Name: Pittsburg, Texas
Address: Pittsburg, TX

Pittsburg, TX RoadyGoat

Pittsburg is a place where the land shapes the people. Drive through the county and you'll see it – row after row of chicken houses, stretching as far as the eye can see. Poultry is king here. It's not just a job; it's woven into the fabric of the town. Families have been raising chickens for generations, some starting back when the industry first took hold in Northeast Texas. The sandy soil, well-drained and slightly acidic, isn't ideal for many crops, but it's perfect for building poultry houses. The abundance of loblolly pines also played a role – providing readily available lumber for construction. What began as a few farmers supplementing their income eventually blossomed into a major industry. Pittsburg became a hub, drawing in processing plants and related businesses. It's a demanding way of life, but it provides a stable livelihood for many families. You can feel the impact of agriculture throughout town, from the bustling feed stores to the friendly faces you see at the local diner. It's why Pittsburg feels like home to so many people.

The Pre-Wright Brothers Flight of Pittsburg RoadyGoat

Here in Pittsburg, you're in the home of one of aviation's most curious tales. In 1902, a year before the Wright Brothers' famous flight at Kitty Hawk, a local inventor and Baptist minister named Burrell Cannon claimed to have achieved flight. Funded by a group of local investors calling themselves the Ezekiel Airship Company, Cannon built a craft based on his reading of the Book of Ezekiel in the Bible. It was a wild machine, with a lightweight frame, fabric-covered paddle wheels for wings, and a four-cylinder gasoline engine. According to local legend, on a Sunday that November, with Cannon away preaching, a foundry worker named Gus Stamps and a few fellow workers rolled the machine out to a cow pasture just outside of town to try it. It rose about ten or twelve feet off the ground, drifted sideways toward a fence, and when the engine began shaking hard, Stamps cut the power and brought it to rest about a hundred and sixty feet from where it started. The story is unverified, a piece of local folklore. But you can see a full-scale, meticulously built replica of this incredible machine at the Northeast Texas Rural Heritage Museum downtown and decide for yourself.

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The Racing Legend from East Texas RoadyGoat

You are in the hometown territory of an American icon, a man who changed the world of performance cars forever: Carroll Shelby. Born in nearby Leesburg in 1923, Shelby kept a place here in Pittsburg in his later years, raising miniature horses and African cattle—and he's buried just up the road in the Leesburg Cemetery. This is the man who took a lightweight British AC Ace roadster, stuffed a powerful Ford V8 engine into it, and created the legendary Shelby Cobra. He went on to lead the Ford GT40 program that swept the top three places at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966, ending Ferrari's reign, and developed the iconic Shelby Mustangs. His story is pure Texas grit and genius. To get a feel for his legacy, you can visit the Northeast Texas Rural Heritage Museum right here in Pittsburg, which keeps a permanent display of his racing memorabilia. It's a tribute to the local boy who went from raising chickens to becoming a global automotive legend.

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Shelby, Carroll Hall

1923

Born on January 11, 1923, in Leesburg, Camp County, Texas, Carroll Hall Shelby was a famous automobile driver and designer and, prior to his death, one of the world's longest-living heart transplant recipients. He was the only son of Warren Hall Shelby and Francis Etoise (Lawrence) Shelby and older brother to Lou Ann "Anne" (Shelby) Ellison. His father was a U. S. postal worker and car buff who did his rounds by automobile. As a child Shelby sometimes accompanied him on these post rounds as well as to local auto races. He spent his first seven years in Leesburg and then moved with his family to Dallas. At a very young age Shelby was diagnosed with a heart murmur and was required to take daily bed rest for most of his childhood. Upon graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas in 1940, Shelby enrolled at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he entered the aeronautical engineering program, but never completed his degree. He enlisted in the U. S. Army Air Corps on April 11, 1941. Shelby completed his basic training at Randolph Air Force Base and was posted to Kelly Field (later named Kelly Air Force Base ), Cuero Field , Perrin Army Air Field , Ellington Field , and Childress Army Air Field . He served as a flight instructor and test pilot for the Beechcraft AT-11 Kansan and Curtiss AT-9 Jeep. In 1942 Shelby graduated as a staff sergeant at Ellington Field. Later that year he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He left the service in August 1945. Two years prior, on December 18, 1943, Shelby married his first wife, Vivian Jeanne Fields, who mothered his three children, Sharon Anne (born in 1944), Michael Hall (born in 1946), and Patrick Bert (born in 1947). Shelby and his wife divorced sixteen years later in February 1960. By the time of his death, Shelby had married at least six other women: Janet R. "Jan" Harrison (in 1962), Sue Stafford (in 1963), Sandra Brandstetter, Cynthia Psaros (in 1989), Helena Dahl (1990-97), and Cleo Patra Roberts (1997-2012). In 1949 Shelby went into business raising chickens. His first batch of chickens gave him a $5,000 profit, but a subsequent batch was devastated by disease and bankrupted him. In January 1952 Shelby entered his first race, a quarter-mile drag meet in which he drove a flathead Ford V8-powered hot rod built by Ed Wilkins, a friend from high school. Later that year Wilkins drove up to his home in an MG TC and invited him to drive the car in a drag meet in Norman, Oklahoma, where Shelby won two races. On November 23 Shelby won the Texas Region of the Sports Car Club of America race at Caddo Mills. In August 1953, during a race at Eagle Mountain National Guard Base near Fort Worth, he drove in a pair of striped bib overalls, which became his signature outfit. In January 1954 he drove the Mil Kilometros de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, sponsored by the Automobile Club of Argentina, where he caught the eye of John Wyer, the team manager of Aston Martin. Later that year Shelby drove DBR3s for Aston Martin in several races, including the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. In November 1954 he was badly injured during the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico. He continued to drive in early 1955 with his arm in a cast and his hand taped to the steering wheel. From 1955 to 1957 Shelby won more than half of the eighty-one races he entered, set multiple records, and traveled the world. In 1956 he was sponsored by John Edgar, for whom he drove Ferraris and Maseratis. In both 1956 and 1957 Shelby was featured as Sports Illustrated magazine's Driver of the Year. In early 1957 he partnered with Dick Hall, a former sponsor, to open Carroll Shelby Sports Cars of Dallas. That September, while driving Edgar's 4.5-liter Maserati 450S during practice for the Riverside International Raceway in California, Shelby spun it into a dirt embankment. After the accident he had to have plastic surgery on his face and three vertebrae fused in his neck. In November he memorably won the 100-mile rac

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Cash, Christine Benton

1911

Christine Benton Cash, teacher, administrator, and civil-rights activist, was born on August 9, 1889, in the New Zion Baptist Church community, eight miles southwest of Jefferson in Marion County, Texas, the second child of James and Kizzia (Dotson) Benton. She attended Central Elementary School in Jefferson from 1898 to 1902 and Bishop College Academy in Marshall from 1902 to 1906; she was the first honor graduate of both the normal school and the scientific college preparatory department of the academy. Upon completion of county and state examinations, she began her professional career with a contract to teach in a one-room school in Marion County. For five years she taught in rural schools, during which time she successfully lobbied to lengthen the school year for black children from five to eight months. In 1909 she married Larry Brown Cash of Pittsburg, Texas, with whom she had two sons. At the time of their marriage Larry Cash was principal of the Center Point school, ten miles east of Pittsburg. He was the state treasurer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and later left the teaching profession for the ministry. In 1911, when he resigned as principal of the Center Point school, Christine took his place. The following year planning began for a community high school. In 1916 a building was erected that had five classrooms and an industrial lab. Financing came from a bond issue and local subscription. The school comprised eleven grades in 1918, and in 1928 it became a state-accredited school with twelve grades. Cash continued as principal of the school until 1949. By 1937 the Center Point Training School had an enrollment of 289 students, representing seven counties in Northeast Texas. Monthly tuition was paid in specie or in kind, and students could defray part of their expenses by working at the school. The school had ten teachers, a fourteen-acre campus, and six buildings, all but one of them built by the students. Facilities included a library, which was open to the public, a cannery, a farm shop, and a home economics building. The school raised crops on its own acreage and on other land that it rented. During Cash's tenure the value of the physical plant increased from $100 to $100,000. She was responsible for the installation of rural electrification ; health, sanitation, and home-improvement projects; and cultural enrichment programs. She encouraged the intermediate-grade teachers to institute extracurricular reading programs for students. Those who read thirty books during the year received reading certificates. When the books on the state-approved list did not interest the students, she asked for and received permission to include books about African Americans . As a result more students entered the program and received reading certificates. ( see EDUCATION FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS and VOCATIONAL EDUCATION ) Christine Cash attended the summer session at Hampton Institute in Virginia in 1919, 1922, and 1923. She attended Bishop College in 1925-26, and received her B.A. She earned an M.A. degree from Atlanta University in 1943 and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1947, thus becoming one of the first Texas-born black women to earn a doctorate. In 1948 she was a member of the statewide legislative committee that initiated public school reforms ( see GILMER-AIKEN LAWS ). From 1951 to 1955 she participated in the Southwestern Cooperative Project in Education Administration. From 1948 to 1958 she taught education and sociology at Bishop College, where she served as secretary of the graduate division of education. From 1958 to 1965 she taught at Jarvis Christian College ; she was chairman of the division of social sciences from 1958 to 1960 and chairman of the division of teacher education and certification from 1962 to 1965. A serious automobile accident in 1966 forced her to retire from her professional duties at Jarvis. She spent her last years in Marshall, writing her autobiograp

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Ezekiel Airship, The

1902

Baptist minister and inventor Burrell Cannon (1848-1922) led some Pittsburg investors to establish the Ezekiel airship Company and build a craft described in the Biblical book of Ezekiel. The ship had large, fabric-covered wings powered by an engine that turned four sets of paddles. It was built in a nearby machine shop and was briefly airborne at this site late in 1902, a year before the Wright brothers first flew. Enroute to the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, the airship was destroyed by a storm. In 1913 a second model crashed, and the Rev. Cannon gave up the project. (1976)

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Site of First Carnegie Library in Texas

1898

At 1898 request of firm mining coal in Pittsburg, philanthropist Andrew Carnegie gave $5,000.00 to match local pledges and build the first Carnegie Library (of 31) in Texas on this site. The masonry building was also the opera house and city hall. Library had 3,000 books. It became a social center, with meeting rooms for clubs and groups such as ladies sewing for World War I hospitals. The opera house staged professional drama and lectures and was used for graduations and recitals until modern school was built in 1926. The library burned in 1939. (1973)

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Sheppard, John L., Home

1884

Home of the Sheppard family from 1884, when the house was built, until 1891. During that time John L. Sheppard (1852-1902) served as district attorney and then judge for Fifth Judicial District. In 1899 he was elected to U. s. Congress and died in office. His son, Morris Sheppard (1875-1941), succeeded him in congress, then served with distinction in U. S. Senate from 1913-1951. House has eight fireplaces and secret passageway between floors. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1974

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Pittsburg, Texas

Music in Pittsburg

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History of Pittsburg

Pittsburg, TX RoadyGoat

The Pre-Wright Brothers Flight of Pittsburg RoadyGoat

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Shelby, Carroll Hall

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Ezekiel Airship, The

Site of First Carnegie Library in Texas

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