Fairfield, Texas

Everything Fairfield is known for

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Rivers & Roads in Song near Fairfield

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

Interstate 45 7 songs Trinity River 10 songs

History of Fairfield

When Lignite Lit Up Freestone County RoadyGoat

For nearly half a century the biggest thing in Freestone County wasn't in Fairfield at all but a few miles northeast of it: the Big Brown Steam Electric Station, a 1,150-megawatt coal plant whose two units came online in 1971 and 1972. Big Brown ran on lignite, the soft brown coal that lies in thick seams under this part of Texas, strip-mined right next door at the Turlington Mine. To cool the plant, engineers dammed Big Brown Creek in 1969 and backed up the water into Fairfield Lake. The plant became one of the county's largest employers and, less proudly, by 2016 the single biggest source of sulfur-dioxide pollution in the nation. Cheap natural gas and cheaper wind finally undercut it; Big Brown shut down for good on February 12, 2018, and its twin smokestacks were imploded on April 18, 2021, a boom heard for miles. The mined-out land and the lake passed into private hands. It's a clean arc of Texas energy history: lignite built it, lignite ran it, and the market closed it. (Source: Wikipedia; Sierra Club; Freestone County Times.)

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The Temptations' Secret Weapon Was Born in Fairfield RoadyGoat

Some of the most famous guitar on records cut in Detroit started with a kid from Fairfield, Texas. Cornelius Grant was born here on April 27, 1943, and went on to become the longtime guitarist, bandleader, and live musical director for the Temptations, steering the group's stage show from the mid-1960s into the early 1980s. He wasn't just the man counting off the band behind those tuxedoed harmonies. Grant helped shape the actual songs, most famously co-writing the Temptations hit "I Know I'm Losing You" with producer Norman Whitfield and Eddie Holland and laying down its urgent, instantly recognizable opening guitar riff. While the five singers got the spotlight and the matching suits, it was Fairfield's Grant in the wings making the machine run night after night on the road. It's an easy thing to miss when you pass through a quiet East Texas county seat, that one of the architects of the Motown live sound grew up on these same streets before the world ever heard him. (Source: Wikipedia; The HistoryMakers.)

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Fairfield, TX RoadyGoat

Fairfield is a place where the past feels close, maybe because it's always been a crossroads. You can almost hear the rumble of stagecoaches pulling up near the courthouse square, imagining the dust kicked up by those early travelers.

Rock-and-Roll

1926

Texas musicians have profoundly influenced the development and evolution of rock-and-roll and the various branches of its musical tree-rockabilly, blues rock, Tex-Mex, psychedelia, and redneck rock. Some of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's most high-profile inductees, including Buddy Holly , Roy Orbison , and Janis Joplin , pioneered the direction of the musical idiom. The Hall has also honored other musicians, both native Texans and those who made a name in the Lone Star State, as early influences critical to the genre's development. These musicians include T-Bone Walker , Lead Belly , Robert Johnson , Charlie Christian , and Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Rock-and-roll's historic roots lie in a fusion of several musical genres that came into prominence in the early decades of the twentieth century. Texans played major roles in pioneering these varied styles, including blues , jazz , and western swing. Blues guitarist Blind Lemon Jefferson from Freestone County, Texas, is credited as the first blues star. His recordings from 1926 to 1929 were the first blues records to be commercially successful and thus introduce what had been an African-American music form to a national audience. In the 1930s, "race labels" recorded many black blues musicians in Texas. Two landmark sessions in San Antonio (1936) and Dallas (1937) captured the only recorded legacy of guitarist Robert Johnson, the itinerant Delta bluesman from Mississippi. Many music historians and guitar aficionados credit these songs, which include his legendary "Cross Road Blues," for laying the fundamental groundwork for rock-and-roll. Another historic blues great, Huddie Ledbetter ("Lead Belly"), traveled to Texas where he played his twelve-string guitar with the likes of Jefferson in Deep Ellum . Field-recording pioneers John and Alan Lomax discovered his guitar prowess while he was incarcerated in the Louisiana State Penitentiary and thus brought his blues to the world. These early players inspired later guitarists like Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins , Freddie King , and Albert Collins and their Texas blues sound, a highly improvisational style that encouraged a variety of personal playing techniques. The early bluesmen played an important role in the evolution of rock guitar. Legendary groups and players from the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Jefferson Airplane, to Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page, all credit these blues players as major musical influences. Interestingly, the song "Rock Awhile" recorded in 1949 by a little-known Houston blues and jazz man and his group-Goree Carter and his Hep Cats-has been lauded by some rock historians as a forerunning anthem to the new genre . Texas jazz players also contributed significantly to the development of rock. In 1935 guitarist Eddie Durham of San Marcos was one of the first performers on the electric guitar, and he made the first jazz recording of the amplified instrument. Fellow jazzman Charlie Christian of Dallas further elevated the electric guitar as a lead instrument. Guitarist Aaron "T-Bone" Walker, born in Linden, forged the link to the modern electric guitar in the 1940s and established the instrument as the foremost soloing tool for rhythm-and-blues. In Texas in the 1930s another musical sound, the interesting mix of jazz, hillbilly, boogie, blues, and country that became known as western swing, also influenced the beginnings of rock. Three bands were very representative of the catchy sound that caught on: the Light Crust Doughboys , Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies , and Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Both Brown and Wills had originally played in the Light Crust Doughboys before forming their own groups, and radio presented a popular medium to reach a wide listening audience. In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s the Big D Jamboree barn dance and radio program in Dallas cultivated local talent and recruited national acts. In additional to country performers, the show also explored new trends

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Rev. George Washington Baines

1809

(1809-1882) Noted Texas religious leader. Pastor, 1850, to Gen. and Mrs. Sam Houston. Founded first Baptist paper in state, 1855. In difficult Civil War years, served as president of Baylor University, 1861-63, and pastor of the First Baptist Church in Fairfield, 1864-66. A North Carolinian. Uneducated, at 21 he cut and rafted timber to pay for schooling. Received A.M. Degree, University of Alabama. Moved to Arkansas. Founded 7 churches. Served in Arkansas Legislature, 1843-44. Lived and preached in Louisiana, 1845-49. He had 10 children. His wife, Melissa Ann (Butler), died here in wartime. He made her coffin with his own hands. One of their great-grandsons, Lyndon Baines Johnson, became 36th President of the United States, the first Texan to receive this high honor. Churches were vital to military and civilian morale in Confederate Texas. Rev. Baines and other ministers led their congregations in prayer days, soldier relief work, aid to families, distribution of Bibles. They also inspired numerous conversions. Later Rev. Baines served as agent for the Baptist State Convention and its education commission. (1965)

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Gregg, General John

1854

In 1854-61, Fairfield civic and political leader. Helped found first newspaper here. Served as district judge. A key member of Texas Secession Convention. 1861 Confederate congressman. Organized the Texas Infantry. As brigadier general, led troops near Vicksburg; at Chickamauga. Commanded Texas Brigade, Battle of the Wilderness. Was killed near Richmond, Oct. 7, 1864. Gregg County is named in his honor. His widow went in person by wagon, through battle lines, to Virginia to get his body. Later she was among ladies whose efforts began U. S. Memorial Day.

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Slaughter, William Baxter

1867

William Baxter (Bill) Slaughter, pioneer rancher, the fifth son of Sarah (Mason) and George Webb Slaughter , was born near the town of Butler, in Freestone County, in 1852. After moving with his family to Palo Pinto County in 1857, Bill grew up with his brothers in the saddle and during the Civil War helped his family furnish beef to the Tonkawa Indians under a contract with the Confederate government. He made his first trail drive with his older brother, C. C. Slaughter , in the fall of 1867, when Col. T. H. Johnson bought the Slaughter cattle to fulfill a contract with a packing plant near Jefferson. In 1869 he accompanied his brother Peter on what was his first trip north over the Chisholm Trail to Abilene, Kansas. The following year Bill was placed in charge of a herd of 1,800 head under contract to a buyer in Kansas City. The drive went along without incident until the Slaughter men neared the Red Fork of the Arkansas River in the Indian Territory. There two cowboys from the W. B. Grimes outfit warned Slaughter that a band of Osage Indians had stampeded the Grimes herd and would likely do the same to Slaughter's. Undaunted, Bill secured a red silk Mexican serape, two brightly-colored bandannas and extra food from the chuck wagon to use as gifts. With these, plus three steers which the Indians demanded, friendly relations were quickly established. After the herd was safely across the river, Slaughter and two cowboys treated the Osages to horse races for several hours before moving on, reaching Abilene in time to make good on the contract. Over the next two decades Bill Slaughter made cattle drives almost annually. In 1877 he formed a partnership with his older brother, John B. Slaughter , and with their combined capital of $6,000 bought steers and drove them north to the Kansas markets. About that time he married Anna McAdams from Palo Pinto County. Their son and only child, Coney, was born in 1878. In 1879 the Slaughter brothers moved their cattle to Scallowag (Home) Creek in Crosby County. There they constructed a ranch homestead to which Bill brought his wife and son. After the Espuela Land and Cattle Company obtained title to that property in 1883, the Slaughters moved their herds west to New Mexico. Bill set up his own ranch in the American Valley, in Sierra County, but continued the partnership with his brother until 1886. In May 1887 he was shot and wounded by two rustlers he had earlier indicted as a grand juror, but soon recovered. Slaughter remained in New Mexico until about 1894, making yearly drives to Nebraska and Wyoming. As early as 1889 Slaughter had begun leasing and buying up tracts of land along Coldwater Creek, in Sherman County. By 1895 he had purchased an interest in the Snyder brothers' Coldwater Cattle Company and built a spacious ranch house near the community of Coldwater, the county's first seat. Many of these purchases were paid off by means of a $30,000 loan he obtained from his brother C. C. in Dallas in 1898. Prior to 1896 he was running 10,000 cattle on 150,000 fenced acres. As more settlers came into the area, however, Slaughter reduced his holdings and began cultivating wheat and other cereal grains on 350 acres. A staunch Baptist, he often sponsored tent revivals at his ranch during the summers, with such prominent guest preachers as George W. Truett and James B. Gambrell . In 1901 he conducted his last cattle drive, in the company of his wife, when he trailed a herd from Clifton, Arizona, to Liberal, Kansas, then the southwestern terminus of the Rock Island Railroad. Later that year he drove a herd of domesticated buffalo from Dalhart, in Dallam County, to Fort Garland, Colorado. In 1900 Slaughter ran for Sherman County judge but lost by four votes to Dudley H. Snyder . However, when Snyder resigned in November 1901, Slaughter was appointed by the commissioners' court to complete the term. Although he did not run in the next election, he was ever after known locally as Judge Slaughter. S

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Bradley, Captain L. D.

1855

(1831 - 1886) Came to Texas from Alabama in 1855. In Civil War commanded Co. B, 2nd Battalion, Waul's Texas Legion. On May 22, 1863, was a leader of one of most daring defensive actions in the Siege of Vicksburg. Volunteered, along with 20 of his own men and 18 others, to seal off a Federal penetration into the Confederate fort defending the Mississippi River; acted under fire. Later commanded a regiment in defense of Texas coast and in 1864 Red River Campaign to prevent Federal invasion of Texas.

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Dorham, McKinley Howard [Kenny]

1924

Trumpet player McKinley Howard (Kenny) Dorham was born in Fairfield, Texas, on August 30, 1924. Dorham, considered one of the finest trumpet players of his era, played with numerous East Coast jazz giants, including Charlie "Bird" Parker. He grew up in a musically inclined family and learned the piano at a young age. He attended high school in Austin, where he learned the saxophone and later the trumpet. At Wiley College he studied chemistry and physics before joining the United States Army. After his discharge in 1942 Dorham pursued a career in music that led him to Los Angeles, where he played in a band led by Russell Jacquet , and then to New York City. Upon his arrival in New York he began playing with the big bands of Dizzy Gillespie and Lionel Hampton. In 1948 he replaced Miles Davis in the Charlie Parker Quintet and helped define the emerging bebop or bop jazz style. Characterized by fast tempos, complex arrangements, driving rhythms, and experimental solos, bebop took New York by storm in the early 1950s. Dorham was not one to stick with a single band. Through the 1950s he floated about the New York bop scene and played with Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, and Art Blakey. In 1954 Dorham, Blakey, and Horace Silver formed the Jazz Messengers, from which emerged Dorham's side project, the Jazz Prophets. Dorham also played with the Max Roach quintet before forming his own combos in the late 1950s and 1960s. Featuring, at one time or another, the great Cannonball Adderley and Joe Henderson, Dorham's various combos recorded several albums, including Whistle Stop (1961), considered by many to be his finest work. Through the 1960s he split his time between playing and attending graduate classes in music at New York University. He also traveled extensively in Europe, taught part-time, and worked as a journalist for Down Beat magazine. Though lauded by his musical contemporaries and critics, his popularity was overshadowed by such players as Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. In 1966 Dorham was honored at the Longhorn Jazz Festival in Austin. His last few years were spent in relative seclusion because of declining health. He died on December 5, 1972. In 2008 the City of Austin honored Dorham as one of the inaugural inductees of the Austin Music Memorial.

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Sports in Fairfield

🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 3A · Girls Basketball · 2020–2025

Fairfield Eagles — UIL 3A Girls Basketball State Champions — 3 titles

Most recent: 2025 3A Division 1

Fairfield, Texas, is a community that rallies around its high school sports, and the Fairfield High School girls' basketball program has certainly given them plenty to cheer about. Competing in Class 3A, the team has established a strong record, securing multiple state championships. Their achievements reflect consistent performance on the court, bringing pride to the town.

The Fairfield High School girls' basketball team claimed the 3A Division 1 state title in 2025, adding to their previous 3A state championship in 2022. Notably, they also earned a 4A state championship in 2020. These state-level victories highlight a period of significant success for the program.

State titles
3 (2020–2025)
Most recent
2025
Class
3A
The moment

The Fairfield High School girls' basketball team secured the 3A Division 1 state championship in 2025.

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

Everything Near Fairfield

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