Santa Anna, Texas

Name: Santa Anna, Texas
Address: Santa Anna, TX

Everything Santa Anna is known for

1 song mention this city 1 artist from here

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

Music in Santa Anna

Songs About Santa Anna

Santa Anna

Gil Prather

82%

"Santa Anna"

Artists From Santa Anna

Dean Beard

rockabilly

Rivers & Roads in Song near Santa Anna

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Santa Anna.

Texas Colorado River 6 songs Kickapoo Creek 4 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Texas State Highway 71 2 songs

History of Santa Anna

Not That Santa Anna RoadyGoat

Here is the twist a lot of folks miss. This town of Santa Anna, out in Coleman County, was not named for Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the Mexican general who stormed the Alamo and lost at San Jacinto back in eighteen thirty-six. Different man entirely. The town got its name from the twin peaks standing just north of here, the Santa Anna Mountains, and those peaks were named for a Comanche chief who also happened to be called Santa Anna. So you have got two very different men sharing one Spanish name, and only one of them has anything to do with this spot on the map. It is an easy mix-up, because in Texas the name Santa Anna is practically a lightning rod for anybody who remembers the revolution. But the general never marched through here, never camped on these hills, and had nothing to do with this little cattle and cotton town. Next time somebody riding with you sees the sign and starts talking about the Alamo, you can set them straight. The name honors a mountain, and the mountain honors a Comanche peace chief. Same words, completely different story.

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The Chief Who Went To Washington RoadyGoat

The Comanche chief this town is ultimately named for lived a life that took a remarkable turn. Santa Anna was a Penateka Comanche leader in the eighteen forties, and folks who met him described him as a large, fine-looking man with a lively, friendly face. For years he was a fighter, raiding Anglo settlements alongside the famous war chief Buffalo Hump. But over time something changed him. Exposed to the true numbers and weapons of the United States, he grew convinced that fighting them with force was, in his own view, hopeless. In early December of eighteen forty-seven he became the very first member of his tribe to travel all the way to Washington, in the District of Columbia, and what he saw there overwhelmed him. From then on he spent the rest of his life pushing for peace between his people and the settlers. That choice actually cost him standing among some Comanches who still wanted to fight. He died in a terrible cholera epidemic in eighteen forty-nine that swept through and killed more than three hundred Penatekas. His name outlived him, first on the mountains, then on this town.

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The Council House Fight RoadyGoat

To understand the Comanche chief who gave this town its name, you have to know about a bloody day in San Antonio. On the nineteenth of March, eighteen forty, a group of Penateka Comanche chiefs came into San Antonio under a truce, hoping to make peace and exchange captives. The meeting fell apart. Texas soldiers tried to hold the chiefs hostage until more captives were returned, the Comanches tried to escape, and in the fighting that followed, thirty-five Comanches were killed, including thirty grown men. Seven Texans died too. To the Comanche people, breaking the sacred trust of a peace council was almost unthinkable, a deep betrayal. That event, remembered as the Council House Fight, poisoned relations for years. It was in the angry aftermath of that day that Santa Anna, the Comanche chief, rose up as a resistance leader alongside Buffalo Hump. So the very name on this town's welcome sign carries an echo of one of the hardest chapters in early Texas history, a peace conference that turned into a fight, and a chief who eventually chose peace anyway.

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Layne, Robert Lawrence

1926

Robert Lawrence (Bobby) Layne, football star, was born on December 19, 1926, in Santa Anna, Texas. While he was still very young the family moved to Fort Worth, where he attended elementary school and junior high school. After his mother died when he was eight years old, Layne lived with his uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Wade Hampton. At Highland Park High School in Dallas, he was a teammate of Ewell Doak Walker, Jr., another future member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In his senior year Layne was named to the All-State team and led Highland Park to the state playoffs. He enrolled at the University of Texas in 1944 and almost immediately became an athletic legend. As a freshman he led the Longhorns to within one point of the Southwest Conference championship. During his sophomore season he spent eight months in the United States Merchant Marine and played in only four games, one of which was a 12-7 victory over Southern Methodist University (and Doak Walker) for the SWC title. In January 1946 Layne led Texas to the Cotton Bowl , where the Longhorns beat the University of Missouri 40 to 27. In that game he completed a remarkable eleven of twelve passes for two touchdowns, and scored four times himself. The legendary Texas coach Dana X. Bible retired before Layne's senior season. After his replacement, Blair Cherry , decided to install the newfangled T-formation offense, Cherry, Layne, and their wives spent several weeks in Wisconsin studying the new offense at the training camps of the Chicago Bears and Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League. In 1947 Layne led the SWC in passing, as Texas cruised to a 9-1 regular-season record, losing only to Walker and SMU. After beating the University of Alabama 27 to 7 in the Sugar Bowl on January 1, 1948, Texas finished the season ranked fifth in the nation by the Associated Press. Layne was an All-SWC selection all four years he played at Texas, and after his senior season was the consensus choice for All-American quarterback. By the time he graduated he held every major school passing record, including most attempts, most completions, most passing yards, most total yards, and most touchdowns. While at Texas Layne also excelled as a baseball player. In four seasons he compiled a record of thirty-nine wins and seven losses as a pitcher, including a record twenty-eight consecutive wins in SWC play. In 1946 he hurled two no-hitters and struck out eighty-four men, a conference record that stood for thirty years thereafter. After graduating in 1948 with a degree in physical education, Layne joined the Lubbock Hubbers baseball team of the Class C West Texas-New Mexico League , but ultimately decided that his future lay in professional football rather than baseball. After his senior season he had been drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League, who immediately traded the rights to his services to the Chicago Bears. The Baltimore Colts of the rival All-American Football Conference offered Layne a three-year contract worth $77,000, but he opted to sign with the better-established NFL for less money. He spent the 1948 season in Chicago as a backup before Bears coach George Halas traded him to the lowly New York Bulldogs for $50,000 and two first-round draft choices. Later Halas called the trade "the worst deal I ever made." In 1949 the Bulldogs staggered to a 1-10-1 record, but Layne showed signs of promise. Before the 1950 season the Bulldogs sold him to the Detroit Lions, with whom he spent the next eight seasons. Reunited with his old friend Walker, Layne blossomed into a star. He led Detroit to NFL championships in 1952, 1953, and 1957, and to the title game in 1954, when he was named the All-Pro quarterback. He gained even more notoriety, however, for his off-field carousing, which led one teammate to quip, "I wasn't sure whether it was harder to play football or room with Layne." Once Layne was arrested for driving while intoxicated, but a sympathetic judg

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Banister, John R.

1867

(May 24, 1854-Aug. 2, 1918) Missouri native John Banister left home in 1867 and came to Texas. He received training as a cowboy and participated in several cattle drives to northern markets. Banister served with his brother, Will, as a Texas Ranger and participated in the capture of outlaw Sam Bass. Other contributions to the state included his service as a railway officer, inspector for the Cattle Raisers' Association, and Coleman County sheriff. Recorded - 1984

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Santa Anna, C.S.A.

1840

Mountain and town named in honor of man in power here in 1840's, a Comanche chief friendly to Texans. Santa Anna in 1846 visited President Polk in Washington during U.S. negotiations to annex Texas. Also signed and kept until his death of cholera in 1849 peace treaties that allowed the German Emigration Company to settle lands north of the Llano River. Comanches used Santa Anna peaks as signal points. Early surveyors, travelers, explorers and settlers took them as guide points. In 1857, nearby United States Cavalry at Camp Colorado kept lookouts here. In the Civil War, 1861-65, frontier kept lookouts here. At foot of mountain, with sentries on heights watching at the pass the military road from San Antonio northeastward to Fort Belknap, a strategic outpost guarding Texas from invasion by Indians and Federal troops. During the 1870's thousands of longhorns went through the gap, over the western cattle trail. In 1879, "The Gap" had a store and post office to supply the cattle drives. When Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe built here in 1886, settlers moved from The Gap to the railroad, starting the present town. Quarries in the mountain yield fine sands for the manufacturing of glass. (1965)

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Beard, Dean

1955

Dean Beard, rockabilly pioneer, was born in Santa Anna, Texas, on August 31, 1935, the son of Raymond and Opal (Baker) Beard. He was sometimes called the "West Texas Wild Man" because of his frantic stage presence and piano-playing style. Beard, a lifelong resident of Coleman County, moved to Coleman in 1953 and graduated from Coleman High School. While in high school he started doing session work in Abilene for Key City media mogul and record producer Slim Willet . He briefly attended Tarleton State College but soon opted to pursue a music career. He made his first recordings in 1955 in Abilene with the Fox Four Sevens. The same year he shared the stage with Elvis Presley whose star was rising. The two became friends, and they spent a day together in Coleman where Presley's Cadillac created quite a stir. Intent on duplicating Presley's success, Beard cut two demo sessions in Memphis for Sun Records in 1956, but Sam Phillips decided not to sign him. One of the demos was "Rakin' and Scrapin'," which Beard recorded again the next year in Abilene for Willet's Edmoral label. His popular West Texas band, Dean Beard and the Crew Cats, included area teenagers Jimmy Seals and Dash Crofts, who later became a successful pop duo. A tenor sax- and piano-driven pounder, "Rakin' and Scrapin'," was leased to Atlantic Records for national distribution but failed to break out. A high energy follow-up on Atlantic, "Party Party," suffered a similar fate. In 1958 Beard, along with Seals and Crofts, joined the Champs (of "Tequila" fame) and journeyed to the West Coast. After recording several sessions with the group for Challenge Records, he was fired and returned to Texas in 1959. Beard continued to record for Willet and then for a variety of other small labels throughout the 1960s. He remained a popular live act into the 1970s, despite having to battle crippling arthritis, the results of an auto accident that broke his back. He died in Coleman on April 4, 1989. He was honored by induction into the West Texas Music Hall of Fame .

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Santa Anna, TX (Coleman County)

1857

Santa Anna is at the intersection of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, U.S. highways 283, 67, and 84, and Farm Road 1176 eight miles southeast of Coleman in southeast central Coleman County. The town was named for the twin mountains located just north of the community, which were in turn named for Santa Anna , a Comanche chief. The peaks served as a landmark to early surveyors and settlers. Camp Colorado, occupied by the United States Army from 1857 to 1861, was ten miles north of the site. Texas Rangers were also stationed in the vicinity and used the peaks as an observation post. Duke Jackson brought cattle into the area and built the first cabin at the site in 1860. Originally the community was named Gap for the pass that cut through the mountains. By the late 1870s several small stores had opened up by the gap, in 1879 the Santa Anna post office opened. A year later the first school was built. With the construction of the Santa Fe Railroad through the town in 1886 and the sale of a 200-acre tract of railroad land for town lots, Santa Anna began to grow rapidly. The stores located in the gap moved to the railroad tracks as new merchants arrived. Con Rowland began publishing the Santa Anna News in the early 1880s. L. V. Stockard, the first railroad agent, built a two-story rock store, and residents used the upper floor as an assembly hall and theater. Church groups of several denominations held services in the schoolhouse. Santa Anna developed as a cattle shipping point and as the chief marketing town for the eastern part of the county. By 1884 the town had two general stores, a drugstore, and a blacksmith shop. Among prominent early residents was John Riley Banister , a Texas Ranger and county sheriff, and his wife, Emma Banister , who became the first woman sheriff in Texas after her husband's death. Santa Anna was hit by a tornado in 1893 that destroyed five houses. Santa Anna incorporated in 1906 with S. J. Pieratt serving as the first mayor. It had a population of 1,453 and a city water system in 1910. Sand from the nearby mountains proved to be 98.5 percent silica, and the town began to ship sand for glass manufacture in 1911. In 1914 Santa Anna had three cotton gins, two banks, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Christian churches, a high school, telephone service, electric lights, and gas piped in from Trickham. Sealy Hospital was built in 1917 and enlarged over the years; in 1928 a nursing school was added to the hospital. The hospital building burned down in 1982. By 1930 the community had grown to a population of 1,883, with some 120 businesses. Around 1930 the Texas Glass Company opened, employing sixty people and producing 52,000 glass bottles a day. The plant went through a series of owners and name changes until it closed in 1936. In 1936 the association of the site with early Texas Ranger camps was commemorated with the creation of Texas Ranger Park on a site at the east end of the mountains. The population began to decline in the 1930s, falling to 1,661 in 1940 and 1,320 in 1960. The local sand-processing plant was revived after World War II as the Santa Anna Silica Sand Company and resumed shipping sand in 1946. The plant closed in 1964. The town's population remained static through the 1960s, revived in the 1970s, reached 1,535 in 1980, and then fell to 1,249 in 1990. In the 1990s town industries included the Stempel office furniture plant and Art Fabrics. Efforts were underway to restore and revitalize the downtown area. The population dropped to 1,081 in 2000.

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Banister, Emma Daugherty

1871

(Oct. 20, 1871-June 4, 1956) The Daugherty family moved west in the late 1870s to Coleman County from present Forney in Kaufman County, where Emma was born. At age 14 she left home to finish school and obtain a teaching certificate in Goldthwaite. She married lawman and widower John R. Banister in 1894, and they raised nine children. Banister was Coleman County sheriff when he died in mid-1918, and Emma was chosen to complete his term of office to the end of 1918. Recorded - 1986

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Everything Near Santa Anna

112 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

First Christian Church of Santa Anna · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the First Christian Church of Santa Anna. Founded in 1894, the congregation built this frame church, dedicated in April 1901. It still features its original beaded ceiling and…
Santa Anna, C.S.A. · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
Mountain and town named in honor of man in power here in 1840's, a Comanche chief friendly to Texans. Santa Anna in 1846 visited President Polk in Washington during U.S. negotiations to annex Texas. Also signed and kept…
Not That Santa Anna · 0.4 mi
Here is the twist a lot of folks miss. This town of Santa Anna, out in Coleman County, was not named for Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the Mexican general who stormed the Alamo and lost at San Jacinto back in eighteen…
The Chief Who Went To Washington · 0.4 mi
The Comanche chief this town is ultimately named for lived a life that took a remarkable turn. Santa Anna was a Penateka Comanche leader in the eighteen forties, and folks who met him described him as a large,…
Layne, Robert Lawrence · 0.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Robert Lawrence (Bobby) Layne, football star, was born on December 19, 1926, in Santa Anna, Texas. While he was still very young the family moved to Fort Worth, where he attended elementary school and junior high…
The Council House Fight · 0.4 mi
To understand the Comanche chief who gave this town its name, you have to know about a bloody day in San Antonio. On the nineteenth of March, eighteen forty, a group of Penateka Comanche chiefs came into San Antonio…
How Those Twin Peaks Got There · 0.4 mi
Those twin peaks just north of town are more than a pretty skyline. They are the whole reason this place has its name, and how they formed is a neat little lesson in geology. They are what geologists call mesas, from…
Two Men, One Name · 0.4 mi
Here is a fun one for the road. The name Santa Anna belonged to two very different men who lived at almost the same time, and Texas remembers them in opposite ways. First there is Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the…
The Hall Of Famer From Santa Anna · 0.4 mi
For a small town, Santa Anna produced one giant of American football. Bobby Layne was born right here on the nineteenth of December, nineteen twenty-six. He grew up to become one of the toughest, most fearless…
It Started As The Gap · 0.4 mi
Before this place was ever called Santa Anna, people just called it Gap. Simple as that. If you look north of town, you will see why. Two flat-topped peaks rise up, and between them the land opens into a natural pass, a…
Beard, Dean · 0.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Dean Beard, rockabilly pioneer, was born in Santa Anna, Texas, on August 31, 1935, the son of Raymond and Opal (Baker) Beard. He was sometimes called the "West Texas Wild Man" because of his frantic stage presence and…
Santa Anna, TX (Coleman County) · 0.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Santa Anna is at the intersection of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, U.S. highways 283, 67, and 84, and Farm Road 1176 eight miles southeast of Coleman in southeast central Coleman County. The town was named…

Show all 112 nearby places

Santa Anna, TX (Colorado County) · 0.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through northwestern Colorado County, right near the Fayette line, on what used to be a vital Spanish road. Back in 1824, Joseph Duty and Jesse Burnam, two of Stephen F. Austin's original colonists,…
Turner House · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Turner House in Santa Anna, built in 1886. Originally constructed by an attorney, this home showcases classic colonial architecture. It saw a major expansion after 1903 when it was purchased by…
Banister, John R. · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker
(May 24, 1854-Aug. 2, 1918) Missouri native John Banister left home in 1867 and came to Texas. He received training as a cowboy and participated in several cattle drives to northern markets. Banister served with his…
Banister, Emma Daugherty · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker
(Oct. 20, 1871-June 4, 1956) The Daugherty family moved west in the late 1870s to Coleman County from present Forney in Kaufman County, where Emma was born. At age 14 she left home to finish school and obtain a teaching…
Santa Anna Cemetery · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Santa Anna Cemetery, a resting place with roots stretching back even before the Santa Fe Railroad arrived in 1886. Oral history tells us W.C. Brooks was the first to be buried here, though his…
The Science in the Sand · 1.4 mi
The ground beneath Santa Anna held a remarkable scientific and industrial treasure. It wasn't oil or gold, but sand — Cretaceous sand, laid down more than a hundred million years ago and left in the peaks just north of…
The Mountain and the Chief · 1.4 mi
That prominent hill on the horizon, Santa Anna Mountain, is the town’s namesake and its oldest story. Long before the town existed, this was Comanche territory, and the mountain was named for a respected 19th-century…
Santa Anna, TX · 1.4 mi
Santa Anna's history is deeply rooted in its geographical features and the early settlers. The town was named after the Comanche war chief Santanna, or Santa Anna, and the twin mesas in central Coleman County, known as…
The Iron Horse Arrives · 1.4 mi
You can't tell the story of Santa Anna without the railroad, but the town was here first. Duke Jackson drove cattle in and built the first cabin at this spot in 1860, and the place was called Gap, for the pass through…
Old Rock House · 1.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Old Rock House, a testament to early Texas resilience. Claimed in 1857, the land was eventually bought by John J. Brestow in 1869. He built this one-room cabin in the 1870s, using local stone…
Route of Old Military Road · 4.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving along a route that was vital to Texas's frontier defense in the 1850s. This was the Old Military Road, connecting a chain of U.S. forts from Belknap on the Brazos River all the way down to Fort Clark near…
Coleman, TX · 8.5 mi
Coleman, Texas, is a place where the wind whispers tales of hard work and open spaces.
Banister, Emma Daugherty · 8.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Coleman County, Texas, and right here is a story that made national headlines back in 1918. When Sheriff John Banister died suddenly, the county commissioners made a shocking appointment: they…
Banister, John Riley · 8.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Coleman County, the heart of cattle country, where John Riley Banister spent much of his life. Born in Missouri in 1854, Banister came to Texas as a teenager, working ranches and cowboying on…
O'Hair, Mary McClellan · 8.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Texas, and right here, you're passing through the life of Mary McClellan O'Hair, a true Texas trailblazer. Born near Burton in 1869, she grew up in Washington County and eventually made her home…
Sikes, James Richard · 8.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Coleman, Texas, the hometown of musician Rick Sikes. He was a talented singer, songwriter, and artist who played with the best, even backing up Bob Wills and touring with legends like Loretta Lynn…
Coleman, TX · 8.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Coleman, a town born in 1876 when R.J. Clow donated land for a county seat. Right here, on the old Western Trail, Coleman boomed as a supply stop for cowboys heading to Kansas. Imagine this: the…
Arnold, Robert Sterling · 8.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Coleman, Texas, the hometown of Robert Sterling Arnold. Born in 1905, Arnold dedicated his life to Southern Gospel music, not just as a songwriter, but as a teacher and publisher. He started…
Coleman County · 8.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Coleman County, an area that saw significant military activity during the frontier era. Right here, in what is now Coleman County, stood Camp Colorado. Established in 1856, it was a crucial U.S.…
McGregor, Stuart Malcolm · 8.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through North Texas, and right here, in Coleman, a journalism pioneer got his start. Stuart Malcolm McGregor was born in 1892, and by 1915, he earned the very first Master of Journalism degree from the…
Central Colorado River Authority · 8.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Coleman, Texas, home to the Central Colorado River Authority. Established back in 1935 by the state legislature, this authority was tasked with controlling floods and managing water resources…
The Ghost Fort of Camp Colorado · 8.6 mi
Before Coleman was a town, this land was the edge of the American frontier, and its story starts with a fort. About twelve miles northeast of here, out on Jim Ned Creek, stood Camp Colorado — a U.S. Army post first set…
Black Gold and Brick Buildings · 8.6 mi
As you look at the buildings in downtown Coleman, you might notice that many of them seem a bit grand for a small Texas town. You're looking at the legacy of oil. For the first few decades of its life, Coleman was a…
Engineering Survival with Water · 8.6 mi
In this part of Texas, water is the whole ballgame. Coleman got its start in 1876 on Hords Creek, when R.J. Clow donated the land for a county seat — but a creek alone won't carry a town through a West Texas drought.…
Coleman County Jail · 8.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Coleman County Jail, a building that's seen its share of history since it was built in 1890. This impressive structure is a prime example of Victorian jail architecture, with some distinct…
Coleman, Robert M. · 8.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Coleman County, and just ahead is the site of a true Texas patriot: Robert M. Coleman. Born in Kentucky in 1799, Coleman arrived in Texas in 1832. He commanded volunteers at the Siege of Bexar in…
Miller Public Library Building · 8.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Coleman, and right here is the Miller Public Library Building. It started in 1909, financed by local women's clubs like the Self-Culture Club, serving as both a meeting hall and the city library.…
Western Trail · 8.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Coleman, and right here, this marker tells the tale of the Western Trail. From 1867 to 1895, this was a major cattle highway, stretching all the way from Texas to Kansas. Imagine hundreds of…
Blair House · 8.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Coleman, and just ahead is the Blair House, a beautiful Classical Revival home built in 1914. It was constructed by J.T. Blair, who came to Texas from Georgia back in 1897. Blair managed both his…
Mud Creek Cemetery · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Mud Creek Cemetery, a burial ground that's seen over a century of life and loss in the Thrifty and Fry communities. The first known burial here was little Martha Blackwell, who died in 1864, though…
Camp Colorado, C.S.A. · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Coleman County, and just 12 miles northeast of here lies the site of Camp Colorado. This wasn't just any outpost; it was a key part of the Texas frontier defense line during the Civil War. From…
McCord, Colonel James E. · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Coleman County, passing the resting place of Colonel James E. McCord. A South Carolinian by birth, McCord came to Texas in 1853, becoming a surveyor and a Texas Ranger. When the Civil War began,…
Camp Colorado, Ruins of · 10.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Camp Colorado, a frontier fort established by the U.S. Army to protect settlers from Native American raids. <break time="400ms"/> The fort was originally on the Colorado River, but moved…
Coleman County · 10.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Coleman County, a place with a rich military and frontier past. Before white settlers arrived, this was Apache, Comanche, and Kiowa territory, dotted with lookout points. White settlement kicked…
Texas's First Printing Press · 11.2 mi
You're rolling through Bangs, Texas, and the name on that sign traces back to a single man, so here is his story. Samuel Bangs was born around seventeen ninety-eight, probably in Boston, and trained as a printer's…
A Town Named For A Survey · 11.2 mi
Here in Bangs, Texas, the name comes not from a founder who built the place but from a line on a surveyor's map. The town sits inside a block of land recorded as the Samuel Bangs survey, and Samuel Bangs was one of the…
Between Two Great Rivers · 11.2 mi
Look at where you are actually standing. Bangs sits in Brown County in west central Texas, up around one thousand six hundred feet above sea level, in country drained by Pecan Bayou and by a stream with one of the best…
The Batting Champ From Bangs · 11.2 mi
For a small town, Bangs has thrown a long shadow into American culture. Start with baseball. A man named Debs Garms was born here, and in nineteen forty, his first season with the Pittsburgh Pirates, he won the National…
Two Men, One Surname · 11.2 mi
Here's a puzzle worth untangling. Ask around town and you will hear that Bangs is named for the printer, and you will also hear it is named for a railroad man, and both answers get delivered with total confidence. The…
How A Survey Became A Town · 11.2 mi
Standing here in Bangs, Texas, it is worth stopping on the part people skip right over, the word survey itself. In early Texas a survey was not a clipboard and a questionnaire. It was a measured block of ground, and the…
The Railroad That Made It, Then Left · 11.2 mi
Bangs is a railroad town in the purest sense. It exists because a line came through. When the Santa Fe pushed track across this part of Brown County in the middle eighteen eighties, a depot went up, and a general store…
Pull On The Name · 11.2 mi
So think about how much a five-letter town name can hold out here. Bangs starts as ink, the name of Samuel Bangs, the first man to run a printing press on Texas soil, who earned his land grant for that service and then…
Bangs, TX · 11.3 mi
In the late 19th century, Bangs, Texas, came into its own. Named after Samuel Bangs, who was awarded the land for his service as a printer in the Texas Revolution, the city began to take shape in 1886. That year,…
Bangs Public Schools · 11.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Bangs, Texas, where the Santa Fe Railroad actually helped get education rolling! In 1892, the railroad deeded land to the city, and boom – the first schoolhouse was ready. It was a simple,…
Bangs, TX · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Bangs is on U.S. highways 67 and 84 and the Santa Fe Railroad six miles west of Brownwood in west central Brown County. The town was named for its location in the Samuel Bangs survey. In 1886 a post office was…
First Baptist Church of Bangs · 11.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Bangs. This congregation started in 1883 in the Mukewater community and moved to the new railroad town of Bangs in 1890. A sanctuary was built in 1891,…
Shields Cemetery · 11.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Shields Cemetery, the final resting place for the people of the former community of Double Gates. Founded as a Baptist church settlement in 1900, the community was renamed for L. L. Shield, who built…
Bangs Cemetery · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Bangs, Texas. The Bangs Cemetery was established in 1905 and was designated a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2002.
Trickham Cemetery · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Trickham Cemetery, established in the 1870s. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2004.
Trickham · 11.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past where Trickham used to be, the oldest town in Coleman County. It started around 1855 as a cowboy trading post, serving cattle barons like John Chisum. From the 1860s to the 1890s, this was a wild…
Williams, Mr. and Mrs. W.P. · 11.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Trickham, Coleman County. Look for the site of the W.P. Williams homestead. William and Elizabeth Williams arrived here from Mississippi during the Civil War, part of a wagon train. Their land…
Childress, Hugh Martin, Jr. · 12.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through country that was once the wild frontier for cattlemen like Hugh Martin Childress. Born in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="M y">May 1835</say-as> in Bastrop County, Childress became one of the…
Flat Top, TX · 12.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
Flat Top was on Elm Creek and Farm Road 2134 four miles southwest of Voss and twenty miles southwest of Coleman in southwestern Coleman County. It was founded about 1862 when Richard Coffey , one of the earliest White…
Trickham, TX · 12.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
Trickham, the oldest community in Coleman County, is located on Mukewater Creek and Ranch Road 1176 in the southeastern part of the county, twelve miles southeast of Santa Anna. The settlement acquired a post office in…
Rockwood, TX · 12.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
Rockwood is on U.S. Highway 283 and Camp Creek, four miles north of the Colorado River and twenty-three miles south of Coleman in southern Coleman County. Although the area was reportedly known as the Camp Creek…
Rock Crusher, TX · 12.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
Rock Crusher was on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway near the Bachelor Prong of Hords Creek, eight miles northwest of Coleman in northwestern Coleman County. The community began in 1909, when the Santa Fe…
Whon, TX · 12.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
Whon is at the junction of Farm Road 2633 and county road LR, in far southeastern Coleman County. Its name is an Anglicized version of Juan, the name of a Mexican cowboy who once lived on the McCain Ranch. Sam H. McCain…
Thrifty · 12.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through the historic heart of Brown County, near where the community of Thrifty once thrived. It all started in 1857 when the U.S. Army established Camp Colorado nearby to defend the frontier. The Mullins…
Fairview Cemetery · 12.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Fairview Cemetery, serving rural Brown County for over a century. James Jackson Martin and Daniel Hulse donated land for this burial ground before 1878. The first person interred here was Mrs. M. C.…
The Adventurous Printer of Bangs · 12.7 mi
The man this town's name comes from, Samuel Bangs, was a real-life adventurer who probably never laid eyes on the place. Born around 1798, most likely in Boston, he sailed from Baltimore in 1816 as the printer for…
The Engineering of a Speed Trap · 12.7 mi
You'll hear drivers on Interstate 45 call Angus a speed trap. What's actually on the record is stranger. The community goes back to 1871, founded by a man named A. Angus after the rails came through. It had the first…
A survey line named the town · 12.7 mi
The tracks that slice through Bangs did make this town, but the name on the depot came off a piece of paper, not a locomotive. Long before there was any rail out here, Texas was carved into land grants and surveys, each…
Mullins Heritage Park · 12.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Mullins Heritage Park, a place that's been a gathering spot for over a century. Back in 1894, Brown County commissioners needed a public road connecting Bangs and Cross Cut. The key crossing point on…
Pauley, Richard A. · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Valera, and you might be passing the final resting place of Richard Pauley, Coleman County's sheriff from 1923 to 1925. Pauley had a unique approach to law enforcement. He was a respected…
Valera Cemetery · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Valera, a town that owes its existence to the railroad. In <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1904</say-as>, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe laid tracks just to the southwest, and Valera sprung…
Centennial School · 13.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a school born from Texas's Centennial in 1936. Valera, Bowen, White Chapel, and New Central joined forces to create a common high school, the second rural high school in Coleman County.…
Rocky Creek Baptist Church · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Rocky Creek Baptist Church. Eighteen people gathered here in 1877 to organize the congregation, starting under a brush arbor. The church has seen multiple buildings constructed and…
Cleveland-Anson House · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Cleveland-Anson House in Valera. Built in 1880 by George P. Cleveland, this was the first fine house in the area. Imagine hauling lumber from Fort Worth by ox-wagon to build these two-foot thick…
Lake Brownwood, TX · 14.3 mi
Nestled in the heart of central Texas, Lake Brownwood is a census-designated place in Brown County, known for its serene waters. The area is defined by its proximity to the western arm of Lake Brownwood, a reservoir…
White Chapel Cemetery · 15.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past White Chapel Cemetery, a chronicle of the early settlers of this Coleman County wilderness. The earliest burial here was Joseph Shipman, who died in 1884. The community, school, and cemetery all took…
Mt. View Cemetery · 15.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through rural Coleman County, near the base of Robinson's Peak. This is Mt. View Cemetery, established in 1891 on land donated by G. William Baker. The oldest marked grave is Martha C. Baker, who died the…
Smith Cemetery · 18.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Smith Cemetery, established way back in 1879. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2010.
Porter, Katherine Anne · 18.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Brownwood, home of a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Katherine Anne Porter. Born Callie Russell Porter in Indian Creek, she moved to Hays County as a child. After leaving Texas in 1915, she lived a…
Chandler, Welcome Williams · 19.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brown County, and right here is where Texas history was literally built, cabin by cabin. Welcome Williams Chandler was the very first settler in this area, arriving in 1856 with his family and…
Sand Creek (Brown County) · 19.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brown County, near the community of Thrifty, where a brutal event unfolded in December of 1873. Bill Williams and his family lived along Sand Creek. While his wife was milking, Kiowa renegades led…
Thirty-Sixth Infantry Division · 19.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what is now Brown County, the home of Camp Bowie, where the legendary Texas Division, the Thirty-sixth Infantry Division, mobilized for World War II. Nicknamed the 'T-Patchers,' these…
Salt Gap (Brown County) · 19.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through northeastern Brown County, near the pass known as Salt Gap. Back in 1858, this was a crucial Indian passage. On this very trail, settlers intercepted a band of Native Americans returning from a…
Camp Collier · 19.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brown County, and right here, you're passing the approximate site of Camp Collier. <break time="400ms"/> Established in March of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1862</say-as>, it was one of…
Lake Brownwood · 19.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brown County, and right here is Lake Brownwood, a massive reservoir created to supply water to nearby communities. But its creation wasn't exactly smooth sailing. Authorized in 1929 after a big…
Thrifty, TX · 19.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Thrifty is on Farm Road 2492 six miles north of Bangs in northwestern Brown County. In 1858 the sons of Republic of Texas pioneer Isaac Mullins-Isaac, Jr., John C., and William-established the I C Ranch headquarters on…
Winchell, TX · 19.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Winchell is located twenty-one miles southwest of Brownwood on U.S. Highway 377 near the McCulloch county line in southwestern Brown County. First named either Broadtown for E. J. Broad who built a store there, or Brown…
Howard, Robert E. · 19.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Brownwood, and just a few miles away is the world that Robert E. Howard created. Born in 1906, Howard grew up right here in Brown County, writing poetry and short stories for magazines. His true…
Charlie Webb and John Wesley Hardin · 19.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving near where Brown County Sheriff's Deputy Charlie Webb met his end. On May 26, 1874, Webb was in Comanche, confronting the notorious outlaw John Wesley Hardin. Witnesses say Hardin drew first, and shot and…
Greenleaf Cemetery · 19.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Greenleaf Cemetery, the main city cemetery of Brownwood. Pioneer Greenleaf Fisk gave five acres for this burial ground back in 1868. It's now the final resting place for notable Texans like Dr.…
Flat Top Settlement · 19.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Coleman County, past the site of a frontier hub called Flat Top Settlement. Back in the 1860s, Richard Coffey was the first settler, but life was tough. Pioneers would band together in…
Henry Ford · 19.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Brownwood, a city that owes a lot of its growth to one man: Henry Ford. No, not *that* Henry Ford, but a Texas pioneer who arrived in 1869 and became a legendary cowboy. He settled here in 1876,…
Lee Chapel A.M.E. Church · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Brownwood, and right here is the site of Lee Chapel A.M.E. Church. Named for Bishop Benjamin Franklin Lee, who served until 1926, this church was organized way back in 1888. The Reverend George E.…
Adams-Shaw House · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Adams-Shaw House, built around 1876 for George H. Adams, a rancher and former Texas Ranger. His cattle brand is literally carved into the front step – a lasting signature of his life on the…
Rufus F. Hardin High School · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the former Rufus F. Hardin High School, a crucial part of Brownwood's African-American history. It began in 1885 as the town's first school for Black children, established by George…
Brownwood, TX · 19.6 mi
Brownwood's history is marked by a significant event during the Second World War when it became the location of U.S. Army Camp Bowie. At its peak, the camp was home to over 80,000 soldiers. Today, Camp Bowie continues…
Hodge, Veda Wells · 19.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Brownwood, and right here is the site of a truly remarkable Texan. Veda Wells Hodge was more than just the wife of an oil magnate; she was a force in her own right. Born to a pioneer preacher, she…
The Rev. Noah Turner Byars · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the resting place of Noah Turner Byars, a true pioneer of faith in Texas. Born in South Carolina, Byars arrived in Texas in the early 1830s, just in time to witness the birth of the Republic. He even…
"Hey Paula" · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Brownwood, the birthplace of a song that became a global phenomenon! In the fall of 1962, right here at Howard Payne College, two Texas natives, Raymond Hildebrand and Jill Jackson, met. They'd…
Camp Bowie · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Camp Bowie, a massive World War II training ground right here near Brownwood. Opened in September 1940, this place could hold up to 45,000 soldiers! It was home to the famed "Texas" 36th…
The Rev. Dr. John David Robnett · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Brownwood, and right here is the story of the Rev. Dr. John David Robnett. Born in Missouri, Robnett was a Baptist minister who came to Brownwood in 1883 to lead the First Baptist Church. He met…
Howard Payne University · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Brownwood, home to Howard Payne University. It began in 1876 as the Pecan Valley Baptist Association, which decided to found a college. Named for a major donor, Edward Howard Payne, the school…
Prisoners of War at Camp Bowie · 19.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Camp Bowie, a World War II prisoner of war camp right here near Brownwood. In 1943, thousands of German POWs arrived, some directly from General Rommel's North African campaigns. The U.S.…
Walker, J. A., House · 19.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Brownwood, and to your right, you might catch a glimpse of the J.A. Walker House. Built in 1901 by a prominent businessman and civic leader, this home showcases classic Colonial Revival style.…
Rogers, R. B., House · 19.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the R. B. Rogers House in Brownwood, a snapshot of early 20th-century prosperity. Built between 1904 and 1905 by R. B. Rogers, a major local merchant and civic leader, this home showcases stunning…
5049011769 · 19.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past 5049011769. In 1875, Robert Morrison English (1837-1910), his wife, Clarabelle Louisa (Stratham) English (1847-1914), and their children moved from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to Brown County. They…

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