Center, TX RoadyGoat
Center has been a launchpad for individuals who have made their mark across various fields.
Everything Logansport is known for
Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Logansport.
Center has been a launchpad for individuals who have made their mark across various fields.
Hunter, Texas. It’s a place you might drive through without a second thought, but beneath the quiet surface, there's a story to be told.
Hunter, Texas, nestled up here at 1,280 feet, has always been a place to catch your breath. The views across the Hill Country are something special, and it’s easy to see why folks first decided to put down roots. Back before the town was formally incorporated, it was the promise of cotton that drew people in. The land was good, and Hunter became a natural trading hub for the surrounding farms. You can almost picture those early days: wagons piled high, folks bartering and selling goods, the Blanco River providing water and a bit of relief from the Texas sun. It wasn't a river or railroad that made Hunter a town; it was the land itself and the people drawn to it. They say it was around 1880 when the place started being called Hunter, named after one of those early settlers, John Hunter. Of course, there are stories, too. Whispers of a stagecoach carrying gold, robbed and buried somewhere along the Blanco. Whether that’s true or not, it's part of what makes this place special.
In the early 1700s, France and Spain began disputing their New World international boundary that included this area; each nation claimed what is now Texas. When the U.S. purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, the boundary was still in dispute. Leaders agreed to a neutral area between the Arroyo Hondo and the Sabine River, and the 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty formally defined the border. When Texas became a republic in 1836, it appointed a joint commission with the U.S. to survey and mark the established boundary from the Gulf of Mexico up the Sabine River and on to the Red River. John Forsyth represented the U.S., and Memucan Hunt represented Texas in the work, which proved to be long and difficult. The survey crew began the demarcation process on May 20, 1840 at the Gulf, placing a 36-foot pole in the middle of a large earthen mound. Proceeding north, they placed eight-foot posts denoting the number of miles from the 32nd parallel. Upon reaching the parallel, they placed a granite marker on the west bank of the Sabine River. From that point, they traveled due north to the Red River, completing their work in late June 1841. As a result of erosion, the first granite marker on the Sabine fell into the river long ago, but a second granite marker on the northward path of the surveyors had been placed here to mark the north-south meridian. This is the only known marker remaining, and it is believed to be the only original international boundary marker within the contiguous U.S. Today, the border between Texas and Louisiana follows the Sabine River to the 32nd parallel, at which point it connects to the boundary established by Hunt and Forsyth. The Texas Historical Foundation purchased this site to provide public access to the early boundary marker.
One of the oldest Baptist churches in Texas. Founded by settlers who came by ferry across Sabine River as early as 1818. After a number of homes were built on hills near good springs of water, a church was considered essential. It is recorded that this one ministered to spiritual needs in Republic of Texas era. Congregation assembled by riding many miles, usually in farm wagons, and with baskets of food. Original log building, heated by 8-foot fireplace with mud chimney, had split log benches. The windows, without glass, had shutters on wooden hinges. In season, school was held in this early building. The name "Fellowship" honored loyalties among the pioneer families. First pastor was the Rev. Wyatt S. Childress, a kinsman of Geo. C. Childress, one of the authors of the Texas Declaration of Independence. First church clerk was Dr. John Moses Taylor. Erected after sawmills were in use in the 1870s was second church building, of plank construction. This was several times relocated and remodeled. The present structure was built in 1939; enlarged 1967. The old "Busbee Place" Spring, initially responsible for choice of this site, still supplies water for the church and baptistry. (1969)
Alabama-born Benjamin Franklin Morris (1827-1900) came to Texas in 1838 and settled in the area that became the pioneer village of Sarat. A prosperous farmer and rancher, he gave right of way through 500 acres of his land to the Houston, East & West Texas Railroad in 1884. He also provided a 100-acre townsite to be named for his grandson Joaquin (1878-1898), requesting that a depot be built here and that passenger trains stop daily. Morris, a Confederate veteran, later donated a building site for the First Baptist Church of Joaquin.
Franklin (Frank) Lewis Johnston, also referred to as F. L. Johnston, Confederate soldier, attorney, state representative, and state senator, was born in Madison County, Mississippi, on October 1, 1840, the son of Luke and Mary Jane (Farrar) Johnston. The Johnston family immigrated to Texas in 1844, settling in Shelby County where Johnston was raised. In February 1862 following the outbreak of the Civil War , Johnston volunteered for service in the Confederate Army, enlisting as a private in Company H of the Eleventh Texas Infantry Regiment. He received promotion to sergeant on October 19, 1862, as well as served as quartermaster's clerk from April 1863 until it was disbanded at Hempstead, Waller County, in May 1865. Johnston had married Margaret William Dysart in Shelby County on February 7, 1865, immediately prior to this disbandment, and upon being discharged he returned to Shelby County, settling at Buena Vista. The couple had ten children, including three sets of twins, but only seven grew to adulthood. He was admitted to practice law here in 1866 and in addition was active in state and local politics. In 1873 he won election on the Democratic ticket as representative for District Two-comprised of Nacogdoches, San Augustine, Sabine, Shelby, and Panola counties-to the Fourteenth Texas Legislature. He won reelection to the house for the Sixteenth Legislature in 1878, this time representing the District Eight counties of Shelby and Panola. In 1882 he won election as senator for District Two-comprised of Shelby, Sabine, San Augustine, Rusk, Nacogdoches, and Panola counties-to the Eighteenth Texas Legislature. After these turns at state office Johnston retired to Shelby County. He died on July 12, 1897, and was buried at Johnston Cemetery near Flat Fort Creek in Tenaha.
Tenaha is at the junction of U.S. highways 84, 59, and 96, on the tracks of the Southern Pacific some eleven miles northwest of Center in northern Shelby County. It was founded in 1885 as a shipping point on the Houston, East and West Texas Railway, when that railroad was being constructed through the county. The community was named by members of the Hicks family for Tenehaw Municipality, the original name of Shelby County. A post office was opened there in 1886 with James N. Woodfin as postmaster. By 1890 the town had 200 residents, several stores, three churches, and a school, and by 1896 it had an estimated 680 residents and a number of businesses, including a weekly newspaper, the Ledger . By that time Tenaha had become a shipping center for area farmers and lumbermen. The community was incorporated in the 1900s and by 1946 had several lumber-manufacturing industries and a large tomato-canning plant. By the 1980s many of these businesses no longer existed, but the town had profited by its proximity to Toledo Bend Reservoir. In 1988 Tenaha reported an estimated 1,073 residents and forty-three rated businesses. Its population was reported as 1,072 in 1990. In 2000 the population was 1,046.
Although the feuds of Texas have received far less general attention and publicity than have the Kentucky variety, they were probably even more numerous and bitter. Half a dozen of the worst ones have become fairly well known, but dozens of others, big and little, have raged in practically every county in the state. Only one important feud broke out in Texas before the Civil War - the Regulator-Moderator War , which flourished in Shelby County and adjacent regions from 1839 to 1844, involved several hundred men on each side, and caused much bloodshed and violence. Like many of the later feuds, this trouble was at first a contest between organized outlaws and a group of vigilantes. Typically, the Regulators went to such extremes in their attempts to break up the outlaws that a group of countervigilantes came into existence to "moderate" the Regulators. Typically also, both sides drew in friends, relatives, and sympathizers from many miles away, and a war of extermination would have been the inevitable result if Sam Houston and the militia had not marched in. Great outbursts of the feuding spirit were part of the aftermath of the Civil War. Feeling against Union authorities and their local supporters touched off several explosions in the 1860s. An example of this type of disturbance was the Early-Hasley feud which occurred in Bell County from 1865 to 1869. John Early, a member of the Home Guard, abused an old man named Drew Hasley. When Hasley's son, Sam, came home after service in the Confederate Army, he took the matter up. Early had become a supporter of the Yankee officials, and they backed him. Hasley soon became the head of a party of friends and relatives, including, notably, Jim McRae, a fearless and possibly a desperate man. Early and his crowd accused the Hasley party of all sorts of thievery and depredation and brought in soldiers to clean them out. On July 30, 1869, McRae was ambushed and killed. The Hasley party broke up after that, though one of them pursued Dr. Calvin Clark, an Early supporter, into Arkansas and killed him shortly thereafter. The Lee-Peacock feud, which flourished from 1867 to 1871 in the contiguous corners of Fannin, Grayson, Collin, and Hunt counties, followed the same pattern. Bob Lee, a former Confederate officer, fell out with the Union authorities and aroused the enmity of Lewis Peacock, one of their supporters. There was killing on both sides, and Lee was waylaid and killed in Fannin County near the present town of Leonard in 1869. A systematic hunt for his friends and supporters was then begun, and several were killed. Peacock himself was shot on June 13, 1871, bringing the feud to an end. The Sutton-Taylor feud , the biggest of the feuds rooted in the war, began in 1869 and continued to cause litigation until 1899, though most of the bloodshed was over by 1876. The 1870s saw more lawlessness and more feuding than did any other period in Texas history. Most of the disturbances were the result of depredations by outlaw bands, and the typical pattern of vigilantes and countervigilantes was repeated many times. The war had left Texas comparatively undamaged, and this fact attracted many settlers from ruined communities in the older states, while the frontier offered a refuge to lawless characters. Many good people moved to Texas at this time, but the bad ones, combining forces with homegrown scoundrels, caused an outbreak of desperadoism that was hard to put down. Capt. Leander H. McNelly 's special force of Texas Rangers and Maj. John B. Jones 's Frontier Battalion gradually got the situation in hand, but large groups of outraged citizens felt obliged to take the law into their own hands until life and property were comparatively safe. Many of the cattle feuds of this period occurred in such frontier outposts as Mason, Lampasas, and Shackelford counties. The Horrell-Higgins feud in Lampasas County in 1877, the Hoodoo War or Mason County War of 1875, and the trouble over the Shackelford Count
57 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.
Joaquin (Joaquin, TX) placed on the 2A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Karson Rogers (2 HR).
One of the oldest Baptist churches in Texas. Founded by settlers who came by ferry across Sabine River as early as 1818. After a number of homes were built on hills near good springs of water, a church was considered…
Joaquin, Texas, sits right on the Louisiana border, and for generations, its identity has been deeply intertwined with timber. The land here, rolling hills and sandy loam, is ideal for growing Southern Yellow Pine. It…
Alabama-born Benjamin Franklin Morris (1827-1900) came to Texas in 1838 and settled in the area that became the pioneer village of Sarat. A prosperous farmer and rancher, he gave right of way through 500 acres of his…
You're driving past Joaquin Cemetery, a place born from a sister's grief. In 1894, Allie Whiddon died at just eighteen years old. Her sister, Viola, donated land next to the new Joaquin Missionary Baptist Church to…
In the early 1700s, France and Spain began disputing their New World international boundary that included this area; each nation claimed what is now Texas. When the U.S. purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in…
You're driving past the site of Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church. Chartered in 1880 with eight members, this congregation was organized by Elders William H. Gresham and J. R. Alexander. Pastor Gresham, a…
You're driving past the Sholar Cemetery, a place marked by a heartbreaking tragedy in the summer of 1854. Six cousins, all between the ages of one and ten, died here, likely from the same illness. It's a somber reminder…
You're driving past the Truitt Cemetery, the final resting place for a prominent Texas family. James Truitt, a Republic of Texas congressman and later a state senator, settled here with his wife Sarah in 1840. This…
You're driving through Logan, and just off the road is Adams Cemetery. Lorenzo H. Adams, a former constable and justice of the peace, donated this land in the 1880s after his young daughter Georgia Anne died. Her grave…
You're driving through East Texas, near Joaquin. Look around for remnants of a community called Truitt, also known as Willow Grove. It sprang up around a store opened by James Truitt about 1840. Truitt wasn't just any…
You're driving past the King-Oates Cemetery, established around 1853. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2006.
You're driving past the site of Spivey, a town that sprang up thanks to the railroad. Founded by Civil War veteran James Jackson Spivey, the community really took off when the Houston East & West Texas Railroad built…
You're driving through Panola County, passing the final resting place of James Rowe. He arrived in Texas from North Carolina, ready to fight for its independence in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1836</say-as>.…
You're driving past Old Center Cemetery, a final resting place that's been serving this community since 1856. That's when James Rowe, a pioneer and veteran of the Texas War for Independence, donated the first land. His…
You're driving through the Sardis community, which organized its first church congregation back in 1872. Neighbors built a log structure, and in 1894, a new sanctuary was constructed. The church remained active until…
You're driving through the heart of the Ramah community, a place that started as a humble homestead in the early 1870s. William Tell Pou and his wife Mollie were the first settlers here. They helped found Ramah Baptist…
You're driving through Center, Texas, where the Sardis School once stood. Students here attended the Hughes School until 1917, when the W.R. Pickering Lumber Company donated land for Sardis School No. 37. This four-room…
You're driving through Tenaha, the site of the First United Methodist Church. This congregation was established in 1886 by Methodists from nearby communities, helping to build this railhead town. They constructed their…
You're driving past Deadwood Cemetery, the final resting place for early Panola County settlers. It began as a family burial ground in 1847 when Christeena LaGrone was laid to rest here. Though not officially a public…
Franklin (Frank) Lewis Johnston, also referred to as F. L. Johnston, Confederate soldier, attorney, state representative, and state senator, was born in Madison County, Mississippi, on October 1, 1840, the son of Luke…
Tenaha is at the junction of U.S. highways 84, 59, and 96, on the tracks of the Southern Pacific some eleven miles northwest of Center in northern Shelby County. It was founded in 1885 as a shipping point on the…
Tenaha, nestled in the East Texas Piney Woods, carries echoes of its past in its very name. "Tenaha," meaning "settlement," hints at the Native American presence that predates the town's official founding in 1886. While…
You're driving past the site of a home that's seen a lot of history. The original J. M. Crawford home stood here, built in 1850, but it was lost to fire in 1885. That same year, Frederick Lee Bickham, a prominent local…
You're driving through East Texas, near Center, where a bizarre conflict known as the Regulator-Moderator War raged from 1841 to 1844. It wasn't exactly a war between nations, but more like a violent feud between two…
You're driving past Woods, Texas, where the Woods Methodist Church stands. Organized before 1858 as Concord Methodist, the present site was deeded in 1876, and this building was erected by the community that winter. The…
Before Texas had a feud tradition, Shelby County invented one. The Regulator-Moderator War started in 1839 over forged land certificates in the piney woods of deep East Texas. A man named Charles Jackson organized the…
You're cruising through Shelbyville, and you might be passing the old stomping grounds of Moses Fisk Roberts, better known as 'Dog' Roberts. Born in Tennessee, he came to Texas in 1836 and fought in the Texas…
Although the feuds of Texas have received far less general attention and publicity than have the Kentucky variety, they were probably even more numerous and bitter. Half a dozen of the worst ones have become fairly well…
You're driving through East Texas, right in the heart of the Regulator-Moderator War. This wasn't your typical Texas feud; it was a brutal, five-year conflict that raged from 1839 to 1844, primarily in Shelby and…
You're driving through what is now Shelby County, Texas, but back in 1836, this was the heart of the Texas Revolution. Right here, you might have encountered the legendary Red Rovers, led by Captain Jack Shackelford.…
You're driving past Shelbyville, a town that started out as Nashville before 1825. This spot holds the distinction of being the very first county seat for Shelby County. Imagine this: it wasn't just a seat of…
You're driving through East Hamilton in Shelby County. This place might have been named for the famous Alexander Hamilton, but its real claim to fame is its early Texas roots. The first burial in the local cemetery is…
You're driving through Haslam, Texas, a community that sprang to life thanks to the power of lumber. In 1913, the Pickering Lumber Company built this entire town around its massive sawmill. Will Haslam himself, the…
You're driving through East Texas, not far from where Alvey R. Johnson built his life and legacy. He arrived in Texas in 1830, settling north of the Sabine River. By 1838, he was a Texas Ranger, fighting in the Córdova…
You're driving through East Texas, the land of Moses Fisk Roberts. He arrived in Texas in 1836, just in time to miss the main battle of San Jacinto. But don't feel too sorry for him – family tradition says he lost his…
You're driving through Shelby County, just south of Center. Right here, you're passing through the area that was once the community of Short. It all started in 1870 when Elkanah Hughes homesteaded this land. By 1885,…
You're driving through East Texas, maybe near Shelbyville, and you're passing through the territory served by Francis A. Wilson. He was a Methodist circuit rider, a preacher who traveled vast distances to serve…
You're driving through Shelby County, not far from where Ashton used to be. This community sprung up on the banks of the Sabine River, a vital transportation hub for small boats. By the mid-1800s, Ashton boasted a…
You're driving through what's left of Neuville, a community that started in the 1840s when the Stephen de Neuville family settled here. By the early 1900s, it was a bustling place with a post office, a hotel, stores,…
You're driving through East Texas, near Timpson, where a railroad dream was born. Back on September 14, 1904, the Texas and Gulf Railway Company was chartered. The plan was ambitious: connect Timpson, in Shelby County,…
You're driving through Shelby County, and right here is Shelbyville. Originally called Nashville, this community was renamed in 1837 by the Republic of Texas Congress. Why? To honor Isaac Shelby, a hero of the American…
You're driving through East Texas, and right here in Shelby County, you're passing through the area where George Vance Lusk settled in 1834. He was already a seasoned pioneer, having lived in Kentucky, Illinois, and…
You're driving through Shelby County, where a bloody feud once tore the land apart. From 1841 to 1844, the Regulators and Moderators waged a brutal war against each other, causing heavy losses of life and property. The…
You're driving past Fairview Cemetery, established in 1901 right here in Center. It was founded to expand burial space for the town's first cemetery, which belonged to the Methodist church. The Fairview Cemetery…
Center has been a launchpad for individuals who have made their mark across various fields.
You're driving through Center, and right here stands the Shelby County Courthouse, a grand building that looks like it belongs in Ireland! And that's no accident. Architect J. J. E. Gibson, who designed it between 1883…
You're driving through Center, Texas, where a significant Civil War event was honored right here on April 4th, 1864. This was the Texas Muster, C.S.A., held to remember Texans who fought in the Red River Campaign. This…
You're driving through Center, Texas, a town that owes its existence to a bit of a heist! Back in 1866, Center and the nearby community of Shelbyville were fighting over who would be the county seat. An election was…
You're driving through Shelby County, an area with a history as wild as its dense East Texas forests. Back in the 1840s, this region was the stage for the infamous Regulator-Moderator War. Disputes over land titles and…
You're driving through East Texas, near Center, where Daniel McDowell Short lived out his final years. But before that, this lawyer and legislator was a soldier. He fought under Zachary Taylor in the Mexican War, and…
You're driving through northern Smith County, not far from Camp Fannin. Right here is the site of Center, a community that grew up around a Methodist church built in the 1880s. That church was the heart of this place,…
You're driving through East Texas, maybe near Center, where Jesse Martin Combs was born in 1889. He was orphaned young, raised by his grandparents, and became a teacher before becoming a lawyer and judge. He served on…
Center (Center, TX) placed on the 4A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Easton Wulf (3 HR).
Hunter, Texas. It’s a place you might drive through without a second thought, but beneath the quiet surface, there's a story to be told.
You're driving past the site of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, founded in 1871 by five charter members. The original sanctuary was built in 1876 on land donated for the church and its cemetery. The current church…
You're driving past Antioch Cemetery near Carthage. The oldest tombstone here dates back to 1849, though the land wasn't officially set aside until 1875. Many early Panola County families like the Millers, Holmes, and…