Alvarado, Texas

Everything Alvarado is known for

2 songs mention this city 1 artist from here

Music in Alvarado

Songs About Alvarado

Road to Alvarado
Shane Bell Band
80%
"Road to Alvarado"
running out of time
casey donahew
10%

Artists From Alvarado

A
Andrew Sevener
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Alvarado

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

Chisholm Trail 8 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Brazos River 42 songs Interstate 35 43 songs Texas State Highway 199 8 songs Interstate 45 8 songs

History of Alvarado

The Dr. Strangelove Writer Was Born Here RoadyGoat

1924

One of the sharpest satirists of the nineteen sixties was born right here in this small North Texas cotton town. Terry Southern came into the world in Alvarado on the first of May, nineteen twenty-four, the son of a pharmacist and a dressmaker. He earned a Bronze Star in the Second World War, then drifted into the literary scene in Paris and New York and turned into one of the defining writers of the era. His fingerprints are all over the decade's films. He helped write Dr. Strangelove, the pitch-black nuclear comedy, and the road-trip classic Easy Rider, and both of those earned him Academy Award nominations. He also worked on The Cincinnati Kid, Barbarella, and Candy. He was such a face of the counterculture that the band put him on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's, in that crowd of cultural icons. He had a line about his craft that fits a career spent astonishing people: the important thing in writing, he said, is the capacity to astonish. Not to shock, but to astonish. He died in New York in nineteen ninety-five, but he started out a Johnson County kid. (Sources: TSHA Handbook of Texas; biographical record.)

When the Trains Turned Alvarado into a Boomtown RoadyGoat

1881

Alvarado is the oldest town in Johnson County, but the thing that really put it on the map was steel rail. In 1881 two railroads reached town in the same stretch of years, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, the line everyone called the Katy. An earlier narrow-gauge line out of Dallas, later folded into the Santa Fe system, had already pushed south through this country. Where the two big railroads crossed, the railroad built a manned interlocking tower, Tower 58, to keep trains from meeting at the diamond. The boom that followed was real and fast: by 1885 a town that had started as a frontier claim had a bank, two schools, cotton gins, hotels, a newspaper called the Bulletin, and an opera house, with a population pushing two thousand. There is a piece of local lore from those years, an 1891 ad supposedly run by the town's Opera Saloon that read, we don't advise you to drink, we hope you do not. It is a wonderfully odd pitch for a saloon, though it survives as story rather than as a verified clipping. Either way, the railroad decade is when sleepy Alvarado briefly roared. (Sources: TSHA Handbook of Texas; txrrhistory Tower 58.)

Massey's BBQ: Where a Family Brand Started RoadyGoat

2018

Right here in Alvarado is where Massey's BBQ began. The first one opened in 2018, started by Todd Massey and his son Dakota, with Todd's brother Terry Massey as the pitmaster. Terry was the real heart of the smoke. Before the restaurant, he had spent years on the road competing in barbecue and chili cookoffs around the country, and the rub, the sauce and the methods that came out of all that competition are what the family built the place on. Terry passed away in 2023, but the kitchen still cooks the way he taught it. From this one Alvarado pit, the brand grew across North Texas, including a stand inside the historic Cowtown Coliseum in the Fort Worth Stockyards. It is a good reminder that some of the best barbecue in Texas doesn't come out of a famous city pit, it comes out of a small Johnson County town and a family that learned to cook by winning cookoffs. (Sources: Cleburne local reporting; Fort Worth Magazine.)

Outlaws Benjamin Bickerstaff and Josiah Thompson

1869

Near this site in 1869, Alvarado citizens ended the lives of outlaws Benjamin Bickerstaff and Josiah Thompson. A former Confederate veteran and prisoner of war, Bickerstaff was wanted for the murder of an African American man in Louisiana shortly after the Civil War. He later joined Alvarado business owner Josiah Thompson, also a Confederate veteran, and the two are believed to have participated in numerous robberies and murders in this area, including incidents in Alvarado. When they rode together into town on April 5, 1869, organized citizens shot them numerous times. They were buried in Balch (Old Alvarado) Cemetery. (2006)

Historical Marker →

Alvarado

1840

Early settler David Mitchell established a trading post near here in the late 1840s, about the time colonists of W. S. Peters' empresario grant began to settle the area. Colonist William Balch, who settled on an area land grant in 1852, was later to become known as the "Father of Alvarado" for his efforts in having the townsite surveyed in 1854, establishing the first general merchandise stores on the square, and for donating land for a cemetery, school, and union church. The town, named for Alvarado, Mexico, soon boasted a post office, homes, businesses, and churches. A community school established about 1855 became The Alvarado Masonic Institute in 1875. Rail lines extended through Alvarado by the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1881 and by the Chicago, Texas, and Mexican Central Railroad in 1884 spurred a local economic boom. By 1885 Alvarado had several churches, two schools, two gins, an opera house, a bank, a newspaper, and a population of about 2,000. The Masonic Institute became the Alvarado Normal Institute in 1899 and Alvarado High School in 1908-09. A large jail/town hall erected at this site in the mid-1880s was removed in the 1920s and replaced with a garden arrangement; a gazebo was added later. (1994)

Historical Marker →

Site of Alvarado School, Church and Union Building

1854

In 1854, E.M. Heath petitioned for the formation of Johnson County. That year, William Balch gave this site for a school, church and union meeting-house. Residents constructed a one-room log building for a school and meeting space for Baptist, Methodist, Disciples of Christ and Cumberland Presbyterian congregations, as well as for county officials and community events. Here, people discussed many issues, including Johnson County's creation and Alvarado's incorporation. Officials continued meeting here after W.C. Wright, son of mayor J.H. Wright, and his wife, Mollie, built a home here in 1871. The property remains the site of a private residence. (2004)

Historical Marker →

Alvarado, TX

1849

Alvarado, the oldest town in Johnson County, is at the junction of U.S. highways 67 and 81 and Interstate Highway 35W, fifteen miles east of Cleburne in eastern Johnson County. In the winter of 1849 William Balch staked out a claim near an old Indian trail. His family did not last until spring but returned in 1851. Two years later Balch and a fellow settler, G. H. Sigler, laid out half-acre town lots. The community's first sheriff, A. H. Onstoott, is credited with naming Alvarado for Alvaredo, Vera Cruz, Mexico, where he fought in a battle during the Mexican War . By the summer of 1854 Alvarado had an estimated 100 families and postal service. The focus of the town was a two-story building, where the Masonic lodge held its meetings and an elementary school conducted classes. There was also an Alvarado College, operated by John C. Collier . The town had four churches, more than a dozen businesses, and 350 residents. Residents voted to incorporate in 1878. In 1881 the tracks of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroads arrived. Within a few years the population surpassed 1,000. By that time the community had a bank chartered in 1880, a newspaper named the Alvarado Bulletin , two schools, a number of gins, a hotel, and an opera house. By 1890 a second bank opened and the reported population exceeded 2,000. By the mid-1920s Alvarado had an estimated 1,200 residents and more than fifty businesses. Unlike many of its sister communities, Alvarado did not decline during the Great Depression and World War II , when the town actually managed to grow. The population reached 1,324 in 1943 and 4,129 in 1988, when sixty local businesses were in operation. Proximity to Cleburne and the Dallas-Fort Worth area contributed to the growth. In 1990 the population was 2,918. In 2000 the population grew to 3,288, and that figure increased to 3,785 in 2010.

Tsha Handbook →

Collier, John C.

1855

John C. (Marse) Collier, Cumberland Presbyterian minister and college president, was born on May 18, 1834, in the Kershaw District of South Carolina to Benjamin and Sarah Collier. Shortly after his birth the family moved to southern Pickins County, Alabama. As he grew older, to fulfill his decision to become a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, Collier enrolled in classes at Cumberland College in Tennessee. By 1855 he was ordained, and within a short time he moved to Texas to begin his ministry in McLennan and Bosque counties. He became a member of McLennan County Masonic Lodge. By the end of 1854 he had started his teaching career at Bosque Academy, and around 1856 he become associated with the Waco Female Seminary . When these schools consolidated to form Bosque College and Seminary , Collier became president of the school. On August 26, 1858, he married Mary Ellen (Mollie) Fowler. In 1860 Collier, given the nickname "Marse" by his students, sold Bosque Male College to the trustees on the condition that Sunday services would continue to be held at the college. By 1861 Bosque College had an enrollment of more than 400 students; Collier taught classes and was president. The Civil War , however, brought a gradual end to the college. A company of 100 was organized from among the male students in 1861, and in 1863 Collier resigned to become a scout in Ross's Brigade . Though not a chaplain, he preached to his fellow soldiers. During this period his wife taught a community school. After the war, in September 1866, Collier opened Oakland College; in November of that year the school received its charter. Inadequate boarding facilities, however, forced him to move the college to Alvarado, where he opened Alvarado College by January 1868. During 1868 Collier served as pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian churches in Alvarado and Mansfield. He was offered classroom and boarding facilities for his college, as well as a house for his family, on condition that the college move from Alvarado to Mansfield. The offer was accepted, and the move was begun in 1869. On July 9, 1870, Collier was one of thirteen Masons who organized Mansfield Lodge No. 331, and he was elected to serve as the first senior warden of the lodge. In 1871 Mansfield Male and Female College was chartered with Collier as president. During the first years of the college he also served as the first pastor of a Cumberland Presbyterian church in Fort Worth. In 1873 he began his first term (1873-75) as worshipful master of the Mansfield Masonic lodge, and in 1875 he dedicated the cornerstones of both the Mansfield lodge building and the new classroom facility for Mansfield Male and Female College. In 1879 he became the first superintendent of public schools and the first principal of a public secondary school in Fort Worth, but his college presidency and his performance of ministerial duties resulted in his dismissal by the end of his first year. In 1883-84 Collier again served as worshipful master of the Mansfield lodge. Around this time his oldest daughter, Allie Speer, a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, became a teacher in Mansfield Male and Female College. Collier closed the college in 1887 and bought Marvin College in Waxahachie. In September 1887 he reopened Marvin College as Waxahachie College, with his daughter Allie Speer in charge of the female department. The school was not successful and in 1889 was sold at public auction. Collier then moved to Dallas, where he pastored a church and also attempted to open a school for girls in Oak Cliff, but this venture ended in failure. He and his family then moved to Walnut Springs, where Collier taught for the next few years. In 1896 he became the president of Buffalo Gap College, which, in 1897, achieved its peak enrollment of 318 students, with twenty-two applying for degrees. On August 18, 1898, he agreed to organize and become the president of Baird College in Baird. Though this college failed within a few

Tsha Handbook →

Weaver, John Calvin

1870

John Calvin Weaver, physician, businessman, and state representative, was born in Carroll County, Tennessee, in 1824. He was the son of Green and Nelly (Record) Weaver. His father was a merchant, and this occupation compelled the family to relocate several times: to Carrollton, Greene County, Illinois in 1827; to Dubuque and Iowa City, Iowa, in 1836 and 1839, respectively; and finally to Red River County, Texas, in the spring of 1840. Weaver had received a basic literary education in Illinois and Iowa and, upon his arrival in Texas, began studying medicine under a local physician. In 1850 Weaver married Margaret P. Young of Kentucky. This couple had one son and one daughter. In 1851 he began his medical practice in Hopkins County. Weaver relocated to Collin County in 1853 and resided at Farmersville until 1857 when he moved to Gainesville. In 1863 he established permanent residence at Alvarado in Johnson County. During the Civil War Weaver rejected appointments as a regimental surgeon. In 1870 he won election as representative for Johnson, Hood, Palo Pinto, Parker, Erath, and Bosque counties to the Twelfth Texas Legislature. He was a Democrat. In addition to his medical practice, Weaver engaged in the mercantile business throughout the 1870s. He operated a dry goods store and later a drug store with his son. Weaver died in Alvarado on November 2, 1900, and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery. He was a charter member of the Grandview Masonic Lodge in Alvarado.

Tsha Handbook →

Everything Near Alvarado

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

Explore Alvarado on the Map
All music from Texas → · Browse more cities