Name: Fate, Texas
Address: Fate, TX

Fate, TX RoadyGoat

Fate, Texas, has a rich history marked by resilience and growth. The town was settled shortly after the Civil War and was originally located 1.5 miles north of its current downtown. In 1886, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad was constructed, running through Barnes, which spurred rapid growth and led to the merger of Fate and Barnes into one town in 1887. Despite fires in 1906 and 1910 that devastated the business district and the Great Depression causing economic hardship, Fate persevered. The town's population dwindled to just 150 by 1950, but it began to grow again after the 1960s. Today, Fate's population has boomed to nearly 23,000, a testament to its enduring spirit.

Fate, TX RoadyGoat

Fate was settled shortly after the Civil War, originally located 1.5 miles north of its current downtown. The town of Barnes, named after Dr. Wiley Turner Barnes, was developed where Fate's current downtown is now. A post office was established in Fate on July 13, 1880, with Harvey Peyton White as its postmaster. The construction of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad in 1886 brought rapid growth, leading to the merger of Fate and Barnes into one town on February 11, 1887, to allow residents access to postal services and the railroad.

Fate, TX RoadyGoat

Fate's location in the center of Rockwall County, Texas, has played a significant role in its development. The town's growth was spurred by the construction of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad in 1886, which ran through Barnes and brought rapid growth to the area. This, along with the establishment of a post office, made Fate an important hub for transportation and communication, drawing settlers and businesses to the area. The town's strategic location and access to key infrastructure have been key factors in its evolution from a small settlement to a thriving city.

Rockwall - The Buried Wall

1851

The town and county of Rockwall are named for a long, jointed sandstone formation running underground for miles beneath the area. Settlers digging a well in 1851 struck the wall and assumed it was man-made; geologists later identified it as a natural sandstone dike, but the question has never been fully settled in local lore.

Historical Marker → · 4.6 mi away

The Church of Christ in Rockwall

1836

Before establishing an independent republic in 1836, Texas settlers were expected to support the Mexican state religion. As Mexico's rule waned, residents and new arrivals to Texas organized non-Catholic churches. Among them was "the church on horseback and wheels." a group of approximately 300 members traveling from Tennessee to Texas. Led by noted preacher and physician Mansil (Mansell) W. Matthews, the members were part of what became known as the American Restoration Movement, which launched the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the Church of Christ. Matthews' traveling church crossed into Texas at the Jonesborough crossing of the Red River on January 17, 1836 and became what is believed to be the first Church of Christ congregation in Texas. Matthews and his family moved to Rockwall in 1853. They only stayed a few years but during that time helped establish a local Church of Christ. Beginning with the strong leadership of Matthews in 1853, Rockwall's Church of Christ congregation grew during the next century. Members built their first meeting place in 1880. In 1895, a disagreement began over the use of instrumental music in worship, and the congregation split. The progressive faction became part of the Disciples of Christ and the conservative group formed a new Church of Christ congregation. Their first meetinghouse was completed in 1910. A later rift led to the formation of Lakeside Church of Christ, but the two groups later reunited in name, number and purpose. Known today as Eastridge Church of Christ, the congregation maintains the traditions of Texas' early religious pioneers through service, worship and study. (2005)

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Griffith, John Summerfield

1861

John Summerfield Griffith, businessman, Confederate officer, and state legislator, was born to Michael B. and Lydia (Crabb) Griffith on June 17, 1829, in Montgomery County, Maryland. He had two brothers and three sisters. His grandfather, Capt. Samuel Griffith, took part in the battles of Germantown and Brandywine in the American Revolution. In 1839 Griffith settled with his family in San Augustine, Texas, where he was educated at home. He entered business as a clerk in a San Augustine mercantile establishment in 1850 and, using borrowed capital, established his own store the next year. In 1859 he moved to Kaufman County, where, in addition to operating a general store in Rockwall, he established himself in ranching and became one of the area's pioneer cotton farmers. With the onset of the Civil War , Griffith joined the Confederate Army as captain of a company of cavalry volunteers that he had organized in Rockwall. When the Sixth Texas Cavalry was established and his company was accepted into the regiment, Griffith was elected lieutenant colonel. He saw action against "Union Indians" at Chustenahalah in eastern Indian Territory (1861) and against Union forces at Elk Horn Tavern, Arkansas (1862), Corinth, Hatchie (Davis) Bridge, and Holly Springs, Mississippi (1862). Griffith was largely responsible for the planning and execution of the successful Holly Springs Union Depot Raid that with General Forrest’s raid in northwest Tennessee caused Ulysses S. Grant to cancel his overland campaign to rebuild his supplies and thus contributed to the temporary relief of Vicksburg and possibly lengthened the war. The campaign ruined his already weak health, however, and forced him to resign his commission. After returning to Texas, he won election to the House of Representatives of the Tenth Texas Legislature (1863–64). As the Democratic representative of District 27 (Kaufman, Henderson, and Van Zandt counties), he chaired the Committee on Military Affairs and was appointed by Governor Pendleton Murrah as brigadier general of state troops for District 2 on March 1, 1864, a position that he held until the end of the war. In 1873 he moved to Terrell, where he continued in the mercantile and livestock businesses. Additionally, he largely recouped his wartime financial losses by selling bois d'arc seeds to buyers in the North, who used the trees as windbreaks and hedges. Griffith was little involved in politics during the period of Reconstruction . In 1876, however, he was elected to represent the twenty-second legislative district (Kaufman, Rains, Van Zandt, and Wood counties) in the Fifteenth Texas Legislature (1876). He was appointed chairman of the House Committee on Public Printing, in which position he proved to be a "watchdog" of the state treasury. Griffith married Emily Simpson on December 18, 1856, and the couple raised two boys and one girl. He accumulated small fortunes both before and after the Civil War, a success reflected in public respect. In 1883 he became a member of a committee chosen by the people of Terrell to get a state psychiatric hospital located in the town. He was appointed to the board of governors when the facility opened in 1885 and retained this position until Governor James Hogg appointed a new board in 1890. Griffith died in Terrell on August 6, 1901.

Tsha Handbook → · 3.8 mi away

Morris, John Walter

1902

John Walter Morris, baseball player, promoter, and executive, was born on January 30, 1880, at Rockwall, Texas. He left the University of Texas in 1902 to play with Corsicana of the Texas League , a league in which he spent the next twenty-six years as player, manager, club executive, and, for five years, league president. He was one of the earliest collegians to leap directly into organized baseball. Headlines and records seemed to follow Morris. In his first season at Corsicana his club had baseball's highest winning percentage (.793), set a world record for consecutive victories (twenty-seven), never relieved a pitcher all season, and figured in the game's greatest slaughter-a 51-3 victory over Texarkana. All this was done with an eleven-man squad. While a student at the University of Texas, where he frequently played without shoes, Morris had been known as the "Barefoot Boy at Texas." He received a law degree from the University of Texas in 1906 and tried to combine law and baseball careers until 1910, when he decided that baseball was his life's work. In 1916 he became president of the Texas League and helped to arrange the Dixie Series, a thirty-seven-year match between the Texas League and the Southern Association champions. For several years he owned half interest in the Fort Worth Cats, and again, after 1922, he was part owner and secretary-business manager for six years of the Dallas baseball team. He also served as business manager for the Shreveport, Tyler, and Fort Worth teams. He held the following personal records: club manager in his third year of organized baseball; organizer of more leagues (fourteen) and president of more (seven) than any other man on record; at one time president of three leagues concurrently-the East Texas, Evangeline, and Cotton States; builder of nine baseball parks; developer of numerous baseball players for the major leagues, including Rogers Hornsby ; and once, in an emergency, Texas League president and umpire simultaneously. He died on August 2, 1961, of a heart attack following a surgical operation. In December 1966 he was elected to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame .

Tsha Handbook → · 3.8 mi away

Payne, Glen Weldon

1926

Glen Weldon Payne, lead singer in Southern Gospel music , was born on October 20, 1926, near Rockwall, Texas, to cotton farmers Elmer and Vela Payne. The Paynes farmed in Munson and later Nevada, Texas. As a boy during the Great Depression , Payne’s passion was Southern Gospel music. While hoeing cotton he learned to tell time from the sun so that he could get home in time to hear the noon broadcast of the Stamps-Baxter Quartet on KRLD . The Paynes, who were Methodists, attended an interdenominational church in Munson, the only church in town. Friday and Saturday night “singin’s” were Payne’s favorite events. Southern Gospel music grew out of shape-note music created to teach musical harmony to rural churchgoers. Shape-note music publishers promoted their music books with radio broadcasts, itinerating quartets, singing conventions, and annual summer “singing schools.” Male quartets—consisting of a lead singing melody, a baritone singing harmony, and a low bass part balanced by a high tenor—dominated early Southern Gospel music. The music is positive and lively, stressing Christian themes, especially deliverance from trials of life and the joy of going home to heaven. The Stamps-Baxter Music Company of Dallas was the largest publisher of shape-note music in the South. When Payne was twelve, his grandmother wrote a letter to the company on Payne’s behalf. V. O. Stamps gave him a scholarship to attend the three-week-long Stamps Singing School in Oak Cliff, Texas. Payne, along with his father and two family friends, formed the Munson Quartet and sang “at singing conventions in small towns like Terrell, Wills Point and Royse City.” Payne attended the summer singing schools for four summers beginning in 1939 throughout high school. In 1944 the Stamps-Baxter Music Company hired Payne to sing weekday mornings with the Stamps-Baxter Quartet on KRLD, and he moved to Dallas. World War II imposed a break in Payne’s singing career. In 1945 and 1946 he was in the United States Army and served with the Eighty-sixth Blackhawk Division in the Philippines after which he went to work for the Stamps Quartet Music Company and sang baritone for the Harley Lester Stamps Quartet and Stamps All-Star Quartet. He also taught at Stamps in addition to singing. By the early 1950s he assumed the lead part in the Stamps-Ozark Quartet in Wichita Falls, Texas, and sang “every night” at schools, churches, lodges, on the courthouse lawn, or even in a cotton field. Empowered by technological advances in recording, radio , and television, Southern Gospel music achieved the height of its popularity in the post-war years. Payne recalled that “the newly invented tape format” allowed the group to pre-record their morning KWFT broadcasts and perform farther from home. They enjoyed success and even opened for acts such as Eddy Arnold and Elvis Presley . But when drought hit the Panhandle in 1956, opportunities for performances dried up, KWFT dropped the daily show, and the Stamps-Ozark Quartet disbanded. While Payne pondered what to do next, in 1957 Earl Weatherford invited him to join the Weatherfords who were singing in Rex Humbard’s mega-church in Akron, Ohio. Thousands attended Humbard’s church, the Cathedral of Tomorrow, and tens of thousands more watched on television. While living in Ohio, Payne met and married Van Lua Harris on November 30, 1957. They had two daughters and a son. In 1959 the Weatherfords recorded the album In the Garden , highly renowned as one of the outstanding albums in all of gospel music. In 1963 Weatherford left Humbard’s church to go on tour, and Payne formed the Cathedral Trio with former Weatherford members Danny Koker and Bobby Clark. The trio became the Cathedral Quartet with the addition of bass George Younce. For the next thirty-five years Payne and Younce were the core of the Cathedrals, while younger tenor and baritone members came and went. The Cathedrals left the Humbard organization in 1969 and struck out on their own. The 1970

Tsha Handbook → · 3.8 mi away

Bankhead Highway in Collin County

1916

Known as the Broadway of America and one of the nation’s earliest transcontinental highways, the Bankhead highway was created through the federal aid road act of 1916. The roadway extended from Washington, D.C., to San Diego, California, by way of eastern and southern states.
 In Texas, the Bankhead highway was completed in the 1920s and is still used today. Crossing approximately 850 miles in the state, the Bankhead, also known historically as State Highway 1, provided an engineered roadway for local and regional traffic and promoted tourism. The Bankhead includes segments of roads and trails forged during Spanish colonial, Republic of Texas and statehood eras.
 Between Greenville and Rockwall, the Bankhead is now known as state highway 66, including the section through Collin county. The highway became main street in Royse City, and the commercial downtown area developed along the road. Commercial resources included auto repair garages, gas stations, diners and cafes, tourist camps and courts, motels and hotels, and highway markers.
 Many communities along the Bankhead can attribute their development to this historic highway, supporting commerce and growth through the 1950s. The exponential growth of automobile traffic led to wider, safer and faster interstate systems. As one of the most important transportation corridors in the state’s history, the Bankhead highway played a critical role in the economic vitality of the state and the region.

Historical Marker → · 4.7 mi away

Fate, Texas

Music in Fate

Songs About Fate

Artists From Fate

Rivers & Roads in Song near Fate

History of Fate

Fate, TX RoadyGoat

Fate, TX RoadyGoat

Fate, TX RoadyGoat

Rockwall - The Buried Wall

The Church of Christ in Rockwall

Griffith, John Summerfield

Morris, John Walter

Payne, Glen Weldon

Bankhead Highway in Collin County

Things to Do in Fate

Everything Near Fate