Mr. Sam of Bonham RoadyGoat

Of all the stories in Bonham, none are bigger than that of Sam Rayburn. He served in the U.S. Congress from 1913 until his death in 1961, and for 17 years, he held the gavel as Speaker of the House. He was a political giant who advised presidents from Wilson to Kennedy. But here, he was just 'Mr. Sam.' He married Metze Jones in 1927, but the marriage lasted only a few months and he never remarried — he considered his constituents his family. He'd return from Washington and walk the town square, chatting with farmers about crop prices. His home, now the Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site, wasn't a mansion but a working farmhouse. He built the Sam Rayburn Library and Museum here in 1957 so his papers—and his story—would belong to the people of his district. It's a rare look at a man who wielded immense power but never forgot where he came from.

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Engineering a Landmark's Rebirth RoadyGoat

The Fannin County Courthouse you see today is an engineering marvel, not just for its original 1888 construction, but for its 21st-century rebirth. In 1965 the ornate Second Empire building was stripped and encased in a flat modernist skin of Lueders limestone panels. To restore it, engineers faced a unique challenge: deconstruction. They had to carefully peel away those 1960s stone panels and concrete without destroying the original 19th-century limestone structure hidden within. Using historical photos and advanced scanning technology, they reverse-engineered the original design — the clock tower and elaborate mansard roof had burned away back on New Year's Eve, 1929. The project required complex structural analysis to carry the new, heavy tower and roof on the old foundations. Fabricators had to recreate intricate metalwork and source stone to match the original. This wasn't just a renovation; it was a feat of architectural forensics and structural engineering, bringing a ghost of a building back to life.

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The Jazz Pioneer Born in Bonham RoadyGoat

Bonham’s contribution to music history is a big one, even if it was brief. In 1916, the legendary jazz musician Charlie Christian was born here. Though his family moved to Oklahoma City when he was a toddler, his roots are in this Texas town. Christian changed music forever. Before him, the guitar was a quiet rhythm instrument, lost in the sound of a big band. But Christian was one of the very first to use an electric amplifier to make the guitar a lead, solo instrument. His fluid, horn-like solos with the Benny Goodman Sextet in the late 1930s inspired a generation of guitarists in jazz, blues, and rock and roll. Every time you hear an electric guitar solo, you're hearing the echo of a revolution started by a man born right here in Bonham.

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Charles Henry Christian

1916

(July 29, 1916 - March 2, 1942) As a child Bonham native Charles (Charlie) Christian was exposed to the guitar artistry and soprano solos of his parents Clarence and Willie Mae Christian. Though taught in the guitar chord technique, he developed a unique single-string style that made his reputation and earned him a place in music great Benny Goodman's band in 1939. A jazz guitar prodigy, he played with Goodman, Count Basie, and at Carnegie Hall before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 25. Recorded - 1994

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Rayburn, Sam

1882

(Jan. 16, 1882 - Nov. 16, 1961) Tennessee native Sam Taliaferro Rayburn moved to Texas with his family in 1887. His long and successful political career began with his election to the Texas Legislature in 1906. It continued through 25 consecutive terms in the U. S. House of Representatives, where Rayburn served with 8 presidents and held the speakership for 17 years. His funeral at the First Baptist Church in Bonham was attended by 30,000 people, including 4 presidents and 105 Congressmen. Recorded - 1986

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Bonham, James Butler

1836

James Bonham, officer of the Alamo garrison, son of James and Sophia Butler (Smith) Bonham, was born at Red Banks (present-day Saluda), Edgefield County, South Carolina, on February 20, 1807. Recent evidence indicates that he was a second cousin of William B. Travis . Bonham entered South Carolina College (later the University of South Carolina) in the fall of 1823 but never graduated. During his senior year he led a student protest against the poor food served at the college and the obligation of students to attend class in bad weather. He and a number of other students, perhaps the entire senior class, were expelled. Bonham took up the study of law and began practicing in Pendleton, South Carolina, in 1830. On one occasion he caned an opposing lawyer who insulted Bonham's female client. When ordered to apologize by the judge, Bonham threatened to tweak the judge's nose and was promptly sentenced to ninety days for contempt of court. In 1832, during the nullification crisis, Bonham served as an aide to South Carolina governor James Hamilton, a position that brought him the rank of lieutenant colonel. At the same time he served as captain of a Charleston artillery company. By October 1834 he was practicing law in Montgomery, Alabama. On October 17, 1835, he led a rally of support for the Texan cause at the Shakespeare Theater in Mobile. Three days later he was elected by citizens of Mobile to carry their resolutions of support to Sam Houston . In another two weeks he was organizing a volunteer company, the Mobile Grays , for service in Texas. Bonham reached Texas in November 1835 and quickly involved himself in political and military affairs. On December 1, 1835, he wrote to Sam Houston from San Felipe volunteering his services for Texas and declining all pay, lands, or rations in return. On December 20, 1835, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Texas cavalry, but apparently was not assigned to any specific unit. He had time to set up a law practice in Brazoria and was advertising the fact in the Telegraph and Texas Register by January 2, 1836. Bonham and Houston quickly developed a mutual admiration. After being in Texas for only one month Bonham recommended to Houston that William S. Blount of North Carolina be granted a commission as a captain in the Texas cavalry. On January 11, 1836, Houston recommended to James W. Robinson that Bonham be promoted to major, for "His influence in the army is great-more so than some who `would be generals'." Bonham probably traveled to San Antonio de Béxar and the Alamo with James Bowie and arrived on January 19, 1836. On January 26 he was appointed one of a committee of seven to draft a preamble and resolutions on behalf of the garrison in support of Governor Henry Smith . On February 1 he was an unsuccessful candidate in the election of delegates to represent the Bexar garrison at the Texas constitutional convention. He was sent by Travis to obtain aid for the garrison at Bexar on or about February 16, 1836. He returned to the Alamo on March 3, bearing through the Mexican lines a letter from Robert M. Williamson assuring Travis that help was on its way and urging him to hold out. Bonham died in the battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836. He is believed to have died manning one of the cannons in the interior of the Alamo chapel. Bonham's life and role in the siege and battle of the Alamo have been romanticized more than that of any other defender. He has often been portrayed as a colonel and one of the commanders of the Alamo garrison. He is called "Colonel" by Travis in two letters from the Alamo, but this was only a title of respect dating back to his days with the South Carolina militia. His actual rank was second lieutenant, and he had no standing in the Alamo's chain of command. He was present sporadically at the Alamo. Bonham is wrongly remembered as bringing the news that Colonel Fannin was not coming to Travis's aid, when he actually brought word from Williamson that help

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Hardin, John Wesley

1867

John Wesley (Wes) Hardin, outlaw, son of James G. and Elizabeth Hardin, was born in Bonham, Texas, on May 26, 1853. His father was a Methodist preacher, circuit rider, schoolteacher, and lawyer. Hardin's violent career started in 1867 with a schoolyard squabble in which he stabbed another youth. At fifteen, in Polk County, he shot and killed a black man as a result of a chance meeting and an argument. With the Reconstruction government looking for him, he fled to his brother's house, twenty-five miles north of Sumpter, Texas, where in the fall of 1868 he claimed to have killed three Union soldiers who sought to arrest him. Within a year, he killed another soldier at Richard Bottom. In 1871 Hardin went as a cowboy up the Chisholm Trail . He killed seven people en route and three in Abilene, Kansas. After allegedly backing down city marshall Wild Bill Hickok, who may have dubbed him "Little Arkansas," Hardin returned to Gonzales County, Texas, where he got into difficulty with Governor Edmund J. Davis 's State Police . Hardin then settled down long enough to marry Jane Bowen. Out of that marriage came a son and two daughters. Hardin added at least four names to his death list before surrendering to the sheriff of Cherokee County in September 1872. He broke jail in October and began stock raising but was drawn into the Sutton-Taylor Feud in 1873-74. He aligned himself with Jim Taylor of the anti-Reconstruction forces and killed the opposition leader, Jack Helm , a former State Police captain. In May 1874 he started two herds of cattle up the trail; while visiting in Comanche he killed Charles Webb, deputy sheriff of Brown County. From that time, Hardin was constantly pursued in Texas. He went with his wife and children to Florida and Alabama, adding one certain and five possible names to his death list before the Texas Rangers captured him in Pensacola, Florida, on July 23, 1877. He was tried at Comanche for the murder of Charles Webb and sentenced, on September 28, 1878, to twenty-five years in prison. During his prison term he made repeated efforts to escape, read theological books, was superintendent of the prison Sunday school, and studied law. He was pardoned on March 16, 1894, and admitted to the bar. In 1895 he went to El Paso to appear for the defense in a murder trial and to establish a law practice. Despite efforts to lead a decent life, he was soon in trouble. He took as his lover the wife of one of his clients, Martin Mroz, a cattle thief who had fled to Mexico. When Mroz found out about the affair, he crossed the border to confront Hardin under promise of safe passage by lawman George Scarborough , whereupon he was killed by a number of law officials. Hardin was rumored to have hired the officers to assassinate him. On August 19, 1895, Constable John Selman, one of the officers involved in Mroz's killing, shot Hardin in the Acme Saloon, possibly, some have argued, because he was not paid for the murder of Mroz. Hardin died instantly and was buried in Concordia Cemetery, El Paso. His autobiography, completed to the beginning of his law studies in prison, was the subject of some litigation and was published in 1896. Hardin was an unusual type of killer, a handsome, gentlemanly man who considered himself a pillar of society, always maintaining that he never killed anyone who did not need killing and that he always shot to save his own life. Many people who knew him or his family regarded him as a man more sinned against than sinning. The fact that he had more than thirty notches on his gun, however, is evidence that no more dangerous gunman ever operated in Texas.

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Rayburn, Samuel Taliaferro

1906

Sam Rayburn, Texas legislator, congressman, and longtime speaker of the United States House of Representatives, was born near the Clinch River in Roane County, eastern Tennessee, on January 6, 1882, son of William Marion and Martha (Waller) Rayburn. In 1887 the family moved from Tennessee to a forty-acre cotton farm near Windom in Fannin County, Texas. Bonham, in the same county, eventually became Rayburn's permanent residence. At the age of eighteen he entered East Texas Normal College; he alternately attended college and taught school and still completed in two years the three-year normal-school course leading to the B.S. degree. He taught school two years, then left teaching to pursue a long-standing ambition of becoming a lawyer and legislator, inspired in part by an acquaintance with the political career of Senator Joseph Weldon Bailey . In 1906 Rayburn won a seat in the Texas House of Representatives; he attended the University of Texas law school between legislative sessions and was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 1908. He was reelected to the state legislature in 1908 and 1910; in his third term he served as speaker of the House. In 1912 he was elected to the United States Congress as a Democrat from the Fourth Texas District. After the 1912 election Rayburn had no Republican opponent at any time during his lengthy congressional career. His oath of office on April 7, 1913, as a member of the House of Representatives marked the beginning of more than forty-eight years of continuous service, the longest record of service in the House ever established (at the time of his death in 1961). He became majority leader in the Seventy-fifth and Seventy-sixth congresses (1937–40) and in 1940 was elected speaker of the House to fill the unexpired term of Speaker William B. Bankhead. Rayburn continued as speaker of the United States House of Representatives in every Democratic-controlled Congress from the Seventy-sixth through the Eighty-seventh (1940–61). During the two periods of Republican majorities in the House (1947–49 and 1953–55), he served as minority leader. On three occasions during his legislative career (in 1948, 1952, and 1956), he served as permanent chairman of the Democratic national convention. Rayburn's congressional career spanned the particularly accelerated legislative activity that occurred during the administrations of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry S. Truman; Rayburn was a participant in the passage of most of the significant legislation of the first half of the twentieth century. During his first term in Congress he was appointed to the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, where he specialized in railroad legislation. This was the only House committee on which he ever served, and he remained on it until he was elected majority leader in 1937. In his first term he introduced a measure for increasing the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and during World War I he sponsored the War Risk Insurance Act. Rayburn became a close political ally of the powerful Texas congressman John Nance Garner and in 1932 served as Garner's campaign manager in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Rayburn was a major figure in the negotiations that led to the Roosevelt-Garner ticket in 1932. After Roosevelt was elected president, Rayburn became a leading supporter of the New Deal. As chairman of the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee (1931–37), he was instrumental in the passage of the Truth in Securities Act, the bills that established the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, the Public Utilities Holding Company Act, the Emergency Railroad Transportation Act, and, with Senator George W. Norris, the Rural Electrification Act. After 1937, as majority leader and then speaker of the House, Rayburn was responsible for guiding the remaining portions of the basic New Deal program through that chamber. During World War II he h

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Rayburn, Congressman Sam

1882

Born in Tennessee on Jan. 6, 1882, Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn came to north Texas with his parents in 1887. His political career began in 1906 with his election to the Texas House of Representatives, where he was Speaker of the 1911-13 Session. Rayburn was elected to the U.S. Congress from the 4th District in 1912, the first of his 25 consecutive terms there. Rising quickly to a leadership position, he was chairman of the Democratic party caucus in 1921. As head of the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee (1931-37) and then Majority Leader (1937-40), Rayburn sponsored much of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation. On Sept. 16, 1940 Rayburn was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. Except for the 80th (1947-49) and 83rd (1953-55) Congresses, when he was Minority Leader, Rayburn held the speakership until 1961, longer than anyone in the nation's history. A party leader as well, he was chairman of the Democratic National Conventions of 1948, 1952, and 1956. Rayburn died on Nov. 16, 1961, and Presidents Harry S Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy, along with Lyndon B. Johnson, were among national figures at his funeral. He is buried in Willow Wild Cemetery. (1975)

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Bonham, Texas

Music in Bonham

Songs About Bonham

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Rivers & Roads in Song near Bonham

History of Bonham

Mr. Sam of Bonham RoadyGoat

Engineering a Landmark's Rebirth RoadyGoat

The Jazz Pioneer Born in Bonham RoadyGoat

Charles Henry Christian

Rayburn, Sam

Bonham, James Butler

Hardin, John Wesley

Rayburn, Samuel Taliaferro

Rayburn, Congressman Sam

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