Seguin, Texas

Everything Seguin is known for

6 songs mention this city 2 artists from here

Music in Seguin

Songs About Seguin

Viva Seguin
Santiago Jiménez Sr.
60%
Seguin
Sir Douglas Quintet
60%
"In Seguin, in Seguin, where things they are so mellow"
The Wedding Song
Charlie Robison
54%
"For our wedding in suburban Seguin"
Texas Queen
Rich O'Toole
10%
gadalupe days
gary p. nunn
10%
Drowning
Hootie & the Blowfish
7%
"Nanci singing, "It's a hard life wherever you go""

Artists From Seguin

N
Nanci Griffith
americana Pop: 44
M
Madelyn Abrameit
country Pop: 1

Rivers & Roads in Song near Seguin

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

Guadalupe River 17 songs US Route 90 8 songs Interstate 10 32 songs Interstate 35 42 songs Chisholm Trail 7 songs

Musical Heritage

The Grammy-Winning Songwriter Born in Seguin RoadyGoat

The Grammy-winning folk and country singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith was born in Seguin on July 6, 1953, before her family moved to Austin, where she came of age in the Texas music scene. Griffith built a devoted following with a clear, almost girlish voice and literate songwriting that bridged folk and country — she called her own blend 'folkabilly.' She wrote 'Love at the Five and Dime' and recorded the definitive early version of Julie Gold's 'From a Distance' before Bette Midler made it a hit, and in 1994 she won a Grammy for her album 'Other Voices, Other Rooms,' a collection of songs by the writers who inspired her. Admired by peers from Emmylou Harris to the Indigo Girls, she influenced a generation of Americana artists before her death in 2021 at 68. Every Texas town likes to claim its famous children, and Seguin can rightly point to the riverside Guadalupe County town where one of the most respected songwriters of her era first drew breath. (Source: NPR; Wikipedia.)

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History of Seguin

The Mother of Concrete Cities RoadyGoat

Long before modern concrete poured across America, this town was quietly pioneering it. In 1846 a physician and chemist named John Park settled in Seguin, found the local caliche and gravel ideal, and patented a building method he called limecrete: gravel, sand, water, and lime burned from nearby limestone, slurried together and poured into continuous wooden forms about a foot thick and 15 inches tall, raised course by course as each layer hardened. Sometimes straw or horsehair was mixed in for strength. The technique caught on so completely that by 1875 Seguin held more than 90 limecrete buildings — houses, churches, schools, cisterns, even the courthouse — the largest concentration of early concrete structures anywhere in the United States, which earned it the nickname the Mother of Concrete Cities. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, touring Texas in 1857, was so taken with the gleaming poured walls that he called Seguin the prettiest town in Texas. Fewer than 25 of those original limecrete buildings survive today, making each one a rare piece of American engineering history. (Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife; Seguin Gazette.)

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Juan Seguín - The Man Behind the Name RoadyGoat

This city is named for Juan Seguín, and his story is one of the most complicated in Texas history. Born in San Antonio in 1806 to a prominent Tejano family, Seguín became a political leader by his twenties — alderman at 22, mayor of San Antonio in 1840. When the Texas Revolution broke out, Seguín was inside the Alamo. But he was dispatched with a letter to Sam Houston requesting reinforcements, which is the only reason he survived the massacre of March 6, 1836. The following month, Seguín and his Tejano cavalry fought at the Battle of San Jacinto, helping win Texas its independence. He became the first Tejano to serve in the Republic of Texas Senate. But the story turns dark. Anglo settlers grew suspicious of any Mexican Texan with power. By 1842, Seguín was accused of secretly aiding Mexico and was forced to flee with his family across the border. The Mexican government considered him a traitor too — for fighting against them at San Jacinto — and gave him a choice: prison or military service. He chose the army and was forced to fight against the United States in the Mexican-American War. He eventually returned to Texas and died in Nuevo Laredo in 1890. Today statues honor him near the Alamo and here in the city that bears his name — a man claimed by two countries and fully trusted by neither.

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The Magnolia Hotel - Seguin's Most Haunted RoadyGoat

The Magnolia Hotel started as a two-room log cabin in 1840, built by James Campbell. By 1850 it had grown into a ten-room frontier hotel, stagecoach stop, and saloon with a restaurant. Over the next century and a half, it passed through the hands of dentists, Confederate colonels, and countless travelers moving through the Texas Hill Country. The building's wild past left an impression — or maybe more than one. At least seventeen spirits have been reported haunting nearly every room. Disconnected telephones ring. Coins roll in circles on the floor as if held by a magnet. Shadowy figures appear in hallways. The place has become one of the most documented haunted locations in Texas, drawing ghost-hunting TV shows and paranormal investigators from around the country. By 2012, the hotel had fallen into such disrepair that it landed on a list of Texas' most endangered historic places. Then Erin Ghedi and Jim took ownership in 2013 and began a major restoration. Erin wrote a book about the experience — the history, the ghosts, and the painstaking work of bringing the building back to life. Today you can book a stay or a private ghost tour.

Guadalupe County, C.S.A.

1861

Star and Wreath Two local companies of volunteers were with Ben McCulloch in San Antonio, Feb. 16, 1861 when U.S. Arsenal was surrounded by Texans and surrender demanded. An encounter in a charged atmosphere which could have become the first armed conflict of Civil War but ended without a shot being fired and U.S. troops leaving state. County voted 314-22 for secession but "both sides" given in newspapers renamed to reflect views; "Mercury" became "The Southern Confederacy"; "Journal", "The Union Democrat". Camp Clark, 17 mi. NE, site of training for many of 350 men serving south. Co. D, 4th Tex. Inf. fought thru war in Hood's famed brigade. Plants made wagons, flour, tinware, ox yokes for army. Tannery made leather by exclusive process of Mesquite as tannin source. BACK: Gen. Ben McCulloch (1811-62) Gen. Henry E. McCulloch (1816-95) Tennessee gave Texas these illustrious brothers. Ben: fought in 1836 Battle of San Jacinto, was noted surveyor, lawman, Indian fighter; served General Zachary Taylor as scout in Mexican War; led state forces at San Antonio, Feb. 1861; as Brig. Gen., C.S.A. commanded troops in Arkansas, Indian Territory; in Wilson's Creek, Mo. victory 1861; killed at Battle Pea Ridge, Ark. Buried in State Cemetery in Austin. Henry: Texas lawman, Indian fighter, and legislator; Civil War service performed in Texas as Col., Brig. Gen. of state and Confederate forces protecting frontier against Indians, renegades, threat of Federal invasion from 1861-65. Out of state action in Vicksburg Campaign 1863. Buried in San Geronimo Cemetery in Seguin. Erected by the State of Texas 1963

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Ireland, Colonel John

1861

Home Town of Texas Confederate Colonel John Ireland. Delegate to Secession Convention 1861. Joined army as private. Won laurels in that most brilliant wartime effort - the defense of the 800-mile Texas coast in September 1862, repulse of Federals at Corpus Christi. Ireland captured fleet Captain Kittredge, his flag and arms. Though Ireland was an infantry officer he once plunged waist-deep to capture a Federal vessel off Padre Island. At war's end he was in command of the 8th Texas Regiment defending Galveston. A memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy. Erected by the State of Texas 1964. (Reverse) Governor John Ireland 1827-1896 Kentucky-born, came to Texas 1853. Mayor of Seguin 1858. Member Constitutional Conventions 1866, 1875. District judge 1866-67, removed by Reconstruction authorities. Legislator 1872-75. Called "Oxcart John" for opposing land grants subsidies to railroads. Supervised plans to oust Governor E. J. Davis in bloodless conflict marking political end of Texas reconstruction. Judge state supreme court 1875-76. Governor of Texas 1882-86. Fence-cutting wars brought on when certain landowners began fencing the open range prompted him to call special Legislature which made fence-cutting a felony. He ruled that state capitol be of Texas stone. Urged stricter enforcement of criminal laws, economy in government, reducing public land sales. Term was marked by opening of University of Texas and first labor disturbances Texas had known. Buried State Cemetery, Austin. Delegate to Secession Convention 1861. Joined army as private. Won laurels in that most brilliant wartime effort - the defense of the 800-mile Texas Coast. In September, 1862, repulse of Federals at Corpus Christi, Ireland captured Fleet Captain Kittredge, his flag and arms. Though Ireland was an infantry officer he once plunged waist-deep to capture a Federal vessel off Padre Island. At war's end he was in command of the 8th Texas Regiment defending Galveston. BACK: Kentucky-born. Came to Texas 1853. Mayor of Seguin 1858. Member Consititutional Conventions 1866, 1875. District Judge 1866-67, removed by Reconstruction authorities. Legislator 1872-75. Called "Ox-cart John" for opposing land grants, subsidies to railroads. Supervised plans to oust Governor E. J. Davis in bloodless conflict marking political end of Texas' Reconstruction. Judge State Supreme Court 1875-76. Governor of Texas 1882-86. Fence-cutting wars, brought on when certain landowners began fencing the open range prompted him to call special Legislature which made fence-cutting a felony. He ruled that State Capitol be of Texas stone. Urged strict enforcement of criminal laws, economy in government, reducing public land sales. Term was marked by opening of University of Texas and first labor disturbances Texas had known. Buried State Cemetery, Austin.

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Seguin, Juan Nepomuceno

1834

(1806-1890) Born in San Fernando de Bexar (San Antonio), son of Erasmo Seguin, whose ancestors came to America about 1700. Juan N. Seguin and his father in 1834 rallied fellow Texans against dictator Santa Anna. Young Juan Seguin raised Mexican-Texan troops, and fought in Siege of Bexar, 1835. He provided horses for soldiers of Col. W. B. Travis, further aiding as a courier during the Siege of the Alamo. Between fall of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto, he led his Co. A, 2nd Regiment, Texas Cavalry, as rear guard for Gen. Sam Houston, protecting the civilians fleeing in front of army of Santa Anna. His men and Moseley Baker's troops held San Felipe, preventing Mexican Army from crossing the Brazos there. Then Seguin's unit joined Gen. Sam Houston's army and fought in the Battle of San Jacinto. In May 1836, Seguin gave military burial to the ashes of the heroes of the Alamo. From 1837 to 1840 he served the Republic of Texas as a Senator. Town of Walnut Springs, on the Guadalupe, changed its name, Feb. 25, 1839, to "Seguin", to honor this hero. Juan N. Seguin married Maria Gertrudis Flores. At his death he was buried in Nuevo Laredo, where his grave is cared for by citizens of City of Seguin. (1970)

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Rogers, John Harris

1887

John Harris Rogers, captain in the Texas Rangers , was born outside of Kingsbury in Guadalupe County, Texas, on October 19, 1863, to Pleasant William Miles Rogers and Mary Amanda (Harris) Rogers. He served in a number of positions in law enforcement during four decades of service, including as a U. S. marshal, chief of police in Austin, and a Texas Ranger. Because Rogers served at the same time as captains James A. Brooks , William McDonald , and John R. Hughes , he is considered one of the four "Great Captains" in Texas Ranger history. The 1870 census listed the family in Guadalupe County, where Rogers's father was a stock raiser. Young Rogers initially planned to go into farming but found a different calling in law enforcement. He headed to West Texas and in 1882 joined the Rangers as a private, serving in Company B. He later reenlisted in Company F under Capt. Joe Shely. He was promoted to sergeant in 1889 and to captain on January 1, 1893. Rogers lived through several important moments in Ranger history. For example, he took part in the manhunt for fugitive Fred Conner and other members of the Conner family who had broken Fred out of jail in March 1887. As the Rangers neared the Conner hideout, shots rang out and Rogers was hit twice; both were flesh wounds and he recovered. Rogers also participated in ending the "Fence Cutting Wars" in Brown County ( see FENCE CUTTING ). He was again involved in a shootout with suspected fence cutters. He was also wounded while enforcing a quarantine during a smallpox epidemic in Laredo in 1898-99 ( see LAREDO SMALLPOX RIOT ). The quarantine mainly affected Laredo's Mexican-origin population, as racist assumptions of the time erroneously equated Mexican-origin people with poor hygiene. Sheriff L. R. Ortiz assisted the Rangers in a search for smallpox patients, while former Laredo police officer Agapito Herrera, who in part led the quarantine resistance, opposed the search. After a tense confrontation between these men, shots rang out. Herrera died in this shootout. Rogers was wounded in the shoulder, which left him with a lifelong injury. As a result of his wound in Laredo his arm was shortened, after which he used a specially constructed Winchester rifle. Perhaps Rogers's greatest claim to fame was in the search and ultimate apprehension of Gregorio Cortéz in 1901. He led Texas law enforcement and a posse of about 300 men on a lengthy manhunt after Cortez killed three law officers in two different shootouts. Rogers was sent in to take charge of the posse. Cortéz eluded the posse for ten days and rode hundreds of miles. Rogers doggedly and carefully tracked Cortéz to a ranch near the border. He and Customs Inspector Bill Merriman found Cortéz asleep and took him into custody on June 22, 1901, without incident. Ranger Rogers, described as a "man of principle" whose demeanor was modest and understated, was heralded as an effective law officer. The Gregorio Cortéz example exemplifies his commitment to law enforcement and restraint from extralegal activities that happened with regularity in the Southwest. A large number of Texans, including some in the posse, wanted to lynch Cortéz. The fact that Rogers took Cortéz into custody remains noteworthy. Capt. John H. Rogers resigned his commission from the Rangers on January 31, 1911, in protest to Governor Oscar Colquitt 's opposition to prohibition . After his resignation he was appointed as a deputy U. S. marshal in El Paso. On April 1, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson appointed him United States marshal for the Western District of Texas. He held this position for eight years. He served as Austin's chief of police in 1923-24. On May 15, 1927, he returned to the Texas Rangers and was commissioned captain of Company C. He served in this position until his death. Deeply religious, Rogers joined the Presbyterian Church , was a church elder, and contributed 10 percent of his income to the church organization. About 1892 he married Harriett Burwell Roge

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Wilson Potteries

1857

The vessels made at the Wilson potteries of Guadalupe County represent both the westward extension of Old South cotton culture and the interaction of different cultural groups in mid-nineteenth-century Texas. During the last half of the nineteenth century the three potteries in the community of Capote, near Seguin, supplied a wide area of Central Texas with locally made stoneware necessary for both food storage and preparation. In 1857 John McKamey Wilson , a Presbyterian minister and educator, established the first Wilson pottery, which produced utilitarian alkaline-glazed and salt-glazed stoneware through the Civil War years. Rev. Wilson was not a potter, so the initial pottery operations were probably conducted by his slave potters, Hiram, James, George, and Andrew Wilson. Between 1860 and 1866 a White potter, Marion J. Durham, from Edgefield, South Carolina, and a Black potter named John Chandler came to work at the site. Chandler might have been a free man of color or may have belonged to Durham. Durham and Chandler may have influenced the other potters, because most of the pottery found at the earliest Wilson pottery resembles that of the celebrated Edgefield District of South Carolina. The Edgefield District was a center of pottery-making in the South in the early nineteenth century. Many scholars attribute the creation of the southern alkaline-glazed pottery tradition to this period and place. This complex of technologies included the use of an alkaline-based slip glaze, long-tunnel kilns known as "groundhog kilns," and ovoid utilitarian forms sometimes decorated with slip trailing. This southern pottery tradition spread westward with migrating potters, both free and slave, who were largely trained in Edgefield. The pottery contrasted sharply with the salt-glazed stoneware tradition that dominated the border South states northward into the Ohio valley. The site of the first Wilson pottery near Seguin has most of the characteristics of this southern pottery complex, including green, alkaline-glazed potsherds in a large waste pile and the long, narrow surface indications of a groundhog kiln. However, salt-glazed potsherds also littered the site. The presence of the salt glaze, which was the preferred stoneware glaze from the Mid-Atlantic southern states and states farther north, suggests the presence of a potter from that area. This potter could have been one of the slaves or perhaps Isaac Suttles, an Ohioan who worked with M. J. Durham and Thomas Chandler in 1870, and who could have been present at the first pottery. The wide variety of vessel forms made at this first Wilson site attests to the isolated frontier conditions in Central Texas. Forms such as chamber pots, churns, bowls, pitchers and storage jars were made to satisfy local needs. The Civil War disrupted the lives of all the potters in Capote. After the troops went home and the slaves were freed, the potters at the Wilson potteries relocated to two separate shops in 1869. One was run by M. J. Durham, with John Chandler and Isaac Suttles, and the other was run by the former slaves, Hiram, James, and Andrew Wilson. H. Wilson and Company was one of the rare examples of a pottery owned and operated by a Black man in the nineteenth-century South. Its product combined attributes that can be traced to the earlier Wilson pottery, such as vessel shape and the use of a groundhog kiln, along with some idiosyncratic additions, such as a new type of rim and handle. Hiram and Company only made salt-glazed ware and always marked the vessels with the company's name, a practice not followed by most contemporaries. Hiram Wilson assumed a role in Capote similar to that of his former master in Seguin. He started a church and a school, as well as a pottery. The separation of the Black Wilsons into a freedman's community may have been a response to postwar violence and general hard feelings evident in reports of Freedmen's Bureau officers in Seguin. Two instances of violence again

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Benton, Nathaniel

1835

Nathaniel Benton, Texas Ranger, Confederate cavalry officer, county judge, and teacher, was born in 1811 in Tennessee, son of Nathaniel and Dorothy M. (Branch) Benton. He attended two years of training at West Point, but after his father's death, he joined his mother and her family en route to Texas in October 1835. They settled near Waco on the Brazos River. During the Texas Revolution , Benton and his brother Alfred fought in Sam Houston 's army. Benton's career with Houston's army was cut short when he accidentally shot himself in the foot and almost died. His brother Alfred went on to fight at San Jacinto . In 1837 Benton traveled back to Tennessee to marry Harriet McCulloch, the sister of Texas revolutionary Ben McCulloch . They settled in Dyersburg, Tennessee. They had one son, Benjamin Eustace. His wife died in 1845, and he and his son moved to Guadalupe County, Texas. In 1849 he moved to California seeking fortune in gold but was disappointed by that state's prospects and returned to Texas. In 1855, while Benton and his son were Texas Rangers under the command of Capt. James Hughes Callahan , they engaged in a battle with Lipan Apaches and Kickapoos . Benjamin was severely wounded in the eye but later recovered. Sometime in the 1850s Benton married for a second time to Jane Harris, a native of Tennessee, and they lived near Seguin in Guadalupe County. She died in 1861. Once the Civil War erupted, Benton raised a company of Texas mounted riflemen. Two days later, this company was mustered into service in the Confederate Army as Company B of the Thirty-Sixth Texas Cavalry . Shortly after being mustered, Benton was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the regiment on June 1, 1862. His company was assigned to the Trans-Mississippi Department. He was severely wounded at the April 12–13, 1864, battle of Blair's Landing and as a result lost his right arm. Other sources claim that his wound was a result of the siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, during the summer of 1863. Despite the discrepancy, Benton's military career ended when he surrendered along with his unit in June 1865. He was subsequently paroled on August 13, 1865. He returned to Seguin where he was elected county judge and taught school. He was a Methodist and a Democrat. He died April 13, 1872, at the home of his brother-in-law General Henry McCulloch in Seguin and is buried in Vaughan Cemetery, Seguin.

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Things to Do in Seguin

historical 15.6 mi away
Gruene Hall

Gruene Hall opened in 1878 and has never closed its doors making it the oldest continuously operating dance hall in Texas. The wooden floor is scuffed smooth…
historical 14.3 mi away
Where George Strait Got His Start

Before George Strait was the King of Country he was a young singer playing regular gigs at Gruene Hall in the 1970s and 80s. The tiny dance hall with no air…
quirky 14.3 mi away
The Kayaker Who Saved a Ghost Town

In 1974 developers had plans to bulldoze what was left of Gruene and build suburban homes. Then a University of Texas architecture student named Chip Kaufman…
nature 14.4 mi away
Comal Springs

Comal Springs in New Braunfels is the largest spring system in Texas -- more than two hundred and fifty individual vents pouring out three hundred million…
historical 14.4 mi away
Gruene Hall

Texas' oldest dance hall (1878). Still hosts live music every night.
historical 14.4 mi away
The Oldest Dance Hall in Texas

Gruene Hall was built in 1878 by a German cotton farmer named Henry D. Gruene and it has never stopped hosting dances. That makes it the oldest continuously…
food 20.5 mi away
City Market Luling

In Luling they dont fuss with menus. You walk through the dining room back to a little smoke-filled pit room where the butcher hands you brisket sausage and…
nature 22.6 mi away
San Marcos Springs

San Marcos Springs is the second-largest spring system in Texas and the longest continuously inhabited site in North America. Archaeologists found evidence of…
day trip
Day Trip to Seguin 🚣🏻 (FULL EPISODE) S10 E12

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Everything Near Seguin

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

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