Godley, Texas

Everything Godley is known for

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Music in Godley

Songs About Godley

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Austin Upchurch
country Pop: 16

Rivers & Roads in Song near Godley

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

Brazos River 37 songs Chisholm Trail 7 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Texas State Highway 199 8 songs Interstate 35 42 songs Trinity River 10 songs

History of Godley

The Rock Under Town That Rewrote Energy RoadyGoat

1981

Godley sits over the Barnett Shale, a black Mississippian-age rock roughly 350 million years old, buried about 6,500 to 8,500 feet down across the Fort Worth Basin. Johnson County is one of just four core counties of that gas field and ranks among the top gas-producing counties in all of Texas. The rock was known but useless: too tight to give up its gas. Starting in 1981, George Mitchell's company drilled the Fort Worth Basin for years chasing a fix. The breakthrough came in 1997 and 1998, when engineer Nick Steinsberger tried slickwater fracturing, pumping mostly water, sand, and pressure to crack the shale and prop the fractures open. Paired with horizontal drilling, it worked. By 2008, drillers completed roughly 2,900 horizontal wells across the field in a single year. The technique that unlocked the shale beneath towns like Godley later spread worldwide.

The Lumberman Who Bought a Town Onto the Map RoadyGoat

1886

Godley owes its name and its start to a railroad deal. In 1886, R.B. Godley, a lumber merchant from nearby Cleburne, donated an eight-acre tract for a townsite and another twenty acres as right-of-way to the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. The railroad built a station that same year, and the town that grew up around it took the donor's name. Within two years the place had teeth: by 1888, when the post office opened, Godley already ran a gristmill, three cotton gins, and two dairy-processing plants. That mix tells you what northwestern Johnson County lived on then, cotton and cattle, milled and shipped out along fresh Santa Fe rails toward Cleburne, nine miles to the southeast.

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From Cow Pastures to Subdivisions RoadyGoat

As you drive along Highway 171, you're seeing a story of massive change unfold in real time. For most of its history, Godley was a small, quiet town with a population that rarely topped 1,000 people. It was surrounded by farms and ranches. But look around you now. The main story of modern Godley is its explosive growth as a Dallas-Fort Worth exurb. There were 879 people here at the 2000 census and about 1,450 in 2020. By 2025 the estimate was over 5,000 — nearly six times bigger, with most of that jump landing in just the last few years. What was once pasture land is now a landscape of new housing developments with names that evoke the rural past they replaced. This boom has put immense pressure on local infrastructure, especially the Godley ISD school system, which has been in a constant state of expansion. You're witnessing the profound, rapid transformation of a rural community into a bustling suburb, a story happening all across the fringes of Texas's major cities.

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Godley School

1884

The town of Godley began in 1886, as rancher and lumber merchant B. B. Godley donated land for a townsite and right-of-way to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad. Predating the railroad town was the local school, as Johnson County Commissioners Court formed Godley Independent School District in July 1884. Dr. John I. Pearson was one of the earliest teachers. Godley College began in 1899 in a three-story frame building, becoming Godley High School three years later. A three-story brick building opened in time for graduation in 1916. Godley School experienced great growth in the late 1930s through rural school consolidation and federal New Deal agency aid. A 1937 gymnasium and 1939 auditorium enlarged the existing campus. The auditorium (later a library) was completed with financial and labor assistance through the National Youth Administration. A new main building, completed in 1940 with Works Progress Administration funds, joined the gymnasium and auditorium into a single building and an unusually large facility for a rural school. School buildings from Bruce, Pleasant View and Cottonwood were moved here as part of the new construction. Godley School housed all grades until 1967 when a new elementary school was built. After 1984 the school became a middle school, then an intermediate school in 2000. The Godley School consists of one-story wings connecting a two-story main building and an auditorium and gymnasium in a modified rectangular plan. The exterior is clad with native stone in a giraffe rock pattern. Dark brick is laid in a stack bond variation, with alternating runners and stretchers. Multi-pane windows and Spanish Colonial-style entries are also prominent.

Historical Marker →

Acton Cemetery

1855

Location of Acton historic site, smallest state park in Texas. Includes the grave of Mrs. Elizabeth P. Crockett (1788-1860), widow of the Alamo hero David Crockett, and 2 of his children. In 1911 a monument and statue were erected to her memory. Acton (formerly Comanche Peak post office) was named in 1855 by C.P. Hollis, first merchant in town. In spite of early name, Acton had few Comanche raids. After erecting a building for church and school, area pioneers selected this plot as cemetery. First person buried here was Mrs. Wash Hutcheson, in 1855. (1968)

Historical Marker → · 9.3 mi away

Crockett, Elizabeth, Grave of

1816

Mrs. Elizabeth Crockett, wife of David Crockett, born in Buncombe Co., NC, May 22, 1788, married to David Crockett in Lawrence Co., Tenn., 1816; died in Johnson Co.--now Hood Co.--Jan. 31, 1860, age 72 years. (death date and age are incorrect, see marker #6256, 6257 (On right and left sides) 1788 1860 1911 (Rear) Crockett

Historical Marker → · 9.3 mi away

Joshua, TX

1881

Joshua is at the intersection of State Highway 174 and Farm Road 917, on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad seven miles southeast of Burleson and eight miles north of Cleburne in north central Johnson County. It is in the Cross Timbers region on land patented by W. W. Byers in 1867. The section was sold in 1874 to John Powell. Caddo Grove, two miles west of Joshua, was the first community in the area. It had its own post office and was a thriving town until the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway was completed from Cleburne to Fort Worth in 1881. The railroad missed Caddo Grove, and a station was built on the tracks at the site of future Joshua. The station was originally called Caddo Peak, but the name was rejected by the post office because of another Caddo Peak. The name Joshua was chosen, purportedly by Dr. D. B. McMillan, after the biblical Joshua. W. L. West was the first postmaster when the community received a post office in 1882. In 1883 Caddo Grove's post office was withdrawn. The plat for Joshua was first surveyed in 1880, and the community was organized in 1881 when the railroad arrived. The first store, opened in 1882 by W. L. West, also housed the post office. By 1890 Joshua had a population of 300, two steam corn mill- cotton gins, a hotel, a general store, and a newspaper, the Johnson County Record . The railroad shipped farm produce, Joshua's largest export. The first one-room school opened in 1890, and in 1899 it moved into a new building. In 1917 this school became Joshua High School. In 1900 and 1912 Joshua suffered major fires. In spite of this, new businesses continued to open. The Citizen's Banking Company, opened in 1904, was run by J. W. Spencer. Two years later a public water system began. Truck gardens, orchards, and corn and cotton farms surrounded Joshua. In 1912 the Fort Worth South Traction Line began to provide service from Cleburne to Fort Worth and had a stop in Joshua. Service stopped in 1932 because of the growing importance of automobile travel. The first car in Joshua was purchased in 1913. By 1914 the community had a population of 824, two cotton gins, an ice plant, a bank, a newspaper named the Joshua Star , and four churches. Local farms grew cotton and potatoes. In the mid-1950s Joshua was incorporated, with Ted Strube as the first mayor. The population dropped to 550 during the 1950s and rose to 924 in 1970. By 1980 it was 1,470. Because of its proximity to Fort Worth, the population grew to 3,828 by 1990 and 4,528 by 2000. Joshua had fourteen businesses in 1970 and fifty-eight in 1980, when seven local manufacturers made such items as aluminum products, boat trailers, leather goods, and windows. The Joshua Tribune began publication in 1970 and was published until the early 1990s, when it moved to Burleson. By 2000 Joshua reported 239 businesses.

Tsha Handbook → · 8.4 mi away

Carroll, John Lewis [Johnny]

1956

John Lewis (Johnny) Carroll, rockabilly guitarist, composer, and singer, was born in Cleburne, Texas, on October 23, 1937. He grew up in nearby Godley and spent much of his life on the family farm there. His surname was actually spelled Carrell, but the Decca label misspelled it as Carroll, and apparently Johnny used this spelling for the rest of his career. Carroll bought his first guitar at age nine with money he had earned by working as a water boy at a World War II POW camp. His mother, who played the fiddle, taught him basic music skills. By listening to the radio, he learned to play country music . Carroll later was introduced to rhythm and blues when a cousin in the jukebox business gave him some old 78 rpm records. In the early 1950s he performed on KCLE radio in Cleburne. By 1955 he had formed his own high school band, the Moonlighters. His group sometimes shared the stage with the South's newest singing sensation, Elvis Presley , as they performed on the Big D Jamboree and the Louisiana Hayride circuit. During a performance with Ferlin Husky, Carroll gained the attention of local radio operator Jack "Tiger" Goldman, who helped him get a contract with Decca Records. In 1956 Carroll recorded for Decca in Nashville. During this two-day recording session he was encouraged to sing in a dark and husky voice, a trademark he carried throughout his career. At the session he recorded his own "Crazy, Crazy Lovin'" along with "Hot Rock," written by Goldman. With moderate sales, Carroll embarked on a series of tours. In 1957 he starred in the motion picture Rock, Baby, Rock It! which was filmed in Dallas in 1956, and he performed several songs with his old high school band. Though panned by critics, the film later achieved cult status for its diverse and historic music performances. After a dispute with Goldman, Carroll left him and rejoined the Louisiana Hayride . He enlisted Ed McLemore , co-producer of Big D Jamboree , as his new manager in 1958 and recorded two singles for Warner Brothers, including his biggest hit, "Bandstand Doll." In 1962 he recorded his last single for more than ten years. Beginning in 1958 until the early 1970s, Carroll was music director for a series of nightclubs known as the Cellar . Originally opened in Fort Worth, the club also opened branches in other Texas cities. On May 6, 1960, Carroll married Sharon, a waitress at the Cellar. They had a son but divorced in 1966. He married Tena Mathews in 1968. In 1974, after leaving the nightclub business, Carroll returned to performing and recorded "Black Leather Rebel" (also titled "Gene Vincent Rock"), a tribute to singer and friend Gene Vincent. It was the first of several projects that reignited Carroll's career Three years later he re-released three of his Decca singles, the success of which led to several tours across Europe, where he was a rock-and-roll icon. In 1978 Carroll rekindled his 1950s rock-and-roll sound with the release of Texabilly , an album recorded on the Rollin' Rock label in Van Nuys, California, in a twenty-seven-hour marathon session. About this time he also teamed up with model and singer Judy Lindsey, and the two performed in clubs across the United States and in Europe. The city of Fort Worth proclaimed December 1, 1986, to be "Johnny Carroll Day" in honor of Carroll's success in Europe and his role as an ambassador of good will for the city. By the 1990s he had completed eleven European tours and was a popular draw on the American music festival circuit. He died of liver failure in Dallas on February 18, 1995, and was buried in Godley, Texas. Bear Family Records released Rock Baby Rock It: 1955-1960 , a compilation of Carroll's recordings, in 1996.

Tsha Handbook → · 9.3 mi away

Conway, Gordon

1915

Gordon Conway, artist, only child of John Catlett and Tommie (Johnson) Conway, was born at Cleburne, Texas, on December 18, 1894. Her father descended from colonial and revolutionary era patriots in Tidewater Virginia that included a collateral ancestral line from the mother of President James Madison. After the Civil War he moved to Texas, where he succeeded in business, became an active Episcopal layman, and served as mayor of Cleburne. Around 1900 the family moved to Dallas, where he expanded his chain of lumberyards, established lumber firms in Dallas and Fort Worth, and became a well-known civic and social leader before his death in 1906. His daughter, Gordon, the last of the family line, had no children from a seven-year marriage to businessman Blake Ozias that ended in divorce in France in 1927. Gordon Conway's mother also descended from early American leaders, including the Samuel Adams family of Massachusetts and Joseph Johnson, the first Virginia governor elected by a vote of the people. One Johnson line later moved to Texas and settled in Whitesboro, Paris, and Cleburne. Tommie Johnson Conway established the pattern of a glamorous, nomadic lifestyle that included sporadic educational efforts for Gordon at the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C., a Lausanne girls' school, and brief art lessons in Rome. She was a champion of her daughter's career and her lifelong companion. During a brief but prolific twenty-two-year career (1915-37), Gordon Conway won international acclaim in the fields of commercial graphic art and costume design for stage and film in New York, London, and Paris. She made around 5,000 finished drawings, including illustrations for at least 26 publications and 33 advertising clients. With assignments ranging from one to 80 costumes per show, she designed graphics and costumes for at least 119 stage productions for both theater and cabaret. She costumed 47 films. Conway helped democratize Parisian haute couture and popularize the severe elements of modern design. Starting out during the golden age of American illustration, she was a self-taught, free-lance artist who worked without apprentices and models. A significant but often overlooked aspect of her career-and rare for women of the era-was Conway's ability to create a popular public persona, which expanded her network of clients. She was in the vanguard of the new business enterprises of advertising and public relations at the beginning of the twentieth century. She excelled in several genres best reviewed in two stages: her New York period (1915-20) and her European period (1921-36). Highlights of her New York period included silhouette art for mass print media and color billboards, posters, and promotional graphics touting Broadway theater and cabaret productions. She was a spirited and determined twenty-year-old in 1915 when she launched her career at Vogue and Vanity Fair . Recognizing her native talent, Heyworth Campbell-publisher Condé Nast's first art director-insisted that Conway forget academic art school. He urged her to take classes at the Art Students League and to study magazine and advertising illustration with tutors. Campbell joined another Conway mentor, Vanity Fair editor Frank Crowninshield, in helping her establish a popular public image. These editors also marshaled her innate flair for whimsy and parody by commissioning covers and narrative vignette pages spoofing New York society girls involved in World War I charity work. Also publishing Conway's drawings of bright young sophisticates was Condé Nast rival Harper's Bazaar , whose editor, Henry B. Sell, encouraged Conway's talent and introduced her to the art work of their new cover artist, Erté. These successes led to other publications and diverse advertising clients such as the Delage and the Franklin motor car companies, Huylers chocolates, Neiman-Marcus , and Hallmark watches. The National City Company (New York) commissioned a series of her posters for a natio

Tsha Handbook → · 9.3 mi away

Things to Do in Godley

nature 21.9 mi away
Dinosaur Valley State Park

The Paluxy River cut down through the limestone here and exposed dinosaur tracks pressed into 113-million-year-old mud. You can wade out into the river in…
food 24.8 mi away
Joe T. Garcia's

Joe T opened his little family restaurant behind the packing plant in the Fort Worth Stockyards in 1935. There was no menu. His wife Jessie served whatever she…
quirky 16.3 mi away
Brazos Drive-In Theatre

Granbury businessmen pooled local materials in 1952 and put up a drive-in on what was then the edge of town to lure people in. It opened June 5 with Robert…
spooky 23.4 mi away
Lake Worth Monster

In 1969 dozens of witnesses reported a half-man half-goat creature prowling the shores of Lake Worth. Police investigated. The monster was never caught.

Everything Near Godley

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

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