Midway, Texas

Midway is the oldest town in Madison County, settled in 1829, sitting right where the La Bahia Road crosses the Old San Antonio Road. It got its name in 1855, when Joseph Addison Clark came out from Midway, Kentucky and…

Situated at the junction of the La Bahía Road, now Texas State Highway 21, and the Old San Antonio Road, Texas State Highway OSR, Midway has been a crossroads for travelers and commerce. This strategic location has…

You're driving through Elwood, and just off the road is Allphin Cemetery. It started in 1854, not with a death, but with a discovery. Ransom Allphin, who'd farmed this land since 1835, was digging a well when he hit…

In this vicinity, at Paso Tomas on the Trinity, was the Spanish town Nuestra Senora del Pilar De. Bucareli (1774-1779) Indian troubles had caused Spain to move Louisiana colonists to Bexar (San Antonio). These people,…

You're crossing the Trinity River right now, near where Paso Tomas, or Thomas' Ford, once stood. We cross water like this without a thought today, but in 1821 the Trinity could stop you cold. Few travelers could swim,…

You're driving past the site of Cobbs Creek Missionary Baptist Church, founded way back in 1883. A small group gathered to organize the church, named for its location near Cobbs Creek. Reverend E.W. Mitchell became its…

In 1880 the children out here went to a schoolhouse called Black Oak, and it had two rooms for a reason that had nothing to do with grade levels. One room was for the boys. The other was for the girls. A single teacher…

Two men with the same last name put this place on the map, and neither of them had to found anything. Rufus M. Connor and James S. Connor ran the post office out here from 1890 until 1905, and Jim Connor kept the…

The ground under this community's church and school was a gift. A man named David Green donated the land for South Bethel School and for a Methodist church, and South Bethel Methodist became the congregation that held…

This was mixed farming country rather than a one crop place. The land around here raised livestock, cotton, and fruits and vegetables, and the settlement kept the machinery a farming community needs close at hand.…

You're driving past Park Cemetery, which began as a family burial ground. In 1852, John and Elizabeth Park buried her brother here, and later laid John to rest on the land. By 1870, the site was deeded for a community…

You're driving past the Greenbrier Cemetery, a place born from both community and tragedy. It started in 1884 as land for a school, but after the Colwell's daughter Callie died in 1888, part of the land became this…

Madisonville's nickname, 'The Mushroom Capital of Texas,' comes from a remarkable feat of agricultural engineering happening just outside of town. At the Monterey Mushrooms facility, perfect conditions for growing fungi…

You're driving through Madison County, and right here in Madisonville, Jubal Richard Parten got his start. Born in 1896, this local son became a titan of the American oil industry. After serving as a Major in World War…

You're driving through Madison County, a place with a complicated past. Back in 1774, Spanish Governor Juan María de Ripperdá established a settlement right here, near the Trinity River. It was called Nuestra Señora del…

You're driving near Madisonville, Texas, and right here is where Santísima Trinidad de Salcedo once stood. Founded in 1806 by the Spanish, this wasn't just a town; it was an experiment in living. Soldiers and civilians…

You're driving through Madison County, not far from where Harriet Glass Barrett lived most of her life. Born enslaved around 1851, Harriet's story is largely known through her own words, recorded in the late 1930s. When…

You're driving through Madison County, Texas, where William Wallace Viser lived a life that spanned merchant, postmaster, and educator. But when the Civil War broke out in <say-as interpret-as="date"…

You're driving through Madisonville, a town born in 1853. It was established as the county seat of the brand new Madison County, named for President James Madison. The land was donated by Job Starks Collard, and the…

The road you are driving on, Texas Highway 21, is not a regular highway. It is the modern paved version of the Camino Real de los Tejas, the Royal Road of the Tejas, and the route under your tires has been in continuous…

You're driving through Madison County, formed way back in 1853 from parts of Grimes, Walker, and Leon counties. It's named for James Madison, the 'Father of the Constitution' and fourth U.S. President. The county seat,…

You're driving past the hometown of J.R. Parten, a true pioneer of the American oil industry. Born right here in Madisonville in 1896, Parten's career spanned over seventy years. He not only led major oil companies but…

Weldon, a community in Houston County, Texas, has a rich history that began after the Civil War. The area was settled and a post office was established in 1869. The 1880s saw the community transform into a lumber town…

You're driving past the site of the Eastham Prison Farm, a place with a complicated history in Texas. It started in 1891 when the Eastham family bought a massive plantation. Soon, the state leased the land for farming,…

One of the most staggering names in the history of American high school football was born right here in Madisonville. Charles Kenneth Hall, known forever as the Sugar Land Express, came into the world in this Madison…

Long before Madisonville, the most important spot in this county was a river crossing in its northeast corner, where the Old San Antonio Road, also called El Camino Real de los Tejas, the King's Highway, forded the…

This small county seat between Houston and Dallas wears an unlikely crown: the Mushroom Capital of Texas, a title the Texas Legislature made official. The reason sits on the edge of town, where Monterey Mushrooms runs…

Colby Lovell is a team roper from Madisonville, and at a rodeo in Louisiana he met the father of a young man named Cody NesSmith. Cody was twenty three, he had a bone cancer called Ewing's sarcoma, and he loved team…

Sam Bennett learned golf from his father, Mark, on a nine hole public course in Madisonville. His father was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's, and in a clear moment he told his son: don't wait to do something.…

Local history says Sam Houston spoke in Madisonville in eighteen fifty nine, under a brush arbor a block south of the square, to about two hundred fifty people who came on foot, on horseback and in wagons. The records…

In eighteen seventy two, Madison County elected a sheriff named Austin McGary, and according to the Handbook of Texas, he neither owned nor carried a gun. He said he had the best two barreled weapon there was: the Old…

The state prison farm east of Madisonville, near the Trinity River, has seen its share of breakouts. On a March afternoon in nineteen twenty, a guard got off his horse to help fix a broken plow, and a convict grabbed…

In March of nineteen twenty eight, Carl Harper was the sitting district judge for five counties, Madison among them, when his car bumped another car in Huntsville. The other driver, a truck driver and former Navy…

On Labor Day night, nineteen thirty eight, two highway patrolmen chased a speeder down Highway seventy five into Madisonville at about sixty miles an hour. He ran the light where Highways seventy five and twenty one…

The county seat you are rolling into exists because one man gave the land away. When the Texas Legislature carved Madison County out of Grimes, Walker, and Leon counties in 1853, the new county needed a courthouse town…

A block off the downtown square stands a tall Victorian building that has been feeding and sheltering travelers in this town for more than a century. It went up in 1904 as the Shapira Hotel, built by Jake and Sarah…

The modern brick courthouse on the Madisonville square is the latest in a startling run of bad luck. Madison County has gone through six courthouses since 1854, and four of them were lost to fire. Three early wooden…

In 1853, Madisonville was founded as the county seat of newly organized Madison County in Texas. The town was named after U.S. President James Madison, the fourth chief executive, at the suggestion of Pleasant Williams…

Both the city and the county of Madisonville were named in honor of U.S. President James Madison, the fourth chief executive. The town was founded in 1853 and named after President Madison at the suggestion of Pleasant…

Behind Madisonville's mushroom crown is a piece of controlled biology most people never see. Mushrooms are not planted like corn; they are coaxed out of a carefully engineered chain of steps. It starts with compost. At…

In the spring of 1941, Madisonville Meteor editor Henry Fox kept noticing the same thing on the courthouse square: men in cowboy boots, leaning against the storefronts, talking cattle with total confidence. The catch…

George McJunkin was born into slavery around eighteen fifty one on a ranch near Midway, east of Madisonville. His father was a blacksmith who bought his own freedom. After emancipation George went west, taught himself…

Madisonville got its name from a doctor. Pleasant Kittrell came to the county in eighteen fifty, suggested the names Madison County and Madisonville, and picked the site for the county seat. He later moved to…

In April of nineteen seventy eight, a Rice University runner from Madisonville named Jeff Wells finished second in the Boston Marathon, two seconds behind Bill Rodgers, the closest finish in Boston history up to then.…

In August of eighteen ninety four, at Midway, a Mrs. J. W. Allen was given repeated doses of opiates for what they called bilious colic, and she sank into a swoon. The doctor and six men worked on her all night, and at…

On the twenty first of July, eighteen seventy, a disguised mob of about sixty men surrounded the Madisonville jail, forced the keys from the sheriff and freed a man awaiting trial for murder. That summer a state police…

Before dawn on the sixteenth of May, nineteen twenty eight, Ira Wakefield Junior, called Coon, was found shot in his bed at Midway, east of Madisonville. It was called a suicide at first. But the pistol was at his feet…

In the early hours of the twentieth of July, nineteen oh five, near Midway, somebody hit Tom Defee in the head with his own father's ax while he slept, sharing a bed with his brother John. The ax was left behind. John,…

You're driving past the site of the Shapira Hotel in Madisonville. Russian immigrants Jake and Sarah Shapira ran a boarding house right here until it burned down in 1903. The very next year, Sarah rebuilt, this time as…

In nineteen thirty seven, a federal writers' project interviewed a ninety seven year old man named William Byrd, who had been born enslaved near Madisonville. He believed the man who owned him, Sam Byrd, was his father.…

Midway, east of Madisonville, got its name in eighteen fifty five from Joseph Addison Clark, who also taught its first school and was the first preacher of its Church of Christ. His sons Addison and Randolph were boys…

In eighteen eighty six, John Hodges Allen became principal of the Madison Academy here in Madisonville, and his brother Rivers came from Tennessee to help him. The school was renamed Allen Academy in eighteen ninety…

Around eighteen fifty, a young peddler from Kassel, Germany, named Julius Zulch built a log store at a watering hole on the trail between Midway and Boonville. In the late eighteen seventies he promoted Madison County…

The crossroads of George, west of Madisonville, grew from a post office opened in nineteen oh three at George Donaho's store. Glynn Donaho was born there in March of nineteen oh five. In the Second World War he…

On the twenty sixth of September, nineteen oh seven, the boiler at J. M. Kent's cotton gin in Madisonville blew up under about a hundred seventy five pounds of steam. The owner's son, Merit Kent, was thrown about fifty…

Madisonville calls itself the Mushroom Capital of Texas, so here's a mushroom story. The white button mushroom, the brown cremini and the big portobello are all the same species. Cremini is a brown strain picked young.…

Speaking of mushrooms, the largest known fungus on Earth is mostly underground in Oregon. In the Malheur National Forest, one single individual honey mushroom has spread through the soil and the roots of the trees…

Madisonville is named for President James Madison, and there's a famous story about his wife. On the twenty fourth of August, eighteen fourteen, British troops marched on Washington, and legend says Dolley Madison cut…

In December of eighteen eighty, Madison County's own county judge, T. A. McDonald, shot and killed a man named John Christian inside the courthouse, in a quarrel over a lawsuit about hiring out county convicts. McDonald…

The old Trinity bottom country east of Madisonville has its tales, collected by the county historical commission, and most of them can't be proven. One says an early settler named Young, living alone near Midway, came…

The name Bedias, the town and the creek south of Madisonville, comes from the Bidai people, who lived between the Brazos and the Trinity, farming corn and hunting deer. In the seventeen seventies they were reported…

East of Madisonville, at Midway, begins a rare kind of Texas highway: one with letters instead of a number. It's State Highway O S R, for Old San Antonio Road, and it runs about sixty two miles from Highway twenty one…

On election day, the second of November, nineteen eighty two, the radio evangelist Lester Roloff's small plane went down in a storm near Normangee, west of Madisonville. Roloff was killed, along with a women's singing…

Daniel Larrison was a fur trapper and a veteran of the War of Eighteen Twelve who settled around eighteen twenty eight where the La Bahía Road met the Camino Real, east of Madisonville. Larrison Creek carries his…

Patrick Hayes was an Irish born veteran of the Texas Revolution and an herb doctor, and his Seven Oaks plantation east of Madisonville covered seven thousand one hundred acres. The Antioch Church of Christ began on the…

When the Madison County courthouse burned in nineteen sixty seven, the cornerstone box turned up in the debris. Inside were old coins, a paper printed in what looked like Yiddish characters, and a copy of the…

At High Prairie Cemetery, west of Madisonville, the first grave is walled in stone. John Spencer Wolfe was shot on a dark night, the twenty third of June, eighteen seventy nine, as he left his fiancée's home. He was the…

In eighteen fifty four, according to a newspaper of the time, a Madisonville grocer named Nash stabbed a sixteen year old named James Wiseman to death for spilling bitters on his counter. The next night, while Nash was…

You're driving past the site of the Madisonville Church of Christ. This congregation got its start way back in November of 1858, organized by Brother Benton Sweeney and nineteen charter members. For years, traveling…

You're driving through Madisonville, Texas, where a local hero once walked. Truman Kimbro, born just west of here in Cottonwood, answered the call to duty in December of <say-as interpret-as="date"…

Lovelady, nestled in the rolling hills of Houston County, East Texas, saw a significant shift in recent years with the expansion of timber operations. The South Central Plains ecoregion, characterized by its mosaic of…

If you want a meal with actual roots in this town, skip the highway chains and aim for the downtown square, where Walker's Cafe at 112 West Main Street has been serving Madisonville since 1917. Step through the old…

You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Madisonville, a congregation with roots stretching back to 1856. That's when J. W. D. Creath, a missionary for the Southern Baptist Convention, deeded lots for…

You're driving through what used to be Volga, Texas. After the Civil War, pioneers settled this area, calling it High Prairie. It wasn't until 1897, when a post office opened in Samuel Knox's store, that the community…

You're driving past the site of Madisonville's First United Methodist Church. Its story begins way back in 1842, before Madison County was even organized, with circuit-riding preachers serving the community. The…

You're driving past Weldon, a town that started as a cotton gin over a mile north of here back in 1850. It got its name in 1869 from Weldon Jones Murchison, a local merchant. For years, this area thrived on cotton and…

You're driving through West Texas, maybe not too far from the Texas Panhandle, and you might be passing near the site of a legendary showdown. Right here, in <say-as interpret-as="date"…

You're driving through what is now Madison County, but back in the 1830s, this was the site of Nathaniel Robbins's homestead. Robbins's Ferry, right here on the Trinity River, became a vital crossing point on the Old…

Zulch was on the headwaters of Kickapoo Creek near the junction of Farm roads 39 and 1372, eleven miles southwest of Madisonville in southwestern Madison County. Settlement in the vicinity began in the late 1830s when…

North Zulch is at the intersection of State Highway 21 and U.S. Highway 190, six miles from the Navasota River and thirteen miles west of Madisonville in west central Madison County. It was established in 1907 when…

Albert Samuel Roberts was born on November 2, 1844, to William Henry and Virginia (Lafayette) Roberts in Madison County, Virginia. He moved to Texas with his family in 1858 and settled in Webberville. In 1861 he…

You're driving through what used to be Concord, Texas, a community that started life in the late 1800s as Gum Springs. It got its name from the local springs and gum trees. In 1898, a schoolhouse opened, and that's when…

You're driving past Wilson Chapel Methodist Church, a cornerstone of Madisonville's African American community. Organized in 1873 by Reverend W. A. Parks and just ten members, this was the second Black church…

John Crownover, an early settler, was born on October 7, 1774, to Benjamin and Rachel (Jasper) Crownover, who lived in Union District, South Carolina. Benjamin Crownover served in the Revolutionary War in South Carolina…

Elwood is on the Old San Antonio Road eight miles northeast of Madisonville in northeastern Madison County. Settlement in the vicinity seems to have begun in the early 1830s, when James Mitchell constructed a fort and a…

Jozye is on State Highway 90 at Farm Road 1452, three miles south of Madisonville in southern Madison County. The first settler in the vicinity was Joe Shannon, who built a house south of Caney Creek in 1887 and began…

Laceola is at the junction of Farm roads 978 and 2289, five miles west of Madisonville in central Madison County. Settlement in the vicinity began as early as the mid-1850s, but a community did not form until after the…

Mecca is on Farm Road 978 ten miles west of Madisonville in northwestern Madison County. It was founded about 1850 in what was then northern Grimes County and is one of the oldest settlements in Madison County. In 1894…

You're driving past the site of Marian Anderson High School in Madisonville. It started in 1880 as a one-room schoolhouse, the first for African American students in town. By the 1920s, a new, larger school was built,…

You're driving past Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, a cornerstone of the African American community here since 1885. Organized by Reverend N. C. McCloud, its first members were many former slaves. Services started in…

You're driving near Leona, in Leon County. This is the Two Mile Paradise Cemetery, established around 1870. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2008.

You're driving through Madisonville, but imagine this place back in the 1930s. Right here, Camp Sam Houston was humming with activity. This wasn't just any camp; it was part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, a soil…

You're driving past Weldon Cemetery, a place born from tragedy. In 1912, the Thompson Brothers Lumber Company donated this land for a community burial ground. The first souls laid to rest here were just toddlers:…

Cross this creek heading north and you change counties in the very same instant, because Bedias Creek is the line between Walker and Madison. The name is a worn-down version of Bidai, the people whose villages once…

Mossy Grove, Texas, sits nestled in the Piney Woods region, a landscape that gives the town its very name. Local lore says the original surveyors, pushing through thickets of longleaf pine and bottomland hardwood…

You're driving through the historic Bullard community area, settled by Calvin Cullee Bullard and his family back in 1867. They came from Hunt County and put down roots on 160 acres right here. Calvin ran a blacksmith…

You're driving past the resting place of Samuel Calhoun, a man who saw a century of American history unfold. Born in South Carolina in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1788</say-as>, Calhoun served as a Captain of…

The quiet streets of Lovelady hold a connection to one of the 20th century's most notorious criminals. In 1938, Charles Harrelson was born here. As a young man, he left East Texas and embarked on a life that reads like…

The massive prison near Lovelady - opened as the Eastham Unit in April 1917 and now officially the J. Dale Wainwright Unit - is more than just a correctional facility; it's a century-old experiment in large-scale…

How does a town with a name like Lovelady celebrate itself? With a Lovefest, of course. Since 1983 this small town has leaned into its name every February, with the main day landing on the second Saturday of the month,…

Just a few miles outside Lovelady, near the Trinity River, sits a massive institution that has shaped this area for over a century. It opened in April of 1917 as the Eastham Unit, one of the oldest and best known…

Founded by investors of the Houston & Great Northern Railroad, the town was built on a land grant of Cyrus Lovelady, near Nevil's Prairie, Pennington, and Weldon. The U.S. Post Office opened in 1872, and by 1876, a…

You're driving past the site of the home of Samuel Cartmill Hiroms, a true Texas pioneer. Born in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1836</say-as>, his parents were among Stephen F. Austin's original "Old Three…

In 1932, in a sharecropper's cabin somewhere in this small community, one of the world's most unique musical voices was born. His name was Albert Collins, and he would become a blues legend. Known as 'The Iceman' and…

For five brief, shining years, Leona was the center of the universe in this part of Texas. When Leon County was organized in 1846, Leona was chosen as its first county seat. A log courthouse went up, and all official…

You're driving past Creek Cemetery, originally known as Georgia Camp. Addison P. and Melissa Hester donated land for a school here in 1887, and their infant son Sydney, who died in 1889, was the first person buried in…

You're driving past the site of the old town of Alabama, a key shipping point before the Civil War. Look for the marker commemorating Trinity College, chartered in 1841 as the very first institution of higher learning…

You're driving past the site of the Old Block House, a vital defense point for early settlers in this area. Established before 1836, this structure served as a refuge for Elisha Clapp and his neighbors, offering…

You're driving by the site of the Georgia Camp Baptist Church. This congregation, named for early Georgia settlers who camped nearby, was founded before 1880. During the 1880s, they sponsored two missionaries and shared…

You're driving past Harmony Cemetery, a final resting place that started with a single burial. Vincent Herlock, listed in the 1850 census with his wife and four sons, died in January of 1851. He was the first person…

By the 1940s there was barely a town left out here, but the place still had a reputation. Gamblers and sportsmen drove out to this crossroads for the horse racing and the card games. That was the entertainment on offer,…

Nobody got creative with this one. The store belonged to a man named Guy, the post office opened inside it in 1871, and the settlement simply took the storekeeper's name whole. The first postmaster was Miss Mary J.…

Watch the census numbers do a full collapse and a partial recovery. One hundred people in 1884, still 100 in 1890, then 25 by 1892. Back up to 128 by 1904, down to 50 by the 1930s, and 20 by 2009. The post office quit…

Through the 1890s this was a working crossroads. A cotton gin, a gristmill, a blacksmith shop, a general store, and both a Baptist and a Methodist congregation. By 1907 there were six schools operating in the…

In the early 20th century, Houston County was home to the Four C Mill, a major lumber operation. R.M. Keith, an agent of the Central Coal and Coke Company, began acquiring timber in 1899. By June 1902, the mill was…

You're driving past the site of Cincinnati, a town that once thrived on the Trinity River. Founded in 1838 by James C. De Witt, this was an important shipping point, bustling with activity. But by 1853, Cincinnati was…

You're driving through Leon County, right where John Durst settled in 1844. He arrived in Texas way back in 1821, and by 1835, he owned the famous Old Stone Fort in Nacogdoches. But here in Leon County, his wife,…

Sam Lightnin' Hopkins was born in Centerville, just up the road, around nineteen eleven or twelve. His father, Abe, died in nineteen fifteen, and two of Lightnin's biographers say Abe was murdered, and that Sam's oldest…

Before there was a Leona, much of the land just east of here belonged to a free Black man named Allen Dimery. In February of eighteen thirty five, when Texas was still part of Mexico and slavery was outlawed, the…

In nineteen oh one, Judge W. D. Wood wrote down a legend about the old Spanish road that ran near here. Two or three times a year, he wrote, caravans of pack mules loaded with silver came along the road between San…

West of Leona, near Flynn, a state marker tells how the Boggy community began in eighteen sixty five. Robert Bowers, called Bob, had been enslaved, and his wife, Celia North Bowers, was of the Keechi people, who had…

In November of eighteen fifty nine, a neighbor named Christopher Goodman wrote to his brother in New York: there has been some more killings going on here. A man by the name of Lewis Durst, a wealthy man, was shot dead…

You're driving past the Leona area, where William B. Middleton lived out his days. Middleton wasn't just any pioneer; he was the very first sheriff of Leon County! Before that, he was a participant in the Mier…

On a Sunday afternoon, the fifteenth of November, nineteen eighty seven, a tornado two hundred yards wide touched down in western Madison County and tracked north past Mecca to the Leon County line northeast of…

Henry Jewett was a Cambridge educated lawyer who had been private secretary to President Mirabeau Lamar, and he practiced at the very first court held here at Leona, in October of eighteen forty six. He became the…

On the third of January, eighteen fifty four, Frederick Law Olmsted, the man who later designed Central Park, came through Centerville with his brother, lost on a cow track road. They spent the night at the Centreville…

Leona is Spanish for lioness, and the lion in the sky, Leo, gives its name to the Leonid meteor shower. Every November the Earth passes through dust left by a comet that circles the sun every thirty three years, and the…

Leona is Spanish for lioness, and there's a lion myth worth fixing. The usual story is that lionesses do all the hunting while the males lie around. The National Zoo does say females are the main hunters and the males…

Leona is Spanish for lioness, and North America once had lions of its own. During the last Ice Age, the American lion ranged from southern Alaska to southern Mexico and from California to Maryland. It was about a…

Leon County is named either for Martín De León or, as another story goes, for a yellow wolf that settlers called a león. It is not named for Ponce de León. But since we're on the name: in fifteen thirteen, Juan Ponce de…

In January of eighteen forty six, a frontier Baptist preacher named Z. N. Morrell preached at Leona, and on the first Sunday of February he organized a church here with eight or nine members. He rode sixty miles every…

In eighteen oh nine, a trader reported that the main village of the Kichai people, with sixty warriors, stood near where Leona is now. An old county history says the Kichai called the surveyor's compass the land…

Thomas Greer helped work one of the Twin Sisters cannons at San Jacinto, and later settled in this country near Fort Boggy. How he died depends on who you read. The Handbook of Texas says he was killed in June of…

After the Civil War, two companies of Black federal soldiers were stationed outside Centerville to back up the Freedmen's Bureau, and according to the Handbook of Texas they were attacked several times. One soldier who…

In the late nineteen sixties, the filmmaker Les Blank followed Lightnin' Hopkins home for a short documentary called The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins, shot in Houston and in Centerville, with Lightnin' joking…

In June of two thousand, a woman living in an old Victorian house between Farm to Market eleven nineteen and Boggy Creek, east of Leona, reported ghostly howls at night. When she went out to chase off coyotes, something…

You're driving past the site of the very first courthouse built in Leon County. Back in 1846, a simple log building went up right here. It served as the heart of the young county, with officials like Chief Justice Geo.…

You're driving through East Texas, maybe near Leona, the birthplace of a blues legend: Albert Collins. Born in 1932, Collins became known as the 'Iceman' and the 'Master of the Telecaster.' He didn't just play the…

You're driving through Leon County, the home of Bruno Durst. Born in 1832, Durst was a farmer, a Texas Ranger, and a Confederate officer who saw action in major Civil War battles like Vicksburg and Mansfield. After the…

You're driving past Antioch Cemetery, originally Neville's Prairie Cemetery. It was renamed in 1890 when the community became known as Antioch. The earliest documented burial here is David Houston, who died in 1870. The…

You're driving through Leon County, Texas, a place that got its start way back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1846</say-as>. It was carved out of Robertson County and officially organized just a few months…

You're driving past Chalk Cemetery, a final resting place named for the very ground it sits on. Founded in the 1870s on land owned by Lacy Harrington, it holds the earliest documented burial of Civil War veteran Barney…

You're driving past the site of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, established in 1862 by J.M. Russell and five charter members. The congregation's first building, located about two miles west, hosted Baptist Association…

You're driving past the site where Captain Benjamin I. Harper, a veteran of Texas independence, once farmed and is traditionally buried. Harper arrived in Texas in 1833, working as a schoolmaster before heading off to…

You're driving past the site of Old Shiloh Methodist Church. Worship services were held here as early as 1834 by Stephen F. Box. A log building served as both church and school from about 1848 until it burned in 1869.…

You're driving past the Bynum Cemetery, a burial ground set aside by the Stephen Box family back in 1835. The earliest known burial here is Dicy Box Hallmark, who died in 1837. Later, the site became known as Bynum…

You're driving past the resting place of William C. Hallmark, a true Texas hero. Born in Tennessee in 1804, Hallmark made his way to Texas and fought bravely in the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive victory that won…

You're driving through Bedias, Texas, and right here is the story of Sarah Bradley Dodson. Born in Kentucky in 1812, she came to Texas as a child with Stephen F. Austin's first colonists. In 1835, as tensions with…

You're driving past the site of Fort Boggy, established back in 1840. This was the headquarters for the Boggy and Trinity Rangers, led by Captain Thomas N. B. Greer. A blockhouse was built here that year to serve as…

You're cruising through Walker County, passing the final resting place of John McAdams. He arrived here around 1840, a veteran of the Texas Revolution, and quickly became a rancher, planter, and land speculator. The…

You're cruising through Walker County, and just off the road is the McAdams Homeplace. John McAdams, a veteran of the Texas Revolution, built this house in the 1840s with his first wife. He was quite the entrepreneur –…

You're driving through the Evans Chapel community, named for settlers who arrived in 1845. In the mid-1880s, residents decided they needed a church and school. The original Evans Chapel United Methodist Church was built…

You're driving past Rock Prairie Cemetery, a final resting place with roots stretching back to the earliest days of Texas settlement. Pioneers William and Delina Hollis arrived in Texas in 1837, eventually buying land…

Interstate Forty Five through Leon County, between mile markers One Fifty One and One Sixty Eight, is the Sergeant Wade Daniel Wilson Memorial Highway. Wade Wilson played football and ran track at Centerville High…

You're driving through Leon County, near Centerville, where settlers faced a constant threat from Native American tribes. Back around 1840, families like the Middletons and Staleys were trying to make a home here, but…

You're driving past the site of Collin Aldrich, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto, the fight that won Texas its independence! After the battle, Aldrich settled down and served as the first Chief Justice of Houston…

You're driving through Walker County, and right here is the site of Cook Springs Baptist Church. Baptists first gathered here in 1901, holding services a couple miles northwest. Brother Elisha E. Day, pastor of the…

You're driving past the site of Harmony Grove Missionary Baptist Church, a pillar of the Pine Prairie community near Huntsville for over a century. Founded in 1871 when local businessman William Koehl donated land, this…

You're passing Bethel Cemetery near Bedias, the resting place of Sarah Bradley Dodson, the woman behind what many call the very first Lone Star flag. Born in Kentucky in 1812, she came to Texas as a child with Stephen…

You're driving past the Grimes County Bethel Cemetery, a resting place for Texas pioneers and a link to a community long gone. It all started in 1843 when a smallpox victim was buried here, creating the cemetery. But…

(January 8, 1812-October 9, 1848) Kentucky native Sarah Bradley came to Texas with Stephen F. Austin's Old 300 Colony in 1823. She married Archelaus B. Dodson in 1835, and made a blue, white, and red flag with a single…

You're driving through Houston County, past the site of Porter Springs. This community traces its roots back to the 1830s and Republic of Texas land grants. Originally called Porter's Spring, it was named for settler…

The world knows him as Lightnin' Hopkins, but here in Centerville, he was just Sam Hopkins, born in 1912. He grew up in a world of cotton fields and dusty roads, and his music became a living record of that life. He…

Look at the impressive Leon County Courthouse, built in 1887. That building is the reason Centerville survived. In the 1870s, when the International-Great Northern Railroad laid its tracks south, it was a death sentence…

As you drive through the rolling hills of Leon County, you're traveling over a buried source of energy. Beneath the surface lies the Wilcox Group, a formation laid down in the Paleocene and Eocene, roughly fifty million…

The highway you're on right now, Interstate 45, is the second great transportation story of Centerville. The first was the railroad that bypassed the town in the 1870s, stunting its growth. For nearly a hundred years,…

Lovelady (Lovelady, TX) placed on the 2A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Jaxon Duncan (2 HR); Ryder Lovell (2 HR).

You're driving through Houston County, passing the site of where Archie Adams settled in 1873. A Confederate veteran, farmer, and store owner, Adams also served as an election judge and county commissioner. His detailed…

You're driving past Lovelady, home of the Rev. Thomas Nelms Mainer. Born right here in 1877, Mainer edited the local newspaper before heading to seminary. He served as a pastor in the area, but his impact didn't stop…

You're driving past the Crabbs Prairie area, home to a remarkable Texan who lived a long, full life. Mark Manning served in the American Revolution, fighting for independence from North Carolina. After living in South…

You're driving past the site of Wooters, a company town that sprang up around the Houston-Leon County Coal Company. Back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1900</say-as>, this company formed to mine lignite, a…

You're driving past the original site of Rogers Prairie, a Texas settlement that started way back in 1835. Robert Rogers, who received a land grant from Mexico, set up home here, and soon others joined him. A whole…

You're driving through Lovelady, a town born from the railroad boom. Back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1872</say-as>, investors with the Houston and Great Northern Railroad laid tracks through land granted…

You're driving past the C.R. Rich Building in Lovelady, completed in 1906. Charles Rufus Rich built this place as a general store downstairs and his home upstairs. You can still see some of the original Italianate…

You're driving past the Lovelady Evergreen Cemetery, a community graveyard that dates back to the 1870s. The first recorded burial here was Parham Bridges Baker in 1878, and by 1885, about 20 people were laid to rest in…

You're driving through Lovelady, where this United Methodist Church was organized back in 1872, the same year the town was founded. Services were held in the Presbyterian sanctuary at this site for years before the…

You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Lovelady. Baptist activity here began with a union Sunday school around 1876, and a formal congregation was mentioned by 1879. The church shared its first…