Quitman, Texas

Constructed in 1869 of virgin pine and oak by James A. Stinson, a widower who came to Texas in 1868 from Georgia after having served as a colonel in the Confederate Army. He brought with him his daughter Sallie. He…

You're driving through Quitman, and you're passing the site of the first brick structure ever built in Wood County. Look to your right! This home was erected in 1859 by James and Harriet Collins, who came here from…

The actress Sissy Spacek is famous for playing small-town characters with incredible depth, and that’s because she knows them firsthand. She grew up right here in Quitman. Her father was the county agricultural agent, a…

Quitman is a small town, but it's got a story to tell. You feel it in the air here – the gentle roll of the hills, the friendly waves you get driving down Main Street. It's a place where Friday night lights still mean…

Quitman has a special connection to one of Texas's most legendary political figures, Governor James Stephen Hogg. He wasn't born here — he was born near Rusk — but Quitman is where he made himself. In the early 1870s he…

The biggest modern story in Quitman is an incredible feat of engineering and ecological design: Lake Fork Reservoir. When the Sabine River Authority of Texas built the dam on Lake Fork Creek in the late 1970s, the goal…

Standing at the center of Quitman is the Wood County courthouse, the institution that has anchored this town since 1850. But in the 1870s a new one threatened to make it irrelevant. The Texas and Pacific was building…

If you happen to be driving through Quitman when the reunion is on, you will notice the whole town buzzing. You would be witnessing a tradition that goes back to 1898, when Wood County folks first gathered to mark the…

You're driving past the site of Flora Lodge, founded as Quitman Masonic Lodge back in 1852. It was named Flora Lodge on Christmas Day of that same year, and its original furniture cost just over ten dollars. The lodge…

You're driving through Wood County, created in 1850 and organized the same year. It's named for George T. Wood, who served as Governor of Texas from 1847 to 1849. Quitman is the county seat.

Lake Fork Reservoir is on Lake Fork Creek in the Sabine River basin five miles northwest of Quitman in Wood County (at 32°48' N, 95°32' W). Though most of the reservoir is in northwestern Wood County, it also inundates…

Hainesville is at the intersection of Farm roads 49 and 778, seven miles southeast of Quitman in southeastern Wood County. There were settlers in the area as early as 1845, and several families were living in the…

Holly Springs (Holly Spring) was seven miles northeast of Pine Mills (then Liberty Hill) and probably near Gunstream Lake in east central Wood County. The Holly Springs community was named after the nearby natural…

Little Hope is at the intersection of Farm roads 154 and 312, ten miles east of Quitman in eastern Wood County. The old Little Hope church and cemetery are about 1½ miles north of the community, which is…

Speer, also known as Stinson and as Stinson's Mill, was near Big Sandy Creek and the present route of Farm Road 312 three miles northeast of Pine Mills and eleven miles east of Quitman in eastern Wood County. The area…

Stout is on Farm Road 312 six miles south of Winnsboro and ten miles northeast of Quitman in northeast Wood County. Both the community and a nearby creek were named after Capt. Henry Stout , who around 1848 was one of…

You're driving through Wood County, near the waters of Lake Fork. Right here, over a thousand years ago, was a bustling Caddoan settlement known as the Taddlock Site. Between the years 1037 and 1070, people lived and…

You're driving through Wood County, and right here is the site of Webster, one of the oldest settlements in this area. It all started back in 1854 when Gilbert Smith Matthews bought this land and named it after…

Cloverhill (Clover Hill, Clover Hill Church) is on Farm Road 69 five miles northeast of Quitman in north central Wood County. In 1856 the area was settled by families from Georgia and Alabama, who the next year built…

Redlands (Redland), also known as Weimer (Weimar) and Macedonia, was a sawmill community in southeast Wood County twelve miles southeast of Quitman, the county seat, at the intersection of Farm roads 778 and 3056.…

You're driving through Wood County, and right here is Perryville. This community sprung up around the intersection of Farm roads 2088 and 852, eight miles southeast of Winnsboro. Its story really begins in 1853, when…

You're driving through Wood County, heading west of Winnsboro. Right here is the site of Pleasant Grove. It started in 1872, likely named for the big oak trees, when Henry Robinson opened a blacksmith shop. By 1896, it…

Cartwright is on Farm Road 1643 seven miles northeast of Quitman in north central Wood County. The Cartwright area, which probably had settlers as early as 1851, was first called the Barrens because of its isolation and…

Coke is on Farm roads 515 and 69, ten miles north of Quitman in northern Wood County. Though the area was settled as early as the 1850s, a community did not develop until the discovery of coal southwest of the area. By…

Crow is at the intersection of Farm Road 778, U.S. Highway 80, and the Missouri Pacific Railroad, fourteen miles southeast of Quitman in southeastern Wood County. The site was called Graham when a railroad station was…

Fouke is on Farm Road 2869 three miles northeast of Crow and less than a mile west of Lake Hawkins in southeast Wood County. A community called Center was said to exist in the southern part of the county as early as…

Golden Rule, also known as Greer's Neighborhood, was four miles east of Mineola on what later became Farm Road 49 in southern Wood County. The community was probably first named for Gaines Greer, recipient of a land…

Golden is at the intersection of Farm roads 1799 and 779, just off U.S. Highway 69 four miles northwest of Mineola in southwest Wood County. Though the area was settled as early as 1865, the community did not begin to…

Hoard, also known as Democrat, is at the intersection of Farm Road 1801 and U.S. Highway 80-which parallels the Missouri Pacific line-six miles east of Mineola in southern Wood County. Sometime before 1870 a one-room…

Mount Pisgah was a rural community at the intersection of Farm Road 49 and several soil-surfaced roads, two miles west of Pine Mills and nine miles southeast of Quitman in southeastern Wood County. A Texas Historical…

Ogburn, also known as Jim Hogg, is just off Farm Road 2088 and fifteen miles east of Quitman in eastern Wood County. In 1897 the W. G. Ragley Lumber Company of Winnsboro built a tramline through the area to carry logs;…

Peach, also known as Genevie Switch and Elberta, was fifteen miles east of Quitman in eastern Wood County. The area was settled as early as the 1850s and by 1870 had a sawmill and gristmill operated by J. H. Saxon. No…

Pine Mills, also known as Liberty Hill and as Reedsville, is at the intersection of Farm roads 14, 49, and 312 ten miles southeast of Quitman in southeastern Wood County. As early as 1850 a sawmill community called…

Rock Hill is near Farm Road 2966 seven miles north of Quitman in northwestern Wood County and extends two miles farther north near the intersection of Farm roads 2966 and 515 (the latter road is known locally as the…

Smith, also known as Terrapin Neck, is just north of the intersection of Farm roads 2659 and 2911 and three miles northeast of Hawkins at the Upshur county line in southeastern Wood County. Settlers from Alabama,…

You're driving through Wood County, near Quitman, where the land beneath your wheels might just be ancient history. Back in 1966, road construction unearthed an Indian Cemetery and the remnants of six villages. When…

You're driving through Wood County, passing Clover Hill Cemetery. This spot was chosen by settlers from Georgia and Alabama back in 1856, who also built their Baptist Church here. In 1868, a young boy known as 'Little…

You're driving past Concord Cemetery, established in the 1870s by settlers of the Concord Community. The earliest marked grave here belongs to Velinda Wood, dated July 31st, 1875. Today, it's the final resting place for…

You're driving past Sand Springs Cemetery, originally Big Spring Cemetery. It was formally set aside for burials in 1860 when Matthew Cartwright conveyed seven acres to the Big Spring Baptist Church. The grounds were…

You're driving through Quitman, where the Rock Hill Baptist Church was organized in 1870. It started in a schoolhouse on Coke Road, and the first church building wasn't constructed until 1892. The congregation has…

You're driving past Mineola, where Wood County held its very first election on August 5th, 1850. It all happened under a giant post oak tree on Gaines Greer's farm. Twenty men gathered to organize the county, pick a…

You're driving through Mineola, a town that grew up with its utilities. Back in 1886, an artesian well and an ice factory opened, bringing new conveniences. By the early 1900s, phone service was up and running, and by…

You're driving through Golden, and right here is the Reneau Building, a place that was the heart of this town for decades. It started in 1913 as a home for the local Masonic Lodge, but by 1916, it was also a general…

Golden, Texas — population not much — put Kacey Musgraves on a stage before the world ever heard her. As a teenager she opened for Ray Wylie Hubbard at a little East Texas venue, which is about as real a country…

Golden, Texas, it’s a small place, no doubt. Drive through, and you might not even realize you’d passed anything more than a wide spot in the road. But what’s grown here, right out of this sandy East Texas soil, has a…

You're driving through Mineola, a town born from railroads. Back in the 1880s, fire was a constant threat. Imagine this: one night, eighteen downtown buildings went up in flames! Residents rebuilt with brick, but the…

You're driving past the site of the Mineola Masonic Lodge, chartered in 1879. It started with 17 members, growing to 48 by year's end. Among its early members was William Jesse McDonald, a future Texas Ranger. The…

You're driving by the site of Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church, one of the oldest fellowships in Wood County. It began as Holly Springs Baptist Church of Christ, with its first meeting in 1853 at the home of pastor J. D. J.…

Just east of Alba lies a marvel of both engineering and accidental ecology: Lake Fork Reservoir. Construction started in 1975, and the Sabine River Authority closed the dam in February 1980. The purpose was purely…

In 2008, the town of Alba received national attention following the Caffey family murders. This tragic event brought the small community into the spotlight, highlighting the impact of such incidents on even the most…

If you were here around 1911, the air would have been thick with the smell of coal smoke. Lignite - soft, brown, low-grade coal - turned up in the ground near Alba around 1900, lying close enough to the surface that men…

Just as the coal era was ending, Alba got what looked like a second chance. In 1948 a wildcatter named F. R. Jackson brought in the Alba oilfield just south of town, and for a while the roads around here were busy with…

You're driving through Mineola, a town born from railroads in 1873. Almost immediately, settlers saw the need for schools, leading to private academies and education for the African American community. By 1902, a bond…

You're driving past the Callaway House in Mineola, built around 1892 by Lorenzo Dow Callaway and his wife Elizabeth. Lorenzo was a businessman and served as mayor here, but sadly died in the 1918 flu epidemic. This…

You're driving past the site of East Point Missionary Baptist Church near Winnsboro. Land was donated in 1878 for a church and school. The church itself was established in 1893 by twelve charter members, with services…

One of the most influential politicians in modern California got his start right here in Mineola. Willie Brown was born in 1934 and grew up in the Black part of town, south of the railroad tracks, where the boundaries…

The town of Mineola exists because of a race. Look at a map and you'll see two historic rail lines crossing here in a near-perfect plus sign, but that crossing wasn't the product of cooperating engineers picking a spot…

Mineola High School (Mineola, TX): Most recent: 35-14 over Yoakum · 2016 3A Division 1 final.

If you listen to the music of Kacey Musgraves, you're hearing the sound of modern East Texas. She was born up the road in Sulphur Springs and grew up in tiny Golden, but she's a proud graduate of Mineola High School,…

The building that best tells Mineola's story is the historic depot downtown. Built in 1906 by the Missouri Pacific, this station was the town's heart — in a town that railroads had created in the first place, when two…

Mineola (Mineola, TX) placed on the 3A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Matthew Ballew (0.561 avg, 2 HR).

Just on the edge of town is one of Mineola's newest and wildest success stories: the Mineola Nature Preserve. Spanning nearly 3,000 acres along the Sabine River, it's a huge expanse of wetlands, forests, and prairies.…

You're driving past the site of a home built by Harry W. Meredith, a man who left a huge mark on Mineola. Originally from Kentucky, Meredith came to Texas around 1907. He got into banking in 1908, eventually leading…

You're driving past Wisener Field, the site of one of the first airports in Texas! On July 4th, 1917, a U.S. Army Signal Corps pilot landed a Curtis JN-4D 'Jenny' biplane right here. Back then, it was called Massengale…

You're driving past the site of a library that started with a vision from a teacher named Vivian Williams Lott, who saw a need back in 1913. After a stalled effort in 1940, Mineola finally got its public library in…

You're cruising through Mineola, and you're passing the spot where a true Texas legend got his start: William Jesse McDonald. Born in Mississippi in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1852</say-as>, McDonald came to…

You're driving through Mineola, a town that holds a special place in Texas history. Look around, because this is the birthplace of Ima Hogg, born right here on July 10th, 1882. Daughter of Governor James S. Hogg, Ima…

You're driving past the site where Sarah Rosalie Patten Buchanan lived out her later years. Born in 1855, Rosa was a Quitman native who married John Creighton Buchanan. Tragedy struck early when she was widowed at just…

You're driving through Mineola, and for a few decades here, the opera house was the heart of social life. From the 1870s to the 1910s, rail lines brought famous artists and musicians right to town. Imagine seeing…

You're driving past the Lott House in Mineola, a beautiful example of early 20th-century architecture. Angus and Lena Beaird started building this home in 1918, finishing it in the early 1920s. It showcases Prairie…

You're driving past the O. P. Pyle House in Mineola, a home built in 1903 and 1904 for a man who was a leading voice for farmers during Texas's progressive era. Pyle was also a national spokesman for their concerns, and…

You're driving past Mineola, where Thomas Breen, an Irish immigrant, arrived in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1873</say-as> to work for the Texas & Pacific Railroad. He became the town's very first ticket…

You're driving past the historic Mineola Post Office. Postal service here started way back in 1873 with an unofficial office in a drugstore, but the official U.S. Post Office wasn't granted until 1875. This building you…

You're driving past the site of the First National Bank of Mineola, chartered way back in May of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1898</say-as>! With a starting capital of fifty thousand dollars, it was led by…

You're driving past the former site of the Barney B. Hart House, a Mineola landmark that stood for over a century. Built in 1906 by J.J. McLeod for attorney Barney B. Hart, this two-story home was a beautiful example of…

You're driving past the former home of Owen Pinkney Pyle, a journalist who championed Texas farmers. Born in Arkansas in 1867, Pyle became editor of the Mineola 'Courier' and was key in founding both the Texas Farm…

You're driving past the Williams Medical Clinic Building in Mineola. Dr. James W. Williams, a Mineola native, opened his practice here in 1946 after serving in World War II. He built this state-of-the-art facility in…

You're driving through Mineola, and right here, you're passing the heart of a community that weathered the Great Depression. During the tough years of the 1930s, federal programs like the WPA and CWA put Mineola…

You're driving past Select Theater. The Select Theater was the seventh in a long line of Mineola venues dating from 1886. Mrs. Martha (Mattie) Hooks named the theater for Select Pictures, a Texas motion picture…

You're driving past the site of Mineola's First Baptist Church. The congregation started holding services in 1873, formally organizing as a Baptist church in 1875. Their first frame building, Powell's Chapel, was…

In 1873, Mineola came into existence as railroads built lines through the eastern part of Texas. The Texas and Pacific and the International-Great Northern raced to reach Mineola first, with the I-GN arriving 15 minutes…

You're driving past Mineola, where Cadwell Walton Raines, a man of many talents, made his mark. He arrived in Texas as a boy in 1853 and went on to serve as a Confederate soldier, a preacher, a teacher, a lawyer, and a…

You're driving through Mineola, Texas, a place that played a crucial role in the early political career of James Stephen Hogg. From 1868 to 1882, Hogg lived right here in Wood County, laying the groundwork for his…

You're driving through Mineola, and right here is the site of the Coleman Family Drug Store and Clinic. The Coleman family arrived from Alabama in 1897, and by 1902, Dr. Walter Coleman opened this pharmacy. He was known…

You're driving through Mineola, and right here, at the intersection of Highway 80 and Johnson Street, was once the heart of the town's water supply. Back in 1885, folks knew this area was rich in water. But it wasn't…

You're driving past Mineola, a town that owes its very existence to the railroad. Back in 1873, the Texas & Pacific Railroad was building west, and the Houston & Great Northern was building north. Communities popped up…

You're driving through Wood County, near Quitman, where a community called Little Indiana sprung up around 1900. Indiana families, led by John M. Hart and Roland Alexander, came here seeking timber and rich soil. But…

You're driving through Mineola, and just ahead is the First National Bank Building. Chartered way back in 1898, the bank operated out of a few spots before building this beauty in 1912. It replaced the Mineola…

You're driving past downtown Mineola, where Jewish immigrants began arriving by train shortly after the city's founding in 1873. Many established businesses right around here, like the Munzesheimer, Sodekson, Mayer, and…

You're driving through Mineola, a town that owes its very existence to a furious railroad race. Back in the summer of 1873, two lines, the Houston and Great Northern and the Texas and Pacific, were barreling towards a…

You're driving past the site of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Mineola. Founded in 1871 by Rev. John Branham in a pioneer home, the congregation built its first sanctuary just two years later. The church…

You're driving past the site of the Pleasant Grove School. Land for this community school and its cemetery was donated in the 1870s, and the school grew from a log cabin to larger buildings. Professor D. Speer named it…

You're driving past the site of New Hope Baptist Church. This fellowship started as a Baptist Church of Christ in 1864, reorganized in 1890 as Stephen's Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, honoring elder Stephen Kelley.…

You're driving past the area where Captain Henry Stout made his home. He arrived in Texas way back in 1818, and some reports say he even helped David Crockett plan his famous route to the Alamo. Stout himself served in…

You're driving past the site of Hopewell Church, established in 1855. It started with a brush arbor and log house before moving to this three-acre plot donated in 1876 for church and cemetery use. The church building…

You're driving through Mineola, and right here is a marker for a team that's mostly forgotten today: the Mineola Black Spiders. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, African-American baseball teams played separately from…

You're driving through Mineola, passing the site where Dr. Adolph Leander Patten lived and practiced medicine. Born in North Carolina in 1823, Patten first opened a practice in Georgia before heading west with his…

You're driving past the Mineola area, the former stomping grounds of John Creighton Buchanan. Born in Louisiana, Buchanan set up his law practice in Quitman and quickly rose to prominence. In 1876, he became the first…

You're driving past Mineola, where George C. Reeves arrived in 1873, just as the town was getting started. Reeves wasn't just a local businessman; he played a key role in the state penitentiary system as a transfer…

You're driving through Mineola, and just ahead is a marker for Richard Malcolm Smith. Born in Kentucky in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1852</say-as>, Smith came to Texas young and jumped into journalism,…

You're driving past Mineola, where Robert N. Stafford made his mark. Born in Georgia in 1856, Stafford arrived here in 1880 and quickly became a prominent figure. He served as county attorney, district attorney, and…

You're driving through East Texas, and right here in Mineola, you're near the birthplace of Ima Hogg. Born in 1882, Miss Ima, as she was known, wasn't just the daughter of a Texas governor; she was a force of nature in…

You're driving through East Texas, maybe near Mineola, and you're passing the place where a songwriting legend got his start. Andrew Jackson "Jack" Rhodes was born here in Van Zandt County in 1908. After a back injury…

You're driving near Mineola, the birthplace of Barney McKinney Giles, a man who rose from a Texas farm to become a top commander in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. Giles enlisted in 1917 and steadily…

You're driving through Mineola, Texas, the birthplace of Paul Russell, a groundbreaking African-American ballet dancer. Born in 1947, Russell shattered barriers, becoming the first Black dancer to perform Siegfried in a…

You're driving through Mineola, a town born from a railroad race. Back before 1873, this spot was called Sodom. But then, two railroad companies, the Texas and Pacific and the International-Great Northern, raced to see…

Noble Henry Willingham Jr. was a much sought after character actor who appeared in film and television from 1970 until the year before his death in 2004. Usually cast as an insightful "good old boy," his characters…

You're driving through East Texas, not far from Mineola, the birthplace of Benjamin Franklin Giles. He was an Air Force general, born in 1892 on a farm right here. Giles saw action in World War I, flying over enemy…

You're driving through East Texas, not far from Mineola, where Robert Byron Giles, Sr. was born. He could have been a pro baseball pitcher, even had an offer from Cleveland! But Giles chose medicine instead, heading to…

You're driving through East Texas, maybe near Mineola, where Owen Pinkney Pyle made his mark. Pyle was a farmer turned farmer's advocate, a powerhouse speaker for the Farmers' Alliance in the late 1800s. He even bought…

You're driving through Wood County, a place with a rich history tied to the East Texas timberlands. Back in 1873, a tiny village called Sodom existed right here, with only about twenty residents. But then, the Texas and…

Lake Fork, the reason modern Yantis thrives, is a masterpiece of ecological engineering. When the Sabine River Authority planned the reservoir in the 1970s, they did more than just build a dam. Their goal was to create…

Yantis, Texas, has a rich history that dates back to the early settlement by Harry M. Matthews in 1860. The town's development accelerated with the operation of a gristmill and cotton gin by J. Singleton by 1870. In…

You're driving through Wood County, passing the New Hope Cemetery. It began around 1864, linked to the New Hope Baptist Church. The earliest marked grave is from 1875, but leaders sold the land to the church for a…

You're driving through East Texas, near Alba, the birthplace of Leon Roger Payne. Born in 1917, Payne lost the sight in one eye as a child and the other later, but that didn't stop him from becoming a legendary country…

You're driving past Shady Grove Cemetery, one of Wood County's oldest burial grounds. It started with pioneer settlers like Reuben Elledge, who arrived around <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1845</say-as>.…

You're driving through Wood County, and right here is Alba, a town that boomed thanks to coal. Around 1900, lignite coal was discovered nearby, and soon railroads were built to haul it out. By 1911, five mines around…

You're driving through Wood County, heading towards Mineola. Keep an eye out for a marker honoring Martin Varner. He was a volunteer soldier who fought in the decisive Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, the fight that…

You're driving through Wood County, following the Sabine River, a place that's been home to the Caddo people for over a thousand years. <break time="400ms"/> By the early 1800s, American settlers were moving in, finding…

You're driving through Wood County, and right here is the final resting place of Martin Varner. He came to Texas before 1820, a pioneer who partnered with Henry Jones to run a trading post. Varner was one of Stephen F.…

You're driving through Wood County, and just ahead is the site of the Macedonia School. Established in 1885, this was one of the very first one-teacher schools in the county. It served the community of Macedonia, later…

You're driving past the site of Little Hope Missionary Baptist Church, organized in 1881 by Elder Jacob Ziegler and Deacon P. M. Gunstream. Legend says the church got its name because folks doubted it would last, but it…

You're driving past the site of Smith Chapel United Methodist Church. Organized around 1885 as Davis Chapel, it was renamed Democrat Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and finally Smith Chapel. The current sanctuary was…

You're driving through Yantis, a community named for its very first postmaster, George R. Yantis. He arrived and by 1890 was running a gristmill and gin right here. By the late 1800s, Yantis was a bustling hub with…

You're driving past the site of the Black Oak Baptist Church, named for the trees around it. The congregation was organized in 1856 by Elders John J. D. Davis and Daniel Ramsey, with eight charter members. The current…

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

You're driving through Wood County, heading towards Quitman. About 1853, Benjamin and Alice Lee, fresh from North Carolina, settled here and bought over 1200 acres. They ran a massive cotton plantation, using slave…

As you cross the railroad tracks running through the heart of Winnsboro, know that they are the reason this town is still here. Winnsboro was founded in 1854 when an Englishman named John E. Winn and his stepson bought…

The fields and forests around Winnsboro tell a story of hedging your bets. This was never a one-crop town. As far back as 1861, before the railroad, the local economy already leaned on four things at once - timber,…

Walk into downtown Winnsboro and look for Market Street — people here have called it The Bowery for well over a century. In the late 1800s, while Main Street handled the town's respectable business, The Bowery was where…

Winnsboro was founded in the 1850s, with the establishment of a post office between 1854 and 1855. This marked the beginning of the city's growth and development in northeastern Texas.

You're driving through East Texas, not far from where the last Cherokee War Camp of the Republic of Texas once stood. Imagine soldiers under Generals Rusk and Burleson, mustering out after a decisive victory. It was…

You're driving past the Carlock Home, built in 1903 by Marcus DeWitt Carlock, Sr. This wasn't just any mansion; Carlock was a prominent attorney, a Confederate courier, and a political leader who even served as a member…

You're driving through East Texas, near Winnsboro, where Mary Elizabeth Suiter made history. She wasn't just any attorney; she was the first woman to practice law in Wood County and the first woman to try a criminal…

You're driving past the Lankford-Stinson House in Winnsboro. Built around the early 1890s for a local merchant, this grand home wasn't always this size. It was expanded and remodeled into its current, stately form in…

You're driving through Winnsboro, a town that owes its start to an Englishman named John E. Wynn. It began in the early 1850s, first spelled Wynnsborough, but by the time the post office opened in 1855, it was…

You're driving past the site of Winnsboro's First Presbyterian Church. Organized in 1871 with former members of the Webster Presbyterian church, their first building was on land donated by Nancy Cook. The congregation…

You're driving through Smith County, past the site of the Flewellen-Thweatt Cemetery. This quiet resting place began in 1861, when Frances Maria Drake Flewellen was buried here after moving to Texas from Georgia and…

You're driving through Winnsboro, where the First Baptist Church began as Providence Baptist in 1872. They changed their name in 1880 and built a sanctuary here in 1904, which was later replaced in 1960. A famous…

You're driving through Winnsboro, where the First Methodist Church was organized way back in 1859. It was the very first religious group in town! The congregation disbanded during the Civil War but reorganized in 1869.…

You're driving through East Texas, near Lindale, where a historic trail once stretched. In 1788, Pierre Vial and Francisco Xavier Fragoso blazed the Vial-Fragoso Trail. Their mission? To travel from Santa Fe, New…

You're driving past the Old Winnsboro Cemetery, one of the oldest resting places in East Texas. The first burial here was an accident victim, though the exact date is lost to time. The earliest marked grave belongs to…

You're driving past the site of Winnsboro's Central Christian Church. Organized in 1893 with twenty members, the congregation built this sanctuary the following year. The original steeples were lost to a tornado in…

City Park in Winnsboro began as a Caddo campground shaded by century-old oaks and fed by a spring. Acquired by Uncle Charlie Moore in eighteen eighty-eight and later A. H. Schluter, it became known as the showplace of…

You're driving past Providence Community. Providence community, comprised mostly of small family farms, is located in the far northeast section of Van Zandt County, straddling the Smith County line. Since 1845,…

You're driving through Hawkins, Texas, a town that owes its 'Pancake Capital' title to Lillian Richard. Born in 1891, Lillian moved to Dallas and in 1925, began a 23-year career as 'Aunt Jemima' for Quaker Oats,…

Holly Lake in Holly Lake Ranch, Texas, is a man-made lake created by damming Holly Creek. Dams work by blocking the flow of water, raising the water level and creating a reservoir. This process is essential for water…

You're driving through Pickton, and just ahead is Harmony Methodist Church and Cemetery. It all started in 1877 when landowner Jesse Odom convinced a traveling preacher to hold a revival. A congregation formed, and by…

You're driving past the site of the Sabine Methodist Church, organized back in 1894 by the Rev. W. L. Pate and named for its proximity to the Sabine River. Land for the church, school, and cemetery was donated by Joe…

You're driving near Winnsboro, where the Smyrna Baptist Church was organized in June of 1869. It started with 18 members meeting under a pine tree. Later, in 1878, a Sabbath school was organized, and their original…

Imagine driving through Hawkins in the fall of 1940. It's a sleepy farm town of about two hundred people. Now, imagine coming back a year later. The population has jumped to around twelve hundred. The quiet streets are…

Just outside town lies the reason Hawkins is more than an oil town. In 1910 a white Fort Worth attorney, Major J. J. Jarvis, and his wife, Ida Van Zandt Jarvis, deeded 456 acres here on one condition: that the land…

The Hawkins Oil Field wasn't just a lucky strike, and its long life was a marvel of petroleum engineering. The oil was trapped thousands of feet down in a faulted anticline — a dome-shaped fold in the Woodbine sandstone…

If you head just northwest of town, about three miles out, you'll find one of Hawkins' most popular spots: Lake Hawkins. But this beautiful lake isn't a natural feature. It's a product of civic engineering from the…

You're driving through what used to be Sand Flat, a community that started in the 1850s at the crossroads of two old roads. It was first called Chrestman, but by the late 1800s, folks knew it as Sand Flat. By 1901, the…

You're driving through Smith County, not far from Lindale, and you might just be passing the forgotten site of Flora. It started in 1845 when James K. Beene settled here, and by 1849, he'd established a post office…

You're driving past the site of a groundbreaking conservation effort! Back in 1929, this area became home to one of just ten research stations in the entire United States, all focused on tackling the nation's growing…

You're driving through Emory, where in 1905, Walter B. Fraser built a pioneer Texas factory. This was the first industrial plant in Rains County, producing bricks and hollow clay tile, and employing about 40 men. The…

You're driving past Grand Saline, a town whose salt deposits were absolutely vital to the Confederacy during the Civil War. Before the war, salt was already being produced here, but by 1861, the owner left his wife in…

You're driving past the site of Chalybeate Springs, once a booming resort community. Known first as Musgrove Springs for an early settler, these waters got their later name from a high iron content. In 1881, a…

You're driving through the Jobe community, founded by African American families who settled here in the late 1800s. Brothers Phelix and Sampson Jobe bought land starting in 1881, setting aside a portion for this…

You're driving through Grand Saline, but you're passing the ghost of its original namesake: Jordans Saline. John Jordan settled here in 1844, and he and A.T. McGee organized a salt company. By 1860, this place had a…

State Highway One Fifty Four, from Yantis north to Sulphur Springs, is the Sergeant Tanner Stone Higgins Memorial Highway. Tanner Higgins was a Yantis native and a two thousand seven graduate of Sulphur Springs High…

You're driving past the site of Grand Saline's First Methodist Church. A congregation was organized here in 1889 by the Rev. Samuel N. Allen and a small group of worshipers. They held services in homes and the…

Look down. Somewhere under Grand Saline is the only rock human beings actually eat. Table salt is the mineral halite, and in its raw form it really is rock, mined in solid chunks just like coal or marble. But unlike…

You're driving through Van Zandt County, not far from where Wiley Post was born near Grand Saline. Before man even dreamed of space travel, Post was pushing the limits of flight. In 1931, he and navigator Harold Gatty…

You're driving through Van Zandt County, the birthplace of Wiley Post, a true aviation pioneer. Despite losing an eye, he barnstormed, set world records, and even soloed around the globe in under eight days. Post also…

Pioneer aviator Wiley Hardeman Post was born on November 22, 1898, in the community of Corinth in Van Zandt County, to William Francis and Mae Laine Post, who moved to Oklahoma when Wiley was a boy. Wiley was inspired…

You're driving through Grand Saline, the "salt capital of Texas"! This town owes its existence to the vast salt deposits beneath your wheels. When the Texas and Pacific Railway arrived in 1873, landowner Samuel…

Perryville, Texas, isn't known for skyscrapers or bustling city life. What defines us is the land, and what comes from it. Ranching and farming have been the heartbeat of this town since its very beginning. Situated at…

You're driving through Van Zandt County, and right here is the story of Samuel Q. Richardson, a salt king of Texas. He arrived in Texas in 1848, eventually settling in Van Zandt County where he bought 4,000 acres and…

You're driving through East Texas, and right here, you're passing through a place that's been a source of something essential for centuries: salt. Long before Texas was even a state, Native Americans were harvesting…

You're driving through Van Zandt County, and right here, the Texas Short Line Railway once connected two vital industries. Chartered in 1901, this ten-mile line ran from Grand Saline, home to a booming salt mine, to the…

You're driving past the site of Perryville Methodist Church, organized in 1879 as Marvin Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church with 38 charter members. The Reverend A. K. Hughes was the first pastor. Land was donated in…

You're driving near Grand Saline. Organized around 1880, the Friendship Community School first held classes taught by E. L. Richardson, with schedules set around farming seasons. Land was deeded for the school and…

You're driving past the site of the Perryville Baptist Church. It began in 1884 as the County Line Missionary Baptist Church, with five founding neighbors and their first pastor. The congregation officially became…

Here's a town that's exactly what it says on the label. Grand Saline means 'great salt marsh' in French, and it sits on top of one of the largest, purest salt deposits in North America. Caddo people were boiling salt…

In a town that mines salt by the trainload, here's a word worth chewing on: salary. It comes from the Latin salarium, built on sal, the Latin word for salt. In the Roman world salt was so valuable, so essential for…

Grand Saline's history is deeply rooted in salt. The ancient Caddo and Cherokee tribes were the first to settle here, utilizing the large salt prairie for trade. After they were forced out in the mid-19th century, new…

The salt under Grand Saline isn't a flat layer. It's a column, a dome that rises like a frozen plume from deep underground. It started as the Louann Salt, the dried-out remnant of an entire sea that evaporated here…

As you pass through downtown, you can’t miss the most unusual building in Grand Saline: the Salt Palace. Yes, it’s really made of salt. This small, one-room structure is built from blocks of pure rock salt cut from the…

For many decades, a dark cloud hung over Grand Saline's reputation. It was known throughout Texas and beyond as a 'sundown town,' a place with a deeply rooted history of racial exclusion. Unofficial but brutally…

The story of Chris Tomlin is a story of how massive talent can spring from a small town. The world-renowned Christian worship leader grew up right here in Grand Saline. His father gave him his first guitar, and he honed…

Grand Saline's unique geography is defined by its salt deposits and the salt prairie south of the town. The ancient Caddo and Cherokee Indian tribes were the first to discover and utilize this large salt prairie, using…

Before refrigerators, salt was how the world kept food from rotting, and the trick is pure physics. Pack meat in salt and you set up osmosis: water always flows toward the saltier side of a membrane. Bacteria and mold…

You're driving past Here Was the Camp of the Army of the Republic of Texas. Under Generals Kelsey H. Douglass, Thomas J. Rusk, Edward Burleson and Colonel Landrum, from which the soldiers returned to their homes on July…

You're driving past the site of Bethesda Presbyterian Church. In 1879, the Henderson family arrived from Alabama and soon began holding worship services here. The congregation was officially recognized in 1881, later…

You're driving past the site of Rhonesboro, a town that boomed and busted with the timber industry. Founded in 1902, it was named for W. M. Rhone, the sole sawmill operator here before the railroad arrived. Suddenly,…