On a quiet street in this small town stood one of country music's most unlikely engines. Songwriter Cindy Walker came home to Mexia in the 1950s and lived here for more than half a century, far from Nashville or Hollywood. From that ordinary house she wrote songs cut by Ray Charles, Roy Orbison, Bob Wills, Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, Willie Nelson, and many more, including "You Don't Know Me," "Dream Baby," "Cherokee Maiden," and "Blue Canadian Rockies." Music stars reportedly rolled up to her modest Mexia home in tour buses and private cars. Walker stayed so unpretentious that some of her major honors were found stored under her bed instead of hung on the walls. After the Cindy Walker Foundation acquired the deteriorating house, workers turned up recordings, sheet music, and personal artifacts inside, and the building is now undergoing preservation. It's the perfect place to remember that countless people know her songs by heart without ever knowing her name. A Country Music Hall of Fame catalog was written here, in plain sight, in a town most travelers blow right past. (Source: Country Music Hall of Fame; Texas State Historical Association.)

RoadyGoat → · 7.4 mi away

Cindy Walker Days, the Town's Songwriter Festival RoadyGoat

Every summer, Mexia throws a party for its quiet musical giant. Cindy Walker Days is an annual music and songwriter festival held near Walker's July birthday, spread across Mexia and the nearby town of Wortham, celebrating the Country Music Hall of Fame songwriter who lived and wrote here for more than fifty years. It's a fitting tribute, because Walker's legacy gave this small town a live-music and songwriter identity far bigger than its size would suggest. For a place most travelers know only as a name on a highway sign, the festival is a chance to hear the songs born in those Mexia rooms played out loud, and to understand why a town this size cultivates such a serious music scene. If you're rolling through in mid-July, it's worth checking whether the festival is on, because there are few better places to hear a Cindy Walker composition than the town where she actually wrote it. (Source: City of Mexia; Cindy Walker Foundation.)

7.4 mi away

History of Wortham

Wortham, TX RoadyGoat

For a small town, Wortham has an outsized claim to fame. It's the final resting place of Blind Lemon Jefferson, the 'Father of the Texas Blues.' Born near here in 1893, his innovative guitar playing and high, mournful voice made him one of the best-selling race-record artists of the 1920s. After his death in Chicago, he was buried here in an unmarked grave, but you can now visit his memorial in the Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery. And more recently, Leonard Davis, a Pro Bowl offensive lineman in the NFL, hailed from this town. It's a remarkable legacy of music and sports from one small Texas community.

The Father of the Texas Blues RoadyGoat

Just a short drive from here is the final resting place of a musical giant: Blind Lemon Jefferson. Born in 1893 near Couchman, he spent his formative years in this area. As a blind street musician, he played for tips in the towns and cotton fields of East Texas before his talent took him to Deep Ellum in Dallas and on to Chicago to record. In the mid-1920s he became a star, one of the first commercially successful blues singers. His complex guitar work and haunting vocals influenced generations of musicians who came after him. He died in Chicago in December 1929 under circumstances still argued over, and Paramount Records paid to send his body home to Wortham by train. His grave sat unmarked until 1967, when blues devotees finally put up a marker, and a granite headstone replaced it in 1997. You can visit it today in the Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery, a tribute to the 'Father of the Texas Blues'.

RoadyGoat →

The 1924 Gusher that Built a City RoadyGoat

Imagine the streets you're driving on now, but packed shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of people, mud up to the axles of Model T's, and the air thick with the smell of crude oil. That was Wortham in late 1924. After a series of disappointing wells, a wildcatter finally hit a gusher, tapping into a massive oil field along a geological fault line. The news spread like wildfire. Within weeks, Wortham’s population exploded from about 1,000 to an estimated 30,000. Tents and shacks sprang up everywhere. The town had 15-minute hamburger stands, 30-plus oil-well supply stores, and a post office that had to expand three times. But the boom was frantic and short. The field’s production peaked in just a few months and then rapidly declined. The crowds vanished as quickly as they came, leaving Wortham a town forever shaped by its brief, wild ride as an oil capital.

RoadyGoat →

Jefferson, Blind Lemon

1926

Blind Lemon Jefferson, a seminal blues guitarist and songster, was born on a farm in Couchman, near Wortham, Freestone County, Texas, in the mid-1890s. Sources differ as to the exact birthdate. Census records indicate that he was born on September 24, 1893, while apparently Jefferson himself wrote the date of October 26, 1894, on his World War I draft registration. He was the son of Alec and Clarissy Banks Jefferson. His parents were sharecroppers. There are numerous contradictory accounts of where Lemon lived, performed, and died, complicated further by the lack of photographic documentation; to date, only two photographs of him have been identified, and even these are misleading. The cause of his blindness isn't known, nor whether he had some sight. Little is known about Jefferson's early life. He must have heard songsters and bluesmen, like Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas and "Texas" Alexander . Both Thomas and Alexander traveled around East Texas and performed a variety of blues and dance tunes. Clearly, Jefferson was an heir to the blues songster tradition, though the specifics of his musical training are vague. Legends of his prowess as a bluesman abound among the musicians who heard him, and sightings of Jefferson in different places around the country are plentiful. By his teens, he began spending time in Dallas. About 1912 he started performing in the Deep Ellum and Central Track areas of Dallas, where he met Huddie Ledbetter , better known as Lead Belly, one of the most legendary musical figures to travel and live in Texas. In interviews he gave in the 1940s, Lead Belly gave various dates for his initial meeting with Jefferson, sometimes placing it as early as 1904. But he mentioned 1912 most consistently, and that seems plausible. Jefferson would then have been eighteen or nineteen years old. The two became musical partners in Dallas and the outlying areas of East Texas. Lead Belly learned much about the blues from Blind Lemon, and he had plenty to contribute as a musician and a showman. Though Jefferson was known to perform almost daily at the corner of Elm Street and Central Avenue in Dallas, there is no evidence that he ever lived in the city. The 1920 census shows him living in Freestone County with an older half-brother, Nit C. Banks, and his family. Jefferson's occupation is listed as "musician" and his employer as "general public." Sometime after 1920, Jefferson met Roberta Ransom, who was ten years his senior. They married in 1927, the year that Ransom's son by a previous marriage, Theaul Howard, died. Howard's son, also named Theaul, remained in the area and retired in nearby Ferris, Texas. In 1925 Jefferson was discovered by a Paramount recording scout and taken to Chicago to make records. Though he was not the first folk (or "country") blues singer-guitarist, or the first to make commercial recordings, Jefferson was the first to attain a national audience. His extremely successful recording career began in 1926 and continued until 1929. He recorded 110 sides (including all alternate takes), of which seven were not issued and six are not yet available in any format. In addition to blues, he recorded two spiritual songs, "I Want to be Like Jesus in My Heart" and "All I Want is That Pure Religion," released under the pseudonym Deacon L. J. Bates. Overall, Jefferson's recordings display an extraordinary virtuosity. His compositions are rooted in tradition, but are innovative in his guitar solos, his two-octave vocal range, and the complexity of his lyrics, which are at once ironic, humorous, sad, and poignant. Jefferson's approach to creating his blues varied. Some of his songs use essentially the same melodic and guitar parts. Others contain virtually no repetition. Some are highly rhythmic and related to different dances, the names of which he called out at times between or in the middle of stanzas. He made extensive use of single-note runs, often apparently picked with his thumb, and he played in a variety of

Tsha Handbook →

Wortham

1834

Situated on grant given 1834 by Mexico to Robert B. Longbotham (1797-1883), a Texas colonist from England who settled here in 1839. Years later, in 1871, when Houston & Texas Central Railway was planned through the area, R. B. Longbotham sold right of way through his land for token sum of $5, and townsite was bought from him by investors. Although town was platted as "Tehuacana", post office was established Nov. 10, 1871, as Long Bottom, for original landowner. In 1874 name again changed, to honor Col. Luther Rice Wortham, a merchant instrumental in securing railway for area. Wortham was incorporated in 1910, but remained a modest market town until the 1920s, when rumors of oil attracted such prospectors as hotel man Conrad Hilton, who soon left when wells yielded salt water. A Thanksgiving Day gusher in 1924 opened the boom. Population leaped from 1,000 to over 30,000 at once. Law enforcement was impossible, housing inadequate, but in time the town met its obligations. Churches and schools prospered. The municipal band was the official band of 1926 United Confederate Verterans' Convention in Birmingham, Ala. Intensive drilling had ended the boom by late 1927. In 1972 a few wells are still pumping, and new horizons are being explored.

Historical Marker →

Wortham Oil Boom

1912

The city of Wortham rejected a well drilled by C. L. Witherspoon in 1912 when it produced gas, not water. However, oil and gas wells in 1919-23 gave prosperity to neighbors north and south, and petroleum exploration began here. Discovery well for the Wortham Field, Roy Simmons No. 1 (1 mi. S), came in as a gusher on Nov. 27, 1924. Within three weeks over 300 drilling rigs were in the field. 3,509,768 barrels of oil were produced in Jan. 1925; total for the year was 16,838,150 barrels. Wasteful drilling slowed yield to 3,000 barrels a day by Sept. 1927, and the boom was concluded.

Historical Marker →

Longbotham, Robert Brough

1833

Robert B. Longbotham, participant in the Texas Revolution and early settler of Freestone County, was born in Sunderland, England, on December 29, 1797. He sailed to America around 1810 and lived in South Carolina for three years as a carpenter's apprentice. He served in the War of 1812, during which he was captured by the British and forced into service in the British Navy until the end of the war. Subsequently he settled in Alabama and worked as a carpenter and farmer. In 1821 he married Lucy Haggard. He came to Texas in 1833 and settled in what is now Nacogdoches County. In 1835 Longbotham received a grant of land that later became part of Freestone, Navarro, and Limestone counties. He fought in the Texas Revolution in 1836 and in the 1839 Indian wars. For his services he received numerous tracts of land throughout Texas. In 1848 he built two log cabins on his Freestone County land. A town soon developed on this site and was called Longbotham in his honor; the post office was named Long Bottom in 1871. The town and post office name was changed to Wortham in 1874. Robert and Lucy had nine children and were members of the Primitive Baptist Church. Lucy died at the age of eighty, and Robert then married Louisa Harnes. He died in Wortham on August 6, 1883, and was buried in the Longbotham Cemetery. He was a Democrat. In 1933 the Robert Brough Longbotham Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas was organized in Wortham; the chapter was made up entirely of his descendants. The Longbotham Masonic Lodge in Wortham was also named after him, and in 1967 a state historical marker was dedicated at his gravesite.

Tsha Handbook →

Pisgah Ridge

1830

Pisgah Ridge, known locally as "The Ridge" or "Pizgy Ridge," is an outcropping that begins at the northern extremity of the Tehuacana Hills about 12 miles south of Corsicana near the confluence of Richland and Pin Oak creeks. The peak of the limestone ridge, named for the biblical Mount Pisgah, was recorded at the altitude of 561 feet above sea level, but a landowner in the 1950s leveled it, reducing its elevation. The ridge contains many caves, but because of the soft limestone, most are greatly eroded. The two area creeks provide a natural supply of fish and mussels, and that coupled with the presence of game attracted settlers for centuries. In 1830, Cherokees reportedly burned a village south of the ridge that had been occupied by both Tonkawa and Tawakoni tribes. Within several years, settlers of European descent began arriving. Around 1850, a stagecoach inn near Richland Crossing, on the northern end of the ridge, served travelers. The Springfield Road traversed Navarro County across the ridge, and in addition to the stagecoach inn, pockets of settlers created communities in the area. Of the four settlements that developed along the ridge, Richland Crossing was the northernmost, followed by Mt. Pisgah, Mt. Nebo and Rushing. As more settlers came to the area, it gained a reputation for lawlessness, in part because of a feud between the Love and Anderson families, as well as an association with outlaw John Wesley Hardin. The railroad bypassed the area in the 1870s, and the new settlement of Richland drew residents away from the early Pisgah Ridge communities. Today, the ridge is a point of geological and historical interest. (2006)

Historical Marker → · 4.7 mi away

Things to Do in Wortham

food 20.9 mi away

Collin Street Bakery

August Weidmann arrived in Corsicana from Bavaria in 1896 and opened a little bakery on Collin Street. His DeLuxe Fruitcake packed with pecans cherries and…

food 21.2 mi away

Wolf Brand Chili Origin Corner

Lyman T. Davis parked his lunch wagon at this corner of Beaton Street and 5th Avenue in 1895, ladling out five-cent bowls of chili in front of the Blue Front…

Everything Near Wortham

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

Wortham · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
Situated on grant given 1834 by Mexico to Robert B. Longbotham (1797-1883), a Texas colonist from England who settled here in 1839. Years later, in 1871, when Houston & Texas Central Railway was planned through the…
Wortham Oil Boom · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
The city of Wortham rejected a well drilled by C. L. Witherspoon in 1912 when it produced gas, not water. However, oil and gas wells in 1919-23 gave prosperity to neighbors north and south, and petroleum exploration…
Jefferson, Blind Lemon · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
Blind Lemon Jefferson, a seminal blues guitarist and songster, was born on a farm in Couchman, near Wortham, Freestone County, Texas, in the mid-1890s. Sources differ as to the exact birthdate. Census records indicate…
Wortham, TX · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're rolling through Freestone County, and right here is Wortham. This town was just a sleepy little market center until 1924. That's when the Roy Simmons Number One oil well blew in, and suddenly, Wortham was…
Longbotham, Robert Brough · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
Robert B. Longbotham, participant in the Texas Revolution and early settler of Freestone County, was born in Sunderland, England, on December 29, 1797. He sailed to America around 1810 and lived in South Carolina for…
Allegre, Judge · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the home of Judge Warren Allegre, built around 1895. Allegre arrived in town back in 1869, running a drugstore. But he also gave music lessons and dispensed legal advice, eventually becoming justice…
Satterwhite, Robert Lee · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Freestone County, and right here is Wortham, where Robert Lee Satterwhite first put down roots as a newspaper man. In 1893, he founded the Wortham Signal, and soon after, he was the publisher and…
Wortham Schools · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Wortham, Texas, where education has a long and dynamic history. Back in the 1870s, the Masons and local Methodists teamed up to build the town's very first school, a two-story building stocked…
Barbee, Lewis N. · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Freestone County, Texas, a place that was once home to Lewis N. Barbee. He was a farmer and businessman, but in 1892, he answered the call of the Populist Party. Barbee won a seat in the Texas…
Bounds, Rev. G. W. · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the marker for Reverend G. W. Bounds, a man who dedicated his life to spreading the Methodist faith across Freestone County. Born in Mississippi in <say-as interpret-as="date"…
United Methodist Church of Wortham · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the United Methodist Church of Wortham. This congregation got its start way back in 1867, organized by Reverend J. Hill Bounds. He and his family had just arrived in Texas from Mississippi, making…
Longbotham, Mrs. Lucy Haggard · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the birthplace of Lucy Haggard Longbotham, born way back in 1793. She was one of nine kids whose father was a Baptist minister. Lucy moved to Alabama Territory around 1814, married Robert Longbotham…

Show all 200 nearby places

Longbotham, Robert B. · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the spot where Robert Longbotham settled in 1848. He wasn't just any settler, though. This Englishman arrived in Texas in 1832, first fighting in the Texas Revolution in 1836. Just a few years later,…
Jefferson, Blind Lemon · 0.8 mi
You're driving past the birthplace of a true Texas legend: Blind Lemon Jefferson. Born right here near Wortham, he took his guitar and his unique voice, singing spirituals and the blues, from the streets to national…
Wortham, TX · 2.5 mi
For a small town, Wortham has an outsized claim to fame. It's the final resting place of Blind Lemon Jefferson, the 'Father of the Texas Blues.' Born near here in 1893, his innovative guitar playing and high, mournful…
The Father of the Texas Blues · 2.5 mi
Just a short drive from here is the final resting place of a musical giant: Blind Lemon Jefferson. Born in 1893 near Couchman, he spent his formative years in this area. As a blind street musician, he played for tips in…
The 1924 Gusher that Built a City · 2.5 mi
Imagine the streets you're driving on now, but packed shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of people, mud up to the axles of Model T's, and the air thick with the smell of crude oil. That was Wortham in late 1924. After…
The Geology and Engineering of a Boom · 2.5 mi
The 1924 Wortham oil boom wasn't just luck; it was a feat of petroleum geology and rapid-fire engineering. The prize lay thousands of feet down, in a trap made by the Mexia-Talco fault zone -- a great crack in the…
Pisgah Ridge · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker
Pisgah Ridge, known locally as "The Ridge" or "Pizgy Ridge," is an outcropping that begins at the northern extremity of the Tehuacana Hills about 12 miles south of Corsicana near the confluence of Richland and Pin Oak…
Love, Robert M. · 5.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Tehuacana, and right here is the story of Robert M. Love. He wasn't just any lawman; Love was a veteran of the Civil War, fighting with the Confederacy in Ross' brigade. After the war, he served…
Tehuacana Cemetery · 5.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Tehuacana Cemetery, a place that tells a story of life and death on the Texas frontier. Founded in the 1840s by John Boyd, who served in the Congress of the Republic of Texas, this town was once home…
Tehuacana, TX (Frio County) · 5.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Frio County, near where Tehuacana Settlement once thrived. Settlers arrived here around 1870, carving out a life on Tehuacana Creek. They built a schoolhouse that doubled as a community center and…
Holland, James Kemp · 5.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving near Tehuacana, Texas, the place where James Kemp Holland met his end. Holland was a man who served Texas in many ways: a legislator in multiple sessions, a Mexican War veteran, and a colonel on the…
Tehuacana, TX (Limestone County) · 5.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Tehuacana, a town that owes its existence to a post office established way back in 1847, originally called Tewockony Springs. <break time="400ms"/> It was named for the Tawakoni Indians who once…
Yoakum, Charles Henderson · 5.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through East Texas, heading toward the heart of the Lone Star State. Right here, near Tehuacana, was the birthplace of Charles Henderson Yoakum. He wasn't just any Texan; he was a lawyer, a state…
Tehuacana · 5.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Tehuacana, a town sitting pretty at one of the highest points between Dallas and Houston. This spot was first noted way back in 1797 by Philip Nolan's trading expedition. It was home to the Tehuacana…
Rees, William - Builder of Old Trinity University Structure · 5.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Tehuacana, and right here is the site of Old Trinity University. Look for the stone building, parts of which were built by William Rees. Rees was a master stonemason from England, who came to…
The University That Left Town · 5.9 mi
Imagine building a town around a single, magnificent institution. That was Tehuacana. In 1869, Trinity University was founded here, and for three decades, it was the town's entire reason for being. The university grew,…
The Railroad That Sealed a Town's Fate · 5.9 mi
The rise and fall of Tehuacana is a powerful lesson in the importance of infrastructure. In the late 1800s, Trinity University was thriving here, but it had a problem: the nearest railroad was miles away. Everything and…
The Athens of Texas · 5.9 mi
It's hard to picture now, but for three decades this quiet village on a limestone ridge was one of the most serious college towns in Texas. Tehuacana Academy opened here in 1852. Then in 1869 John Boyd persuaded the…
The Campus's Second Act · 5.9 mi
When Trinity University left Tehuacana in 1902, it seemed like the end. The magnificent stone buildings were empty, and the town's purpose was gone. But the story wasn't over. That very same year, the Methodist…
Tehuacana, TX · 5.9 mi
Tehuacana's founding can be traced back to 1847 when a post office called 'Tewockony Springs' was established in the area. The town came in second in an election held in 1850 to decide the new Texas state capitol, which…
The Burleson Family Cemetery · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Burleson Family Cemetery, a resting place for a family deeply intertwined with Texas history. Joseph Burleson arrived in Texas around 1834, farming near his brother, General Edward Burleson. In…
One-Half Mile North_Trinity University · 6.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Tehuacana, and just a half-mile north of here, a college once stood. Trinity University opened its doors way back in 1869, founded by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. It wasn't just your…
Steel, Alfonso · 6.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site where Alfonso Steel, the very last survivor of the Battle of San Jacinto, lived. Steel fought bravely in that pivotal battle, the one that won Texas its independence. But he didn't leave…
Mace, Albert R. · 6.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Mexia area, home to Albert R. Mace, a lawman who served Texas for 45 years. Mace joined the Texas Rangers at just 21, then moved into county sheriff roles, leading Limestone County for 12 years.…
Stubenrauch, Joseph W. · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the land where Joseph Stubenrauch, a German immigrant with a genius for agriculture, transformed Texas soil. Born into a family of horticulturists in Bavaria, he came to Texas in 1876 and bought 100…
Miss Rogers' Music Room. · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Miss Rogers' Music Room in Mexia. Imagine this: Laura T. Rogers taught piano and choral music here, six days a week, from seven in the morning to seven at night, for eight months of the…
Karner, John · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Mexia area, where John Karner arrived in Texas back in 1835. The very next year, he fought for Texas independence at the Battle of San Jacinto. Imagine that – arriving in a new land one year, and…
Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church and School · 7.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church and School, a vital center for the Black community in Freestone County. It all started in the early 1850s, with slaves holding informal services under a…
Woodland College for Boys · 7.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Freestone County, near the site of Woodland College for Boys. Established way back in 1863, this school aimed to educate young men, quickly enrolling over 300 students. Colonel L. R. Wortham was a…
Woodland Cemetery · 7.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Woodland Cemetery. In a community founded 1848 by pioneers mostly from Alabama, this cemetery was opened with burial of Capt. John L. Wortham (1841-62), who died in Galveston while in Confederate…
First Baptist Church of Mexia · 7.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the First Baptist Church of Mexia. Its story begins way back on January 14th, 1872, when Reverend W. Henry Parks organized this congregation. Some of the original members actually came from…
Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken and the Future Anna Nicole Smith · 7.3 mi
If you want a meal wired straight into Mexia's stranger history, pull up to Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken at 312 E. Milam Street, a town staple since December 1974. Locals come for fried chicken, catfish, and hot rolls,…
The Boom That Brought Martial Law to Mexia · 7.4 mi
The quiet farm town around you exploded almost overnight. After the Mexia Gas and Oil Company drilled ten dry holes and finally struck gas on its eleventh try, the real transformation came on November 25, 1920, when…
The Cannon Buried Beneath a Buggy House · 7.4 mi
At the bend where Jack's Creek meets the Navasota River sits the Confederate Reunion Grounds, where Limestone County veterans began gathering every year in 1888. Families came by buggy and special train from Dallas and…
German POWs and the Escapee Treed by a Bull · 7.4 mi
During World War II, the federal government opened Camp Mexia in 1942 to hold German prisoners of war. Under wartime labor shortages, prisoners were allowed out in supervised work parties to help local farmers,…
The Mexia House That Was a Hidden Hit Factory · 7.4 mi
On a quiet street in this small town stood one of country music's most unlikely engines. Songwriter Cindy Walker came home to Mexia in the 1950s and lived here for more than half a century, far from Nashville or…
Mexia - Oil, Vice, and the Rangers · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
When oil was struck near Mexia in November 1920, the town went from four thousand people to thirty thousand in months. The Mexia oil field was a gusher, and every roughneck, gambler, bootlegger, and grifter in Texas…
The Railroad That Built One Town and Erased Another · 7.4 mi
Mexia was laid out in 1870-71 as the Houston and Texas Central Railway pushed toward it, and the rails made it almost instantly. The town soon had a post office, newspapers, banks, mills, an opera house, and businesses…
Muh-HAY-uh: The General Behind the Name · 7.4 mi
First, the local password: it's pronounced muh-HAY-uh, not MEX-ee-uh, and saying it right marks you as someone who belongs. The town takes its name from the Mexía family, recipients of an eleven-league Mexican land…
The 1916 Opera House Explosion · 7.4 mi
In the heart of old Mexia, the opera house was one of the proudest buildings of the railroad-era town, the kind of place where a small farming community showed off its ambitions. Then, on February 16, 1916, disaster…
How a Fault Line Trapped the Oil Under Mexia · 7.4 mi
The chaos above ground started with quiet geology far below your feet. The Mexia field taught petroleum geologists how oil collects along a fault line. The Mexia Fault Zone crosses several East-Central Texas counties,…
Cindy Walker Days, the Town's Songwriter Festival · 7.4 mi
Every summer, Mexia throws a party for its quiet musical giant. Cindy Walker Days is an annual music and songwriter festival held near Walker's July birthday, spread across Mexia and the nearby town of Wortham,…
The Mexia Rodeo, Going Strong Since the 1930s · 7.4 mi
Mexia keeps a deep Western streak, and nothing shows it like the Mexia Area Chamber of Commerce Rodeo, a tradition that reaches back to roughly 1930. Late each June the town fills up for an event that has run for the…
Smith, L.P. · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the L.P. Smith house, built in 1876 by a Mexia merchant and banker. He bought this site back in 1868 for $400 in gold. Take a look at the classic details: cedar shingle roof, cedar post foundations,…
Texas State Teachers Association · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Mexia, and right here, in this very spot, the Texas State Teachers Association was born. Back in 1877, two regional groups were already meeting, but it was here, in 1880, that about 40 educators…
St. John's A. M. E. Church · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Mexia, and right here is where St. John's A.M.E. Church began. Services for the African American community started way back in the 1870s, and this building even served as a schoolhouse during…
First Presbyterians Church of Mexia · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the First Presbyterian Church of Mexia. This congregation started way back in 1817, not here, but twelve miles southwest in Old Springfield. When the Houston & Texas Central Railroad laid tracks and…
The Preacher Who Bought a Town · 7.5 mi
Mexia's oil boom made some people rich, and one of them used his money to buy an entire town. Lee Wilder Thomas was a Black preacher, and a trustee of St. Paul Industrial College here in Mexia. In nineteen nineteen he…
Thirty Thousand at Comanche Crossing · 7.5 mi
Comanche Crossing, on the Navasota River southwest of Mexia, became home to one of the biggest Juneteenth celebrations in Texas. Limestone County had more than forty-five freedmen's settlements after emancipation, and…
"Did You Get Any Deer?" · 7.5 mi
In January nineteen twenty two, the Mexia oil boom had a nightlife problem, and the State of Texas decided to deal with it in one night. On Saturday, January seventh, the state's adjutant general, Thomas Barton, came…
The Blank-Cartridge Joke · 7.5 mi
In September eighteen ninety six, some young men in Mexia decided to play a joke on the town marshal, and it ended at the railroad depot with the marshal dead. The marshal was Tom Nowlin. A group that included a…
Reiter, Wilhelm Arthur · 7.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Limestone County, and right here is where a determined geologist named Bill Reiter struck black gold. He was so convinced there was oil in this area, even when his boss told him to pack it up,…
Mexia, TX · 7.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Mexia, a town that boomed overnight thanks to Black Gold. In 1920, this quiet community struck it rich with a massive oil discovery. Suddenly, the population exploded from around 3,500 to a…
The Judge Who Drove Without Hands · 7.5 mi
In nineteen oh five, a young man from Mexia lost both of his hands in a railroad accident, and seven years later he was a county judge who drove his own car. Quentin Corley was born in the old town of Mexia in January…
The Pitch to Raymond · 7.5 mi
Before he coached in the NFL, Ray Rhodes had a choice to make in Mexia. In the late nineteen sixties, Mexia still had two high schools: Mexia High, and the all-Black Dunbar High. In nineteen sixty seven, students were…
Hord, Thomas Alan · 7.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Dallas, but our story starts a bit east, in Mexia. Right here, in 1876, Thomas Hord became the town marshal. He wasn't just any lawman; he was a terror to outlaws. Hord survived multiple shootouts…
Mexía de Reygades, Ynés · 7.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Limestone County, Texas, the place that inspired a town name and a legendary career. Right here, in what is now Mexia, Ynés Mexía de Reygades spent her childhood on her family's eleven-league…
Mexía, Enrique Guillermo Antonio · 7.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Limestone County, heading towards the town of Mexia. Right here, this community owes its very existence to Enrique Guillermo Antonio Mexía. Born in Mexico City, Mexía was a brigadier general in…
Neff, Pat Morris · 7.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Central Texas, maybe near Mexia. Back in January of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1922</say-as>, Governor Pat Neff declared martial law right here. Why? Because the oil boomtown was…
Stubenrauch, Joseph W. · 7.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Central Texas, near Mexia, where Joseph Stubenrauch settled in 1877. He came to America to avoid military service, but found his true calling right here, experimenting with peaches. The peaches…
Town Named for Gen. Jose Antonio Mexia · 7.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Mexia, a town named for a fascinating figure in Texas history: General Jose Antonio Mexia. <break time="400ms"/> He was a Mexican military officer and a big promoter of Texas colonization. <break…
St. Paul Industrial College · 7.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of St. Paul Industrial College, a beacon of higher education for African Americans founded in 1924. African American members of the Primitive Baptist Church wanted this institute, purchasing…
Clyde Barrow, Age Eleven · 7.5 mi
Before Clyde Barrow was a famous outlaw, he was an eleven-year-old kid with a night job in the Mexia oil field. That comes from Fugitives, a nineteen thirty four book put together by Bonnie Parker's mother and Clyde's…
Fifteen Thousand People, Moved by a Few Soldiers · 7.5 mi
During Mexia's weeks under martial law in nineteen twenty two, a fire broke out downtown, and the general in charge had to clear thousands of people off the streets with a handful of soldiers. The commander was General…
The Wildcatter and the Reunion Grounds · 7.5 mi
Where Jack's Creek meets the Navasota River, Confederate veterans built a reunion ground, and an oil man gave it a second life. Starting in eighteen ninety two, veterans and their families paid five dollars a lot to…
Mexia's Lounge-Music Pioneer · 7.5 mi
One of the big names in nineteen fifties lounge music was born in Mexia. Les Baxter was born here in March nineteen twenty two. When he was six, his family moved to Detroit looking for a better living, and in nineteen…
Why Mexico Has an X · 7.5 mi
Mexia is named for General José Antonio Mexía, and around here, people say it muh-HAY-uh. That sound is a clue to a bigger puzzle. Why does Mexico have an X? According to the Royal Spanish Academy, the correct way to…
The Botanist Who Started Past Fifty · 7.5 mi
Mexia is named for General José Antonio Mexía. His granddaughter, Ynés Mexía, became one of the great plant collectors of her time, and she didn't start until she was past fifty. She was born in eighteen seventy in…
Prendergast, Davis M'Gee · 7.5 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what is now Limestone County, a place that was shaped by men like Davis M. Prendergast. He came to Texas in 1845, read law, and quickly became a prominent figure. By 1860, he was a wealthy lawyer…
Cindy Walker Days festival · 7.6 mi
You may not know the name Cindy Walker, but you know her songs — and Mexia, Texas, sure knows her. She's the hometown songwriter, and now the town throws her a party. Cindy Walker Days: two days, kicking off the day…
Cindy Walker house and studio, South Brooks Street · 7.6 mi
Down on South Brooks Street in Mexia, there's a house that was still holding songs nobody had ever heard. When the Cindy Walker Foundation bought the songwriter's old home and studio, they found close to seventy-five…
Cindy Walker (songwriter) · 7.6 mi
You know her songs even if you've never heard her name. Cindy Walker was born near Mart in 1917 and wrote her first tune, "Dusty Skies," at about twelve years old. As a young woman she talked her way into recording…
Mexia, TX · 7.6 mi
Mexia sits on a bit of high ground, a subtle rise breaking up the long, flat stretch of the Blackland Prairie. That little bit of elevation makes a difference. You can feel it in the air, a slight breeze that might miss…
Site of Dunbar High School · 7.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Dunbar High School in Mexia. Public education for African Americans here started way back in 1883. After their first school burned down, trustees chose this spot for a new two-story brick…
The Boom that Built and Broke Mexia · 7.8 mi
Imagine the streets you’re on now, but made of thick, inescapable mud. Imagine the population, normally a few thousand, swelling to 30,000 people in just a few months. That was Mexia in 1921. After the discovery of the…
The Fault That Fueled a Boom · 7.8 mi
The reason Mexia became an oil capital isn't just that there was oil nearby; it's the shape of the rock. Imagine the layers beneath you like a stacked cake. Millions of years ago the earth here cracked and shifted along…
Anna Nicole's Mexia · 7.8 mi
Anna Nicole Smith told the world she came from Mexia, and Mexia has never been quite sure what to do with that. She was born Vickie Lynn Hogan in Houston in 1967, and she came here as a teenager, around 1984, to live…
The Hitmaker of Mexia · 7.8 mi
Not all of Mexia’s famous stories involve oil booms or scandal. For over 50 years, one of America’s greatest songwriters quietly worked from her home right here in town. Her name was Cindy Walker. You might not know her…
From POW Camp to State School · 7.8 mi
As you pass the sprawling campus of the Mexia State Supported Living Center, you’re seeing a place with a surprising history. This land’s modern story begins during World War II, when it was chosen as the site for a…
Kirvin, TX · 7.9 mi
In 1922, Kirvin was the site of a tragic event that deeply affected the community. Three local African-American men, Snap Curry, Mose Jones, and Johnny Cornish, were lynched by a mob of around 500 townsfolk, including…
The 'Boll Weevil' Railroad · 7.9 mi
Kirvin owes its existence to a railroad with a funny nickname: the 'Boll Weevil Line.' Officially it was the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway, chartered in 1902 to run from North Texas southeastward toward the coast,…
The Power of Lignite · 7.9 mi
While Kirvin's history is tied to oil, the biggest engineering story this county ever told was about a different fossil fuel: lignite. Look around Freestone County and you can still read the shape of the Big Brown Power…
Building an Inland Sea · 8.0 mi
The vast expanse of water at the Richland-Chambers Reservoir isn't a natural lake; it's a massive feat of civil engineering. Ground broke in October of 1982, the dam closed in 1987, and the lake was full by 1989. It was…
Richland Crossing becomes just Richland · 8.0 mi
The Richland you're in today was named twice, and the second name is the one the railroad gave it. It started in the late 1840s with a man called Asa Chambers, who put up a store on the wagon trail running from…
Richland, TX · 8.0 mi
Richland's history began in the late 1840s when Asa Chambers established a store on the trail from Corsicana to Franklin. The post office, named Richland Crossing after nearby Richland Creek, opened in his store by…
Sessions Cemetery · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past what's left of the largest of three slave graveyards in this area, founded back in the early 1850s. Local tradition says this place holds the graves of many notable former slaves and their…
Shanks Cemetery · 8.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past what used to be the heart of a small farming community called Shanks. It all started back in 1859 when the Matthew and Robert Shanks families settled here from Alabama. By 1870, a schoolhouse went up…
Cade Cemetery · 8.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Cade Cemetery, a final resting place for a community that once thrived here. The Cade community, named for early resident Cade Hayes, was established in the 1870s. The first burial was a Mrs.…
Mexia Oil Boom · 8.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Mexia, Texas, the site of one of America's wildest oil booms! Back in 1912, local men found gas. Believing oil could be found here too, they brought in a famous wildcatter, A.E. Humphreys, and in…
Johnston, Joseph F., Reunion Grounds · 8.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a massive Confederate reunion! Established in 1889, this was Camp No. 94 for the United Confederate Veterans. Imagine, thousands of Texans gathering every August for week-long…
Oak Island Presbyterian Church and Cemetery · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Freestone County, near Teague. Look to your right, and you'll see the Oak Island Presbyterian Church and Cemetery. This spot marks the very first church organized in what would become Freestone…
Love-Anderson Feud · 9.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Navarro County, the site of a bitter feud that ignited in the 1840s. It started with land disputes and family rivalries between early settlers like the Loves and later arrivals like Dr. William…
Cotton Gin · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Cotton Gin, a town that bloomed and faded before the railroad even arrived. Settled before 1848, it got its start with Dr. J. S. Wills and his mule-drawn cotton gin. By 1851, it had a…
Caney Baptist Church · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Caney Baptist Church, a fellowship with roots stretching back to the 1830s. Early settlers like Hopson Burleson organized here before 1858, meeting in homes and schoolhouses. For years,…
First Methodist Church of Richland · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Richland, Navarro County, and right here is the site of the First Methodist Church. It was founded way back in 1847, on the Texas frontier, thanks to the efforts of Reverend J. E. Ferguson and…
Richland Cemetery · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Richland, a town that owes its existence to the railroad. Back in 1870, J.T. and Prudence Patrick moved their store here, settling in this new community. The town's first burial ground was needed…
The Outlaw Schoolteacher of Pisgah Ridge · 9.7 mi
In January of eighteen sixty nine, John Wesley Hardin was fifteen years old and already wanted for killing a man. His father brought him here to Navarro County, to the Pisgah Ridge country southwest of Richland, where…
The Desperado from Pisgah Ridge · 9.7 mi
One of the men John Wesley Hardin knew around Pisgah Ridge was Frank Polk, a noted desperado who lived in the Pisgah Ridge community, about eight miles northwest of Wortham. In September of eighteen seventy eight,…
The Still with the Hidden Elevator · 9.7 mi
On a July night in nineteen twenty nine, in the middle of Prohibition, two deputy constables and two federal agents raided a farm about a mile south of Richland. From ground level, what they found looked like a big…
The Feasting Pits of the Creek Valleys · 9.7 mi
Long before Richland, people lived along Richland and Chambers creeks, in the valleys where Richland-Chambers Reservoir lies now. Before the lake was built, archaeologists spent seasons excavating the area. At a site…
The Ridge · 9.7 mi
Southwest of Richland rises Pisgah Ridge, which locals call the Ridge, or Pizgy Ridge. It's a limestone outcrop at the north end of the Tehuacana Hills, named for the Mount Pisgah of the Bible. Its peak was once…
Richland's Forgotten Oil Field · 9.7 mi
Richland had an oil boom of its own. In November of nineteen nineteen, the Oklahoma Petroleum Company started drilling a test well near Richland under one of the largest derricks in the state, and in the years that…
A Day's Pay for a Bomber · 9.7 mi
This Richland is named for Richland Creek. A different Richland, in Washington state, grew up around the Hanford works of the Manhattan Project. In nineteen forty four, Hanford's workers ran a campaign with the slogan…
The Town Where the Government Changed Your Light Bulbs · 9.7 mi
There's another Richland, in Washington state, named for a farmer called Nelson Rich. When World War Two arrived it had two hundred forty seven residents, and then the federal government took it over to house the…
Richland, TX (Navarro County) · 9.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving south of Corsicana, right near the junction of I-45 and Highway 14. You're passing through Richland, a town that owes its start to a simple store and a creek. Back in 1848, Asa Chambers opened a store on…
Nurse Ray, Novelist · 9.7 mi
Francis Ray grew up on her father's farm near the little town of Richland, back when it had almost five hundred people. She became a nurse, and Dallas school kids knew her as Nurse Ray. In nineteen eighty seven she…
The Dawn Tornado · 9.7 mi
Just before seven in the morning on the fifth of September, two thousand seven, with flash floods already running across the area, a tornado touched down along County Road twenty four ten, just north of the Freestone…
Marooned on Love Bridge · 9.7 mi
The bottomland along Richland Creek has a habit of swallowing the road. On the night of the fourteenth of June, nineteen twenty seven, about twenty highway travelers were marooned by floodwater on Love Bridge over…
Rich Land Made by Hand · 9.7 mi
Richland got its name from the rich land along Richland Creek. Deep in the Amazon, there's rich land that people made by hand. Amazon soil is leached of nutrients and naturally poor for growing most crops, yet around…
The Murdered Millionaire Who Gave Richland Its Graveyard · 9.7 mi
When Richland first needed a cemetery, in eighteen ninety five, the acre came from the landholdings of William Marsh Rice, a Houston businessman who had invested in the Houston and Texas Central Railroad and owned much…
Cotton Gin Cemetery · 9.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Cotton Gin Cemetery, a place with roots stretching back to 1845. That's when Margarette Wills and her family, along with their enslaved people, arrived here. Her son, Dr. James S. Wills,…
Cade and Birdston emptied into Streetman · 10.0 mi
You're in a town the railroad conjured out of a cotton field, and the neighbors came to it. In 1905 the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway put a station here, and settlement started the next year. The town took its name…
The Boll Weevil's Straight Shot · 10.0 mi
The tracks that cut through Streetman carry a nickname, and it isn't flattering: the Boll Weevil. The company called itself the Valley Road, but everyone else called the Trinity and Brazos Valley the Boll Weevil Line.…
Streetman, TX · 10.0 mi
Streetman, Texas, has a rich history that includes notable residents who left their mark on American culture. One such resident was Arbella Ewing, who was born near Streetman in 1894 and was, at her death in 2008, the…
Marberry Time · 10.0 mi
Fred Firpo Marberry was born on a farm near Streetman in eighteen ninety eight, played the infield for the Streetman town team as a teenager, and didn't pitch until he was twenty one. He threw nothing but fastballs, and…
Five Miles West, Then Down the Tracks · 10.0 mi
Blind Lemon Jefferson, the first country blues singer and guitarist to win a national audience, came from right around here. He was born on a farm at Coutchman, a little community about five miles west of Streetman,…
One Arm, Still Pitching · 10.0 mi
Fred Firpo Marberry, born on a farm near Streetman, pitched fourteen seasons in the big leagues, and for years he held the records for saves in a season and in a career. When the Detroit Tigers released him in nineteen…
One Hundred Fourteen Candles · 10.0 mi
On March thirteenth, eighteen ninety four, Arbella Perkins was born on a Freestone County farm near Streetman, the fourth of twelve children. Her great-grandparents had been enslaved in Mississippi. In nineteen fifteen…
Birdston's First Grave · 10.0 mi
About three miles northeast of Streetman, on Farm Road four sixteen, is Birdston Cemetery, and its very first grave belongs to a traveler. A family was on the road from Fairfield to Corsicana, and they stopped at…
Bennett, Joseph L. · 10.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what is now Navarro County, not far from the town of Streetman. Right here is where Joseph L. Bennett lived and died in 1848. Bennett arrived in Texas in 1834 and quickly became a key figure in…
Marberry, Frederick [Firpo] · 10.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Central Texas, maybe near Streetman, and you're passing through the birthplace of a baseball legend. Fred Marberry, nicknamed 'Firpo' after a famous boxer, was born here in 1898. He wasn't much of…
Thirty Thousand People Overnight · 10.0 mi
About ten miles southwest of Streetman, the town of Wortham had a boom like few places ever have. On the twenty seventh of November, nineteen twenty four, the Roy Simmons Number One well came in as a gusher. Within…
The First Traffic Light Blew Up · 10.0 mi
Streetman is named for Judge Sam Streetman of Houston, who surveyed the railroad and the town. But since street is right there in the name: the world's first traffic signal went up in London on the ninth of December,…
The School Board in the Parked Car · 10.0 mi
In nineteen forty eight, Streetman fought to keep its own school district, and part of the fight turned on a school board meeting held in a parked car. That August, the Freestone County school board called an election…
Jefferson Survives? · 10.0 mi
Streetman throws itself a Fourth of July parade, so here's the strangest Fourth of July in American history. On July fourth, eighteen twenty six, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, both Thomas…
The Boxer Behind the Nickname · 10.0 mi
Fred Marberry, the big relief pitcher, was born on a farm near Streetman in eighteen ninety eight, and the whole baseball world knew him as Firpo. The nickname came from a boxer. On September fourteenth, nineteen twenty…
A Railroad Town Rises and Fades · 10.0 mi
Streetman was born as a station on the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway in nineteen oh five, and it was named for Judge Sam Streetman of Houston, the surveyor who laid out both the railroad and the town. It grew fast.…
There Really Was a Streetcar Named Desire · 10.0 mi
Street makes us think of streetcars, and there really was a streetcar named Desire. New Orleans started the Desire line in nineteen twenty. It ran from Canal Street down Bourbon Street and on to Desire Street. People in…
The Machine That Made the Lawn · 10.0 mi
Streetman is known for its Fourth of July lawnmower parade, so here's the man who invented the lawnmower. Edwin Budding was an engineer in Stroud, England, who knew the machines woollen mills used, with spinning blades…
Clyde Barrow's Uncle · 10.0 mi
When federal agents were hunting Bonnie and Clyde, their search for Clyde Barrow's family ran through the farm roads around Streetman. In Bureau of Investigation interview notes from the nineteen thirties, later…
Sixteen Hundred Tons in the Ditch · 10.0 mi
On Sunday night, February twenty fifth, nineteen twelve, between ten and eleven o'clock, a southbound freight train on the Trinity and Brazos Valley went into the ditch near Streetman. It was running as an extra. It had…
Shots on Wood Street · 10.0 mi
Just before one in the morning on Friday, August ninth, two thousand twenty four, Freestone County deputies were called to Wood Street in Streetman. Inside one house they found Cody Williamson, forty two, on his living…
St. Elmo, TX (Freestone County) · 10.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through northern Freestone County, past what used to be the community of St. Elmo. It started around 1849 when families settled here, and a school opened soon after. The community eventually took its name…
The Relief Man from Streetman · 10.2 mi
Long before the modern bullpen, baseball expected a starting pitcher to finish what he began. The man who helped break that rule grew up in this rural corner of Freestone County. Frederick "Firpo" Marberry was born in…
Blind Lemon Jefferson's Freestone County Beginnings · 10.2 mi
The flat cotton country rolling past you here was the early world of one of America's first blues stars. Blind Lemon Jefferson was born in the Couchman community of Freestone County, generally placed in the farmland…
The Veteran Whose Flag-Covered Lawnmower Became a Parade · 10.2 mi
Streetman's Fourth of July parade started with one man and a riding lawnmower. Tommy J. Bryant was a World War II veteran, and he wanted the people of his hometown to celebrate their freedom on the Fourth. So one year…
The Railroad That Built One Town and Erased Another · 10.2 mi
The grid of streets you're rolling through only exists because a railroad decided this spot mattered. Streetman began in 1905 as a station on the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway, with settlers arriving the following…
The Wetlands That Wash a River Before It Reaches the Lake · 10.2 mi
A few miles from Streetman sits one of Texas's largest inland reservoirs, and a quietly brilliant piece of environmental engineering attached to it. Richland-Chambers Reservoir covers more than 41,000 acres and reaches…
The 13-Pound Bass That Ended a 17-Year Wait · 10.2 mi
Richland-Chambers Reservoir near Streetman gave Texas anglers a long, lean stretch of waiting, then ended it with a single fish. On Sunday, January 26, 2025, Dylan Sorrells of Dallas pulled a 13.64-pound largemouth bass…
The Town's First School Met in a Blacksmith Shop · 10.2 mi
When the kids of brand-new Streetman first sat down to learn in 1907, there was no schoolhouse to learn in, so class met inside a blacksmith shop. The arrangement held until a permanent school building finally went up…
Whiteselle, James Emerson · 10.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a major Texas business boom, all thanks to James Emerson Whiteselle. Born in Tennessee in 1851, Whiteselle came to Texas in 1870, starting in the lumber business. By 1875, he was running…
A Century of Allen Chapel on Parker Street · 11.1 mi
At 105 Parker Street sits Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a building that has anchored Coolidge's African American community for more than a hundred years. The congregation began in 1915 and put up its…
Coolidge, TX · 11.3 mi
Established in 1903 by the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway of Texas, Coolidge was a product of the railway's expansion between Hillsboro and Mexia. The rail line played a significant role in the town's early growth,…
United Methodist Church of Coolidge · 11.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Coolidge, and right here is the United Methodist Church. It started way back in 1904, not here in town, but two miles west in a community called Armour. The original church building, built in…
The Town That Picked Itself Up and Moved a Mile · 11.4 mi
The strongest thing about Coolidge isn't that a railroad built it. It's that the railroad missed an existing town by a single mile and pulled it down the road. Before Coolidge existed, the local center was Armour, first…
The Boll Weevil Railroad and the Cotton Empire It Fed · 11.4 mi
The line that made Coolidge had a dark joke for a nickname. The Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway was called the Boll Weevil, a fitting name for a railroad running through cotton country, where the boll weevil was the…
The Coolidge Boy Who Became a Pacific Ace · 11.4 mi
From a town of roughly a thousand people came one of the deadliest American fighter pilots of the Pacific war. Jay T. Robbins was born in Coolidge in 1919 and graduated from Coolidge High School in 1936. In World War II…
From a Brush-Arbor Church to a National Dance Stage · 11.4 mi
Five miles south of Coolidge, formerly enslaved people founded the community of Sandy in the early 1870s. Sandy Grove Primitive Baptist Church first met under a brush arbor before residents built a proper church and ran…
A Nobel Laureate from a Class of Fifteen · 11.4 mi
The small rural community around Coolidge produced a Nobel Prize winner, and by his own account he wasn't even the standout in his class. E. Donnall Thomas was raised and educated near Coolidge, where his graduating…
Spelled Wrong for Twenty-Seven Years · 11.4 mi
When you say you're in Coolidge, you're using a spelling the town didn't officially carry for most of its boom years. Coolidge was established in 1903 and named for an unidentified stockholder in the Trinity and Brazos…
The Town That Named a Layer of an Ancient Sea · 11.4 mi
Coolidge isn't just a dot on a road map; it gave its name to a layer in the geologic record. About three miles northwest of town is an exposed rock interval geologists call the Coolidge Chalk, slotted in the regional…
The Methodist Church That Rode In from Armour · 11.4 mi
At the corner of Jester and Third streets stands the United Methodist Church of Coolidge, and its history runs straight back to the vanished town of Armour. The congregation organized in 1873, and its first sanctuary…
Mookie's Mesquite Patch in the Old Railroad District · 11.4 mi
Coolidge doesn't have a multigenerational restaurant tied to its early railroad days, but it does have a reason to pull off the highway and into the old business district: Mookie's Mesquite Patch BBQ at 102 North First…
Coolidge, TX · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Coolidge, a town born from the railroad boom. Established in 1903, it sprang up along the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway line. Residents even moved their homes and businesses a mile to be…
Richland Creek · 11.5 mi
Plenty of Texas streams are named for somebody, a settler, a soldier, a judge. Richland Creek is not. It just describes what the early arrivals saw, the rich, fertile bottomland it drains, the other great watercourse of…
The Engineering that Built a Town · 11.9 mi
The railroad tracks you see cutting through Coolidge are more than just a piece of history; they are a feat of early 20th-century engineering that made this town possible. This was the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway,…
Coolidge, TX · 11.9 mi
Established in 1903, the town was brought to life by the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway of Texas as it laid down rail between Hillsboro and Mexia. This development not only led to the birth of Coolidge but also…
Four Cemeteries in One, All That's Left of Armour · 12.0 mi
If you want to stand where the town used to be, go to Armour Cemetery. It's the last substantial remnant of Armour, the community largely abandoned after the railroad set up Coolidge a mile away in 1903 and residents…
Armour Cemetery · 12.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of what was once the community of Armour. Established in 1878, this burial ground was deeded by founder James Armour, a Civil War veteran who arrived from Georgia. By 1884, his settlement,…
The Boat at Comanche Crossing · 12.1 mi
On Juneteenth night in nineteen eighty one, three young men went into Lake Mexia in a small aluminum boat with three officers, and only the officers came out alive. About five thousand people were at Comanche Crossing…
Means, Harvey · 12.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a remarkable life in Teague, the story of Harvey Means. Born in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1868</say-as>, Means started as a shoe-shine boy, but found his calling when he…
Booker T. Washington Park · 12.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past a place with a powerful history, folks. This park, Booker T. Washington Park, was set aside in 1898 to celebrate a monumental event: June 19th, 1865. That's the day slaves in Texas first heard the…
Shiloh Baptist Churc · 12.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Shiloh Baptist Church. On this day in 1881, fifteen neighbors gathered to start their own Baptist congregation. For years, they met in the local schoolhouse, even sharing a Sunday School…
Birdston Valley · 12.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through what was once Birdston Valley, a community built by former slaves after the Civil War. <break time="400ms"/> They farmed the Richland Creek bottomlands, their lives centered around faith and…
Old Sandy Creek Cemetery · 12.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Old Sandy Creek Cemetery, a place that tells the story of freedom and community right here in Limestone County. After Emancipation in 1865, many formerly enslaved people put down roots in this area,…
Birdston Community and Cemetery · 12.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Navarro County, passing the site of Birdston. It all started in the 1860s when V.I. Bird opened a general store. Soon, a cotton gin joined it, and the growing community got its own post office in…
Furney Richardson High School · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a vital community hub for African American children in western Freestone County. In 1933, the Busby and Grove Island schools merged, creating a new district. This campus, named for its…
Johnson, General Joseph Burton · 13.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a 10,550-acre plantation, home to General Joseph Burton Johnson. Born in Georgia in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1816</say-as>, Johnson served in the U.S. Army before coming to…
Grape Creek Cemetery · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Corsicana, near the Grape Creek Cemetery. Land here was donated for a school, church, and graveyard, with burials starting around 1881. The original church building burned down in 1975.
Lynch, Joseph Penn · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the resting place of Joseph Penn Lynch, a soldier who fought for Texas's independence. Born in Kentucky in 1810, Lynch served as both a private and a captain in the Army of the Republic of Texas. He…
Civilian Conservation Corps at Fort Parker State Park · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Fort Parker State Park, a place built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Back in August of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1935</say-as>, an African American CCC company, Company 3807(C), was…
Springfield Cemetery · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Springfield Cemetery, a final resting place for folks who lived through some wild times on the Texas frontier. This burial ground started as a 10-acre plot in <say-as interpret-as="date"…
Walker, Sanders · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site where Sanders Walker, a veteran of the Texas War for Independence, once lived. He fought for Texas' freedom between 1835 and 1836. Walker's service is remembered here, a quiet nod to the men…
Old Springfield · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Limestone County, past the site of Old Springfield. This town was named for a big spring, and in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1838</say-as>, Moses Herrin donated land to anyone willing…
Grange Hall Community · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past what was once Grange Hall, a community born in the 1850s alongside Freestone County itself. Early farming families, like the Smiths and the Johnsons, settled here. Many became active in the Texas…
Munger Community · 14.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the area that was once the Munger community, a bustling center of cotton production and innovation. In 1872, Henry Martin Munger moved his family here and quickly began building a massive cotton…
Antioch Cemetery · 14.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Antioch Cemetery. ANTIOCH CEMETERY THE BEGINNING OF ANTIOCH CEMETERY IS VERY CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH THE TURLINGTON COMMUNITY, THE ANTIOCH AND MT. ZION CHURCHES, AND THE SURROUNDING RURAL AREA. THE…
Plummer Cemetery · 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Plummer Cemetery, a final resting place with a dramatic beginning. In 1834, Luther Thomas Martin Plummer and his wife Rachel arrived here, soon earning a massive Mexican land grant. But in 1836,…
Bonner Cemetery · 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Bonner Cemetery, established in 1867. It's the resting place for William and John Bonner, brothers who came from South Carolina in the 1850s. They developed thousands of acres into cotton plantations…
Notley, Llewellyn · 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Teague, Freestone County, past the life of Llewellyn Notley. Born in Paris, Texas, in 1888, Notley dedicated his life to education and history. After earning his degrees from the University of…
Boyd, Jr., William Rufus · 15.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the marker for William Rufus Boyd, Jr., a man who packed a lot into his life! Born in 1885, he was licensed to practice law at just 19 and became Teague's first mayor at 21. He led the U.S. Chamber…
Freed People Named Their Town Babylon · 15.1 mi
Midway between Dawson and Purdon, in western Navarro County, there was once a farming community called Babylon. Former slaves settled here around 1895 and named their church for the biblical city of Babylon, a…
Hopewell Cemetery · 15.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Hopewell Cemetery, where burials date back to the 1860s. The earliest marked grave is that of infant John W. Pritchard, who died in 1870. Joshua Parmer Cox later donated land for the public burial…
The Beetle Behind the Boll Weevil Line · 15.2 mi
Teague's railroad had a nickname: the Boll Weevil. The line hauled cotton, and it was named for the beetle wrecking that very crop. The boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis, is a quarter-inch snout beetle native to Mexico…
The Town a Railroad Man Named for His Mother · 15.2 mi
Before it had its name, this was a small farm settlement called Brewer. That changed in 1906, when the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway laid its line through western Freestone County and chose the spot for its machine…
Old Division Point Office for the "Boll Weevil" Railway · 15.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising past the old division point office for the 'Boll Weevil' Railway. Chartered as the Trinity & Brazos Valley, this line earned its nickname from special trains that roared down its tracks, carrying folks…
Town of Teague · 15.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Teague, Freestone County, a town that owes its very existence to a railroad boom. Back in 1905, this was just a quiet village called Brewer. But then, in 1906, the Trinity & Brazos Valley Railroad…
The Magic City Railroad Boom · 15.3 mi
In 1906 the railroad rewrote this place. A drowsy country village called Brewer had stood here for decades when the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway picked the spot as its division point, halfway between Fort Worth and…

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