Crockett, Texas

Everything Crockett is known for

7 songs mention this city 4 artists from here

Music in Crockett

Songs About Crockett

The Ballad of Davy Crockett
Fess Parker
62%
"Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier"
The Ballad of Davy Crockett
Bill Hayes
62%
"Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier"
The Ballad of Davy Crockett
Tennessee Ernie Ford
62%
"Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier"
The Ballad of Davy Crockett
Burl Ives
62%
"Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier"
The Ballad of Davy Crockett
Mac Wiseman
62%
"Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier"
South Of Town
Adam Carroll
50%
"But if you drive as far Crockett, TX or if you get on a plane"
The Bluegrass Widow
Robert Earl Keen
6%
"go to Crockett, Texas"

Artists From Crockett

R
Rain Phoenix
rock
H
Hop Wilson
blues
L
L.C. Williams
blues
M
Mustang Red
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Crockett

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

Trinity River 11 songs Neches River 2 songs Interstate 45 8 songs Kickapoo Creek 4 songs Angelina River 4 songs U.S. Route 59 9 songs

History of Crockett

The Night Davy Crockett Camped Here RoadyGoat

Just east of Crockett's town square, you’re crossing the path of a ghost. In January 1836, Davy Crockett and a small band of volunteers rode this way, heading for San Antonio and the Alamo. According to history and local tradition, they made camp for the night near a spring about a mile and a half from where the courthouse now stands. A historical marker on Highway 21 commemorates the spot. It’s a simple story, but a powerful one. Imagine Crockett, already a living legend, resting by a fire here, talking with his men about the fight ahead. He was leaving his political career behind for a new cause in a new land. For the people who settled here just a year later—many of them his own friends from Tennessee—that campsite was hallowed ground. Naming the town for him wasn't just an honor; it was a promise to remember his journey and his sacrifice.

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The Sound of the Piney Woods RoadyGoat

As you pass through Crockett, try to imagine the sound of a lone guitar cutting through the humid night air. This corner of the Piney Woods is the cradle of a unique style of country blues, and its most famous master was Sam ‘Lightnin’’ Hopkins. He was born over in Centerville and raised in Leona, just up the road in Leon County, and by the mid-1920s he was jumping trains and playing the blues anywhere he could — house parties, juke joints, whatever paid in tips and drinks. He did a stretch on the Houston County prison farm in the mid-1930s before going back to the circuit. He learned his craft from older musicians and developed a deeply personal, improvisational style that felt like he was talking directly to you through his guitar. The hard times, the landscape, the life of a Black man in rural East Texas — it was all in his music. He became an international star, and Crockett claims him: in 2002 the town put up a memorial statue in Lightnin’ Hopkins Park.

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The King's Highway RoadyGoat

The road you're driving on, or one very near it, is far older than this town, older than Texas, and even older than the United States. You're following the route of the El Camino Real de los Tejas, or the 'Royal Road of Texas.' For more than 300 years, this was the primary overland route from the Rio Grande to Louisiana, a path worn by Spanish conquistadors, missionaries, soldiers, and traders. It was the lifeline of Spanish Texas. When Anglo settlers arrived, they used it too. Crockett was deliberately founded on this road in 1837 to take advantage of the constant flow of travelers and commerce. Today, State Highway 21 follows the historic corridor. So as you drive, remember that you’re not just on a Texas highway; you’re on a trail that has been central to the story of this land for centuries, a path that put Crockett on the map.

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Smith Brothers

1904

Houston County natives Francis Albert (1875-1949) and James Henry (Jim) Smith formed a business partnership in 1904 called Smith Brothers. Among their early business enterprises were a livery stable, family farms, and real estate. Following the advent of the automobile industry, they also sold cars and became interested in road construction. Using their own funds, the Smith Brothers constructed a 6.9 mile section of Old State Highway 21 west of Crockett in 1923. It was the first paved highway in the area. The company also paved roads in the city, including brick paving on the courthouse square. The brothers' business grew to include projects in California, Kansas, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Tennessee, and New Mexico. Other Smith Brothers companies, formed in Dallas and San Antonio, included contracting and cement operations, as well as real estate development and investments in hotels in San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Crockett. They also owned ranches in Houston and Concho Counties. Following Jim Smith's death in 1930, many of the company's assets were liquidated. The partnership was finally dissolved in 1937.

Historical Marker →

Fry, Benjamin Franklin

1835

Benjamin Franklin Fry, soldier and Baptist minister nicknamed the "fighting parson," was born in Wilkes County, Georgia, on September 15, 1800, the son of Benjamin and Mary Ann Fry. He married Nancy Carter of Virginia on December 23, 1819. The couple resided in Henry County and in La Grange, Georgia, until 1834, when they moved to Crockett, Texas. Fry joined the Texas army in October 1835 and took part in the siege of Bexar . He was the second lieutenant of the artillery company garrisoning the Alamo under James C. Niell and served as a private in Capt. William S. Fisher 's Company I of Col. Edward Burleson 's First Regiment, Texas Volunteers, at the battle of San Jacinto . After the revolution Fry served as a private in Capt. T. Epperson's company of the Second Regiment, Second Brigade, Texas Militia. In 1840 he owned 640 acres in Houston County. During the Mexican War he served as the first sergeant of Capt. Joseph L. Bennett 's Company B of Col. Albert Sidney Johnston 's First Texas Foot Riflemen but mustered out at Camargo, Mexico, due to ill health on August 24, 1846. By 1850 he had moved to Walker County with his wife and son, also named Benjamin, and was working as a carpenter. On December 15, 1849, state representative Adolphus Sterne presented a petition for Fry's relief to the Texas House of Representatives. It was referred to the Private Land Claims Committee, and on January 11, 1850, Fry received a one-third league headright in what is now Cherokee County for his service in the Texas Revolution . He died on March 10, 1872, at the Bastrop County community of Jeddo, where he is buried.

Tsha Handbook →

Gossett, Andrew Edwards

1833

Andrew Edwards Gossett, early Houston County settler and participant in the Texas Revolution , son of Elizabeth Stone (Edwards) and Elijah Gossett , was born in Maury County, Tennessee, on July 19, 1812. He moved to Texas with his family in 1833 and settled on Hurricane Bayou in Houston County, five miles north of the site of present Crockett. Gossett, his father, and two of his brothers served in the Texas war for independence, and each received a bounty grant of 320 acres in recognition of his service. In 1837 Gossett built a home east of Crockett. The house is said to have been the first weatherboarded house in the Republic of Texas . When Houston County was formed in 1837, Gossett donated land for a county seat, and he and his father were accorded the privilege of naming the new county and county seat. They chose the name Houston for the county, in honor of Sam Houston , who had been their commander, and Crockett for the county seat, after David Crockett . Crockett, a boyhood friend and neighbor of Elijah Gossett's in Tennessee, had camped on the Gossetts' land near Hurricane Bayou on his way to San Antonio in January 1836. Gossett was elected Houston county sheriff on September 14, 1839. He served for a time as chief justice of Houston County and later as county judge and trustee of Trinity College. He married Rhonda E. Mulder on December 27, 1831, in Tennessee; they had nine children. After her death in 1853, Gossett married Mary Margaret Murchison, on January 22, 1857; this couple had two children. Gossett died on March 24, 1890, and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery, Crockett. In 1964 a Texas historical marker was placed at his home in Crockett.

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Keene, George Lawson

1917

George Lawson Keene, possibly the most decorated World War I soldier, was born on September 23, 1898, in Crockett, Houston County, Texas, to Abner Lawson Keene and Laura (Woodson) Keene. His parents were both descendants of pioneering Texas families, and his grandfather, Edward Y. Keene, was a member of the Mier expedition and had survived the Black Bean Episode in 1843. George Keene, who was known as Lawson, grew up in Crockett and enjoyed participating in sports and hearing about his family history. Family tradition has long held that Lawson served a term as a page in the Texas House of Representatives and graduated from high school at the age of sixteen. Although he had planned to attend Texas A&M, a year or so of odd jobs in and around Crockett and the growing war in Europe pushed him in a different direction. Just prior to the United States's entry into World War I, Keene enlisted in the U.S. Army at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio on March 24, 1917. He was first assigned to Company G, Nineteenth Infantry, and received only minimal basic training before being moved with the Nineteenth to Mexican border duty. After the formal declaration of war with Germany by the United States, Lawson Keene was subsequently assigned to Company K, Twenty-eighth Infantry. In June 1917 Keene and the Twenty-eighth Infantry became a part of the Second Brigade, First Division, and entrained to Hoboken, New Jersey, where they departed for France on USAT Tenadores and landed at St. Nazaire, France. Shortly after arrival in France, the First Division began extensive training to compensate for the lack of basic back in America. Although various individuals and companies of the Twenty-eighth Infantry participated in trench actions during this training, until January 1918, Company K was generally held as a reserve force. Keene was made a platoon leader and promoted to corporal and was among those involved in early actions. His real introduction to combat, however, came on the morning of May 28, 1918, at Cantigny, France, just as an hour-long artillery barrage ended. The oft-attacked village was selected for America's first major combat role. Two days of fighting left Americans in control of Cantigny and provided the First Division, especially Company K of the Twenty-eighth Infantry, with its first combat experience. This was the start of an intensive five months of action for Keene. He participated in actions at Montdidier-Noyon in June; in August at Aisne-Marne, where he was promoted to sergeant; in September at St. Mihiel; and in October in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. During this time, Keene's action in combat resulted in citations that ultimately produced two Silver Stars and a Distinguished Service Cross in addition to several French, British, and Italian medals as well as multiple unit and division citations. One of the Silver Stars came for action during Aisne-Marne and included the citation: "...with great courage (Keene) assisted his officer (2 Lt. Samuel I. Parker) in organizing a group of men who had become demoralized and was a prime factor in the capture of enemy's strongpoint." His second Silver Star, in the form of an Oak Leaf Cluster, was awarded for distinguishing "...himself in action northeast of Exermont, France, 9 October 1918, while remaining in command of his platoon, although suffering from the effects of gas." In addition to the Silver Star, Keene received the Purple Heart for severe wounds as well as for the effects of the gas. The Distinguished Service Cross best signified Keene's individual contributions to helping win World War I. By July 18, 1918, Company K and much of the Twenty-eighth Infantry had been depleted with casualties. With officers in short supply, experienced senior enlisted men were given field promotions and moved to other units. In July, Keene was named the enlisted leader of a platoon from Company K under then Second Lt. Samuel I. Parker. Action during July 18-19 resulted in a Medal of Honor for Parker,

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Davy Crockett's Last Journey

1836

The town of Crockett, Texas is named for Davy Crockett, who camped nearby on his journey to the Alamo in January 1836.

Historical Marker →

Davy Crockett Memorial Park

1837

Davy Crockett Memorial Park dedicated June 12, 1937 City of Crockett, Texas named for Davis Crockett and incorporated by the Republic of Texas Dec. 29, 1837 ------- Houston County named for General Sam Houston created by act of the Republic of Texas June 12, 1837 ------- City officials Mayor J.B. Beasley; Councilmen R.L. Shivers, H.O. McCarty, C.L.. Edminsten, W.E. Keland, B.O. Perdue

Historical Marker →

Things to Do in Crockett

day trip
Day Trip to Crockett 🪕 (FULL EPISODE) S10 E3

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

Everything Near Crockett

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

Explore Crockett on the Map
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