Carthage, Texas

Everything Carthage is known for

0 songs mention this city 1 artist from here

Music in Carthage

Songs About Carthage

No songs reference Carthage yet.

Artists From Carthage

B
Brandon Rhyder
country Pop: 18

Rivers & Roads in Song near Carthage

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

U.S. Route 59 3 songs Sabine River 10 songs Interstate 20 10 songs Interstate 49 3 songs Red River 50 songs

History of Carthage

Murvaul, TX RoadyGoat

Murvaul. The name itself rolls off the tongue like the slow current of the creek it’s named for, Murvaul Creek, that eventually finds its way to the Sabine. You wouldn't think a place so quiet could have a story to tell, but it does. Look close, and you can still hear the echoes. This land, a little higher than the lake, has always been about hard work, about the land providing. Cattle still graze here, hay bales dot the fields. But it’s also a place that’s touched the wider world.

9.1 mi away

Murvaul, TX RoadyGoat

Murvaul. The name itself seems to whisper of East Texas history. Established around 1837, it grew up alongside Murvaul Creek, a waterway that snakes its way toward the Sabine, shaping the land and the lives of those who settled here. They say a stagecoach, heavy with money, was once robbed not far from the old general store, a reminder that even this peaceful place has seen its share of drama. It's a bit higher here, at 282 feet, just enough to give you a different perspective on the surrounding countryside and Lake Murvaul sparkling nearby. While life has always been tied to the land – cattle ranching and hay are still mainstays – Murvaul hasn't been untouched by the outside world. The Great Depression hit hard, like it did everywhere, and many families were forced to pack up and leave, seeking opportunity elsewhere. But even then, the spirit of Murvaul endured. And though Dallas is a good drive away, folks here remember the Cowboys winning Super Bowl XXX back in '96. You see, even in a quiet place like Murvaul, history keeps unfolding, layer upon layer, like the rich soil of the bottomlands. And don't even get started on the Shelbyville and Joaquin football rivalry – that's a whole different story entirely.

9.1 mi away

Murvaul, TX RoadyGoat

Murvaul's always been a place where time seems to slow down, a welcome change for folks escaping the city. We still rely on the land here, mostly cattle and hay like generations before. It's quiet, but even here, things change. Born here, yes, but mostly forgotten. Then a few years back, a group from the Shelby County Historical Society started digging into his life. They pieced together stories from old timers, tracked down relatives, and even managed to get a historical marker placed near where his family's farm used to be, not far from Murvaul Creek. It wasn't a grand event, no big parade, just a simple ceremony. But it felt significant. It was like Murvaul was finally claiming its connection to something bigger, something that resonated far beyond our little corner of East Texas. It's a reminder that even in the quietest places, history is always being made, or in this case, rediscovered. And that a man born in Murvaul helped shape American music itself.

9.1 mi away

Neal, Margie

1875

(1875-1971) A native of Panola County, Margie Elizabeth Neal began her career as a teacher in 1893. She became editor and owner of the East Texas Register newspaper in 1904. A respected educator and leader in the woman suffrage movement, she was the first woman appointed to the State Normal School Board of Regents in 1921. Five years later she made history as the first woman elected to the Texas Senate. After serving in several Federal positions in Washington, she returned to Carthage in 1945 and was active in civic affairs for many years.

Historical Marker →

Neal, Margie Elizabeth

1926

Mary "Margie" Elizabeth Neal, first woman in the Texas Senate, was born near Clayton, Texas, on April 20, 1875. She was the second of four children of William Lafayette and Martha (Gholston) Neal. She lived in Carthage for most of her life. She attended but did not graduate from Sam Houston State Teachers College (now Sam Houston State University). After a short teaching career in Panola County and in Fort Worth she returned in 1903 to Carthage, where her father bought the Texas Mule , a weekly newspaper. She became editor and publisher of the paper, which she renamed the East Texas Register, for eight years. In 1912 she sold the paper and took up caring for her mother full time. Neal became involved in the woman suffrage movement and served as the secretary of the Panola County Equal Suffrage Association and as the Eighth Senatorial District chairman for the Texas Equal Suffrage Association 's campaigns. She is thought to be the first woman to register to vote in Panola County in 1918. That year she was also the first women member of the State Democratic Executive Committee. After the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment prevented all states from restricting voting rights based on sex, Neal served in the League of Women Voters and was the only woman on the State Executive Committee of the Democratic party in 1920. She also was a delegate, along with Minnie Fisher Cunningham , to the Democratic national convention in San Francisco that year. Neal was the first woman member of the board of regents of the State Teachers Colleges of Texas (State Normal Schools) on which she served from 1921 to 1927. During her tenure, the board selected the site and president of the Stephen F. Austin Normal College (later Stephen F. Austin State University) in Nacogdoches. Neal's work on the board motivated her to run for the Texas Senate where she thought she could be more effective in pursuing education reform in the state. She announced her candidacy in March 1926 for the second senatorial district on a platform for better rural schools; increased education spending; a gasoline tax to fund an improved highway system; aid to farmers, labor, and capital; and fewer, better laws with improved enforcement. She won four of the five counties in her district and lost only her opponent's home county of Shelby. She served four consecutive terms. Working for prison reform, Neal served on a legislative inspection party that visited several prison farms in February 1927. She was chairperson of the Committee on Privileges and Elections. In 1928 Neal introduced the bill that established the State Board of Education (later replaced by the Texas Education Agency ), sponsored a bill that introduced public school physical education classes, and actively supported a bill that made the study of the state and national constitutions mandatory. She was instrumental in the passage of legislation that appropriated $1.6 million, the largest amount of funding for rural education in Texas at the time, for each of the next two academic years. Neal worked for higher standards for teacher certification while serving on the Senate Committee on Education Affairs, on which she served as vice-chair in 1927 and chair from 1929 to 1933. She also pushed the legislature to adopt an official state song and organized committee hearings in all senatorial districts. As a result, the Texas legislature adopted "Texas, Our Texas" as state song in May 1929. In 1929 she became the first woman to serve as Senate president pro tem (ad interim, elected at close of session) in Texas. She filled that roll again in 1933. In 1930 Neal ran unopposed and was reelected to the Texas Senate. She spent much of her next term battling Governor Ross Sterling , who called a 1931 special session of the state legislature to allow the state commissioners for the General Land Office and the Railroad Commission to contract or lease out the bed of the Sabine River for oil exploration and drilling. Most of the

Tsha Handbook →

Moorman, Charles Watt

1839

Watt Moorman, a leader in the Regulator-Moderator War , son of Charles Hancock and Sophia (Maghee) Moorman, was born in Huntsville, Alabama, around 1817. His parents settled in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Columbus, Mississippi, before being driven to Texas by the Panic of 1837. The Moormans, including Watt's three brothers and three sisters, settled in northwest Shelby County (later a part of Panola County). In 1839 Texas was in turmoil. Most of the new arrivals were from states steeped in traditional legal recourse and its protection, but an element in Texas was engaged in producing fraudulent land certificates, slave theft, and other unlawful activities. The oldest settlers were unwilling or unable to control these activities. The new decided if the law wouldn't, they would, and banded themselves together as "Regulators" (i.e., vigilantes) dedicated to driving the lawless from Shelby County. This group was organized by Charles W. Jackson . Jackson was murdered from ambush, in retaliation for burning the homes of those the Regulators considered the worst and for killing Joe Goodbread, an alleged land pirate. Jackson was warning the world about fraudulent headright certificates (land scrip) being issued by many counties. Goodbread warned Jackson, the result being Goodbread's death. The murder of Jackson joined the issue and began the bloodiest feud in Texas history. Moorman replaced Jackson as head Regulator, and Ed Merchent organized the opposition under the name Moderators. Moorman, a natural leader, claimed the loyalty of the best citizens. Some allege he was a forger from Columbus, Mississippi, who had to come to Texas, though no record of his supposed crimes exists in the official court records of Columbus, Mississippi. When he moved to Texas in 1839 he brought his whole family, a fact that suggests he was no fugitive. Moorman's Regulators captured the McFadden brothers, three of Jackson's killers, all Moderators. An irregular trial was held before most of the Shelbyville townspeople in October 1841. The accused confessed. Bill and Bailey McFadden were hanged, and a younger McFadden boy was released. Most of the county concurred that the victims not only killed Jackson but an innocent citizen in his company. Moorman was a hero, but not for long. The Regulators controlled Shelbyville, where he became a virtual dictator. Men were killed on both sides, mostly from ambush. Without any protection, citizens were terrified. James F. Cravens organized a group of "Reformers," which a few Moderators joined; but the worst were denied, including John M. Bradley. On July 24, 1844, a peace treaty was signed by Moorman and Cravens. Moorman married Helen Mar Daggett in early 1844, ignoring the objections of her family. Her brother, Eph. Daggett, a Regulator, described Moorman: Watt could shoot straighter than any man I ever saw. He was a good scholar, wrote poetry that was real funny, and he had a comical laugh. He would not confine himself to any kind of business, was the ideal of his father and mother, played billiards and ten pins, bruised fellows' heads with billiard cues, rode his friends' horses, spent their money and wore their clothes. He gave away his own clothes if had more than his share, had the most respectable men for his friends, and anything he wanted that they had was at his service. Moorman was usually armed with a Bowie knife and a pair of pistols. He carried a heavy stick to cane his minor enemies and, like Robin Hood, carried a hunting horn on his saddle. The peace treaty acknowledged that "John M. Bradley had seduced many of the respectable citizens with false allegations about the Regulators." Bradley was apparently not a party to the treaty; Moorman killed him at a revival in San Augustine. Bradley had threatened Moorman's life and evidently was involved in an ambush in which Moorman was shot in the hip. The feud immediately resumed, and eventually involved hundreds of men from Harrison County and other East Texas co

Tsha Handbook →

Ritter, Woodward Maurice [Tex]

1905

Tex Ritter, country singer and movie star, son of James Everett and Elizabeth (Matthews) Ritter, was born Woodward Maurice Ritter on January 12, 1905, in Murvaul, Panola County. Ritter's signature as a student at the University of Texas shows that he spelled his first name Woodard (not Woodward), and a delayed birth certificate filed in Panola County in 1942 also shows the spelling Woodard; however, all printed sources use the spelling Woodward. He moved to Nederland in Jefferson County, to live with a sister, and graduated from South Park High School in nearby Beaumont. He attended the University of Texas from 1922 to 1927, spending one year in the law school there, 1925–26. As a student he was influenced by J. Frank Dobie , Oscar J. Fox , and John A. Lomax —who encouraged his study of authentic cowboy songs. Ritter, more interested in music, did not take a degree; for a time he was president of the Men's Glee Club at the university. He also attended Northwestern University for one year in 1929 before he began singing western and mountain songs on radio station KPRC in Houston in 1929. The following year he was with a musical troupe touring the South and the Midwest; by 1931 he was in New York and had joined the Theatre Guild. His role in Green Grow the Lilacs (predecessor to the musical Oklahoma ) drew attention to the young "cowboy," and he became the featured singer with the Madison Square Garden Rodeo in 1932. Further recognition led to his starring in one of the first western radio programs to be featured in New York, "The Lone Star Rangers." His early appeal to New Yorkers as the embodiment of a Texas cowboy, in spite of his roots in the rural southern music tradition, undoubtedly led to his first movie contract in 1936. Tex appeared in eighty-five movies, including seventy-eight Westerns, and was ranked among the top ten money-making stars in Hollywood for six years. Although his movies owed much to the genre begun by other singing cowboys such as Gene Autry , Ritter used traditional folk songs in his movies rather than the modern "western" ditties. Films such as Arizona Frontier (1940), The Utah Trail (1938), and Roll Wagons Roll (1939) earned him a reputation for ambitious plots and vigorous action not always found in low-budget Westerns. Tex Ritter's successful recordings, which began with "Rye Whiskey" in 1931, included over the years "High Noon" (1952), "Boll Weevil" (1945), "Wayward Wind," "Hillbilly Heaven," and "You Are My Sunshine" (1946). Ranch Party , a television series featuring Ritter, ran from 1959 to 1962. His version of “High Noon” from the highly-acclaimed movie High Noon won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1953. He was married to Dorothy Fay Southworth on June 14, 1941; they were the parents of two sons. His younger son, John, became well-known through his television shows, Three's Company and Hearts Afire . In 1964 Tex Ritter was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame, only the fifth person to be so honored; he also served as president of the Country Music Association from 1963 to 1965 and joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1965. In 1970 he made an unsuccessful bid for the United States Senate seat from Tennessee. He died in Nashville, Tennessee, on January 2, 1974; funeral services were held in Nederland, Texas, near Port Neches, and he was buried at Oak Bluff Memorial Park in nearby Port Neches. In 1980 he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. The Texas Ritter Museum opened on October 18, 1992, in Carthage, Texas, (in Panola County) and contained memorabilia from his career. In 1998 he was an inaugural inductee into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame , also located in Carthage, and in 2003 both the Texas Ritter Museum and Texas Country Music Hall of Fame were housed together. Ritter has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He is also honored in the Museum of the Gulf Coast’s Music Hall of Fame in Port A

Tsha Handbook →

Reeves, Jim

1924

(August 30, 1924 - July 31, 1964) Born in Galloway, James Travis Reeves played professional baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals' minor league team until an injury forced him to abandon that career. He became a radio disc jockey and formed a country western band. Joining the Grand Ole Opry in 1955, he became a world famous singer. Known fondly as "Gentleman Jim," Reeves was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1967, three years after he died in a plane crash. (1996)

Historical Marker → · 3.6 mi away

Carthage Book Club

1907

IN 1907, TWELVE AREA WOMEN, INCLUDING TEXAS’ FIRST WOMAN SENATOR, MARGIE NEAL, ESTABLISHED THE CIRCULATING BOOK CLUB. FOCUSING ON CIVIC AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN ADDITION TO LITERACY, THE CLUB’S FIRST MAJOR PROJECT WAS TO RAISE FUNDS FOR CARTHAGE’S FIRST SIDEWALK, CONNECTING DOWNTOWN TO THE SANTA FE RAILWAY. IN 1922, MEMBERS ESTABLISHED A CLUBHOUSE AND LADIES’ RESTROOM, WHICH MET THE NEEDS OF RURAL WOMEN VISITING TOWN FOR TRADE AND BUSINESS. THE CLUB ALSO OPENED A PUBLIC LIBRARY, MAINTAINED A RED CROSS WORKROOM DURING WORLD WARS I AND II, AND LED BEAUTIFICATION PROJECTS, INCLUDING REVITALIZATION OF THE TOWN SQUARE. TODAY, THE CARTHAGE BOOK CLUB CONTINUES TO PROMOTE THE CIVIC, SOCIAL, AND LITERARY WELFARE OF THE COMMUNITY.

Historical Marker →

Sports in Carthage

🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 4A · Football · 2016–2025

Carthage Bulldogs — 4A Football State Champions — seven titles in a decade

Most recent: 49–21 over West Orange-Stark · 2025 Class 4A-DII final

Deep in the East Texas pines, Carthage is what a football town looks like when the standard never slips. The Bulldogs won seven state championships from 2016 to 2025 — 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2025 — moving between 4A's two divisions and beating whoever the bracket sent.

The wins ranged from statement to surgical: a 70–14 demolition of Gilmer in 2020, two finals against Waco La Vega (42–28 in 2019, 28–14 in 2024), and a 49–21 close-out over West Orange-Stark in 2025. Running back Keaontay Ingram carried the program's colors on to Texas and the NFL.

State titles
7 (2016–2025)
Most recent
2025, 49–21
Class
4A
Biggest final
70–14 (2020)
Key Players
  • Keaontay Ingram — Running back — Texas, then the NFL
The moment

The 2020 final wasn't close: Carthage 70, Gilmer 14 — a title game turned into a track meet.

Sources: Wikipedia · UIL State Championship Archives · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near Carthage

102 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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