal land; assigning tracts of land for use by individual tribal members; settling disputes among the Alabama-Coushattas; calling meetings; serving as the leader in religious and educational activities; directing hunting, including assigning areas to hunting groups; and throwing out balls to begin ball games, directing dances, and conducting related social functions. After a Presbyterian mission church was established on the reservation in the 1880s, Scott became an elder in it. Beginning in 1881 his name was listed frequently as a trustee for the community school on the Alabama-Coushatta Reservation. Scott lived 108 years and became an important source of information about the Alabama-Coushattas. Many government representatives, journalists, and other researchers contacted him for information that was included in reports and articles. Among those who sought Scott's assistance was John R. Swanton, Bureau of American Ethnology, who visited the reservation in 1912. Scott died on March 3, 1913, and was buried in the tribal cemetery on the Alabama-Coushatta Reservation. In January 1969 the Texas State Historical Survey Committee (now the Texas Historical Commission ) placed an official marker near his grave.

Tsha Handbook →

Thompson, Charles Martin

1928

Charles Martin Thompson, whose Indian name was Sun-Kee, principal chief of the Alabama-Coushatta Indians from 1928 to 1935, was born on the reservation in Polk County, Texas, in 1860. Not only did he become a leader in tribal business, church activities, and school development, but he also ranked above all other tribal members in efforts to focus attention on the Alabama-Coushatta cultural heritage. Thompson attended school on the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation, where he learned to use the English language very effectively in reading, writing, and speaking. He worked in the timber industry and farmed his allotted area. Also, he was occasionally employed by White farmers in the vicinity of the reservation. In 1904 he married Josie Sylestine, a granddaughter of Colabe Cillistine , who was a prominent subchief of the Alabama Indians during the first half of the nineteenth century. The couple had two daughters and one son. Thompson was skillful in the production of bows and arrows, whistles or flutes, drums, blowguns, and other craft items. He attended many public gatherings in Polk County and other counties in southeastern Texas to sell these products and demonstrate their uses. He was foremost among the Alabama-Coushatta storytellers. In 1912 John R. Swanton of the Bureau of American Ethnology made two brief trips to the reservation, and on both occasions Thompson served as the principal informant as well as translator for Swanton's interviews with other Indians. In December 1932 Frances Densmore of the Bureau of American Ethnology made a survey of Alabama-Coushatta music. For this project Thompson recorded a large group of songs (these are chants; no words are spoken) related to eleven dances. Thompson was a faithful member of the Presbyterian Mission Church on the reservation and served his church as an elder. Also, he was on the school board for the Alabama-Coushatta common school district. In 1928 he was elected chief of the Alabama-Coushattas. He went to Washington, D.C., that year with a tribal delegation to request federal help in expanding and improving the reservation. As a result, in June 1928 the United States Congress appropriated $40,000 for the Alabama-Coushattas. Of this amount, $29,000 was used for the purchase of 3,071 acres of land adjoining the original grant of land for a reservation. The remainder was spent primarily for horses, cattle, hogs, and livestock feed. In 1929 the state of Texas appropriated $47,000 for the construction of a gymnasium, a hospital, a home for the reservation administrator, and twenty-five cottages for the Alabama-Coushattas. Later, twenty-five additional houses were built. During his seven years as tribal chief, Thompson served effectively as leader of the Alabama-Coushattas and represented the tribe in various business, social, and religious meetings. He continued to serve as chief until his death on September 8, 1935. He was buried in the tribal cemetery on the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation.

Tsha Handbook →

Everything Near Livingston

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

  • Caught the Third Time, and Made to Haul It Out Himself

    In the spring of nineteen fifty eight the Polk County Enterprise ran a story about a man named Willis Ryan, and the headline told you most of it. Whiskey still brought in by sheriff, deputy. Ryan caught for third time.…

  • Thirty Minutes From Running Mill to Nothing

    On a Friday morning just before Christmas in nineteen forty nine, at six in the morning, the sawmill of Livingston Woods Products burned. The paper put the value at thirty five thousand dollars. The mill had been…

  • Lt. Col. James M. Parker, Jr. · Historical Marker

    Born in Houston and raised in Livingston, James Parker attended Lon Morris Junior College and Texas A&M University. He then enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, with his first assignment to fly anti-submarine patrols…

  • Two Hundred and Ninety Pounds of Alligator, and Half a Caption

    The Polk County Enterprise of late July nineteen fifty four ran a photograph across the top of its front page, above the masthead, above the election news, above everything. The subject was an alligator. The caption…

  • Livingston, TX

    Livingston isn't just another dot on the East Texas map. Situated where the rolling pine forests meet the edge of the Trinity River basin, its story is entwined with both the land and the water. The timber industry,…

  • Polk County, C. S. A. · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Polk County, Texas, a place that punched way above its weight during the Civil War. In 1860, this area had only 600 voters, but somehow, they sent 900 soldiers to fight for the Confederacy! They…

  • Livingston · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Livingston, the Pine Forest Capital of Texas! Founded way back in 1846, this town was named by Moses L. Choate, who donated the land. It quickly became a vital hub for sawmills and boat landings…

  • Polk County · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Livingston, the county seat of Polk County. This county was created in 1846 and named for President James K. Polk, who supported Texas annexation. It's interesting to note that descendants of the…

  • First Methodist Church of Livingston · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Livingston, home to the First Methodist Church. Organized in 1848, its first sanctuary, built in 1859, also served as a community schoolhouse. The congregation later built new structures in 1911…

  • Chief John Blount · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    John Blount was the son of William Blount, later a U.S. senator, and a Coushatta woman. While in Florida, he became principal chief of the Apalachee or Apalachicola Indians. During the First Seminole War (1814-1815), he…

  • Polk County Enterprise · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Livingston, where the Polk County Enterprise has been a local voice since 1882. Originally called the 'East Texas Pinery,' it became the 'Polk County Enterprise' around 1903. Imagine this: in…

  • City Cemetery (Old Livingston Cemetery) · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Old Livingston Cemetery, a resting place that began with a tiny tragedy. In 1840, four-year-old Josephus Choate was the first to be buried here. He was the son of Moses Livingston Choate, who,…

Show all 200 nearby places
  • First National Bank · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Livingston, and right here is the site of the First National Bank. Organized as the Polk County Bank back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1898</say-as>, it was a key player in rebuilding…

  • Polk County Courthouse · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Livingston, and right here is the Polk County Courthouse, finished back in 1924. This building is actually the fifth courthouse for the county, built because the old one from 1884 just didn't have…

  • First State Bank of Livingston · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Livingston, and right here is the site of the First State Bank, organized way back in 1910 as the Guaranty State Bank. It was a real family affair, with descendants of the Muller family leading…

  • Central Baptist Church · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Central Baptist Church, established as Ariel Baptist Church around 1852. The congregation has changed names and locations over the years, with women like Mrs. Susan Hunt and Mrs. Patience…

  • Jones, Margo, Birthplace of · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    (1911-1955) World-famed genius of drama. Won Broadway acclaim directing "The Glass Menagerie." Led move to decentralize American theatre. Established, in Dallas, theatre-in-the-round (first professional, resident,…

  • Jones, Margaret Virginia · 0.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Margaret Virginia (Margo) Jones, theater director-producer and pioneer of the American resident theater movement, was born on December 12, 1911, in Livingston, Texas, the second child of Richard Harper and Martha Pearl…

  • Scott, John · 0.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    John Scott, principal chief of the Alabama-Coushatta Indians of Texas from 1871 to 1913 and grandson of a chief of this tribe before these Indians came to Texas, was born in 1805 near Opelousas, Louisiana. He moved with…

  • Thompson, Charles Martin · 0.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Charles Martin Thompson, whose Indian name was Sun-Kee, principal chief of the Alabama-Coushatta Indians from 1928 to 1935, was born on the reservation in Polk County, Texas, in 1860. Not only did he become a leader in…

  • DeWalt, Kerr Boyce · 0.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Polk County, Texas, where a Confederate officer named Kerr Boyce DeWalt made his mark. DeWalt, a West Point graduate, moved his family here from South Carolina in 1846. When the Civil War erupted,…

  • English, John · 0.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, and right here, you're passing through the area where John English made his mark. He wasn't just any settler; English fought under Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans, even…

  • Hobby, Edwin E. · 0.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Southeast Texas, perhaps near Livingston, where Edwin E. Hobby once called home. This Confederate soldier, after fighting for the South, became a judge in the late 1800s. He presided over a vast…

  • Polk County · 0.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Polk County, a place named for President James K. Polk. Back in 1846, the very first Texas legislature carved out twenty-three new counties, and this was one of them. The county seat, Livingston,…

  • Willis, Demetrius · 0.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Polk County, near Livingston. This area was home to Demetrius Willis, a merchant and a state representative for Polk and Liberty counties in the Ninth Texas Legislature. He served during the…

  • Early Indian Trails · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Polk County, Texas, where for centuries, and especially between 1830 and 1840, a network of Native American trails crisscrossed this land. The Coushatta and Alabama tribes used two of these…

  • Locomotive No. 5 · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Polk County, where this powerful locomotive, No. 5, once worked. Built in 1911, it spent its early years hauling timber in Florida before coming to Texas in the 1920s. For decades, it was the…

  • Livingston, TX · 0.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Livingston, the county seat of Polk County, is at the junction of U.S. highways 190 and 59, State Highway 146, and Farm Road 1316, seventy-five miles north of Houston in the southern part of the county. The area was…

  • Beaumont and Great Northern Railroad · 0.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, likely near Polk or Trinity County. Right here, the Beaumont and Great Northern Railroad was chartered back in 1905. Its mission? To connect Trinity with Livingston, thirty-seven miles…

  • Sawyer House, the · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Sawyer House in Livingston, built in 1900 for Albert Leroy "Roy" Sawyer and his bride, Estella Marshall Sawyer. Roy was a businessman, investing in land, cotton gins, and local utilities.…

  • The People of the Big Thicket · 0.5 mi

    Just east of Livingston, you’ll find the home of the Alabama-Coushatta people, a place rich with a history of survival and alliance. They settled in the Big Thicket around 1780, having been pushed west from their…

  • 83,000 acres backed up behind the dam · 0.5 mi

    The massive lake you see from the US-190 bridge isn’t a natural feature; it’s a monumental feat of civil engineering. In the 1960s, the city of Houston needed a reliable water supply. The solution was to dam the Trinity…

  • Nettles, G. G., Home · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the G. G. Nettles Home, built back in 1895. Take a look at the design – it's pure Victorian, featuring all sorts of handmade gingerbread trim. The whole thing was constructed using long leaf pine,…

  • Trinity Lodge No. 14, A.F. & A.M. · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Trinity Lodge No. 14, a Masonic Lodge organized way back in 1840 in the pioneer town of Swartout. These Masons were early supporters of education, even furnishing their lodge building for…

  • Dunbar High School · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Livingston, where the story of African American education in Polk County began in a small building on West Street in the late 1800s. Imagine mule teams pulling an old schoolhouse across town to…

  • The Livingston Telephone Company · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Livingston, and you might be passing the site of Polk County's very first public utility: The Livingston Telephone Company. Organized way back on August 3rd, 1903, this locally owned exchange…

  • Margaret V. "Margo" Jones · 1.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Livingston, hometown of Margo Jones, a titan of American theatre! <break time="400ms"/> A director and innovator, she championed non-profit professional theatre and the theatre-in-the-round style.…

  • Forest Hill Cemetery · 1.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Livingston, where the need for more burial space in 1905 led to the creation of Forest Hill Cemetery. Established in 1906, its first resident was Arthur B. Garner. Later, under Marion Tew's care in…

  • Greenfield Cemetery · 1.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Livingston, and right here is Greenfield Cemetery. Established in 1846 as the Livingston Colored Cemetery, this burial ground served the local African American community. As Livingston grew with…

  • R.A. McCaghren Cemetery · 1.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the R.A. McCaghren Cemetery, established in 1870. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2002.

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Livingston (Livingston) · 2.2 mi

    Livingston (Livingston, TX) placed on the 4A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Karter Nelson (2 HR).

  • West Livingston, TX · 4.2 mi

    West Livingston is home to the Livingston Municipal Airport, which is operated by the City of Livingston. Additionally, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Allan B. Polunsky Unit, the location of the State of Texas…

  • Capt. Hardy B. Purvis · 5.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the resting place of Captain Hardy B. Purvis, a Texas Ranger who saw it all. Born in 1891, Purvis joined the Rangers in his twenties, serving on and off for nearly thirty years until 1956. Imagine…

  • A Livingston Soldier Who Almost Made It Home · 5.3 mi

    In Livingston, a section of U.S. Highway One Ninety is the PFC Stuart W. Moore Memorial Highway. Stuart Westley Moore was a native Texan and a graduate of Livingston High School. A Texas House resolution remembers him…

  • Nettles Cemetery · 5.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Nettles Cemetery, established on family land near Livingston. Stephen Joseph Nettles was the first to be buried here in 1900, under a blackhaw tree, at his own request. The cemetery…

  • A Star in the Window, a Marker by the Road · 6.0 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…

  • Site of the Town of Swartwout · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Swartwout, a town that boomed and busted right here in Polk County. Laid out in 1838 with 86 blocks and two public squares, it was named for Samuel Swartwout, a New York investor who…

  • Early Roads in Polk County · 6.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Livingston, and the roads you're on have a history stretching back to Native American trails. Long King's Trace, named for a Creek chief, once led right through here from Alabama villages. The…

  • West Tempe Cemetery · 6.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the West Tempe Cemetery, established on August 24, 1883. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2002.

  • Goodrich, TX · 7.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Polk County, north of Houston, and right here is Goodrich. This town owes its start to a railroad line pushing through in the late 1870s. <break time="400ms"/> The station was named for William M.…

  • The 'Rabbit' Railroad · 7.3 mi

    The railroad that gave Goodrich its life had a funny nickname: 'The Rabbit.' The Houston, East and West Texas Railway wasn't a mighty mainline; it was a local line built quickly and cheaply to get at the East Texas…

  • Engineering a Path Through the Pines · 7.3 mi

    The creation of Goodrich was a direct result of 19th-century transportation engineering. The challenge for the Houston, East and West Texas Railway in the late 1870s was to lay track through the dense, swampy, rolling…

  • From Highway 59 to Interstate 69 · 7.3 mi

    The road you're driving is the main character in Goodrich's modern story, but it isn't where the town started. A railroad did that. The Houston, East and West Texas laid a station here in the late 1870s and named it for…

  • Roscoe D. Holliday · 7.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Goodrich, the stomping grounds of Roscoe D. Holliday, a lawman who served Polk County for over three decades. He was a constable and deputy sheriff for ten years, then elected sheriff for…

  • Goodrich School · 7.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Goodrich School, a Jeffersonian-style building constructed with federal WPA funds. Construction began in May of 1934, and since its completion, the auditorium has been a source of pride and a hub…

  • Foreman, Percy Eugene · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Polk County, not far from where Percy Foreman got his start. Born in a log cabin near Bold Springs in 1902, he was the son of a sheriff, but he ended up defending some of the most notorious…

  • Lindley, Jonathan · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Polk County, Texas, and right here, in the fall of 1835, a man named Jonathan Lindley was likely living on land he'd claimed. He was a stockraiser, possibly illiterate, who had come to…

  • Alabama-Coushatta Indians · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Polk County, not far from Livingston, and you're passing through the historic homeland of the Alabama-Coushatta people. These two closely related tribes, speaking the same language and sharing a…

  • Antone · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, perhaps near Polk County, where you're passing through the ancestral lands of the Alabama Indians. Right here, about 1806, a man named Antone was elected chief, becoming the first…

  • Battise, Robert Fulton · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Polk County, the heart of Alabama-Coushatta country. Right here, Fulton Battise served as principal chief for nearly a quarter-century, from 1970 to 1994. Though his role was largely ceremonial,…

  • Cannon, John Job · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Polk County, Texas, near where Lieutenant Colonel John Job Cannon fought in the Civil War. Cannon, a physician before the war, enlisted in Hood's Texas Brigade in <say-as interpret-as="date"…

  • Chambers, Caleb Wallace and Mary Emma · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Polk County, right near the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation. For nearly four decades, from 1899 to 1936, Caleb Wallace and Mary Emma Chambers dedicated their lives to this community. Caleb…

  • Hardin, William Barnett · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, maybe near the town of Moscow, and right here is where William Barnett Hardin carved out a life. He came to Texas in 1826, long before it was even a republic. Hardin fought in the…

  • Harding, Richard James · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Polk County, near Moscow, where Richard James Harding returned after his studies at the Virginia Military Institute. While at VMI, he was one of a hundred cadets chosen to witness the execution of…

  • Isaacks, Samuel · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Texas, maybe near the Brazos River, and you're passing through history. Samuel Isaacks, possibly the very first Jewish settler in Texas, arrived here in the 1820s. Stephen F. Austin himself…

  • Long King's Village · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, perhaps near the shores of Lake Livingston, and right here, in what is now Polk County, was once the heart of Coushatta Nation in Texas. This was Long King's Village, established in…

  • Oury, William Sanders · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once the wild frontier, and you're passing through the story of William Sanders Oury. He fought in the Texas Revolution, even serving at the Alamo, though he missed the final battle as a…

  • Sylestine, Bronson Cooper · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Polk County, home to the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation. Right here, Bronson Cooper Sylestine served as principal chief for over three decades, from 1936 to 1969. He was dedicated to his…

  • Beaumont, Catholic Diocese of · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    The tenth Catholic diocese in Texas, the Diocese of Beaumont, was established on September 29, 1966. On territory now belonging to the diocese occurred some of the earliest Catholic activity in the state. Concerned over…

  • Battise Trace · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, maybe near Polk or San Jacinto County. Right here, you're traveling a path that was once a vital connection for the Coushatta people. This was the Battise Trace, a route that linked…

  • Beazley, William Herbert · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Polk County, Texas, near the Trinity River. Back in the early 1860s, this area was buzzing with Confederate activity. William Herbert Beazley, a physician and former plantation…

  • Camden, TX (Polk County) · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're rolling through Polk County, and right here is the site of Camden. This town owes its existence to a fire! Back in 1897, the W. T. Carter and Brother Lumber Company's plant at nearby Barnum burned down. A year…

  • Coushatta Trace · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, and right here, you're on a path used by Native Americans for centuries. This was the Coushatta Trace, a vital trail connecting Louisiana with Spanish Texas. The Coushatta people…

  • Long King · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Polk County, and right here, near the Trinity River, you're passing through the heart of Coushatta Indian territory from the early 1800s. This was the home of Long King, the principal…

  • Moscow, Camden and San Augustine Railroad · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Polk County, near Moscow, and you might just be passing the old stomping grounds of the Moscow, Camden and San Augustine Railroad. Chartered in 1898 by lumber barons, this short line was built to…

  • Neyland, Robert Reese · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, and right here in Polk County, Robert Reese Neyland was trying to organize Native American cavalry for the Confederacy. In 1861, Neyland was the state agent for the Alabama-Coushatta…

  • Texas Indian Commission · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, near Polk County, where the only Indian reservation in the state, the Alabama-Coushatta, calls home. Back in 1965, the Texas Legislature created the Commission for Indian Affairs,…

  • Trinity Land Company · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Polk County, but back in 1834, this was the wild frontier. A group called the Trinity Land Company organized in New York with a big dream: to settle over 142 leagues of land along the…

  • Carmona, TX · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Carmona is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 287 and Farm Road 1872, ninety miles northwest of Beaumont in northwestern Polk County. It was named for Juan Carmona, on whose 1833 land grant it was located when it was…

  • Kickapoo, TX (Polk County) · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Kickapoo was on the east side of the Trinity River near the site of the present-day junction of U.S. Highway 190 and Farm Road 3152, ninety miles north of Houston in western Polk County. A community of settlers was…

  • Marianna, TX · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Marianna, on the eastern banks of the Trinity River sixty-five miles north of Houston in southern Polk County, was originally named Drew's Landing, in honor of early entrepreneur Monroe Drew, who traded with a group of…

  • Menard's Chapel, TX · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Menard's Chapel was near Menard Creek and the Trinity River in southwestern Polk County. It was established in 1833 by Pierre J. and Michel B. Menard , who were of French-Canadian origin and had worked in Kaskaskia,…

  • Moscow, TX · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Moscow is at the junction of U.S. Highway 59 and Farm Road 350, ninety miles north of Houston in central Polk County. The earliest recorded settlers there, David and Matilda Green, settled on the John Dickinson…

  • Pluck, TX · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Pluck is on Farm Road 352 just over 100 miles north of Houston in north central Polk County. A settlement was established at this site about 1850, and small-scale farming, lumbering, and quarrying operations continued…

  • Swartwout, TX · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Swartwout (Swartout) is on Lake Livingston and Farm Road 1988, seventy-five miles north of Houston in western Polk County. In 1838 James Morgan, Arthur Garner, and Thomas Bradley laid out a town on the east bank of the…

  • Hill, James Ewing · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Polk County, and right here is where James Ewing Hill started out. He arrived with his family in Swartwout back in 1842. Before becoming a soldier, legislator, and judge, Hill tried his hand at…

  • Camp Ruby, TX · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Camp Ruby, also known as Ruby, is on Farm Road 1276 sixty-five miles northwest of Beaumont in south central Polk County. A community was established at the site before the Civil War ; by 1880 residents referred to it as…

  • New Willard, TX · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    New Willard is on State Highway Loop 116 eight miles north of Livingston and eighty miles north of Houston in central Polk County. Settlement of the region was facilitated by the construction of the Houston, East and…

  • Segno, TX · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Segno is on Farm roads 943 and 2798, south and west of the Big Sandy Creek and Menard Creek corridors of the Big Thicket National Preserve and sixty-four miles northwest of Beaumont in south central Polk County. Henry…

  • Wakefield, TX · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Wakefield is on Farm Road 357 105 miles north of Houston in northern Polk County. It was known as Easom before the Civil War . After the completion of the Houston East and West Texas Railway through northern Polk…

  • Nelson Henry Rice Cemetery · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Nelson Henry Rice Cemetery. This burial ground began in 1870 when Nelson Henry Rice deeded land for it, after his daughter-in-law was the first to be interred here. Nelson Henry Rice himself died…

  • Bethel Baptist Church · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Bethel Baptist Church. Built 1901 for congregation organized Jan. 6, 1849, by Rev. J.W.D. Creath, among settlers from Louisiana.

  • Trinity River · 9.8 mi

    This is the same Trinity River that runs through Dallas and Fort Worth, but two hundred and fifty miles downstream it slips quietly under Highway 59, about two miles south of Goodrich. The name goes all the way back to…

  • Site of Council Hill · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Council Hill, the former home of Vernon B. Lea. Lea was the brother of Texas legend Sam Houston's wife, Margaret Lea Houston. This spot was a significant meeting place. General Sam…

  • Menard Chapel Church, School, and Cemetery · 12.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Menard Chapel, a community that started way back in 1833 with Michel B. Menard, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Local tradition says the Mt. Gileard Baptist Church…

  • Onalaska First United Methodist Church · 12.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Onalaska, a community that owes its start to the Carlisle-Pennel Lumber Company. In 1908, the company's owner helped establish this Methodist church, with lumber company superintendent L.O.…

  • The Town Beneath the Lake · 12.7 mi

    As you drive along the shores of Lake Livingston, you're looking at the very thing that saved Onalaska. In the early nineteen hundreds, this was a bustling lumber town, but the boom didn't last. The sawmill was…

  • Engineering Lake Livingston · 12.7 mi

    The lake that defines modern Onalaska is a monumental feat of civil engineering. To create it, the Trinity River Authority had to build the Livingston Dam, completed in 1969. This isn't a towering concrete wall like the…

  • Onalaska, TX · 12.7 mi

    The name Onalaska has an interesting origin, derived from 'Oonalaska,' a rendering of Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands used by Scottish poet Thomas Campbell in his 1799 poem 'The Pleasures of Hope.' The spelling…

  • The Sawmill that Built a Town · 12.7 mi

    Imagine a mill town that goes up and comes back down inside of a decade. That was Onalaska. The lumberman William Carlisle developed the town around 1905 and named it for an older mill town he ran up in Onalaska,…

  • The Lake That Supplies Houston · 12.7 mi

    Onalaska sits right on Lake Livingston, and this lake didn't happen naturally -- it was built, finished in 1971, specifically to keep Houston's taps running. The Trinity River Authority owns and runs it under contract…

  • The Wobbly, Bobbly, Turnover & Stop · 12.7 mi

    Every mill town needed a railroad, and Onalaska's came up out of Trinity County in 1907. It was chartered as the Beaumont and Great Northern, and it ran a line that never got anywhere near Waco or Beaumont despite the…

  • Building a Lake, Changing a Town · 12.8 mi

    Just a few miles from here lies Lake Livingston, and it’s no accident of nature. It’s one of the largest lakes in Texas, created by a monumental feat of civil engineering. In the 1960s, the city of Houston was growing…

  • Justice by Arson · 12.8 mi

    The courthouse in the middle of Coldspring is not the county's first, and the reason for that is fire. San Jacinto County picked Coldspring as its seat in 1870, and by 1877 the commissioners had contracted for a wooden…

  • The Biological Crossroads · 12.8 mi

    Coldspring sits on the western edge of one of North America's most unique ecosystems: the Big Thicket. It’s not just a forest; it’s a biological crossroads where different habitats collide. Here, the pine forests of the…

  • Coldspring, TX · 12.8 mi

    The history of Coldspring is deeply rooted in Stephen F. Austin's first colony in Texas, which established San Jacinto County. The settlement of Cold Springs began around 1850, with the only building at the time being a…

  • Coushatta Indians · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, and right here, you're passing through the lands once home to the Coushatta people. These Muskogean speakers migrated from Alabama in the late 1700s, eventually settling along the…

  • Battise Village · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what used to be a major hub for the Coushatta people in the 1830s and 40s. Right here, near present-day Onalaska, was Battise Village, a key settlement on the Trinity River. It was so important,…

  • Pakana Muskogee Indians · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Polk County, near Onalaska, where the Pakana Muskogee Indians established a village back in 1834. They were a branch of the Creek nation, migrating from Alabama and Louisiana. Their leader, John…

  • Onalaska, TX · 13.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Onalaska, a town whose first boom was built on lumber and a railroad. Around 1905, a lumberman named William Carlisle developed this area, naming it after another mill town he operated. The…

  • Bluewater Cemetery · 13.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Polk County, where many families from Mississippi found refuge after the Civil War, seeking to avoid post-Reconstruction attitudes. They settled here, and by the late 1800s, communities like…

  • Adams Cemetery · 13.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Adams Cemetery, also known as Lone Pine, Brown, or Adams-Lott Cemetery. It began as a family graveyard for the Lott family, who moved here from Mississippi in 1843. Calvin Lott, son of the founders,…

  • The Coin That Became The High Card · 13.7 mi

    You're rolling through Ace, Texas, that little Polk County dot on Farm Road twenty-six ten, named for a postmaster and not for the highest card in the deck. But since the town and the card share a name, the card is…

  • The Ace Born In The Sky · 13.7 mi

    You're passing through Ace, Texas, in Polk County, a town that took its name in nineteen fifteen from its postmaster, Ace Emanuel. Here's the strange part. That very same year, an ocean away, the word ace was being…

  • A Postmaster, Not A Poker Card · 13.7 mi

    Here's a two-letter town name that plays a trick on you. Ace, Texas, sitting in south central Polk County out along Farm Road twenty-six ten, sounds like it ought to be a gambler's town, named for the highest card in…

  • Ancient Seas Under The Pines · 13.7 mi

    Ace, Texas got an economic jolt from underground, and it is worth understanding. Oil was discovered here in nineteen fifty-two, with a second, stronger find in nineteen sixty-nine. So here's the how-it-works. The oil…

  • Two Letters, A Whole Deck Of Threads · 13.7 mi

    So think about how much one tiny word can carry. Ace, Texas is barely a wide spot on Farm Road twenty-six ten, a community that has counted its people in the dozens for most of a century, about one hundred thirty-seven…

  • From Smithfield To Steamboat Landing · 13.7 mi

    Before it was Ace, this spot answered to a different name entirely. Back in eighteen thirty, a settler named Samuel Hiroms started a community here and called it Smithfield, after an early settler named Robert Smith. It…

  • The River That Built The Town · 13.7 mi

    Names aside, look at where Ace, Texas actually sits. For a stretch of the eighteen hundreds, this was a working river town. The Trinity River runs through this part of Polk County, and Ace, back when it was Smithfield,…

  • Ada, TX · 13.7 mi · Local history

    Ada, situated in the rolling hills of south-central Oklahoma, owes its existence to the expansion of the railroad westward. Before the arrival of the tracks, this area was part of Indian Territory, primarily inhabited…

  • Darby, Augustus, Home · 13.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the home of Augustus Darby, built in 1859. What's incredible is how it was built: for six months, twenty-five enslaved people worked to seal this double-log house. They drew square nails from old…

  • Ames, TX · 13.7 mi · Local history

    Ames, Texas, exists because of the railroad. The Texas and New Orleans Railroad needed a stop between Beaumont and Liberty, and a man named Ames offered them land. That's how the town got its start, a small depot in the…

  • General James Davis · 13.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through San Jacinto County, near Coldspring, where you can find the resting place of General James Davis. Born in Virginia in 1790, Davis fought as a U.S. Army officer in the War of 1812, including the…

  • Oakwood Cemetery · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Oakwood Cemetery, established in the mid-1800s. The earliest marked grave here is John B. Mitchell, who died in 1853. This cemetery holds pioneers, leaders, and veterans of San Jacinto County.

  • Sunflower Baptist Church · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving near Livingston, in Polk County. This marker tells us about Sunflower Baptist Church, which began in 1882 with seven families organizing a community church in a local schoolhouse. They named it Sunflower…

  • The 1887 Jail That Outlasted the Fire · 14.1 mi

    In 1887 San Jacinto County replaced its wooden lockup with a two-story building of yellow-pink brick, designed by architect L. T. Noyes in a late-Victorian style. It started as a 28-by-28-foot square across from the…

  • Old San Jacinto County Jail · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Coldspring, and right here stands the old San Jacinto County Jail. Built in 1887, this wasn't just a place to lock folks up. The second floor held the cells, but the ground floor was the jailer's…

  • San Jacinto County Jail · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the San Jacinto County Jail, built in 1887. It's notable for a rare, never-used hangman's trap installed later by a steel company. The jail's importance shifted when the town's courthouse moved after…

  • Three Names Before Coldspring · 14.2 mi

    This Piney Woods town went through three names before it settled on one. When the post office opened in 1847 it was called Coonskin. Within a year it was renamed Fireman's Hill. In 1850 it became Cold Spring, named by…

  • The Reservoir on Coldspring's Doorstep · 14.2 mi

    Just east of Coldspring lies Lake Livingston, one of the largest reservoirs in Texas and a feat of civil engineering. The Trinity River Authority began building it in 1966 and finished in 1969, damming the Trinity River…

  • The Fire That Moved a Town · 14.2 mi

    On March 30, 1915, fire swept through the Coldspring town square and destroyed the wooden county courthouse along with several other buildings. The county's records were saved because they had been stored in a brick…

  • Hardin, John Wesley, Near Boyhood Home of · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Polk County, not far from where John Wesley Hardin spent his formative years. Born in 1853, Hardin grew up to be one of the most notorious outlaws in Texas history, claiming he killed over 30 men.…

  • Hardin, William Barnett · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Polk County, passing the site of a true Texas pioneer and soldier, William Barnett Hardin. Born in Tennessee in 1806, Hardin arrived in Texas in 1826, becoming the very first permanent white…

  • Coldspring · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Coldspring, a town that's worn a few names before settling on this one. Before it was Coldspring, this area was part of a Mexican land grant to an American Revolution veteran. The post office here…

  • Hansbro's, J. M. · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of what was once Hansbro's, a building erected way back in 1870. This structure holds a unique place in Coldspring's history. It was the very first building moved to the new town site after…

  • McClanahan-Trapp House · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the McClanahan-Trapp House, built in the 1880s. Local businessman Robert McClanahan bought it in 1913, serving as county tax collector and postmaster. After a fire moved the town square in 1915, he…

  • San Jacinto County Courthouse · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the San Jacinto County Courthouse in Coldspring. A fire in 1915 wiped out the old courthouse, but landowners donated land right here for a new one. Built in 1916 and 1917, this brick building was…

  • First Baptist Church of Coldspring · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Coldspring's First Baptist Church, originally organized as Laurel Hill Baptist Church in 1848. It began with just four members and a pastor who became a prominent Texas Baptist figure.…

  • Mount Moriah Lodge No. 37, A. F. & A. M. · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Mount Moriah Lodge No. 37, chartered way back in 1848. It first met in a schoolhouse near Mount Pleasant, which was later moved to Coldspring in 1853. The lodge followed the town when…

  • Coldspring Methodist Church · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Coldspring Methodist Church. The original church was built here in 1848 on land donated by the Rankin family. The congregation later moved to a new site in 1917, but the church still…

  • Named for a hyacinth-choked river · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through San Jacinto County, named for the hyacinth-choked river Spanish explorers called Saint Hyacinth. Anglo-Americans began settling this area after 1820. The county itself was officially formed in…

  • San Jacinto County · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    Eighteenth century Spanish explorers gave to the hyacinth-choked stream the name of Saint Hyacinth. Anglo-Americans settled here after 1820. Formed from portions of Polk, Montgomery,, Liberty and Walker counties.…

  • Perry, Ervin Sewell · 14.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Coldspring, Texas, the hometown of Ervin S. Perry. Born right here in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="M d, Y">December 22, 1935</say-as>, Perry would go on to break major barriers. In <say-as…

  • Rankin, Robert · 14.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once Joseph Vehlein's colony in Texas, a place that became home to Revolutionary War veteran Robert Rankin. Rankin, who fought at Brandywine and Germantown, moved here in 1832 after…

  • San Jacinto County · 14.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through San Jacinto County, a place named for the most famous battle in Texas history. But the county itself was officially born on August 13, 1870, carved out of four older Texas counties. Its new county…

  • Coldspring, TX · 14.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Coldspring, Texas, a town with a name that hints at its origin. Local legend says Joseph Graves named this spot for the cold, clear springwater he found here. The first post office, established in…

  • Cleveland, Larkin Green · 14.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Polk County, Texas, and right here is where Larkin Green Cleveland lived. He was a farmer and merchant who became a Confederate officer during the Civil War. In 1863, Cleveland enlisted and was…

  • Shepherd Methodist Church · 14.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Shepherd, a town that owes its start to railroad barons and a banker named B. A. Shepherd. Right here, you're passing the site of the Shepherd Methodist Church, organized way back in 1882. The…

  • Moscow, TX · 15.0 mi

    In the 1840s, David and Matilda Green first settled the area that would become Moscow, Texas. The first post office was established in 1847 under Green's name. The community's name was changed to Moscow, after Moscow,…

  • Coushatta Indian Village · 15.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Shepherd, Texas, in San Jacinto County. For over sixty years, this area was home to the Coushatta tribe. From about 1835 to 1900, they lived here, farming small plots and working for wages when…

  • Jones, Isaac · 15.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the land where Isaac Jones carved out a life in Texas. Born way back in 1793 in Mississippi, Jones arrived here in 1834, snagging a Mexican land grant on the Trinity River. He even served a few…

  • Named For Russia? Not So Fast · 15.4 mi

    Here is a fun bit of myth-busting as you pass through Moscow, Texas. It is easy to assume a town called Moscow was named for the Russian capital, with its onion domes and its bitter winters. But hold on. The truth is…

  • The City That Burned Itself Down · 15.4 mi

    The name on the map here is Moscow, and while our little Texas Moscow was not named for the Russian capital in any settled way, the resemblance is worth a story. Because the great Moscow, the one on the Moskva River,…

  • Red Square Was Never About The Color Red · 15.4 mi

    The name of this town, Moscow, might get you thinking about the most famous plaza in the Russian capital, Red Square. Now, nobody is fully sure why this East Texas spot took the name; the founding Green family first…

  • Why This Piney-Woods Town Is Called Moscow · 15.4 mi

    You just rolled through Moscow, Texas, deep in the Polk County piney woods, and no, this is not a little slice of Russia. Here is the honest story, and it is a good one. Back in the eighteen forties a couple named David…

  • A Kremlin Is Not One Building · 15.4 mi

    The sign here reads Moscow, and the real story of how it got that name is a little murky. When David Green could not get his settlement called Greenville, the town took the name Moscow instead, and accounts split on…

  • The River That May Mean Bear · 15.4 mi

    How this East Texas hamlet got the name Moscow is not fully settled. Settlers David and Matilda Green ran a post office here in the eighteen forties and wanted the place called Greenville, but postal authorities refused…

  • Texas Moscow Versus The Real One · 15.4 mi

    Let us play a quick game of Texas Moscow versus the original, now that you have passed the sign. Remember, our Polk County Moscow was not clearly named for Russia at all. Its name is a leftover from a post office that…

  • The Narrow-Gauge Line They Called The Rabbit · 15.4 mi

    The railroad that made Shepherd was built on a shoestring. Houston promoter Paul Bremond chartered the Houston, East and West Texas Railway in 1875 to run from Houston through the East Texas Piney Woods toward…

  • The Earthen Dam That Reshaped Shepherd's Economy · 15.4 mi

    The lake to the west of Shepherd is a piece of engineering, not nature. Lake Livingston was built by damming the Trinity River, with construction starting in 1966 and the dam completed in 1969; water impoundment began…

  • The Houston Banker Who Drew a Town on the Map · 15.4 mi

    Shepherd is not named for a herder. It carries the name of Benjamin Armistead Shepherd, a Virginia-born banker who became one of early Houston's most important money men and served as president of the First National…

  • Scott, Chief John · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the resting place of Chief John Scott, a significant leader of the Alabama-Ishi Indian tribe here in Texas. Born in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1805</say-as>, he came to Texas in the…

  • Confederate Service of Alabama and Courshatta Indians · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    As you drive through Polk County, look for the marker telling the story of the Alabama and Coushatta Indians' service in the Civil War. In 1861, Agent Robert R. Neyland trained them as Confederate cavalrymen. By April…

  • Feagin Cemetery · 15.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Feagin Cemetery, a final resting place established in 1905. The Feagin family settled here in 1857, and their land was deeded for this public burial ground. It was expanded in 1926 and still serves…

  • Mount Zion Cemetery · 15.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Mount Zion Cemetery near Point Blank. This land was granted by John R. Johnson in 1850 to Mount Zion Methodist Church. The church building is long gone, but descendants hold a yearly homecoming here…

  • Alabama and Coushatti Indians, Village of · 15.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Polk County, near Livingston, and you're passing the historic home of the Alabama and Coushatta tribes. These Native Americans migrated into Texas sometime in the early 1800s, and notably, they…

  • E. C. Matthews Home · 15.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the E. C. Matthews Home in Moscow, built in 1856 by "Daddy Poe." Take a look at those unique columns, made from hollowed-out pine trees, and the swinging upstairs porch. This house was recorded as a…

  • Moscow Male and Female Academy · 15.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Moscow Male and Female Academy. It opened its doors sometime before 1857, but then came under Masonic control and was known as the Moscow Masonic Academy. Eventually, it was absorbed…

  • Hobby, William Pettus, Texas Statesman · 15.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the birthplace of William Pettus Hobby, a true Texas statesman. Born near here in 1878, Hobby's life was a whirlwind of influence. He started young, rising to managing editor of the Houston Post at…

  • Moscow · 15.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Moscow, Texas, a town with a history as unique as its name! Settled by David Green during the Republic of Texas era, it first got a post office in 1847, then officially became Moscow in 1853.…

  • First Baptist Church · 15.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church in Moscow. Built in 1849 by its members, this structure featured square nails and hand-sawn lumber, with pegs used to join the sills, floors, and framing.

  • Shepherd, Benjamin Armistead · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Shepherd, Texas, a town named for the man who founded it: Benjamin Armistead Shepherd. He wasn't just a local merchant; Shepherd was a titan of Houston's early economy. Starting as a clerk, he…

  • Shepherd, TX · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Shepherd, a town born from a railroad dream. In 1875, Houston banker B. A. Shepherd arrived here, near an old Coushatta Indian village, with plans to build a town along the proposed Houston, East…

  • Washington, Alexander Hamilton · 16.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once known as Shirt-tail Bend, a place named by river travelers for the long deerskin blouses worn by the Coushatta people who lived here. This land, now in San Jacinto County, was…

  • Colita's Village · 16.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Colita's Village was the lower village of the three principal communities established by the Coushatta Indians on the Trinity River in the area of present Polk and San Jacinto counties. This major Coushatta village is…

  • Baker, Hines Holt, Sr. · 16.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the heart of Texas's oil country, and right here is where a titan of the industry got his start. Hines Holt Baker, Sr., born in tiny Big Valley back in 1893, would go on to lead Humble Oil and…

  • Upper Coushatta Trace · 16.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, and right here, you're crossing paths with a piece of early Texas history: the Upper Coushatta Trace. This wasn't just any old trail; it was the 'wet-weather route' for early settlers,…

  • East Fork of the San Jacinto River · 16.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through land shaped by the East Fork of the San Jacinto River. Settlement began here in the mid-1820s, with pioneers drawn to its banks. By the 1840s, Sam Houston himself built his plantation, Raven Hill,…

  • Elmore, Henry Marshall · 16.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Waverly, Texas, a town with roots stretching back to the mid-1800s. Right here is where Henry Marshall Elmore, a planter and former judge, settled in 1856. But his real claim to fame, at least in…

  • Lovett, Robert Scott · 16.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Robert Scott Lovett, attorney and railroad-company chairman, son of William and Susan (Hardy) Lovett, was born in San Jacinto County, Texas, on June 22, 1860. He attended high school in Houston and read law under…

  • Site of the Home of George Thomas Wood · 16.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the former home of George Thomas Wood, a true Texas hero. Born in Georgia in 1795, Wood made his mark right here in the Lone Star State. He served as a Colonel in the Mexican War, then as a Senator…

  • Augustine, Major Henry W. · 16.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Livingston, heading past the site of Major Henry W. Augustine's home. Augustine arrived here from Alabama way back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1827</say-as>. He was a veteran of…

  • The Robert Tod Robinson House · 16.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Robert Tod Robinson House, a home built in 1857 by a planter who brought architectural ideas all the way from Alabama. It started as a log house with wide verandas on two floors, sitting on high…

  • Ben-Ash · 16.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now San Jacinto County, not far from Point Blank. Right here, in the first half of the 1800s, lived Ben-Ash, chief of the Coushatta village called Battise. He was a key figure in Republic…

  • Wood, George Tyler · 16.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now San Jacinto County, near Point Blank, on the Trinity River. This was the home of George Tyler Wood, a soldier, a legislator, and the second governor of Texas. He arrived here in 1839…

  • Wood, Martha Evans Gindrat · 16.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, near Point Blank, where Martha Evans Gindrat Wood made her home. Born in Georgia in 1809, she was a silk expert who planned to continue her thriving business in Texas. After moving…

  • Point Blank, TX · 16.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Point Blank, a community with a name that sounds like a gunshot, but its origin is far more genteel. Back in the 1850s, a French governess named Florence Dissiway settled here. She called this…

  • A Homesick Governess Names a Point · 17.2 mi

    You are rolling through Point Blank, Texas, and the name practically dares you to think about firearms. Resist it, because the truth here is gentler and a good deal older. In the eighteen fifties a Frenchwoman named…

  • The Gun Term That Only Sounds Related · 17.2 mi

    You are driving through Point Blank, Texas, a town whose name only borrowed the shooting phrase by accident. That phrase has its own tangent worth the detour, though, so here it is: where does point blank actually come…

  • How Blanc Point Slipped Into English · 17.2 mi

    Right here in Point Blank, Texas it is worth slowing down on how Blanc Point became Point Blank, because the flip is a small linguistics lesson. In French an adjective usually follows its noun, so white point would more…

  • The Governor Buried Down the Road · 17.2 mi

    Long before that homesick governess arrived, the ground here at Point Blank, Texas already held a governor. George Tyler Wood, the second man to lead the state of Texas, chose a site near present-day Point Blank and…

  • The Lake That Rewrote the Town · 17.2 mi

    For most of its life Point Blank, Texas was a farming settlement of well under a hundred people. Then the water came. In nineteen sixty-nine crews finished Livingston Dam on the Trinity River just to the south, and Lake…

  • One Name, The Whole Thread · 17.2 mi

    So pull on this one odd Point Blank, Texas name and look at everything it holds. It starts with a homesick Frenchwoman calling a river bend white point in her own language. It runs through a centuries-old gunnery phrase…

  • Turner, Captain Isaac Newton Moreland, C. S. A. · 17.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the final resting place of Captain Isaac Newton Moreland Turner, a Confederate officer who died young. Born in Georgia in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1839</say-as>, Ike Turner moved his…

  • The Town That Was Reborn by Water · 17.9 mi

    The Point Blank you see today owes its existence to a monumental change that happened in the late 1960s. For a century, this was a small town on a river. But downstream, the Trinity River Authority and the City of…

  • Engineering a Lake, Remaking a River · 17.9 mi

    The vast expanse of water at Point Blank, Lake Livingston, isn't a natural feature. It's a massive feat of civil engineering. In the 1960s, the City of Houston needed a reliable water source for its booming population.…

  • What's in a Name? · 17.9 mi

    As you pass through town, you might wonder about that name: Point Blank. It sounds like it ought to come with a gunfight attached, and locals will happily tell you it's the range of a pistol shot across the old ferry…

  • Point Blank, TX · 17.9 mi

    The name of Point Blank, Texas, has an interesting origin. It was named Blanc Point by Florence Dissiway, a French woman from Alabama, who worked as a governess for a local family around 1850. The name was later changed…

  • Midway Cemetery · 17.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Midway Cemetery, a place born from a mother's final wish. Mary Barnes McKee, who died in childbirth in 1857, is said to be the first buried here. Legend has it, just before she passed, Mary marked…

  • Moscow, Camden & San Augustine Railroad · 18.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Camden, Texas, where history is chugging along a little differently. Look for the old Panama No. 201 locomotive, a veteran of the Panama Canal dig in 1914! This engine, along with a vintage…

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