Yes, there really is a Miranda Lambert song called Waxahachie. She wrote it with two other Texans, Jack Ingram and Jon Randall, the same trio that wrote her award-winning song Tin Man. Near the end of two thousand twenty the three of them recorded it in Marfa, out in West Texas, with two microphones and two acoustic guitars. They kept single takes, mistakes and all, with the campfire and the desert audible in the background. It came out on May seventh, two thousand twenty one, on their album The Marfa Tapes. Lambert then re-recorded it for her own album Palomino, released April twenty-ninth, two thousand twenty two. It's a road song. The singer leaves New Orleans angry and weighs the long all-night drive back to this town, and whether she'd find that love again if she came back.

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Kicked Out for Boogie-Woogie RoadyGoat

In nineteen fifty, a fifteen-year-old Pentecostal kid from Ferriday, Louisiana, enrolled at the Southwestern Bible Institute here in Waxahachie. The Assemblies of God school had moved onto the old Trinity University campus on the north side of town in nineteen forty three, and the idea was that this boy would become a preacher. His name was Jerry Lee Lewis. It lasted about three months. The story, told in one biography after another, is that he sat down at the piano in front of the school and played the hymn My God Is Real as a boogie-woogie. The books argue about whether it was a chapel service, an assembly or a talent show, but they agree on the ending. He was expelled. He went home to Louisiana, and a few years later he was at Sun Records in Memphis, pounding a piano the way that Bible school had tried to stop him from doing. The school is still here, on the same campus. In twenty twenty four it renamed itself Nelson University.

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Backyard Neighbors RoadyGoat

Two boys whose backyards met here in Waxahachie both ended up in the music business. Bill Ham was born in nineteen thirty seven, went to school here, and went on to North Texas. In nineteen sixty eight he saw a Houston band called the Moving Sidewalks open a concert for the Doors, and he formed a management company around their guitarist, Billy Gibbons. When that band broke up, Gibbons started ZZ Top, and Bill Ham managed and produced them for decades. He also discovered Clint Black, back when Black was singing in Houston pizza parlors. The boy over the back fence was Ronnie Dawson, who later told a music writer that Bill kind of took him under his wing. Dawson became a rockabilly singer and guitarist, and he played on Bruce Channel's hit Hey! Baby. Before any of that, he went to the Bible school here in town, the one that expelled Jerry Lee Lewis, and got himself thrown out too. His offense was smoking cigarettes.

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History of Waxahachie

A Native-Derived Name With Uncertain Language RoadyGoat

You're in Waxahachie, Texas, so here's the Indigenous place-name tangent behind the name: Waxahachie shares its name with the local creek and is traditionally said to come from an Indigenous word connected with cow or buffalo. The exact source language and translation are not securely established, so the name should not be confidently assigned to one nation from resemblance alone. Native place names often passed through several speakers, spellings, maps, and local explanations before becoming official. The responsible lesson is both presence and uncertainty: the word preserves Indigenous geography, while the missing naming record limits what anyone can honestly claim.

North Texas Before Modern Towns RoadyGoat

You're in Waxahachie, Texas, so here's the Indigenous place-name tangent behind the name: North Texas was homeland, hunting country, travel corridor, and contested territory for multiple Indigenous peoples across different periods, including Wichita- and Caddo-speaking communities and later Comanche power extending through the region. These were not one generic tribe. Nations maintained distinct languages, governments, kinship, trade, and diplomacy. Creeks and rivers supplied water, fish, fertile soils, crossings, and routes through prairie and timber. Later roads often followed older Indigenous paths because both travelers sought workable grades, reliable water, and efficient passages across the same terrain.

Disease, Removal, and Living Nations RoadyGoat

You're in Waxahachie, Texas, so here's the Indigenous place-name tangent behind the name: European-introduced epidemics caused catastrophic population loss before many detailed written records were made. Warfare, settler expansion, reservations, and forced removal then pushed numerous Texas peoples from their homelands during the nineteenth century. That history must not end with disappearance language. Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, Caddo Nation, Comanche Nation, and other sovereign nations continue through governments, citizens, families, languages, ceremonies, art, and community events. A Native-derived Texas town name should direct attention toward those living nations while keeping local legends separate from documented tribal history.

Bessie Coleman - Aviator

1892

Born in Atlanta, Texas in 1892 and raised in Waxahachie, Bessie Coleman became the first Black woman and first Native American to hold a pilot's license, earned in France in 1921.

Bessie Coleman

1892

(1892-1926) Born in Atlanta, Texas, pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman grew up and went to school in a Waxahachie neighborhood a few blocks north of this site. At age 23 she moved to Chicago and first expressed her desire to fly. Since there were no flight schools in this country that would teach African American women, Coleman learned to fly in France and obtained her international pilot's license in 1921. Upon her return to the United States, she was hailed as the first black woman pilot. Extremely popular, "Queen Bess", as she was known, performed as a barnstormer for integrated audiences at air shows and exhibitions around the country before her death in an air accident in Jacksonville, Florida. (2001)

Historical Marker →

Nelson, John Byron, Jr.

1945

John Byron Nelson, Jr., professional golfer, was born on his parents' cotton farm in Long Branch, Texas, near Waxahachie, on February 4, 1912. He was the son of John Byron Nelson, Sr., and Madge (Allen) Nelson. Nelson is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest American golfers of all time. He grew up in Fort Worth since he was the age of eleven and, at the age of twelve, became a caddy at Glen Garden Country Club. He dropped out of school when he was in the tenth grade in 1928, briefly worked with the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway , and took up golfing full time in 1929. As a teenage caddy, Nelson worked alongside Ben Hogan , who also became a legendary golfer, lifelong friend, and professional rival. In 1927 Nelson beat Hogan by one shot after a nine-hole playoff in an annual caddy tournament. While he transitioned to a full-time tournament fixture, Nelson worked as a golf professional between 1932 and 1940 at courses in Arkansas, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. He joined the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) in 1932. In 1934, while working as a golf pro in Texarkana, Arkansas, Nelson met Louise Shofner, who would be his wife for fifty years. The two were married on June 24, 1934, in Louise's parents' living room. Called "Lord Byron" for his gentlemanly qualities, Nelson won the Vardon Trophy in 1939. He played on two Ryder Cup teams, in 1937 and 1947, and was non-playing captain in 1965. Nelson was a two-time winner of the Professional Golfing Association championship in 1940 and 1945, the U.S. Open in 1939, and the Masters Golf Tournament in 1937 and 1942. Nelson was exempted from military service during World War II due to a blood clotting disorder. He spent much of the war giving exhibitions to raise funds for charities. During his professional career, golf clubs evolved from wooden to steel shafts, and Nelson was the first golfer to adjust his swing accordingly, modifying his stance and incorporating the use of his legs to add distance. This fortuitous timing helped Nelson become known as the father of the modern golf swing. In 1945 Byron Nelson accomplished an eleven-tournament winning streak that had not been broken as of 2021. That year, playing in thirty-five tournaments, Nelson finished with eighteen victories, including eleven straight; finished second another seven times; and established a record for the lowest scoring average (68.33 for eighteen holes), which remained untouched for fifty-five years until broken by Tiger Woods in 2000. His 1945 season is widely considered the greatest single year by a player on the PGA Tour and, as such, one of the greatest in the history of the sport. He was twice named the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year, in 1944 and 1945. With his win at the 1946 Columbus Invitational, Nelson became the first player to reach fifty career PGA Tour wins. This feat has since been matched by Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Billy Casper, and Tiger Woods. His fifty-two career wins ranked sixth overall as of 2021. After 1946 he reduced his schedule but continued to make appearances at the Masters Tournament as a competitor, played occasional PGA events, and played several overseas tournaments. Nelson retired officially at the age of thirty-four-much earlier than his peers Hogan and Sneed, both of whom were born in the same year as Nelson-to become a rancher, buying a ranch at Roanoke, Texas. He also gave paid golf exhibitions, later became a television golf commentator during the 1960s and 1970s, and regularly made appearances at PGA events. Nelson appeared as himself in the 1953 Jerry Lewis-Dean Martin movie, The Caddy , along with fellow players Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, and Julius Boros. Nelson was a coach and mentor to Ken Venturi, Tom Watson, and Marty Fleckman. He was influential in the careers of such golfers as Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus. In Jack Nicklaus's 1978 book On and Off the Fairway , Nicklaus wrote that Nelson was the "straightest" golfer h

Tsha Handbook →

Waxahachie - Gingerbread City

1850

Waxahachie is famous for its Victorian gingerbread architecture and as the site of the cancelled Superconducting Super Collider, which would have been the world's largest particle accelerator.

Dawson, Ronald Monroe [Ronnie]

1956

Ronald Monroe "Ronnie" Dawson, rockabilly singer, songwriter, and guitarist, was born in Waxahachie, Texas, on August 11, 1939, the son of bandleader and bass player Pinky Dawson (of the Manhattan Merrymakers) and Gladys Dawson. Ronnie Dawson's musical career, based almost entirely in Texas, spanned from his early teenage years at the Waxahachie Southwestern Bible Institute to the months before his death from throat cancer in 2003. At the time of his death, he was considered an elder statesman, if not a legend, in the blues , rockabilly, and country roots rock-and-roll genres. Although Dawson was raised in a family with a primarily fundamentalist Pentecostal faith, musical talent ran a close parallel. Dawson stated that although he did not see a movie until he was seventeen, he found himself with a guitar in hand at around age fourteen. In addition to guitar, Dawson's (now musically retired) father Pinky showed him how to play the mandolin, drums, and bass guitar. Dawson attended Southwestern Bible Institute in Waxahachie but was expelled for smoking cigarettes. Ronnie Dawson's freshman act was called Ronnie Dee and the D Men and featured his soaring tenor vocals combined with a stand-out guitar sound based in rhythmic rock-and-roll with a hint of R&B, which was all the teenage rage in 1956. Within two months of its inception, the band Ronnie Dee and the D Men hesitantly entered a talent contest for a spot on the popular and long-standing Dallas live radio show, Big D Jamboree . Their ten wins in a row earned the young band multiple appearances on the variety show, which aired from Dallas's Sportatorium , a legendary wrestling arena and music venue. Ronnie Dee and the D Men were soon signed by Sportatorium owner and Jamboree promoter Ed McLemore , manager for Gene Vincent, who was an occasional performer on the Big D Jamboree . With his assistance, the band soon recorded their first single on the Back Beat label, a subsidiary of Duke Records -"Action Packed" b/w "I Make the Love." Radio play for "Action Packed" and their next single ("Rockin' Bones" on the McLemore label) gained steady ground, along with Dawson's reputation for giving an electric, acrobatic live performance that could challenge even the fiery young Elvis Presley. Incidentally, Dawson has claimed that his style of performance was taken not from Presley but directly from the dynamic Pentecostal revivals that he still attended. In addition to his musical performance skills, Ronnie Dawson cut a compelling figure onstage; also nicknamed "The Blonde Bomber," he was tall and lanky with a trademark blond flat-top haircut and a wide, mischievous grin. More recording and television appearance offers arrived in swift succession. Before long, star-maker Dick Clark signed the burgeoning young group to his Swan Records label and confirmed them for an appearance on American Bandstand . Unfortunately, they had arrived on the scene at the cusp of the "Payola" scandal. The surrounding hullabaloo cut short all their musical plans and what would have been perceived as their shot at "the big time." Clark closed the Swan Records label. Undaunted, Ronnie Dawson continued his musical career with the help of some of his new connections. After the inevitable breakup of the D Men, Dawson toured as a featured guitarist with legendary Texas western-swing act the Light Crust Doughboys . He also employed his drumming skills for studio sessions for some of Major Bill Smith 's recording artists at the time, such as Paul and Paula on their hit "Hey Paula" and Bruce Channel on "Hey! Baby" (also featuring Delbert McClinton on harmonica). From 1959 to 1961 Ronnie Dawson recorded on several other labels, and, in the tradition of many artists of the era, reinvented himself under new musical personae with several recording pseudonyms. He briefly signed with Columbia Records in 1961 and released the single "Do Do Do" under the name Commonwealth Jones. Dawson also used the name Snake Munroe. He commen

Tsha Handbook →

Rogers, Emory W.

1849

Emory W. Rogers, pioneer, settler, philanthropist, Confederate officer, and businessman, was born in Alabama in 1813, to James and Mary (Speaks) Rogers. On September 16, 1833, Rogers married Nancy Clinton of South Carolina in Limestone, Alabama. The couple had four sons and two daughters. No later than 1847, Rogers moved with his family to Texas and built a log cabin near present-day Waxahachie. On October 4, 1849, he received a grant of 640 acres along the north fork of the Waxahachie Creek to establish the seat of the newly-created Ellis County. This seat was designated as the town of Waxahachie. Considered by many to be the founder of the town, Rogers played a leading role in its planning, improvement, and culture. Prior to the construction of a courthouse, his home served as the town's administrative hub. After supervising the construction of various roads, streets, and a post office, Rogers built a hotel bearing his name in 1856. With the coming of the Civil War , Rogers joined many other leading citizens of Waxahachie and Ellis County in service of the Confederacy. In 1861 he was elected as major in the Twelfth Texas Cavalry Regiment and served with this unit throughout the war. In May 1862 Rogers led elements of the Twelfth Cavalry in an attack on a numerically-superior Union force at the battle of Whitney's Lane in Arkansas. Though ultimately forced to retreat, Rogers and the Twelfth Cavalry helped forestall a Union attack on Little Rock and ensured Arkansas's continued participation in the Confederacy. At the conclusion of the war in 1865, Rogers returned to Waxahachie and resumed his role of leadership within the community. He deeded forty acres of land in August 1870 to the trustees of Marvin College, which had opened its doors in Waxahachie the previous year. Rogers passed away in 1874. Both Rogers and his wife were buried in the Waxahachie City Cemetery. In 2011 the land he donated to the college was located at the north end of College Street. The Rogers Hotel burned to the ground in 1881, but a new Rogers Hotel was constructed in 1912 and still stood in the early twenty-first century.

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Things to Do in Waxahachie

day trip

Day Trip to Waxahachie 🥩⛪️ (FULL EPISODE) S11 E9

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

Sports in Waxahachie

⭐ HOMETOWN LEGENDS Class 6A · Football

Waxahachie Indians — Waxahachie — a college & pro athletic pipeline

9 alumni who reached major-college or pro sports

Waxahachie High School has a proud tradition of developing athletes who have gone on to compete at the highest levels of college and professional sports. The school's alumni include several notable figures who have made their mark in football and basketball. Among them are former NFL players Montae Reagor, Aldrick Robinson, Broderick Sargent, and Brian Waters. These individuals represent the dedication and talent fostered within the Waxahachie athletic programs.

The list of accomplished alumni also features Desmond Mason, a former NBA player. In college football, Waxahachie is represented by Keith Abney II, a cornerback for the Arizona State Sun Devils, and Preston Hodge, a cornerback for the Colorado Buffaloes. LaDarius Henderson, an offensive guard for the Indianapolis Colts, also hails from Waxahachie High School, continuing the strong presence of former Indians in professional sports.

Pro/D1 alumni

Class

Founded

1864

Key Players

Keith Abney II — , college football cornerback for the Arizona State Sun Devils
LaDarius Henderson — , NFL offensive guard for the Indianapolis Colts
Preston Hodge — , college football cornerback for the Colorado Buffaloes
Desmond Mason — , former NBA player (2001 Slam Dunk Contest Champion)
Montae Reagor — , former NFL player
Aldrick Robinson — , NFL player

The moment

Desmond Mason was a former NBA player.

Sources: Wikipedia

Everything Near Waxahachie

537 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

A Native-Derived Name With Uncertain Language
You're in Waxahachie, Texas, so here's the Indigenous place-name tangent behind the name: Waxahachie shares its name with the local creek and is traditionally said to come from an Indigenous word connected with cow or…
North Texas Before Modern Towns
You're in Waxahachie, Texas, so here's the Indigenous place-name tangent behind the name: North Texas was homeland, hunting country, travel corridor, and contested territory for multiple Indigenous peoples across…
Disease, Removal, and Living Nations
You're in Waxahachie, Texas, so here's the Indigenous place-name tangent behind the name: European-introduced epidemics caused catastrophic population loss before many detailed written records were made. Warfare,…
Corn Villages and Buffalo Hunts
You're in Waxahachie, Texas, so here's the Indigenous place-name tangent behind the name: many Southern Plains communities combined farming with seasonal hunting rather than choosing one lifestyle. Corn, beans, squash,…
Trade Before Highways
You're in Waxahachie, Texas, so here's the Indigenous place-name tangent behind the name: Indigenous trade networks moved salt, food, horses, hides, pottery, shell, pigments, stone, metal goods, and information across…
Bessie Coleman - Aviator · Historical Marker
Born in Atlanta, Texas in 1892 and raised in Waxahachie, Bessie Coleman became the first Black woman and first Native American to hold a pilot's license, earned in France in 1921.
The Real Marshal Behind Places in the Heart
Places in the Heart opens with a sheriff called away from Sunday dinner and shot dead. Robert Benton didn't make that up. His great-grandfather, John H. Spalding, was Waxahachie's city marshal. On Sunday, December…
Waxahachie - Gingerbread City · Historical Marker
Waxahachie is famous for its Victorian gingerbread architecture and as the site of the cancelled Superconducting Super Collider, which would have been the world's largest particle accelerator.
Through the Wall of the Rotary Jail
The old Ellis County jail, at the corner of Rogers and Water Streets, was finished in eighteen eighty eight with a rotary cage, put in to keep prisoners from escaping. The cage was a cylinder of cells that turned inside…
Ellis County Jail, Old · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Old Ellis County Jail in Waxahachie, completed in 1888. This impressive brick and stone building housed the sheriff's family on the first floor and twenty cells upstairs. Look for the distinctive…
Bonnie and Clyde Started in Waxahachie
The movie Bonnie and Clyde opens with Faye Dunaway glancing out a bedroom window. She's Bonnie, and she's watching Warren Beatty, as Clyde, nose around her mother's car. A North Texas film-location blog says the house…
The Marfa Song About Waxahachie
Yes, there really is a Miranda Lambert song called Waxahachie. She wrote it with two other Texans, Jack Ingram and Jon Randall, the same trio that wrote her award-winning song Tin Man. Near the end of two thousand…

Show all 200 nearby places

The Pink-Granite Castle on the Square · 0.1 mi
Look up. The building dominating the square is widely called one of the finest county courthouses in Texas, and it's the reason people drive here. Architect James Riely Gordon designed it in the Richardsonian Romanesque…
The Faces of Mabel: A Courthouse Love Story That Probably Isn't True · 0.1 mi
Walk the corners of the courthouse and watch the carved faces change. Near one entrance a young woman's face is serene and lovely; turn the corner and she sours, twists, and finally curdles into something demonic. The…
Oriented to the four compass points · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Ellis County Courthouse. Ellis County's first courthouse was made of cedar logs and built here in 1850. A second courthouse was built on this square in 1853 and a third in 1874. In 1894 Virginia…
Ellis County Courthouse · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
Ellis County's first courthouse was made of cedar logs and built here in 1850. A second courthouse was built on this square in 1853 and a third in 1874. In 1894 Virginia native and San Antonio architect James Riely…
The Fireproof Hotel With Spring Water and Spring Training · 0.1 mi
On the northeast corner of the courthouse square stands the four-story Rogers Hotel, built in 1912 on the very lot where town founder Emory Rogers raised his log cabin back in 1847. Designed by architect C.D. Hill, it…
Ellis County Courthouse · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Ellis County Courthouse in Waxahachie, a stunning example of Romanesque Revival architecture. Built between 1895 and 1897, it's constructed from Texas granite, limestone, and marble. Look closely…
Site of a Confederate Powder Mill · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a Confederate powder mill, erected back in 1862 by William Rowen. Just a year later, on April 29th, 1863, a massive explosion rocked this spot. The blast destroyed the mill and tragically…
The Lodge Guillotine on Franklin Street · 0.1 mi
Just off the courthouse square, at two oh nine West Franklin, there's a three-story cast-iron-front building from nineteen oh two. Bruce and Julie Webb started the Webb Gallery in Waxahachie in nineteen eighty seven.…
The Bullet Hole in the Sheriff's Door · 0.1 mi
On the first floor of the Ellis County Courthouse, there's a door with a bullet hole in it. That room used to be the sheriff's office. Here's the story they tell. Sometime in the nineteen twenties, a deputy brought a…
Hancock Building · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Hancock Building in Waxahachie, a Victorian commercial structure built in 1890. Look for the decorative brickwork and cast iron columns on the facade. It was purchased in 1907 by William Pitt…
1889 Masonic Lodge Hall · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the 1889 Masonic Lodge Hall in Waxahachie. Look at this three-story brick building, topped with a tin cornice decorated with Masonic symbols. It was built in 1889 for Waxahachie Lodge No. 90. The…
Thompson, Dr. D.G., Homesite of · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the homesite of Dr. D.G. Thompson, a prominent physician right here in Waxahachie. After studying medicine in Kentucky and training in the East, Dr. Thompson married Rufa Jones in 1882. He built this…
First Presbyterian Church Building · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Waxahachie, and right here is the First Presbyterian Church building. Organized way back in 1871 by Reverend J.A. Smiley with just 16 members, this congregation has seen a few buildings. The first…
Ellis County Woman's Building (Davis Hall) · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Ellis County Woman's Building, also known as Davis Hall, in Waxahachie. Designed by Dallas architect Bertram C. Hill and built in 1925 and 1926, it was intended as a public park and a place for…
St. Paul's Episcopal · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Waxahachie's oldest church, St. Paul's Episcopal. <break time="400ms"/> Dedicated way back in 1885 by pioneer Bishop A.C. Garrett, this building still stands as a testament to Gothic Revival…
The Marble Library a Dead Man Paid For · 0.3 mi
At 515 West Main stands a small marble temple of a building that owes its existence to a will. Nicholas P. Sims, a Virginia native who settled in Ellis County in the 1830s and grew rich as a farmer and investor, died in…
Rogers Street Bridge · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the old Rogers Street Bridge in Waxahachie. Built in 1889, this truss bridge was a crucial piece of infrastructure, connecting early settlers and a vital North-South commercial route.…
Mahoney - Thompson House · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Mahoney-Thompson House in Waxahachie, a solid piece of local history. Built between 1902 and 1904 by Dennis Mahoney, a contractor who first came to Texas to build Trinity University. He laid the…
N.P. Sims Library and Lyceum · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Waxahachie, and right here in Getzendaner Park, you're passing a building that was a pioneer among privately endowed Texas libraries. Captain W.H. Getzendaner donated this park back in 1895. But…
Central Presbyterian Church · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Waxahachie's Central Presbyterian Church. It started way back in 1853 as a Cumberland Presbyterian congregation, with just twelve members led by Rev. Daniel G. Molloy. They met in a…
Presiding Elder's House · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the former home of a Methodist presiding elder in Waxahachie. Built in 1901, this house served as the parsonage for the district superintendent for over 40 years. Mrs. M.J. Cooke initially had the…
Kicked Out for Boogie-Woogie · 0.4 mi
In nineteen fifty, a fifteen-year-old Pentecostal kid from Ferriday, Louisiana, enrolled at the Southwestern Bible Institute here in Waxahachie. The Assemblies of God school had moved onto the old Trinity University…
The Escape That Cost Him His Appeal · 0.4 mi
In July of nineteen oh five, a man named J. H. Taylor was assaulted and robbed near Waxahachie, and he died the next morning. A Black man named Albert Johnson was arrested, and because of threats of a lynching, officers…
The Garage Man Murder · 0.4 mi
On the night of the twenty seventh of February, nineteen fifteen, a young garage man named Jack Jones was beaten to death in Waxahachie. A man named Joe Larkins was arrested, tried within weeks and hanged that April,…
Bessie Coleman · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
(1892-1926) Born in Atlanta, Texas, pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman grew up and went to school in a Waxahachie neighborhood a few blocks north of this site. At age 23 she moved to Chicago and first expressed her desire…
Sixty-Five Straight · 0.4 mi
In the middle of the nineteen twenties, Waxahachie High School played baseball like almost nobody in the country. Starting in Paul Richards's freshman year, the Indians won sixty five games in a row, a streak the…
The Hanging Ground Below the Compress · 0.4 mi
In March of nineteen oh four, the Waxahachie Daily Light explained where Brozier Smith would be hanged: down on the creek, a short distance below the cotton compress, near where another Black man, George Young, had been…
The Marshal Who Came to Help · 0.4 mi
On a Sunday evening, the seventeenth of December, eighteen eighty two, a Waxahachie deputy marshal tried to arrest a man named Charles Smith, and Smith ran, and the two traded shots. City Marshal John Spalding rode in…
The Hidden Thirty-Two · 0.4 mi
In January of nineteen forty four, a convict named J. B. Stephens escaped from the Retrieve prison farm, where he was serving time for robbery, and talked a Dallas man into driving him to Waxahachie by claiming he was…
Bonnie Parker's Husband Breaks Out · 0.4 mi
Bonnie Parker had a husband, and it wasn't Clyde Barrow. In nineteen twenty six she married her longtime sweetheart, Roy Thornton, and even after the marriage went bad, she refused to divorce him. Thornton got into…
The Boy Whose Father Went to Bonnie and Clyde's Funerals · 0.4 mi
Robert Benton was born in Dallas and raised in Waxahachie, and he said he owed his love of movies to his father, a telephone company man who took the family to the picture show. His father had another thing he liked to…
The Day the Powder Mill Blew · 0.4 mi
Waxahachie never saw a Civil War battle, but it had a war industry, and it paid for it. In eighteen sixty two a man named William Rowen built a mill here to make gunpowder, which the Confederacy was desperately short…
The Fire That Ate a Fire Truck · 0.4 mi
On the third of October, twenty eleven, workers at the Magnablend plant on the north side of Waxahachie mixed a water treatment product they had made at least sixteen times before in batches of five hundred gallons or…
Backyard Neighbors · 0.4 mi
Two boys whose backyards met here in Waxahachie both ended up in the music business. Bill Ham was born in nineteen thirty seven, went to school here, and went on to North Texas. In nineteen sixty eight he saw a Houston…
The Night the Hotel Burned · 0.4 mi
Between three and four on a Sunday morning in November of nineteen eleven, the night watchman on his rounds spotted a fire in Levi Adair's tailor shop, under the north wing of the Rogers Hotel. Minutes later, gasoline…
Paul Richards Park · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Waxahachie's historic ballpark, known by many names over the years, including Jungle Park and Woodman Park. Back in 1914, locals dreamed of attracting a major league team, and by 1916,…
The Electric Railway Over the Railroads · 0.4 mi
For more than thirty years you could ride an electric train from Waxahachie to Dallas. In nineteen twelve the Strickland interests bought the twenty eight mile electric line from Dallas to Waxahachie and named it the…
The University That Left for San Antonio · 0.4 mi
Trinity University spent four decades in Waxahachie. The Presbyterian college was founded in eighteen sixty nine, and its leaders talked for years about a better location before, in nineteen oh two, they moved it here,…
Born on the Kitchen Cabinet · 0.4 mi
Congressman Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri was born here in Waxahachie in nineteen forty four, and he has written about exactly where. Until he was seven, his family lived in a two room shack in Waxahachie with no running…
Lamont Moore Puts On the Cape · 0.4 mi
Waxahachie's first state football championship came in nineteen ninety two, in the Class Four A final, and it came from behind. The Indians trailed A and M Consolidated late and surged back to win twenty eight to twenty…
From a Waxahachie Choir to Quincy Jones · 0.4 mi
Tevin Campbell started singing gospel in a Baptist church here in Waxahachie when he was about four years old. A friend of his mother's got him an audition with the jazz flutist Bobbi Humphrey, and he sang for her over…
Three Films in Four Years · 0.4 mi
In the early nineteen eighties the playwright Horton Foote kept bringing his movies to Waxahachie. Tender Mercies was shot here and in Palmer between November and December of nineteen eighty one. It was Foote's first…
The Munsters Live in Waxahachie · 0.4 mi
Somewhere in Waxahachie is a house that looks like it belongs at thirteen thirteen Mockingbird Lane. Sandra and Charles McKee built a replica of the Munster family mansion from the nineteen sixties TV show, and Sandra…
The Taxidermist Who Counted the Last Buffalo · 0.4 mi
Waxahachie's name is often said to come from an Indian word meaning cow or buffalo, so here's a buffalo story. In eighteen eighty six, William Temple Hornaday, the Smithsonian's chief taxidermist, went to Montana to…
Hawkins House · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Hawkins House in Waxahachie. This home started as a simple, one-story structure built in 1851 by Benjamin Franklin Hawkins, a key figure in organizing Ellis County as part of the Peters Colony.…
Hawkins, Eddy P., Home · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising past the Eddy P. Hawkins home in Waxahachie. Hawkins, from a pioneer Ellis County family, built the first two rooms of this place right after he married Netta Carson in 1878. Fast forward to 1900, and he…
Strickland - Sawyer House · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Waxahachie, and right here is a house with a story of Texas industry. In 1888, a widow built a home on this spot. Just one year later, it was bought by J.F. Strickland. He was a big deal—a…
Designed by Booker T. Washington's Son-in-Law · 0.4 mi
Joshua Chapel A. M. E. Church on Aiken Street has a remarkable architect. The congregation was organized in eighteen seventy six and named for its first pastor, the Reverend Joshua Goins, and it met in an old…
Probably the First · 0.4 mi
Josie Briggs was born in Waxahachie in eighteen sixty nine and lost both parents as a girl. At sixteen she got her first teaching job, and in nineteen oh five she published two books: one of poems, and one with a title…
The Spillway That Could Mark a Moment in Earth History · 0.4 mi
Geologists divide Earth's history into stages, and for each one they try to pick a single rock layer somewhere in the world as the official reference point, sometimes called a golden spike. For the start of the…
The Original Singing Cowboy · 0.4 mi
Jules Verne Allen was born in Waxahachie on the first of April, eighteen eighty three, and by the age of ten he was working cattle in Jack County. He rode in the last days of the open range and sang the songs cowboys…
The Regent in the Hard Hat · 0.4 mi
Frank Erwin was born in Waxahachie on the twenty fourth of January, nineteen twenty, and he grew up to run the University of Texas Board of Regents with a very firm hand. In October of nineteen sixty nine the regents…
Hansel and Gretel's House Wasn't Gingerbread · 0.4 mi
Waxahachie calls itself the Gingerbread City, for the lacy trim on its Victorian houses. So here's a gingerbread surprise. In the Brothers Grimm's Hansel and Gretel, the witch's house isn't made of gingerbread. In their…
The First Renaissance Fair Was Built From Scrap · 0.4 mi
Just outside Waxahachie is one of the big Renaissance festivals, so here's how the whole idea began. In the early nineteen sixties, a teacher named Phyllis Patterson ran a children's theater program in Laurel Canyon, in…
An Ellis County Deputy on the Trinity · 0.4 mi
In February of nineteen seventy one, Ellis County deputy Arthur Robertson was working a burglary investigation, backed up by two Dallas County deputies, William Reese and Samuel Infante, at the home of one of the…
A Renaissance Village Outside Waxahachie · 0.4 mi
Southwest of town, out along Farm to Market Road sixty six, sits a make-believe village that pretends to be Renaissance England. The Scarborough Renaissance Festival opened its gates in nineteen eighty one, and every…
Officer Josh Williams · 0.4 mi
In the early morning hours of the twenty eighth of July, twenty twelve, Waxahachie police officer Josh Williams was answering a disturbance call at a fast food restaurant on Highway seventy seven. As he turned into the…
The May Tornado · 0.4 mi
On the night of the third of May, twenty twenty one, an EF Two tornado tore through Waxahachie and the country around it. Somewhere between twenty five and fifty homes and businesses were destroyed, and eight people…
Elizabeth, the Bride Who Never Left the House on Water Street · 0.5 mi
The Victorian house at 814 Water Street, built in 1895, spent decades as a family home before it opened in 1984 as the Catfish Plantation, a Cajun-and-catfish spot that became famous less for the food than for being…
Williams - Erwin House · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Williams-Erwin House in Waxahachie, a beautiful example of Victorian architecture. Built in 1893 for cotton merchant Edward Williams, this home showcases the wealth generated by the booming…
Waxahachie Cemetery · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Waxahachie Cemetery. The first burial here was on New Year's Day, 1852, for Silas Killough, a pioneer merchant and one of the town's founders. The land itself was donated back in 1858 by Emory…
Marvin College, Site of · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Marvin College, founded right here in 1870 by the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Waxahachie residents pitched in with land, labor, and cash to build it up. This place earned acclaim…
First United Methodist Church of Waxahachie · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Waxahachie, and right here is where a faith community planted its roots way back in 1849. Nine charter members, led by Reverend Falacius Reynolds, met in a settler's cabin to start a Methodist…
Desertron: The Biggest Machine That Texas Almost Built · 0.6 mi
Beneath the farmland near Waxahachie runs the ghost of what would have been the most powerful scientific instrument on Earth. In 1988 the federal government chose Ellis County for the Superconducting Super Collider,…
Lord Byron: The Golfer Born on an Ellis County Farm · 0.6 mi
One of the greatest golfers who ever lived was born on a farm near here. Byron Nelson came into the world on February 4, 1912, just outside Waxahachie in Ellis County, before his family moved toward Fort Worth where he…
The Octagon in the Park Where Will Rogers Played · 0.6 mi
In the shade of Getzendaner Memorial Park stands a great wooden octagon that once drew crowds of thousands for ideas, music, and oratory. This is the Chautauqua Auditorium, built in 1902 by the Waxahachie Chautauqua…
The Gingerbread City That Hollywood Kept Filming · 0.6 mi
These tree-shaded streets full of ornate Victorian houses are why Waxahachie calls itself the Gingerbread City, named for the lacy gingerbread woodwork dripping off the porches and gables that cotton money paid for. The…
Buffalo Creek and the County Seat Emory Rogers Gave Away · 0.6 mi
The town you're entering took its name straight off the water. Waxahachie comes from a Native American name for the creek running along the south edge of the new settlement, usually translated as buffalo creek or cow…
Rosemont · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Rosemont, a true Victorian gem in Waxahachie. Built in 1894 for a whopping twelve thousand dollars, this 20-room mansion was a statement. Notice the wide verandas, the ten fireplaces with carved oak…
Joshua Chapel, A.M.E. Church · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Joshua Chapel, an important landmark in Waxahachie's African American community. Organized in 1876, this congregation was named for its first pastor, the Reverend Joshua Goins, a man who started many…
St. Joseph Catholic Church · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past St. Joseph Catholic Church. The earliest Catholic settlers in Waxahachie were two brothers of English and American ancestry who arrived in 1859. A German Catholic family joined them in 1870 and a…
The Courthouse and the Sculptor's Revenge · 0.7 mi
The magnificent building in the center of the square is the Ellis County Courthouse — cornerstone laid on the Fourth of July, 1895, and finished in 1897. It's a masterpiece, but the real story is in the stone. Look…
Catching Lightning in a Camera · 0.7 mi
As you roll into Waxahachie, look toward the middle of the square, because you are about to see one of the most photographed landmarks in all of Texas. Rising over the downtown is the Ellis County Courthouse, a red…
Waxahachie, TX · 0.7 mi
Waxahachie, a city in Ellis County, Texas, has a rich history that dates back to its founding in 1850. The city, which became the county seat, was incorporated in 1871. A pivotal moment in its development came in 1875…
Hollywood in the Heart of Texas · 0.7 mi
In 1983, Hollywood came to Waxahachie, but it felt more like a homecoming. Director Robert Benton, raised right here, chose his hometown for 'Places in the Heart,' a Depression-era story about a widow fighting to keep…
Oak Lawn School · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the former site of Oak Lawn School, a beacon for Black education in Waxahachie. It started in 1887 as an elementary school, moving to this very location in 1893. By the turn of the century, high…
Dunlap - Simpson House · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past a truly unique home in Waxahachie, built back in 1890 and 1891. This isn't just any house; it's a fantastic example of Queen Anne Revival style, featuring two hexagonal rooms and two octagonal rooms!…
H.P. and Mollie McCartney House · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Waxahachie, and you might just pass a fairytale house! This French Eclectic home was built in 1939 for H.P. and Mollie McCartney. Noted Dallas architect Charles S. Dilbeck designed it, giving it…
Nelson, John Byron, Jr. · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
John Byron Nelson, Jr., professional golfer, was born on his parents' cotton farm in Long Branch, Texas, near Waxahachie, on February 4, 1912. He was the son of John Byron Nelson, Sr., and Madge (Allen) Nelson. Nelson…
Dawson, Ronald Monroe [Ronnie] · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Ronald Monroe "Ronnie" Dawson, rockabilly singer, songwriter, and guitarist, was born in Waxahachie, Texas, on August 11, 1939, the son of bandleader and bass player Pinky Dawson (of the Manhattan Merrymakers) and…
Rogers, Emory W. · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Emory W. Rogers, pioneer, settler, philanthropist, Confederate officer, and businessman, was born in Alabama in 1813, to James and Mary (Speaks) Rogers. On September 16, 1833, Rogers married Nancy Clinton of South…
Still, Rae Mandette Files · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, and right here is Waxahachie, home of Rae Files Still. She wasn't just a teacher; she was a force in the Texas House of Representatives for a decade. Still is best remembered for…
Richards, Paul Rapier · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Right here in Waxahachie, you're driving past the birthplace of Paul "Sleepy" Richards, a Major League Baseball player and manager. But what's really interesting is how this town shaped his love for the game. Back in…
Forrest, Frederic Fenimore, Jr. · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Frederic Fenimore Forrest, Jr., actor, was born in Waxahachie, Texas, on December 23, 1936, and was the son of Frederic Fenimore Forrest, Sr., and Virginia (McSpadden) Forrest. The couple had one other child, a daughter…
Allen, Jules Verne · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once the rugged West, and right here in Waxahachie, Texas, was born Jules Verne Allen, the original 'Singing Cowboy.' Before he hit the radio waves in the 1920s, Allen actually lived the…
Blaffer, Sarah Campbell · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Texas, and right here, in Waxahachie, was born Sarah Campbell Blaffer, a woman who would bring world-class art to the Lone Star State. After a visit to the Louvre on her honeymoon, she began…
Carrick, Manton Marble · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Waxahachie, and right here is where Dr. Manton Marble Carrick spent his formative years. He went on to become a pioneer in public health, serving as superintendent of the Texas State Leper Colony…
Twelfth Texas Cavalry · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Texas, and right here, you're passing through the territory where the Twelfth Texas Cavalry was born. Organized in September of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1861</say-as> near…
Erwin, Frank Craig, Jr. · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Frank Craig Erwin, Jr., chairman of the University of Texas System Board of Regents, was born in Waxahachie, Texas, on January 24, 1920, one of two sons of Frank Craig and Margaret (Edwards) Erwin, Sr. He enrolled at…
Bradshaw, Amzi · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, heading towards Waxahachie, where Amzi Bradshaw made his home. A lawyer and legislator, Bradshaw answered the call to arms in 1861, enlisting as a private in the Nineteenth Texas…
Central Texas and Northwestern Railway · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, near Waxahachie. Back in the 1870s, the folks here were a bit stubborn. When the Houston and Texas Central Railroad wanted to build through, Waxahachie refused to offer any money,…
Dawson, Joseph Martin · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through North Texas, near where Joseph Martin Dawson was born back in 1879. He was a Baptist pastor, but he was also a fierce social activist. In 1914, after reading the works of Walter Rauschenbusch,…
Ferris, Justus Wesley · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Waxahachie, the town named for Justus Wesley Ferris. He arrived in Texas in 1847, drawn here after his law mentor died unexpectedly. Ferris became a prominent lawyer and judge, even authoring…
Gibson, Charles Reese · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Waxahachie, a town that owes a lot to Charles Reese Gibson. After serving in the Confederate Army and practicing law, Gibson arrived here in 1867. He didn't just settle down; he built up the…
Rainey, Anson · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through North Texas, passing through communities like Waxahachie and Dallas, places that were shaped by figures like Anson Rainey. He started his Texas journey in Crockett in 1867, then moved to…
Southwestern Assemblies of God University · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Waxahachie, home to Southwestern Assemblies of God University. But this school has a history that stretches across state lines and multiple mergers. It began in 1927 as Southwestern Bible School…
Kemble, Josiah Wright · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, near Waxahachie. Right here, Josiah Wright Kemble, a prosperous farmer and merchant, made a big decision around 1861. Fearing the Civil War's violence back in Kentucky, he packed up…
Waxahachie, TX · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Waxahachie, the county seat of Ellis County, is on Interstate Highway 35E and U.S. Highway 287, thirty miles south of Dallas in the central part of the county. The name comes from an Indian word meaning "cow" or…
Ellis County · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, a place established in December of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1849</say-as>. It was drawn from Navarro County and likely named for Richard Ellis, a key figure in the…
McKnight, Samuel Ewell · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Central Texas, and right here in Waxahachie, Samuel Ewell McKnight got his start. Born in 1864, he worked the family ranch before heading out on his own around 1891 to lease land near Brady. He…
McPherson, Chalmers · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through North Texas, and right here, in Waxahachie, Chalmers McPherson arrived in 1879. He was a minister with a vision, serving the Christian church for twenty years. But his real passion? Education.…
Singleton, Albert Olin · 1.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Waxahachie, the birthplace of Dr. Albert Olin Singleton. Born in 1882, Singleton went on to become a pioneering professor of surgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He…
Getzendaner Memorial Park · 1.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Getzendaner Memorial Park, originally West End Park, established way back in 1889. For decades, it was the site of massive Chautauqua assemblies, drawing thousands for two weeks each summer. Imagine…
Waxahachie Chautauqua Building · 1.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a cultural phenomenon that swept across America! Back in 1899, Waxahachie became a hub for Chautauqua assemblies, drawing huge crowds from all over. People would camp out for days,…
Trippet-Shive House · 1.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising past the Trippet-Shive House in Waxahachie, a beautiful example of late 19th-century architecture. Banker H.W. Trippet finished this home in 1896, right around the turn of the century. Later, Walter…
First Bapist Church of Waxahachie · 2.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Waxahachie, and right here is the site of the First Baptist Church, a community cornerstone for over 150 years. It all started way back in 1861, with just twelve members meeting in the local…
Staff Sgt. Felix M. Conde-Falcón Memorial Highway · 2.5 mi · Historical Marker
Honors Staff Sgt. Felix M. Conde-Falcón, Puerto Rican-born Army NCO killed Vietnam 1969 after assaulting four enemy bunkers solo. Awarded Medal of Honor in 2014 'Valor 24' review correcting WWII/Korea/Vietnam-era…
Ellis County Farm Cemetery · 3.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Ellis County Farm Cemetery, also known as the Pauper Cemetery. This burial ground was part of a county farm established in the 1890s to support the needy. Between 1890 and 1946, it served as the…
McKinney-Aday Farm House · 3.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the McKinney-Aday Farm House near Waxahachie. Henry McKinney, a former Texas Ranger, moved to Ellis County and bought farmland in 1903. By 1913, he'd hired a builder to construct this impressive…
Tubb, Ernest Dale · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, not far from where Ernest Tubb, the legendary "Gold Chain Troubador," was born in Crisp back in 1914. He learned guitar on his own, got a break from Jimmie Rodgers' widow, and landed…
Texas National Research Laboratory Commission · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, near the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, where a massive scientific endeavor once promised to put Texas on the map. Back in 1985, the Texas National Research Laboratory Commission was…
Burnham, TX · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Burnham (Burnam) was on the Ascensión Gonsaba land grant six miles southwest of Ennis in southeastern Ellis County. In 1861 the House family received a portion of this grant in exchange for a slave called John. Edeline…
Lyman's Wagontrain · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
The five-day siege of Capt. Wyllys Lyman's wagontrain, sometimes known as the battle of the Upper Washita, was the longest and one of the most publicized engagements of the Red River War . During Col. Nelson A. Miles's…
Smith, Thomas Ingles · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Thomas I. (often J.) Smith, Texas Ranger and Indian agent, was born on May 30, 1800, in Montgomery, Virginia, the son of Bird B. Smith and Rhoda Ingles. He reportedly experienced his first combat as a young boy during…
Telico, TX · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Telico is on Farm Road 1181 five miles east of Ennis in east central Ellis County. The site that became Telico was settled before 1856 and, as it lay near the banks of the Trinity River, was originally called Trinity…
Nineteenth Texas Cavalry · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through North Texas, the heart of where the Nineteenth Texas Cavalry was formed during the Civil War. Fear of the draft pushed many men to join this mounted regiment in March of 1862, hoping to keep their…
Young, Harvey W. · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what is now Ellis County, a place that saw a lot of action in the 19th century. Harvey W. Young arrived here in 1842 and quickly became a key figure. He served as the sheriff of Ellis County in…
Forreston, TX · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Forreston is on U.S. Highway 77 and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas tracks eight miles south of Waxahachie in south central Ellis County. At first the site was called Howe's Settlement, after William R. Howe, who arrived…
Trumbull, TX · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Trumbull is near Interstate Highway 45 and U.S. Highway 75 ten miles north of Ennis in northeastern Ellis County. The area that became Trumbull was settled in 1872, when the Houston and Texas Central Railway established…
Beall, James Andrew [Jack] · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, near Mountain Peak, the birthplace of James Andrew Beall. Born in 1866, Beall became a lawyer and a politician, serving in both the Texas Legislature and the U.S. Congress. But his…
Auburn, TX · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Auburn was sixteen miles southwest of Waxahachie in western Ellis County. Some of its first settlers were from a caravan of 105 covered wagons that originated in Arkansas in 1852. They were attracted by the water supply…
Avalon, TX (Ellis County) · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Avalon is an agricultural community located at State Highway 34 and Farm Road 55 about fourteen miles southeast of Waxahachie in southern Ellis County. Settlers began to arrive in the area along Chambers Creek in the…
Byrd, TX (Ellis County) · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
Byrd was on Farm Road 985 near Clear Creek sixteen miles southeast of Waxahachie and eight miles southwest of Ennis in Ellis County. The original settlers to the Byrd area included H. L. Parker, Dan Faulk, Rube Warren,…
Oak, TX · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
The Oak community, also known as Oak Branch, was on the Oak Branch of Chambers Creek three miles northeast of Maypearl in the southwest corner of Ellis County. Oak was once a prosperous farming community with a cotton…
Sardis United Methodist Church · 4.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Sardis, Texas, where Methodism has deep roots stretching back to 1845. That's when a traveling preacher named Thomas Welch first rode through this area, spreading the word. The formal congregation…
Sardis School · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Sardis School, a community hub for decades. Kids here first learned their lessons in the local Methodist church back in the early 1870s. By 1897, a dedicated schoolhouse went up…
Sardis Cemetery · 5.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Sardis Cemetery, where the earliest marked grave belongs to Susan Jane Rachael Kelly, who died in childbirth back in 1871. Early settler Robert Mayfield donated land for this burial ground, which…
Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Life Waxahachie (Waxahachie) · 5.2 mi
Life Waxahachie (Waxahachie, TX) placed on the 4A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Shaun Malone (0.583 avg).
Richardson Cemetery · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Reagor Springs, a place named for a family whose descendants are buried right here. John I. Richardson, a surveyor and Confederate veteran, and his wife Ann Elizabeth, are interred in this…
Jefferson Dunaway Home · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Jefferson Dunaway Home, built in 1855. Jefferson Madison Dunaway built this home for his bride, Sarah Ann Brack. The stone for the chimneys was gathered right from the creek banks nearby, and…
Parsons' Cavalry C.S.A. · 7.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Waxahachie, and right here we remember Parsons' Cavalry. Back in September of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1861</say-as>, men from this county and beyond gathered near Rockett's Spring…
Ellis County · 7.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Ellis County, Texas. It was carved out of Navarro County back on December 20th, 1849. The county was officially organized just a few months later, on August 5th, 1850. It’s named for Richard…
Smith Cemetery · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Smith Cemetery, established back in 1852. It started as a burial place for pioneers on a lonely knoll, but today it overlooks nine urban areas. Nancy Owen Smith founded this spot for her family and…
Bells' Chapel Cemetery · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Bells' Chapel Cemetery, founded way back in 1875. Local landowners John and Elizabeth Gibbons gave the land for the church and cemetery on December 27th of that year, deeding it to the Methodist…
Bethel Methodist Church · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Bethel Methodist Church, a place with roots stretching back to 1853. It all started under a simple brush arbor at High Springs. Services moved around a bit, first to a log schoolhouse, then another…
Bethel Cemetery · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Ellis County, near where Bethel Methodist Church was established. In 1852, N.P. Sims donated land for a church and burial ground. The cemetery you're passing has over 400 graves, including those…
Rutherford's Crossing Bridge · 7.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Rutherford's Crossing Bridge, built back in 1919 by the Texas Bridge Company for just over 500 bucks. Before this Warren Pony truss bridge went up, locals had to ford Red Oak Creek. That crossing was…
Rockett Christian Church · 7.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Rockett Christian Church, a building that's seen over a century of Texas history. The congregation started gathering way back in 1853, but they formally organized in 1894. This beautiful…
Graves Cemetery · 7.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Graves Cemetery, a final resting place for many of Ellis County's earliest pioneers. The first marked grave here belongs to Joseph Hinkle, who was laid to rest in 1859. His son-in-law, Robert Russell…
The Gift and Curse of the Blackland Soil · 7.8 mi
The reason Pecan Hill exists is a story of soil science. You're on the Blackland Prairie, famous for dark, clay-rich ground weathered out of Taylor Marl. This soil is packed with a mineral called montmorillonite, and it…
Pecan Hill, TX · 7.8 mi
Pecan Hill is a community in Texas.
Boren Cemetery · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Boren Cemetery, a final resting place for folks who settled this part of Texas. Michael Boren and his wife Mary Ann arrived here from Kentucky in 1847, bringing their children and enslaved people…
Mount Zion Cemetery · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Mount Zion Cemetery, a place that holds the stories of early Ellis County. Back in the 1850s, an Indian who loved this hill met his end right here, killed by his own wild prairie horse. It was a…
Oak Branch Cemetery · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Oak Branch Cemetery, a place born from a pioneer's generosity. Back in 1875, William M. Claunch donated twenty acres of his ranch for a Methodist Church, a campground, and this very cemetery. The…
Red Oak Cemetery · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Red Oak Cemetery, which started life as the Kemble family burial ground. Abraham Kemble bought this land around 1860, and he and his wife Mary were laid to rest here in 1867. Decades later, in…
Grady School, Site of · 8.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the old Grady School, just outside Palmer. It started in 1895, built to educate the children of the pioneer Farrar family. The first building sat on a hill overlooking Red Oak Creek. By…
Greathouse Community, Church, and Cemetery · 8.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Ellis County, passing the site of the old Greathouse community. It all started back in 1848 when Archibald and Mary Greathouse settled here, giving their name to the creek and the community. The…
Nash Public School · 8.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Forreston, and right here is the site of the Nash Public School. Back in 1873, pioneer Thomas Alexander Williams brought his family to Garden Valley and immediately set about establishing a school…
The Field of Dreams That Reinvented Drag Racing · 8.7 mi
Out on U.S. 287 south of town sits a piece of motorsports that changed its entire sport. The Texas Motorplex, at 7500 U.S. Highway 287, was built in 1986 by former funny-car driver Billy Meyer, and it was the first…
Thomas C. Neel · 8.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Ennis, where the town's name has roots right here. Thomas C. Neel, a Georgia native, settled near here in 1855 with his wife, Willia. Their cotton and wheat plantation became known as Will's Town,…
Red Oak High's Father-Daughter Olympic Medalists · 8.8 mi
Red Oak High School can claim something almost no school anywhere can: a father and daughter who both stood on an Olympic medal stand in the same event. Michelle Carter grew up in Red Oak and graduated from Red Oak High…
Fry - Butcher House · 8.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising past the Fry-Butcher House, a beautiful example of Queen Anne architecture right here in Red Oak. Sam and Sarah Jane Fry bought this land in 1882 and, with the help of carpenter Lewis Butcher, built this…
Red Oak's Gold Medal Factory · 9.1 mi
There must be something in the water at Red Oak High School. This single school has produced not one, but two Olympic gold medalists, a truly incredible feat for any community. The first was Louise Ritter. In 1988, the…
The Ghost of the Super Collider · 9.1 mi
As you drive south of Red Oak, you’re passing the ghost of one of the most ambitious science projects ever attempted. This area was the site of the Superconducting Super Collider, or SSC. Beginning in the late 1980s,…
The Town That Moved a Mile · 9.1 mi
The center of Red Oak isn't where the town started. James E. Patton and his family settled the original site in 1844 down on Red Oak Creek — folks called it Possum Trot before the name changed along with the county in…
Engineering a Town on the Prairie · 9.1 mi
Maypearl exists because a railroad needed a stop here, and the name proves it. When the International-Great Northern laid its line across this stretch of prairie, the engineers were solving ordinary problems: keep the…
When Hollywood Shot Bonnie and Clyde Right Here · 9.2 mi
In 1967, the crew of Arthur Penn's landmark film Bonnie and Clyde rolled into little Red Oak, about 15 miles south of Dallas on Highway 35E, and put the town on screen. A spruced-up red-brick bank near the corner of…
The Town That Used to Be Called Possum Trot · 9.2 mi
The fast-growing suburb you're passing on Interstate 35 about 18 miles south of Dallas almost ended up with a much stranger name. Settlement started here in 1844, when James E. Patton and his family put down roots along…
The Patton Family and the Church That Came Before the County · 9.2 mi
If you want the family whose name runs under this whole community, it's the Pattons. Colonel James E. Patton brought his family to Red Oak Creek in the mid-1840s and, on July 25, 1847, organized the Shiloh congregation…
The Town That Snubbed the Railroad, Then Chased It · 9.2 mi
Red Oak grew up as a blackland farm town. Before the Civil War the main crop was wheat, but by the 1860s cotton took over the deep prairie soil, and a general store opened around 1852 by Hugh Caldwell and I.P. Jeffers…
The Red Oak Boy Who Still Holds a 1938 Big-League Record · 9.2 mi
Red Oak's first taste of national fame came on a baseball diamond. Michael Franklin Higgins, nicknamed Pinky as a baby, was born here on May 27, 1909, and grew into a hard-hitting major-league third baseman. Over…
The Red Oak Cowboy Who Fell Off a Bridge for The Wild Bunch · 9.2 mi
Hollywood owes a quiet debt to Red Oak. Bill Hart, born here on July 28, 1934, became one of the great Western stuntmen of the studio era. He broke in on John Wayne's epic The Alamo in 1960 and went on to perform or…
Cotton Fields to Cloud Servers Off Ovilla Road · 9.2 mi
The blackland prairie that once grew cotton on the edge of Red Oak is now being asked to grow something invisible: the cloud. Google quietly bought roughly 165 acres near East Ovilla Road and North Central Boulevard…
Buddy Groom Field and the Lefty Who Earned It · 9.2 mi
The baseball diamond at Red Oak High School carries the name of one of the school's own, and it is well earned. Wedsel Gary Groom Jr., known to everyone as Buddy, graduated from Red Oak High in 1983, where he was an…
The Indie Songwriter Who Grew Up in Red Oak · 9.2 mi
Before she became a fixture of the North Texas indie scene, singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe was a kid in Red Oak. Born in Lufkin, she moved around the state as a child until her family settled in Red Oak, just south of…
The Highway That Built a City · 9.3 mi
Interstate 35E runs right past Oak Leaf, and it's fair to say the highway is why anybody wanted to live out here in the first place. The Eisenhower interstate system was designed to link big cities for commerce and…
The Town That Built Itself · 9.3 mi
You're driving through a city that its own neighbors talked into existence. Northern Ellis County, west of Interstate 35E and US 77, about ten miles north of Waxahachie - this was subdivision country on big wooded lots,…
Higgins, Michael Francis · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Ellis County, not far from Red Oak, the birthplace of Michael Francis "Pinky" Higgins. He earned his nickname in a unique way, reportedly showing up for a sandlot football game wearing his clothes…
Red Oak, TX · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving south of Dallas on I-35, and right here is Red Oak. This town started out as Possum Trot back in 1844, named for the critters that were everywhere. The first settlers were the James E. Patton family, who…
Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian Church · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Ovilla, and right here is the site of the first organized church in Ellis County. The Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian Church congregation was chartered way back on July 25, 1847, two full years…
Shiloh Cemetery · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Shiloh Cemetery, the final resting place for many of Ovilla's earliest settlers. Burials here began with Peters Colony pioneers who founded this town way back in 1844. Look closely, and you might…
Chris Kyle Memorial Highway · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker
The stretch of US Highway Two Eighty Seven in Midlothian between Rex Odom Drive and Kimble Road is the Chris Kyle Memorial Highway, named by the Texas Legislature in two thousand fifteen. Kyle was born in Odessa,…
Ovilla Cemetery · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Ovilla Cemetery, established in 1886 by the Ovilla Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The earliest marked grave here is Rebecca Summers McElroy, who died in 1884. The cemetery remains a chronicle of…
Shot in the Vault · 9.8 mi
At about ten minutes after noon on the tenth of May, nineteen thirty nine, the president of the bank in Maypearl, Willis Wilemon, was alone when a young man walked in with a pistol. The man had driven through town the…
Shotgun on Main Street · 9.8 mi
In nineteen twenty seven, a farmer named Olin Mercer had married the divorced wife of a man named Grover Tirey, and there was bad blood. The day before the shooting, Tirey's cousin, Bobbie Maxwell, drew a pistol on…
The Night the Brick Block Burned · 9.8 mi
On a Wednesday night in December of nineteen fifteen, a small fire broke out in the office of a dry goods store on Maypearl's Main Street, twenty minutes after the manager and some friends had left. It spread into…
The Golden Spike at Maypearl · 9.8 mi
On the twenty ninth of April, nineteen oh three, Maypearl had its big day. The last act completing the International and Great Northern Railroad's line to Fort Worth was performed right here. The railroad's officials…
Who Was May Pearl? · 9.8 mi
Before it was Maypearl, this place was called Eyrie, for an eagle's nest. The Handbook of Texas says the railroad renamed it for the daughters of two of its officials. But older Texas place-name books tell it another…
The Panthers' Run · 9.8 mi
Maypearl's best basketball season came in nineteen ninety five. The Panthers went thirty three and four and made it to the Class Two A state tournament in Austin, where they beat Springlake-Earth sixty one to fifty…
The Last Resident of Boz · 9.8 mi
Just east of Maypearl was the little community of Boz. Its Bethel Methodist Church was the set for several scenes in the movie Places in the Heart. Then, in the late nineteen eighties, the federal government chose Ellis…
The Pearl That Got Fried for Supper · 9.8 mi
Maypearl was named for people, not for pearls, but here's a pearl story anyway. In the spring of eighteen fifty seven, a shoemaker named David Howell, who lived on the edge of Paterson, New Jersey, brought home a mess…
The Button Maker and the Mussel's Revenge · 9.8 mi
Before plastic, pearl buttons were made from shell, and that's a story too. John Boepple ran a button shop in Ottensen, Germany, and when a box of American river mussel shells reached him, he saw what beautiful buttons…
There's No Such Animal as a Black Panther · 9.8 mi
The Maypearl Panthers are named for a big cat, so here's the truth about black panthers: there's no such species. A black panther is a leopard or a jaguar with a trait called melanism that makes its coat look black, and…
Maypearl's Vice Presidential Candidate · 9.8 mi
Pat Choate was born in Maypearl on the twenty seventh of April, nineteen forty one, and went to school in Red Oak. He studied economics at the University of Texas at Arlington and earned his doctorate at the University…
The Bluesman From Maypearl · 9.8 mi
Ray Reed, a bluesman from Maypearl, played the clubs of Fort Worth in the nineteen sixties with his sister, Lady Pearl, and her guitarist husband, Clarence Pierce. Then he stepped away from music for years. Late in life…
Sixty Cents · 9.8 mi
Late in December of nineteen sixteen, burglars broke into the Maypearl post office using tools they had taken from the railroad section house. They drilled into the door of the safe and set off a charge of high…
The Town That Used to Be Gossip · 9.8 mi
Up the road from Maypearl is Venus, a town that used to be called Gossip. By the middle of the eighteen nineties it was one of the most prosperous towns in Johnson County, with its own college. But by the early nineteen…
The Orphans Home at Files · 9.8 mi
Not far from Maypearl is Files Valley, where, in nineteen oh six, the Southwestern Home and School for Orphans was founded. It lasted into the nineteen eighties, when it was known as the Presbyterian Children's Home.

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The Marfa Song About Waxahachie RoadyGoat

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A Native-Derived Name With Uncertain Language RoadyGoat

North Texas Before Modern Towns RoadyGoat

Disease, Removal, and Living Nations RoadyGoat

Bessie Coleman - Aviator

Bessie Coleman

Nelson, John Byron, Jr.

Waxahachie - Gingerbread City

Dawson, Ronald Monroe [Ronnie]

Rogers, Emory W.

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