Brenham, Texas

Everything Brenham is known for

6 songs mention this city 13 artists from here

Brenham, Texas, located in east-central Texas, is known for its German heritage and as the home of Blue Bell Creameries. The city also has a musical identity, with several artists calling it home and songs mentioning its name. Country artist Abigail Taylor is from Brenham, and the polka band The Czechaholics also hails from the area.

Music is further woven into the city's fabric through songs like "Ohio (Come Back to Texas)" by Bowling for Soup, which explicitly mentions Texas, and "Texas Armadillo" by Dale Watson, a track that evokes the state's imagery.

Music in Brenham

Songs About Brenham

Brenham, TX
Into It. Over It.
82%
"Brenham, TX"
Brenham
Luke Levenson
79%
"Brenham"
Reception
Yung Delirious
53%
"Best crew outta Brenham, that’s bar none"
Happier Alone
Austin Meade
40%
Ohio (Come Back to Texas)
Bowling for Soup
5%
"And Blue Bell wants you back"
Texas Queen
Rich O'Toole
5%
"sweetest Blue Bell ice cream"

Artists From Brenham

B
Blind Willie Johnson
blues
A
Austin Meade
country
C
Chris Syler
latin
D
Darden Smith
americana
A
Abigail Taylor
country
L
L.C. Good Rockin' Robinson
blues
W
Will Ezell
blues
I
Ivan Harold Browning
jazz
T
Tamesha Pruett-Ray
gospel
M
Michelle Kay
country
T
The Czechaholics
polka
C
Cathey Bolin
country
Y
Yung Delirious
hip-hop

Rivers & Roads in Song near Brenham

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

Brazos River 42 songs Texas State Highway 71 2 songs US Route 90 9 songs Interstate 10 36 songs Texas Colorado River 6 songs

Musical Heritage

Dixie Motel RoadyGoat

Sarah Stopschinski spun records for a living before she ever owned a motel. She and her husband Karl found the Dixie in Brenham after it had lost every trace of its nineteen-fifties self — shag carpet, pink asbestos siding, the works. So they tore all that out. Eight rooms now sit around a gravel courtyard. Karl's an engineer; he did the plumbing and the wiring himself, then built the pine beds and tables out of wood salvaged right there on the property. On the walls, West Texas landscapes by a Marathon photographer named James Evans — fitting, since the two of them got married at the Marathon Motel out that way. And in every single room, a Victrola, with a stack of vinyl Sarah picked by hand. Check in, drop the needle.

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History of Brenham

The Night More Than Half of Brenham Burned RoadyGoat

1866

Downtown Brenham was under federal military rule in 1866, and the town and the garrison were already at each other's throats. D. L. McGary, editor of the Brenham Banner, had been hammering the local Freedmen's Bureau in print, and federal authorities arrested him for it. Not long after his release, on the night of September 7, 1866, a dance was underway to raise money to build a school for Black children. Soldiers were asked to pay the same admission everyone else had paid. They refused, were turned away, and forced their way in anyway. The dance broke up, the argument spilled into the street, and three soldiers were shot. Other troops came back, arrested two citizens, and set fires that took more than half the town. Their commander, Brevet Major George W. Smith, a decorated Vermonter who had fought at Gettysburg and the Wilderness, insisted his men were innocent and refused to hand them over. A state legislative committee laid the blame on the soldiers. The federal and state inquiries together never conclusively settled it. Smith was transferred to Seguin, convicted of embezzling Freedmen's Bureau money, had that conviction reversed on appeal, and resigned his commission in 1869.

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The Town Is Named for a Doctor Who Died Breaking Out of a Mexican Prison RoadyGoat

Richard Fox Brenham was a doctor. Born in Kentucky around 1810, schooled at Transylvania College, practicing medicine in Austin when Texas was still its own country. Nothing about that suggests how he died. In 1841 President Lamar named him a civil commissioner on the Texan Santa Fe expedition, which was supposed to bring Santa Fe under the Republic and instead marched a column of Texans into the ground. The Mexican authorities arrested the whole outfit. Brenham was locked up in Mexico City and not released until April of 1842. Most men would have taken that as a lesson. He went back to Austin, and when the Somervell expedition rode for the border he went with it. When Somervell called it off and told the volunteers to go home, Brenham was among those who refused, and the men who refused went on to Mier. That fight ended the same way the last one had, with Texans in Mexican custody. So he was a prisoner for the second time. And on the eleventh of February, 1843, at a place called Salado, the prisoners rose up and made a break for it. A good many of them got out of the building. Brenham did not. He was killed in the fighting. The next year this town took his name. He was thirty-three or so when he died, he had been jailed twice by the same government, and he never once saw the county seat that has been carrying his name for more than a hundred eighty years.

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Thirty Dollars for a Carousel Rotting in a Pasture RoadyGoat

During the Depression a traveling carnival came through Clay, Texas, ran out of money, and could not pay the rent on the ground it was parked on. So it left the carousel where it stood and went away. A wooden merry-go-round, sitting in a pasture, weathering. In 1930 a man named Hugh Durden found it out there and told the Washington County Fair Association. Three men, F. C. Winkelmann, Hans Schleider and O. H. Fischer, went and got it. The price was about thirty dollars. Thirty dollars. For what turned out to be the oldest carousel in Texas. The twenty-four horses were carved in the country fair style by Charles W. Dare, a nineteenth century hobbyhorse maker, and some of them still carry tags from the Armitage-Herschell company out of New York. The frame under them came from C. W. Parker of Leavenworth, Kansas, and dates to 1911. O. H. Fischer and his son Clarence rebuilt the horses by hand, and the thing turned again for the public at the Washington County Fair on the twelfth of October, 1932. Twenty-five cents got you six rides. In 1935 the WPA built a sixteen-sided building around it. Ride it and you will notice the horses do not go up and down. They are fixed to the platform. That is how the old ones were built, before the jumping mechanism became standard, and it is part of why this one matters: it is one of only five classic wooden carousels left standing in this entire state. A carnival abandoned it as not worth hauling. Brenham has been keeping it running for almost a century.

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Washington County

1836

Washington County is in the Blackland Prairies region of southeast central Texas. The center of the county is at 30°14' north latitude and 96°24' west longitude. Brenham, the seat of government, is near the county's center and seventy-five air miles east of Austin. The county was named for George Washington, the first president of the United States. Washington County encompasses 611 square miles of gently rolling land with elevations ranging between 200 to 500 feet above sea level. Sloping generally southeasterly, the area drains into the Brazos River, which runs along the eastern border. Other prominent streams include New Year's Creek, East Fork Mill Creek, Doe Run Creek, Wolf Creek, and Yegua Creek, which forms the county's northern border. Soils along the Brazos River are brownish to reddish, cracking and clayey or loamy; in most of the rest of the county, shallow to deep clayey soils cover a bed of chalk. Subterranean water reservoirs include the Catahoula, Oakville, and Lagarto formations. Washington County, located in the post oak belt, is well timbered, and elms, ashes, hackberries, hickories, pecans, cottonwoods, red cedar, mulberry, and other trees grow in its forests. The county's climate is subtropical and humid, with an average annual precipitation of forty inches. Temperatures range from an average low of 39° F in January to an average high of 96° F in July; the growing season lasts 277 days. The principle mineral resources include oil, natural gas, lignite, brick clay, salt and sulphur. The county is linked to the rest of the state by U.S. Highway 290, which crosses east to west, and by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, which runs north-south. Artifacts from the Paleo-Indian culture have been found in the area that is now Washington County, indicating that it has been occupied by humans for perhaps 9,000 years or more. Early Indian residents most likely included the Tamique and Xaraname tribes, who inhabited the prairie between the Tonkawas of Central Texas and the coastal-dwelling Karankawas. Early frontiersmen found Tonkawas living in permanent settlements in the central portion of the area that is now Washington County and encountered transient Arananamus and Apaches in the area. Frenchmen led by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle , were likely the first Europeans to cross the area of present Washington County. In reaction to French incursions into territory claimed by Spain, the Spanish established the earliest Texas presidio in East Texas near Nacogdoches. Later, after the relocation of the La Bahía mission to Goliad, the Spanish constructed a road through what is now Washington County to connect these two settlements. The area remained unsettled by Europeans until 1821, when settlers recruited by Stephen F. Austin moved into the region. According to Austin's colonization plan, participating families would receive 640 acres for the head of the household, 320 acres for the wife, and 100 acres for each child. Slaveholders would receive an additional 80 acres for each slave possessed. Many, though not all, of the Old Three Hundred colonists settled in what is now Washington County. In November 1821 Andrew Robinson , accompanied by Abner , Joseph , and Robert Kuykendall , crossed to the west side of the Brazos River with their families. From there Abner Kuykendall and Thomas Boatwright moved some ten miles west, establishing farms on New Year's Creek in January 1822. Other early settlers to the area included James Gray , Abner Robinson, John P. Coles , and William Gates and his sons, Amos, Samuel, and Charles. A ferry began operation across the Brazos River near its confluence with the Navasota in 1822, and in 1825 a cotton gin was established in the area. Washington (usually known as Washington-on-the-Brazos), the county's first community, arose at the site of the ferry. By the mid-1830s the town had grown to become a commercial center for the area. Following the establishment of

Tsha Handbook → · 3.4 mi away

Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site

1836

Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site is on Farm Road 1155 seven miles southwest of Navasota in Washington County. The 293-acre park occupies most of the site of the old town of Washington, commonly called Washington-on-the-Brazos, which served as last capital of the Republic of Texas . The Texas Declaration of Independence was signed at the site on March 2, 1836. The legislature appropriated funds to purchase about fifty acres of the old townsite in 1916 and subsequently erected a replica of the hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed. In 1936 the state acquired additional land, built an amphitheater, and moved the home Anson Jones built at his Barrington plantation to the site. In 1949 the Texas Legislature transferred the land from the State Board of Control to the State Parks Board , one of the forerunners to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department . In 1955 a number of local people formed the Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park Association which has raised money for numerous improvements, including a better replica of the Independence Hall. Additional land was purchased from private owners in 1976 and 1996. Operational control of the site was officially transferred from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to the Texas Historical Commission by the Eighty-sixth Texas Legislature. The transfer took effect on September 1, 2019. Facilities at the park include picnicking areas, two pavilions, restrooms, a visitor center, and the Star of the Republic Museum . The Barrington Living History Farm, also at the site, includes the restored Anson Jones home and features farming demonstrations by interpreters in period costume.

Tsha Handbook → · 3.4 mi away

Washington-on-the-Brazos, TX

1836

Washington-on-the-Brazos, officially named Washington, in the upper northeastern corner of what is now Washington County, was a major political and commercial center in early Texas. The town was originally named Washington and began to be called Washington-on-the-Brazos or Old Washington only after the Civil War . Washington was one mile southwest of the junction of the Brazos and Navasota rivers, where the La Bahía Road crossed the Brazos River, seventy miles northwest of Houston and nearly 200 miles up the Brazos from the coast. The major part of the original townsite is at the intersection of Farm Road 912 and Park Road 12 within Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historical Site . Washington's historic townsite also includes the section of Washington that borders Washington-on-the-Brazos at the intersection of State Highway 105 and Farm Road 1155. In 1821 Andrew Robinson 's family and other members of the Old Three Hundred settled near the future townsite. By 1822 Robinson was operating a ferry at the La Bahía crossing; in 1824 he obtained a grant of a half league from the Mexican government. A settlement named La Bahía developed at the much-traveled ferry crossing. In 1831 Robinson gave one-quarter league to his daughter Patsy and son-in-law John W. Hall . Recognizing the site's commercial potential, Hall surveyed and laid out a town in December 1833, when Methodist leader John W. Kenney built its first residence. After Captain Hall bought the remainder of Robinson's grant, he established the Washington Town Company in 1835 with Dr. Asa Hoxey , Thomas Gay, and the Miller and Somervell Company to promote sales of town lots. Hoxey, a former resident of Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia, named the new town after his hometown. By 1835 Washington had become a supply point. Attracted by its location on the river and on or near major roads, merchants and tradesmen from neighboring communities settled in the new town. Washington's commercial growth resulted from provisioning emigrants to the interior and from the surrounding area's increasing agricultural development and population. The town was elevated on bluffs above the river and had a plentiful water supply from nearby springs; its location was therefore more healthful and less flood-prone than that of settlements at the river's edge. In December 1835 Washington became Gen. Sam Houston 's headquarters and the concentration point for Texas army volunteers and supplies. By 1836 the residents numbered approximately 100. To stimulate further growth, Washington businessmen offered an assembly hall without charge to attract the Convention of 1836 to their town. These town promoters rented the only structure large enough for deliberations, an unfinished building, from entrepreneur Noah T. Byars . Although the town had an inn, most delegates could not find lodging. At Washington between March 1 and March 17, 1836, delegates signed the Texas Declaration of Independence , wrote the Constitution of the Republic of Texas , and established the ad interim government . To escape Antonio López de Santa Anna 's army, the Texas government and the inhabitants of Washington evacuated the town. After the Texas victory at San Jacinto, the rapid influx of new settlers into the interior and the expanding agricultural cultivation in Washington's hinterland augmented the town's significance as a supply and transit point. The selection of Washington as county seat made the town a legal center. Abundant timber in the vicinity encouraged the development of sawmills, which began operating by 1837. A brickyard begun the same year also facilitated town construction. The Republic of Texas established a post office at Washington in 1836. In 1837 Texans from all sections attended a ball at Washington to celebrate the first anniversary of Texas independence. The town was incorporated by the Texas Congress on June 5, 1837, and reincorporated under a mayor-alderman form of city government on December 29, 1837. Hall

Tsha Handbook → · 3.4 mi away

Rosedale Nursery

1860

Established around 1860 by English immigrant William H. Watson as the state's first commercial nursery, Rosedale grew from three acres in Brenham to 200 acres southeast of the town by 1897. At Rosedale, Watson specialized in peach and grape cultivars. The nursery's 31-page catalog for the 1869-70 season revealed that Watson stocked not only fruit trees and grape vines, but also numerous ornamental plants. In 1874, he produced the "Rosedale Hybrid" arbor vitae. Over the years, Rosedale employed several professional gardeners who trained at England's Royal Botanic Kew Gardens. Watson's sons continued the business into the 20th century. (2014)

Historical Marker →

Washington County, C.S.A.

1861

Washington County was the most populous in the state during the Civil War. It served as a center for production, warehousing, transportation and communications, and had a large quartermaster depot. Local wartime factories made spinning jennies, lumber, pots, kettles, wagons and army ambulances. Government cotton was held in Brenham, one of four state depots. From here, wagons and carts hauled it to Mexico in exchange for vital military and civilian supplies. Brenham, terminus of rail connections to Houston, was alive with troops, stagecoaches and freighters. Here, the early morning train was met by a pony express operation that carried the Houston Telegraph to Austin so that town's Gazette might publish the latest war news in the state capitol. A Confederate paper shortage forced the Brenham Banner to suspend publication. In nearby Washington-on-the-Brazos, however, Eva Lancaster never missed an issue, printing The Texas Ranger while her husband and two sons spent four years fighting for the South. Cavalry, infantry and artillery units from Washington County fought on all fronts during the war. Waul's Legion organized and trained in the county, and Brenham served as the headquarters for the reserve corps of Texas. Additionally, Gen. Jerome Roberston of Independence led the celebrated Hood's Texas Brigade for seventeen months. (1965)

Historical Marker →

Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church

1850

This historic church, the oldest African American Baptist congregation in Brenham and one of the first in Washington County, has its origins in secret meetings held by runaway slaves and freedmen in the 1850s. After the Civil War, federal troops posted near this site in an area called Camptown. The presence of the 17th Infantry Division and an Office of the Freedmen’s Bureau ensured freedom of religious expression for emancipated blacks in Brenham. First Baptist Church of Brenham offered letters of membership to the freed blacks, but they wanted to form their own church. Mount Rose was formally organized in 1868, led by rev. Joe Lawson and Rev. James McBride. When U. S. Troops left, their land was sold and proceeds divided between Mount Rose and St. John A. M. E. Churches. The church is named for Rose Armstead-Whitaker, a founding member who contributed much of her time and finances. Good Hope Missionary Baptist District Association organized under a chinaberry tree on the present Mount Rose Campus in 1870. For several years, church services were held in Brush Arbors, in nearby homes, and finally, in the soldiers’ dining hall at Camptown. Mount Rose and St. John A. M. E. Held services there on alternating Sundays. The first permanent sanctuary was built in 1874, under Rev. Alfred Parker’s tenure. Mount Rose joined the Lincoln District Baptist Association in 1878 and remained a member for more than 130 years. Mount Rose has enjoyed continuity in increasingly larger facilities on the same site since its organization. The two longest-serving pastors were Rev. Moses Johnson (1876-98) and Rev. J. Emerson Dennis (1946-97). The leadership and members of Mount Rose have made significant contributions to the religious, educational and social history of Brenham. (2013)

Historical Marker →

Things to Do in Brenham

quirky 0.1 mi away
The Underground City Beneath the Streets

After fires ravaged Brenham three times in a decade the town did something no other Texas city had attempted. They built twenty-seven underground cisterns…
historical 0.1 mi away
The Night Federal Troops Burned Brenham

In 1866 Union soldiers occupying Brenham during Reconstruction clashed with local residents and set fire to an entire city block. The flames consumed…
quirky 0.1 mi away
From Cotton Gin to Ice Cream Empire

In 1907 a group of Washington County dairy farmers converted an abandoned cotton gin into a creamery and started making butter. Ice cream production began in…
quirky 24.0 mi away
The Blues Capital of Texas

Mance Lipscomb picked cotton all week and picked guitar all weekend on the farms outside Navasota for decades before anyone beyond Grimes County knew his name.…
historical 24.0 mi away
The Explorer Who Died Lost

On March 19 1687 the French explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle was walking through the bottomlands near the Navasota River when one of his own men…
historical 0.1 mi away
The Fire Department That Was Really an Army

The Brenham Volunteer Fire Department was organized after the 1866 burning but its true purpose had nothing to do with flames. The department was a civilian…
historical 0.1 mi away
The First Tax-Funded Schools

In 1875 Brenham became the first city in Texas to operate a tax-supported public school system. They didn't stop there. The system included a school for Black…
quirky 0.1 mi away
The Oldest Festival in Texas

When German immigrants fleeing the 1848 revolutions settled in Brenham they brought their traditions with them. The Maifest celebration they started became the…
day trip
Day Trip to Brenham 🍦(FULL EPISODE) S2 E1

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

Sports in Brenham

⭐ HOMETOWN LEGENDS Class 5A · Football

Brenham Cubs — Brenham — a college & pro athletic pipeline

5 alumni who reached major-college or pro sports

Brenham High School, a Class 5A powerhouse, has a proud tradition of athletes who went on to achieve greatness in major college and professional sports. The Cubs' legacy is evident in the careers of several former students who made their mark on the national stage. These athletes exemplify the spirit and dedication fostered within the Brenham athletic program, inspiring current and future generations of Cubs.

Among the notable alumni are professional football players Malcom Brown, Joe Routt, Courtland Sutton, and Wilson Whitley. The school also celebrates the accomplishments of Teaira McCowan, a professional basketball player in the WNBA. Brenham High School continues to be a source of exceptional talent, with its alumni making significant contributions to the world of sports.

Pro/D1 alumni
5
Class
5A
Key Players
  • Malcom Brown — (Class of 2012), professional football player
  • Teaira McCowan — (Class of 2015), WNBA player
  • Joe Routt — , professional football player, Bronze Star Medal recipient, posthumous hall of fame induc
  • Courtland Sutton — (Class of 2014), professional football player
  • Wilson Whitley — (Class of 1973), professional football player
The moment

Joe Routt was a professional football player and a Bronze Star Medal recipient.

Sources: Wikipedia · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near Brenham

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

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