Everything Gause is known for
Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Gause.
On November 5, 1960, country music singer Johnny Horton was killed by a drunk driver on Highway 79 near Milano on his way home from a performance at the Skyline Club in Austin.
The heart of Milano isn't a town square; it's a piece of railway engineering called a 'diamond.' If you could see the tracks from above, you'd watch the Union Pacific's east-west line — the old International-Great Northern, which laid out Milano back in 1874 — get crossed by the BNSF running northwest to southeast, the old Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe that was built from Brenham to Belton in 1881. Where the two met, the railroads called it Milano Junction, and in time the junction simply became the town. An at-grade crossing like this is hard hardware: the rails have to be specially hardened and precisely aligned to take the pounding of trains arriving from two directions, and the signaling has to guarantee that two of them never arrive at once, a problem handled today by centralized traffic control. In the 19th century, building this junction was a statement of corporate ambition. Today that diamond is still the technological core of Milano, a small crossing in a small town that meters freight moving across the continent.
Before the railroads came and created towns like Milano, this land was already a highway. A few miles from here the San Gabriel River runs over a gravel bar northwest of Rockdale that Spanish explorers named Apache Pass, after the Lipan Apache trail that crossed there. It was one of dozens of Indian trails braided together into the El Camino Real de los Tejas, the royal road that ran twenty-five hundred miles from Mexico City to the East Texas missions. In the 1740s Spain tried to plant a whole colony at this crossing — three missions, San Xavier de los Dolores, San Ildefonso and Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria, finished between 1748 and 1749, and a presidio with fifty soldiers added in 1751. It came apart fast: disease, drought, epidemics, and garrison soldiers who beat some Coco Indians badly enough that they fled the mission. By 1755 the whole effort was abandoned and moved to the San Marcos River. Today the crossing is on the National Register and part of the national historic trail — a reminder that this ground was contested long before anyone drew a grid of streets on it.
SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN IS LOCATED NEAR THE CONFLUENCE OF LITTLE RIVER AND BRAZOS RIVER AND IS CAPPED WITH RED SANDSTONE ROCK. A LARGE AMERICAN INDIAN GROUP LIVED IN A VILLAGE KNOWN AS RANCHERIA GRANDE DE LOS ERVIPIAME. REMNANTS OF TWENTY-TWO NATIONS COMPRISED THE GROUP, BUT THE ERVIPIAME WERE THE DOMINANT MEMBERS. SOME OF THE ERVIPIAME LATER ENTERED THE SAN ANTONIO MISSIONS, BUT MOST JOINED THE TONKAWA, MAYEYE AND YOJUANE TRIBES. EARLY AMERICAN SETTLERS LEARNED OF THE INDIAN TRAILS AND USED THEM WHEN TRAVELING. SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN WAS AN IMPORTANT LANDMARK ON THE OLD ROAD SYSTEM, LATER IDENTIFIED AS PART OF EL CAMINO REAL OR “THE KING’S HIGHWAY,” AND WAS USED UNTIL 1790. DURING THE 1820s, A SIMILAR ROUTE WAS USED THAT TRAVELED FROM SAN FELIPE TO THE WACO INDIAN VILLAGE, WHICH LATER BECAME WACO. IN 1866, TEXAS GOVERNOR J.W. THROCKMORTON SENT A LETTER TO THE DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS GRANTING THE TONKAWA PEOPLE A LEAGUE OF LAND IN THE AREA, BUT THEY WERE ALREADY RELOCATED TO OKLAHOMA IN THE 1850s AND NEVER RECEIVED THEIR LAND. DEVELOPERS JAMES JACKSON AND JON HOLLOWAY PURCHASED THE LAND THAT CONTAINED SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN WHICH THEY DIVIDED AND RESOLD. DURING THIS TIME, THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN WAS REMOVED BECAUSE IT WAS BELIEVED TO HOLD TREASURES BUT AFTER PUBLIC OUTCRY, THE DIGGING STOPPED. THE MOUNTAIN IS RECOGNIZED BY MILAM COUNTY, THE STATE OF TEXAS AND THE NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE AS AN IMPORTANT LANDMARK. MANY FROM THE TONKAWA NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBE BELIEVE THAT SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN IS THE SITE OF THE ORIGINS OF THEIR PEOPLE. IN 2004, EL CAMINO REAL DE LOS TEJAS WAS DESIGNATED AS A NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL IN TEXAS.
Surveyed in the fall of 1835 as the capital of Robertson's colony. Named for Nashville, Tennessee where Sterling C. Robertson and many of his colonists had formerly lived. Seat of justice Milam municipality, 1836; Milam County, 1837. First home in Texas of George C. Childress, chairman of the committee who drafted the Texas Declaration of Independence.
William J. Gause (1829-1914), born in Alabama, moved to Texas in 1849, to the Brazos region in 1856, and to this locality in 1872. Buying lumber in Montgomery, he gave his friend Dan Fowler half in return for hauling it here. The two built the first homes in this settlement. In 1873, Gause gave right of way and 100 acres of land to the International & Great Northern Railroad, and the town was platted. Gause Post Office opened in 1874, with James S. Reynolds as postmaster. The I. G. N. freighted out great quantities of cotton, and the town thrived. Cotton gins, stores, blacksmith shops, a lumber yard, a bank, hotels, livery stables, a newspaper and other businesses were established. Besides W. J. Gause, civic leaders included Dr. J. E. Brown, Richard Cox, Dr. James dollar, Lafayette Ely, Bill Faubian, Dan Fowler, J. C. Lister, C. C. Moore, Dr. John Porter, Frank Thomas, and T. L. Watts. Churches were organized and a Masonic Lodge chartered. The county's first independent school was established in Gause. Good highways, mechanized farming, and decline of railroading halted commerce in the town of Guase. It survives, however, as a residential site chosen by descendants of the pioneers and by commuters of industrial plants and businesses in this vicinity.
Gause is on U.S. Highway 79 and the Missouri Pacific line sixteen miles southeast of Cameron in eastern Milam County. It was named for William J. Gause, who moved to the area in 1872 and built a home out of lumber hauled from Montgomery. In 1873 he gave right-of-way and 100 acres to the International-Great Northern Railroad, and the town of Gause grew rapidly. A schoolhouse, which doubled as a church, was built there in 1876. By 1884 Gause had steam cotton gins, grist and saw mills, two churches, and 300 residents. Area farmers shipped cotton, cottonseed oil, and corn. The Gause Independent School District, which was established in 1905, was the first such district in Milam County. The town reached its peak of prosperity around 1915 with an estimated population of 1,000. Gause began to decline in the 1920s. Its bank, which had been in operation since 1910, was discontinued in 1927. The number of businesses dropped from twenty in the early 1940s to four in the 1960s. Mechanized farming, improved highways, and the declining importance of the railroad contributed to a decrease in commercial activity in Gause. The town's population fell from 750 in the 1940s to 278 by the late 1960s and 210 by the early 1970s. This downward trend was reversed in the late 1980s as more people chose to live in Gause and commute to jobs in nearby industrial plants. In the early 1990s Gause reported 400 residents and eight businesses. The population remained the same in 2000, though only four businesses were reported.
Hearne is on the Missouri Pacific and the Southern Pacific railroads, U.S. highways 79 and 190, and State Highway 6, twelve miles southwest of Franklin and nine miles south of Calvert in southwestern Robertson County. It is on land originally granted to José Francisco Ruiz , Mexican commander of Fort Tenoxtitlán in 1830. In the 1840s Code Brown operated a tavern and stage stop in the area. Passengers traveling between Houston and Port Sullivan stopped there for refreshments, and the tavern functioned as the local post office and general store. During the 1850s Robertson County grew rapidly. The Hearnes, gentlemen planters of the Old South, moved in 1852 to the region, where they acquired 10,000 acres. There they operated large cotton plantations. In 1858 Christopher C. Hearne, determined to construct a railroad through the county, offered railroad promoters right-of-way and townsite land. However, the Civil War erupted before the railroad reached Hearne's plantation, and work halted. Eventually, Hearne's widow deeded 700 acres to the Houston and Texas Central Railway. Railroad construction resumed in 1867 and finally arrived at the new Hearne depot in April 1868. Soon large homes, a hotel, general stores, several saloons (initially housed in tents), and a drugstore lined the streets of Hearne. Soon thereafter churches organized, a Masonic hall was built, and Daniel Brady established a cotton gin. A post office opened in 1869. In 1870 the International-Great Northern negotiated a right-of-way across Robertson County on an east-west axis. The two lines intersected at Hearne. The cotton gins and two railroads established Hearne as the regional center for cotton marketing. The town incorporated in 1871 and in 1885 had four churches, schools, two gristmill-cotton gins, two hotels, and a newspaper, the Hearne Enterprise . The Hearne Democrat was published by J. Felton Lane in 1911. The population grew from 1,300 in 1885 to 2,129 by 1900 and 3,511 in 1940. German prisoners of war were housed at a camp built just west of the Hearne city limits in 1942. The camp housed up to 8,000 men, and the first prisoners arrived early in 1943. The facility closed in 1946. By the 1960s Hearne had an airstrip and businesses involved in manufacturing and agricultural industries. In 1991 it had a factory that manufactured steel tanks and cotton gin machinery, a vitreous sanitary ware plant, an oil mill, and a door factory. In addition, the town served as a terminal for the distribution of petroleum products, operated dehydration facilities, and was a regional center for the marketing of cotton and other agricultural products. The population in 1990 was 5,132; in 2000 it was 4,690.
On September 3 1873 a young man named W.F. Hughes stepped off a train from Shreveport and checked into a Calvert hotel. Two days later he fell ill. Within a…
During Reconstruction Calvert became a flashpoint for racial politics in Texas. African Americans supported by White Republican allies briefly exercised real…
It is hard to believe today but Calvert was once the fourth-largest city in Texas with 10000 residents. Cotton money railroad connections and a strategic…
In 1871 tiny Calvert Texas claimed to have the largest cotton gin on the entire planet. The town had exploded after the Houston and Texas Central Railway…
Calvert is now the fourth largest historic district in Texas and nobody planned it that way. When the cotton money dried up and the population drained away the…
A single 1911 grave of formerly enslaved woman Hollie Tatnell sits in the median of Wheelock Street and is the last remnant of a Black cemetery whose other…
Calvert took a one-two punch at the turn of the century that would have killed most towns. In 1899 devastating floods swept through the Brazos River valley…
Calverts historic district has more than Victorian architecture to offer. One downtown store is said to be haunted by the ghost of a woman who can be heard…
337 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.
William J. Gause (1829-1914), born in Alabama, moved to Texas in 1849, to the Brazos region in 1856, and to this locality in 1872. Buying lumber in Montgomery, he gave his friend Dan Fowler half in return for hauling it…
Gause is on U.S. Highway 79 and the Missouri Pacific line sixteen miles southeast of Cameron in eastern Milam County. It was named for William J. Gause, who moved to the area in 1872 and built a home out of lumber…
SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN IS LOCATED NEAR THE CONFLUENCE OF LITTLE RIVER AND BRAZOS RIVER AND IS CAPPED WITH RED SANDSTONE ROCK. A LARGE AMERICAN INDIAN GROUP LIVED IN A VILLAGE KNOWN AS RANCHERIA GRANDE DE…
You're driving near the Pin Oak Cemetery, established in 1896 but with burials dating back to 1861. This ground served the Pin Oak Settlement and surrounding communities, many of whom were farmers who arrived by the…
Surveyed in the fall of 1835 as the capital of Robertson's colony. Named for Nashville, Tennessee where Sterling C. Robertson and many of his colonists had formerly lived. Seat of justice Milam municipality, 1836; Milam…
On November 5, 1960, country music singer Johnny Horton was killed by a drunk driver on Highway 79 near Milano on his way home from a performance at the Skyline Club in Austin.
The heart of Milano isn't a town square; it's a piece of railway engineering called a 'diamond.' If you could see the tracks from above, you'd watch the Union Pacific's east-west line — the old International-Great…
Before the railroads came and created towns like Milano, this land was already a highway. A few miles from here the San Gabriel River runs over a gravel bar northwest of Rockdale that Spanish explorers named Apache…
In June of 1899 the sky opened over central Texas. Hearne, just up the road from here, took more than thirty inches of rain in that single month. The Brazos climbed past every gauge it had, drowned something like twelve…
There is a reason the name is so literal. In 1891 a group of Robertson County cotton farmers and merchants chartered their own railroad, the Hearne and Brazos Valley, and by 1892 they had sixteen miles of track running…
This was a farmers' railroad in the most literal sense. Local cotton growers and merchants put up one hundred thousand dollars in capital stock to build it, because moving bales out of the Brazos bottoms by wagon was…
The flood killed this place, but slowly. When the Hearne and Brazos Valley rebuilt through 1900 and 1901, the engineers moved the line, running it from Glass to Stone City and pushing a new stretch from Glass into…
You're driving through Maysfield, and just up ahead was once Port Sullivan, a vital hub in early Texas. Established in 1835 by Augustus W. Sullivan, this spot was a major crossroads. The Austin-East Texas and…
You're driving past Port Sullivan Cemetery, the last vestige of a town that once boomed. Back in 1851, Reuben Anderson spurred development here, and the town of Port Sullivan grew to over a thousand residents, boasting…
You're driving past the site of Macedonia Hix Baptist Church, a congregation with roots stretching back to the 1840s. Traveling ministers held services here even before the church was officially organized around 1852.…
In 1942 this was still a going concern. Half a dozen businesses, at least two dozen houses, all of it hanging off a railroad stop south of Hearne. Somebody counted again in 1988 and found a few farms and some scattered…
Five miles south of Hearne, out in the flat farm country running down toward the Brazos bottom, the Texas and New Orleans Railroad kept a stop called Nicholas. That was the whole reason there was anything here. A…
You're driving past Greater Riverside Cemetery, the final resting place for Hearne's African-American community since 1894. Originally called the New Colored Cemetery, it was known by many names before becoming…
One of the most relentless pass-rushers in NFL history learned his football at Hearne High School. John Randle, born in 1967 and raised in nearby Mumford, played his high school ball here before a long, unlikely climb…
You're driving past Westbrook-Walker Cemetery. (One-fourth miles southeast) Georgia native Ervin Westbrook and his wife Rachel McCorra Walker left their Mississippi farm for Texas in 1858. They were joined by Rachel's…
You're driving through Milano, Texas, a town with a name that might have been a happy accident. The original settlement, laid out by the railroad in 1874, was first called Milano. But here's the twist: one story says…
You're driving through Milam County, near Milano, where James Oscar Newton was born in 1875. He grew up to become the Texas Adjutant General, a brigadier general, in 1907. He organized rifle teams and established rifle…
There is a grave in the middle of the street in Hearne, and it is not a legend or a misread historical marker. It is a real headstone, sitting in a grass median where Wheelock Street meets Cypress, in the five hundred…
You're driving through Hearne, near the site of what was once the Colored Graveyard. This place served the African American residents of the area, likely starting as a farm or slave cemetery. The earliest known burial…
A single 1911 grave of formerly enslaved woman Hollie Tatnell sits in the median of Wheelock Street and is the last remnant of a Black cemetery whose other…
You're driving past the site of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, a cornerstone of the Teals Prairie community for over a century. Organized in 1870 under a brush arbor, this church wasn't just a place of worship, but…
Hearne is on the Missouri Pacific and the Southern Pacific railroads, U.S. highways 79 and 190, and State Highway 6, twelve miles southwest of Franklin and nine miles south of Calvert in southwestern Robertson County.…
You're driving through Robertson County, and right here, in Hearne, a clever plan was hatched to help the Confederacy during the Civil War. Charles P. Salter, a wealthy planter and Confederate officer, was tasked with…
You're driving through Robertson County, Texas, a place that became a major cotton producer thanks to men like William Parnell Townsend. Townsend arrived here in 1852, and by 1860, he'd more than doubled his enslaved…
You're driving south of Hearne, right here in Robertson County, past the site of the old Westbrook Plantation. This land was developed starting in 1858 by Lewis Whitfield Carr, who came from Mississippi. He bought up…
You're driving through Robertson County, and right here in Hearne, you're passing through a town that owes a lot to planter and legislator Charles Lewis. Lewis first came to Texas in 1852, eventually settling in…
There is a movie about what happened in this town. It is called American Violet, it came out in 2009 with Alfre Woodard and Nicole Beharie in it, and it renames Hearne as a fictional town called Melody. Everything else…
In November 2000, 15 African-American residents of Hearne were indicted on drug charges after being arrested in a series of 'drug sweeps'. The ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit, Kelly v. Paschall, on their behalf,…
Between Hearne and Wheelock there used to be a settlement called Pin Oak, and in 1899 a girl named Rosie Lee Moore was born there, the oldest daughter in a family of fourteen children. She married young and stayed…
The Hearne drug sweep of November 2000 did not fall apart because of good police work. It fell apart because of a polygraph. Twenty-eight people were arrested here that month, twenty-seven of them Black, most of them…
Just outside of Hearne, hidden in the woods, are the ruins of a different time. During World War Two this quiet Texas town became an unlikely home to nearly 5,000 German prisoners of war. Camp Hearne, built just west of…
The town of Hearne is fundamentally a product of 19th-century civil engineering. It exists because of a precisely calculated intersection on a map. Imagine the challenge in the late 1860s. Surveyors for the Houston &…
Hearne, Texas calls itself "The Crossroads," and it earned that nickname the honest way — by being one. In the late 1860s, the Houston and Texas Central Railway pushed north through this flat stretch of Robertson…
North of town off Camp Hearne Road sits the ground where, for three years, thousands of enemy soldiers lived in the middle of Texas. The Army built Camp Hearne in 1942 on a tract of roughly 700 acres, and the first…
Here is the detail about Camp Hearne that nobody believes at first: a German military orchestra surrendered along with Rommel's Afrika Korps in North Africa, and a chunk of it ended up playing concerts in a prison camp…
Every cheap calculator on Earth traces part of its DNA back to a man born right here in Hearne. Jerry Merryman came into the world in Hearne on June 17, 1932, and grew into one of those rare engineers who could see a…
The town under your wheels carries the name of a family that bet everything on a railroad. The Hearnes were planters who came into Texas from Alabama, settled first up at Wheelock, then spread out across the rich Brazos…
Camp Hearne held a strange power over every German prisoner in America. Starting in 1944 it ran the central POW postal service, the clearinghouse that sorted and distributed mail to German prisoners held in camps all…
Hearne gave the music world an unlikely virtuoso of one of America's quietest instruments. David Schnaufer was born here on September 28, 1952, before his family moved to the Gulf Coast, and he grew up to become the man…
If you're hungry in downtown Hearne, the move is El Alamo Cafe at 206 West 3rd Street, a Tex-Mex institution that has fed this town since 1972. It's the work of one woman, Mary, who opened the place more than fifty…
The building that houses the Pony Express Bar and Grill in downtown Hearne has been serving the public a lot longer than the restaurant has. Put up in 1941, the structure spent roughly half a century as the town's post…
You're driving past Hearnewood, a Victorian home built in 1900. Robert Cyrus Allen, a prominent merchant and banker, had this house constructed as a wedding present for his bride. Allen was also instrumental in…
You're driving past the Adams-White Place, built in 1896 by Horatio Adams, a notable citizen who worked in public relations in Washington D.C. The contractor was A.A. White. After 1911, it became known as the Dr. John…
You're cruising past Hearne, a town that owes its start to a railroad and a promise. It all began on land granted back in 1830 to Francisco Ruiz. The real push started with S. Code Brown, who ran a tavern, store, and…
You're passing St. Phillips Episcopal Church in Hearne. Two families, the Wadsworths and the Wilkerson, moved here from Matagorda and founded this church back in 1871. It was named for the Rev. J. W. Philips, who…
You're driving past the First Baptist Church of Hearne, a congregation that's been a cornerstone of this community for over a century. It all began on April 18th, 1869, with just eleven charter members, originally…
You're driving through Hearne, where Methodism has been a cornerstone for over a century. The church here organized way back in November of 1870. In 1885, they built their first church right on this spot. Fast forward…
You're driving past the Ebenezer Hearne Cemetery, a landmark from pioneer days. This is where Ebenezer Hearne, who lived from 1817 to 1869, and his wife Minerva are buried, along with their daughter Icephena and several…
By 1901 Hearne had earned a depot that looked the part. The Houston and Texas Central and the International and Great Northern, the two lines whose crossing built this town, jointly put up a substantial passenger…
You're driving through Hearne, and right here is the Allen Hardware Store, built way back in 1872. Originally bought from the railroad company, this place has seen a lot of owners. But R.A. Allen took over in 1891, and…
In the early morning hours of the fifth of November, nineteen sixty, country star Johnny Horton, the voice of The Battle of New Orleans, was driving east through Milano, headed home to Shreveport after a show at the…
You're driving through Burleson County, not far from where the Mexican government tried to put the brakes on American expansion. In July of 1830, they established Fort Tenoxtitlan right here, naming it after the ancient…
You're driving past the Williams-Atkinson Homestead, built in 1893. Thomas Williams planned this Folk Victorian home, but died before it was finished. His wife, Emma, completed the house and ran the farm, while their…
If you want to find the family the whole town is named for, follow the surnames carved in stone. Norwood Cemetery in Hearne holds the Hearne family plot, including George Washington Hearne, who lived from 1828 to 1881,…
You're driving past Norwood Cemetery, a resting place for many in Hearne. The oldest marked grave here is from <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1870</say-as>, belonging to Mary Stroud Bolton. But local stories…
You're driving past Hearne, Texas, where back in 1863, a massive effort was underway to supply the Confederacy. Look for the marker telling about the Brazos Manufacturing Company. Chartered by the 9th Texas Legislature,…
You're driving through Maysfield, Texas, and right here is the site of the First Presbyterian Church, organized way back in August of 1873. It started with just nine members, including T.N. Mayes, who donated the land…
You're driving past Maysfield, where Methodists have been gathering for over a century and a half. They officially organized way back in 1854, meeting in a local schoolhouse. The first sanctuary was built in 1897, but…
You're driving past the Maysfield area, home to Reverend Joseph P. Sneed. Born in 1804, Sneed was licensed as a Methodist minister in Tennessee way back in 1828. He first visited Texas in 1834, and by 1838, he was…
You're driving past Cooks Point, home to the Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church. Its story begins not with a building, but with people. In 1854, enslaved families, led by A.S. Broaddus, made a grueling six-month wagon…
You're driving past the resting place of John Hobson, a man who arrived in Texas in 1835 and immediately jumped into the fight for independence. He fought with Captain Jesse Billingsley at the Battle of San Jacinto, the…
You're driving past the site of a true Texas pioneer! Horatio Chriesman arrived in 1822, long before Texas was even a republic. He served as a surveyor for Austin's Colony, fought in Indian conflicts, and even marched…
You're cruising through Brazos County, passing by the site of what was once Steele's Store. It started as Mudville, a name fitting for a community often flooded by the Brazos River. But in 1855, Henry Steele built a…
You're driving through Milam County, passing the site of New Providence Primitive Baptist Church. Constituted in 1866 with just eight charter members, this church has served this rural community for over a century.…
You're driving past the Suggs Cemetery, a silent testament to the Black Jack community's roots. The Suggs family arrived from Georgia in the late 1860s, settling here around 1868. This land, purchased by Calvin A.…
You're driving past the site of Waugh Campground, a place that saw more than just Sunday sermons. Originally given to the Methodist church by the Isaac S. Addison family, this spot was named for Bishop Beverly Waugh,…
You're driving through Burleson County, passing the spot where Alexander Thomson, Jr. once surveyed this land. Born in South Carolina in 1785, Thomson came to Texas in 1830, partnering with Sterling C. Robertson to…
You're driving past the site of the former town of Chriesman, though its story really begins as Yellow Prairie. Settled by Alexander Thomson, Jr., a patriot and partner of Sterling C. Robertson, this community thrived…
You're driving through Calvert, the birthplace of Andrew "Rube" Foster, the "Father of Black Baseball." He wasn't just a star pitcher, known for his fastball and screwball, but also a brilliant manager and executive who…
You're driving past the site of the Calvert Colored High School, a significant Rosenwald School built in 1929. It was one of the largest in Texas, funded by the Black community, the Rosenwald Foundation, and county…
Drive a few miles out of Caldwell and you'll cross paths with the name Chriesman, stamped on a road, a cemetery, and a tiny crossroads community. It traces to Horatio Chriesman, a Virginia-born surveyor who came to…
If you want to eat your way into old Calvert, the 1868 Landmark at 726 South Main Street is the easy answer. It sits in one of the tall 19th-century brick storefronts that make Calvert's downtown a near-perfect…
You're driving past the site of Wilson Chapel Cemetery, a testament to John Riley Sadberry's vision for the Benchley community. Sadberry, who moved here around 1896, purchased land in 1909 for a school and adjacent…
You're driving past the site of the old Elmo Baptist Church. Back in 1899, S.W. Cox kicked things off with a Sunday School at the nearby Elmo schoolhouse. Later that same year, with Reverend R.M. Crawford, a Baptist…
You're passing the site of Calvert's First Baptist Church, a congregation with roots stretching back to 1835. When the town of Calvert sprang up in 1868, the railroad donated land for a church building. Services were…
One of the towering figures in American baseball history started life in Calvert. Andrew Foster, forever known as Rube Foster, was born here on September 17, 1879, the son of a presiding elder of a local Methodist…
In the late 1800s, Calvert, Texas, was a bustling hub of trade and commerce. The town was named for Robert Calvert, a former Texas Representative who urged the Houston and Texas Central Railway to build through the…
The town under your wheels carries the name of a man who never lived to see it. Robert Calvert was born near Wartrace, Tennessee, in 1802, farmed in Alabama and Arkansas, and arrived in Robertson County in 1850,…
The man often credited with inventing the modern talk show was a Calvert kid. John Reagan McCrary, who everyone called Tex, was born here on October 13, 1910, the son of a local cotton farmer and a pianist. Calvert was…
Looming across from the Baptist church, with its back to the old cemetery, stands a brick-red Gothic Revival pile that looks like a small castle dropped into a Texas cotton town, complete with a crenellated,…
After dark, Calvert's old burying grounds have a reputation. As the local legend goes, the founder himself never rests easy. Visitors to Robert Calvert's tomb have claimed to hear childish voices and a deeper male voice…
Calvert took a one-two punch at the turn of the century that would have killed most towns. In 1899 devastating floods swept through the Brazos River valley…
In the middle of Calvert's historic district sits a leafy square that has been public ground since the town's very first year. When the Houston and Texas Central laid out the townsite in 1868, the railroad set aside…
For almost eighty years, a boy nobody could name stayed above ground in Calvert. He was a Black teenager, fourteen or fifteen by the old accounts, who died near town around 1923 after jumping from a train near Mud…
Somewhere in the countryside just outside Calvert, Tom Bradley was born in 1917, the son of sharecroppers and the grandson of slaves. His family left Texas for Los Angeles during the Great Migration, seeking…
You're driving through Calvert, Texas, the birthplace of a baseball legend: Andrew 'Rube' Foster. Born here in 1879, Foster wasn't just a pitcher; he was the father of Black professional baseball. He earned his nickname…
As you look at the ornate brick buildings lining Calvert's Main Street, try to imagine them new. In the 1870s this wasn't a sleepy town; it was one of the most important commercial centers in Texas. Cotton money flowed…
The railroad tracks you see running through Calvert are the town's literal foundation. Before 1868, the main local settlement was Sterling, a port on the Brazos River. But river travel was slow and often halted by…
In 1850, Robert Calvert, a former Texas Representative and area farmer, established a plantation west of what is now the city. He was instrumental in urging the Houston and Texas Central Railway to build through the…
You're driving through Calvert, Texas, the birthplace of Willie Foster, one of the greatest left-handed pitchers in Negro League history. Born in 1904, Foster's career spanned from 1923 to 1937, where he became known as…
During Reconstruction Calvert became a flashpoint for racial politics in Texas. African Americans supported by White Republican allies briefly exercised real…
It is hard to believe today but Calvert was once the fourth-largest city in Texas with 10000 residents. Cotton money railroad connections and a strategic…
In a town defined by segregation for much of its history, the Calvert Colored High School was more than just a school; it was the heart of the African American community. From its early days, it provided education and…
You're driving past Calvert, a town that exploded with life in the mid-1800s. Imagine ox-carts and cotton wagons jamming the streets, saloons and casinos buzzing with activity. It started as Sterling in the 1820s, a hub…
You're driving past the spot where the Steamboat Washington made history on the Little River. It was the winter of 1850-1851 when Captain Basil M. Hatfield steered this vessel right here, bringing a shipment of goods…
You're driving through Robertson County, and right here is a town named for a man who helped build Texas: Robert Calvert. He arrived in Texas in 1850, a successful planter who quickly made a fortune in the Brazos River…
You're driving through Robertson County, not far from Calvert, where a remarkable Texan named Giles Cotton made his mark. <break time="400ms"/> Born into slavery in South Carolina around 1814, Cotton arrived in this…
You're driving through Burnet County, the heart of Texas Ranger Captain Jeff Maltby's territory. Born in Illinois, Maltby came to Texas in 1849, serving the army as a teamster and scout, helping build forts like Belknap…
You're driving through Robertson County, near Calvert, where a remarkable voice for the people once lived. John Baptis Rayner, born into slavery in North Carolina in 1850, became a powerful orator and a leading Black…
You're driving through Robertson County, near Calvert, where in 1880, a unique African American militia company, the Salter Rifles, was formed. These citizen-soldiers weren't just for show. On April 16th, 1880, a…
You're driving through Robertson County, and right here is Calvert, a town born from a railroad's arrival. In January of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1868</say-as>, investors platted this community, and by…
When the railroad reached Calvert in 1868 Jewish merchants were among the first to set up shop. The Sanger Brothers opened a store that very year and more…
Calverts historic district has more than Victorian architecture to offer. One downtown store is said to be haunted by the ghost of a woman who can be heard…
Alexander Asberry, a black Republican party member who served in the Twenty-first Legislature of 1889, was born on November 2, 1861, in Wilderville, Texas, the son of William and Julia Asberry. He attended Hearne…
You're driving through Calvert, and right here, history tells us about the Chinese farmers who arrived around 1874. <break time="400ms"/> These workers, imported to help with the cotton fields, wore distinctive queues…
You're driving through Calvert, and right here is a building that's been a cornerstone of this town's commerce for over a century. Built back in 1868, it started as a general store. Just a couple years later, it was…
You're driving through Robertson County, near Calvert, where Scott Field made his mark. Field, a Civil War veteran and lawyer, served in the Texas Senate from 1887 to 1891. It was during his time in office that he…
On September 3 1873 a young man named W.F. Hughes stepped off a train from Shreveport and checked into a Calvert hotel. Two days later he fell ill. Within a…
The handsome old brick building at 502 Main Street, now full of antiques, was once one of Calvert's first heavy industries: the Old Calvert Foundry and Manufacturing Company, established about 1870. A foundry is where…
Drive the back roads around Calvert and you keep meeting the same handful of surnames carved into stone, and Sterling Cemetery ties several of them together. The land traces to an 1835 grant to A. J. Webb, but the place…
You're driving through Calvert, and right here is a building that's a relic of Jacques Adoue, a French immigrant who arrived in Texas in the 1860s. He and his brothers became major business leaders in Calvert, Dallas,…
You're driving past Cobb's Market, a place that's seen some serious history! It started out as a simple meat market back in 1868. But then, in 1878, a woman named Mrs. Ella Oscar decided to transform it. She turned it…
You're cruising through Calvert, and right here is one of the city's oldest homes, built around 1871. It's a beautiful example of Greek Revival style, originally home to George F. Randolph, a local merchant. Randolph…
Calverts historic cemetery dates to 1870 just two years after the railroad arrived. The headstones read like a census of the frontier with names from every…
You're driving past the site of the Calvert Foundry and Manufacturing Company, established around 1870. This was one of the very first industries in Calvert! Look at the brickwork – all made right here in the county.…
You're driving past the former Calvert Courthouse, a building that saw its share of drama. Calvert fought hard to become the county seat in 1870, but then disaster struck. In 1873, a yellow fever epidemic wiped out many…
You're driving through Calvert, and right here is the Casimir Drugstore. Sometime after 1869, Jean Pierre Casimir, who came all the way from Toulouse, France, built this very building. His family kept this drugstore…
You're driving past the historic St. Paul United Methodist Church in Calvert. This congregation got its start way back in 1872, originally as the St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church, North. After their first building…
You're driving past Sterling Cemetery, a burial place for some 400 pioneers and their descendants. The land was originally granted in 1835, but in 1850, Judge Robert Calvert bought it, dedicated this 11-acre plot, and…
In 1871 tiny Calvert Texas claimed to have the largest cotton gin on the entire planet. The town had exploded after the Houston and Texas Central Railway…
Calvert is now the fourth largest historic district in Texas and nobody planned it that way. When the cotton money dried up and the population drained away the…
For a few electric years after the railroad arrived, this quiet Main Street was one of the busiest cotton markets in Texas. The Houston and Texas Central made Calvert the shipping point for the deep, fertile Brazos…
Calvert was riding high in 1873, a brash young railroad-and-cotton town with money and ambition, when one traveler unraveled it. According to an early local judge's account, a traveling printer arrived from Louisiana,…
In 1909 Calvert established the first chapter house of the American Womans League in all of Texas and one of the first four in the entire country. The Prairie…
You're driving through Calvert, and right here is the Church of the Epiphany. Organized way back on June 6th, 1870, by Bishop Gregg, this is the oldest church building still standing in Calvert. It's been in continuous…
You're driving past the Mistrot-Adoue House in Calvert, a home built in the 1870s. Notice the blend of Greek Revival and Victorian styles, but look closer at the woodwork. That's French influence, with fleur-de-lis…
You're driving past the Katy Hamman Stricker Library in Calvert, a building with a fascinating past tied to women's clubs and a national movement. Back in 1907, businessman Edward G. Lewis founded the American Woman's…
You're driving past the site of Calvert's historic Methodist Church, a place with roots stretching back to 1869. This congregation built its first sanctuary right here in 1872. Think about the pastors who walked these…
You're cruising past a beautiful Victorian home, built in 1900 by Herman and Katy Stricker. Herman was a jeweler, and Katy came from a prominent family, the daughter of a Confederate General. She was a real mover and…
You're driving past the S.M. Howard house in Calvert, a beautiful Eastlake style cottage built in 1897. Look for its fishscale shingles and a wide veranda dripping with intricate gingerbread trim. Mrs. Howard, who lived…
You're driving past the Parish Carriage House in Calvert, a relic from a time when horses pulled the finest carriages. In 1892, wealthy merchant L. H. Parish and his wife Mattie bought this land. They soon built this…
You're driving past First Presbyterian Church. Built at Sterling before Civil War, on land of Judge Robert Calvert, Texas legislator and descendant of Lord Baltimore (Maryland colonizer). Leaded glass in windows was…
You're driving past Virginia Field Park in Calvert, a place with a surprising history. Back in 1865, soldiers from Hood's Texas Brigade mustered right here. But the most unusual part? During Reconstruction, this spot…
You're driving past the Barton Home in Calvert. After a fire destroyed her previous house, Minnie Walker Burnitt Barton, widow of a plantation owner, built this home in 1909. She wanted it to stand up to natural…
You're driving through Calvert, a town that owes much of its early success to its Jewish community. By 1870, Jewish merchants like Rudolph Oscar, who opened a dry goods store and the Grand Central Hotel, owned about…
You're driving past the site of the Little River Baptist Church, a community hub that started way back in 1849 with just eight members. They met in homes at first, then built a log cabin. Imagine this place buzzing in…
Out here in the Black Jack community, a few miles northeast of Hearne, there is a country cemetery called Hammond Colony. One of the headstones belongs to a woman whose face sold breakfast to the entire United States.…
You're driving past the site of a man who lived a truly remarkable life. Robert Henry, born in Ireland in 1801, arrived in Texas in 1832, joining Robertson's Colony. He fought bravely in the Texas Revolution, serving in…
You're passing through Cooks Point, the home of Judge Andrew S. Broaddus, a true pioneer leader. Back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1854</say-as>, he piloted a mile-long wagon train carrying 200 people all…
You're driving through Cooks Point, a community founded around 1840. Imagine this spot as a crucial crossroads, where the colonial road from the southeast met the San Antonio Road. The first settler here, Gabriel…
You're driving past the site of Fort Tenoxtitlan, a frontier outpost with a name as old as Mexico itself. Founded by Mexico in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1830</say-as>, its mission was to stop the flood of…
You're driving past the Duewall House, a home built with history right into its walls. Rudolph and Anna Duewall settled this land in the 1880s, starting a family farm. Their son Edward and his wife Lizzie kept the farm…
You're driving past the site of the very first Methodist Church in Burleson County. It all started around 1839, not in a building, but as a Sunday School held in the home of Isaac Addison. Later, it moved to the home of…
You're driving through Cooks Point, Texas, a community with roots stretching back to 1881. This United Methodist Church began as a beacon for German-speaking immigrants, organized by Anna Duewall, who arrived here just…
You're driving past where the Old San Antonio Road once crossed the Brazos River. Back in 1846, Michael Boren started a public ferry right here. Four years later, Daniel Moseley took over, and his family kept the ferry…
You're driving past the R.F. and Minta Pool House in Cameron. This Queen Anne beauty was built in 1902 by developer Jefferson Hefley, but the Pools bought it the same year. R.F. Pool arrived in Cameron in 1881 and…
You're driving past the Mt. Homer Baptist Church Cemetery, a place with a deep history. Originally the Watson Cemetery, it transferred to the Mt. Homer Baptist Church in 1866. The earliest marked grave here belongs to…
You're driving through Milam County, not far from Rockdale, where back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1749</say-as>, a Spanish mission called Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria was founded. It was meant to serve…
You're driving through Milam County, maybe near Nashville, where Lewis Washington's family once lived. But Washington himself was a man of action and words, fighting in the Texas Revolution at the Siege of Bexar. He was…
You're driving through what was once the wild frontier of Texas, near the Brazos River, not far from the Nashville settlement. Right here, in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1835</say-as>, Calvin Boales and his…
You're driving through Milam County, and right here near Davilla is where Henry Petty Cayce, a man who fought in FIVE wars over THIRTY years, met his end. Born in Tennessee, he came to Texas as a boy and was fighting…
You're driving through Texas, but the story of the Fifth Texas Infantry actually begins hundreds of miles away in Richmond, Virginia, back in October of 1861. These soldiers, recruited from towns across Texas like…
You're driving through Milam County, near Rockdale, where a Spanish military outpost once stood. San Francisco Xavier de Gigedo Presidio was founded in 1751, not just to protect missions, but to deal with a host of…
You're driving through Milam County, not far from Rockdale. Right here, in the mid-1700s, was the site of San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas Mission. It was one of three Spanish missions established in the area, founded…
You're driving through Central Texas, and right here is the San Gabriel River. It’s a place with a history stretching back centuries. Spanish explorers first charted it in <say-as interpret-as="date"…
You're driving near Rockdale, deep in Milam County, where one of the first Spanish missions in this part of Texas was established. This was San Ildefonso Mission, founded back in 1748. It was part of a chain of three…
You're driving through Milam County, near Rockdale, where back in the mid-1700s, three Spanish missions tried to serve the Native Americans of Central Texas. These missions – San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas, San…
You're driving through Milam County, maybe near Old Nashville, and right here is where William Dowsing Thomson helped pioneer this land. He first came to Texas with his father in the early 1830s, surveying for Sterling…
Port Sullivan was on a low bluff just downstream from a shoal of giant limestone boulders in the Brazos River, one mile northeast of Farm Road 485 in eastern Milam County. A stone marker erected at the site in 1936,…
Sandow is a mining community on Farm Road 1786 eight miles southwest of Rockdale in southern Milam County. At one time the site was a stop for mule drivers hauling freight from Matagorda. Freezeout, as the drivers named…
You're driving through Texas, and right here in Milam County, back in 1912, a new kind of education began for rural girls. It was called Home Demonstration work, and it started with Edna Westbrook Trigg teaching tomato…
You're driving through Milam County, and right here, in what is now this area, Daniel McKay was fighting for Texas independence. Born in Maine in 1814, he came to Texas in 1834. Just two years later, in March of 1836,…
You're driving through what is now Milam County, Texas, but way back in 1716, this was home to about 2,000 Pamaya Indians. They were part of a larger group displaced from their homelands, living in a rancheria and…
You're driving through Milam County, where William Henry Walker settled in the early 1830s. Life on the Texas frontier was tough, and for Walker, it meant facing down an Indian attack in 1836. He and three other…
San Gabriel is on Farm Road 486 seventeen miles southwest of Cameron in western Milam County. In the 1730s and 1740s several Spanish missions were established near the site in an effort to Christianize the Indian tribes…
You're driving through Milam County, not far from where Charles Marion Lesuer raised a company of Confederate cavalry. He called them the 'San Andres Light Horse Company,' named after the town where he lived. Lesuer, a…
You're driving through what is now Milam County, Texas, an area that was once home to the Mesquite Indians. The Spanish gave this name to several different groups across Texas, but the ones in this region were part of…
You're driving through South Texas, maybe near the Nueces River, and you might be passing through the ancient territory of the Pastia Indians. These weren't a famous tribe, and their name even caused confusion for early…
You're driving through the heart of Texas, perhaps near Milam County, and you're passing through a place that once held a name that meant 'great settlement' to Spanish explorers. Ranchería Grande wasn't one specific…
You're driving through Central Texas, perhaps near the future Milam County. Right here, in 1716, the Sijame people were encamped with both Tonkawan and Coahuiltecan bands at a place called Ranchería Grande. Their name…
Davilla is on Farm Road 487 eighteen miles west of Cameron in western Milam County. It was settled in the 1860s and named for Miguel Davila, who had received the original grant for the land in 1833. A surveyor named…
Maysfield is on Farm Road 485 eight miles northeast of Cameron in northeastern Milam County. It was originally called Old Graball, but its name was later changed to Maysfield in honor of Thomas Newton Mayes, who moved…
Cameron Yoe High School (Cameron, TX) is picked third in District twelve in Class 3A Division I for the 2026 season, per the preseason district preview. District 12-3A Division I preseason order of finish: 1. Franklin,…
You're driving past where Texas history was canned and cultivated! Back in 1912, right here in Milam County, the very first Girl's Tomato Clubs in the state got their start. Local principal Edna Westbrook Trigg…
You're driving past the boyhood home of L. S. "Sul" Ross, a Texas Governor, Confederate general, and president of Texas A&M. His father, Shapley Ross, a Ranger and Indian agent, built this house around 1841, choosing…
You're driving past Cameron, and right here is the marker for George Green. He fought in the Battle of San Jacinto, the fight that won Texas its independence! But Green wasn't done with Texas. He served as a Ranger,…
Ever seen a house shaped like a stop sign? Well, get ready to feast your eyes on one of Texas's rarest architectural gems! This unique octagon-shaped house stands as a testament to a prominent local doctor's vision. Dr.…
You're driving past the Milam County Jail, built in 1895 by the Pauly Jail Building and Manufacturing Company. This Romanesque Revival structure featured a unique 'hanging tower' that was never used for executions, as…
You're driving past the site of Massillon Farley, a soldier who served in the Texas army during the decisive Battle of San Jacinto in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1836</say-as>. But his service didn't end…
You're driving past the B.J. and Sue Dollar Baskin Home in Cameron. Benajah Baskin arrived here way back in 1883 from Alabama, starting a mercantile business and venturing into farming and ranching. After his first wife…
For fifty years, the road you're on, US-77, was a commuter route for thousands of people from Cameron heading to one of the biggest industrial sites in Texas: the Alcoa aluminum smelter and its dedicated power plant at…
In the 1840s a band of men rode into this settlement claiming to be preachers. The leader stood up and delivered a sermon, and while he had the whole community sitting there listening, his partners quietly walked off…
You're looking at the fourth Milam County courthouse to serve from Cameron, and the county's records still carry the scar of the one that didn't make it. On April 9th, 1874, the courthouse here burned to the ground, and…
You're driving past the site where 'Old Ben' Milam met his end. Born in Kentucky in 1788, Milam was a veteran of the War of 1812. He traded with the Comanche, led an expedition into Texas in 1820, and became an…
The Houston and Texas Central Railway came through in 1868 and did not quite come through here. The original settlement sat about a mile east of where you are, and the state marker for it still stands out that way along…
You're driving through Milam County, passing the birthplace of a true pioneer in Texas women's history. Edna Westbrook Trigg, born right here, became a leader in rural club work. In 1911, she was tapped by the U.S.…
Cameron's story is woven into the land itself, you see it in the expansive cotton fields stretching out from town. It all started back in the 1800s, when settlers realized the rich, sandy loam soil and the long growing…
Robert Henry put up the first cotton gin at Staggers Point in 1850, and from there this little place got oddly specific about what it manufactured. By the 1860s it had what may have been the first saddletree shop in…
Three stores, a racetrack, and a gun club. That was this settlement by the 1840s, which tells you a fair amount about how a Saturday went out here. It had already sent men to war by then. The state marker credits…
Benchley, Texas sits at the crossroads of old cattle trails and newer farm-to-market roads in northern Robertson County. Unlike many of its neighbors, Benchley never boomed with cotton production, instead remaining a…
You're driving past the Milam County Courthouse in Cameron. This is the fourth courthouse for the county, with its cornerstone laid by the local Masons way back on July 4th, 1891. <break time="400ms"/> Designed by…
You're driving past a piece of Texas history that's literally a thousand miles long! El Camino Real, the King's Highway, connected Saltillo, Mexico, all the way to Louisiana. The oldest part, the 'Trail of the Padres,'…
You're driving past the Green-Batte House in Cameron. Imagine this place starting as a simple log and brick cabin built way back in 1847 by George Green. Green was a surveyor and even fought in the Battle of San…
You're driving past the Dr. Nathan Cass House, built in 1895. This place was home to Dr. Cass, a prominent Cameron physician and community leader, who lived from 1849 to 1906. Take a look at the architecture – it's a…
You're driving through Cameron, the heart of Milam County. Look around – you're passing the site of the First National Bank, which opened its doors way back in 1889. It started with $50,000 capital, weathering economic…