Hallettsville, Texas

Everything Hallettsville is known for

7 songs mention this city 3 artists from here

Music in Hallettsville

Songs About Hallettsville

Goodbye Houston, Hello Hallettsville
Eric Woodring
90%
"Goodbye Houston, hello Hallettsville"
Hallettsville
Indianola Railroad Co.
80%
"Hallettsville"
Going To Hallettsville
Chris Rybak
78%
"Going To Hallettsville"
The Armadillo Jackal
Robert Earl Keen
54%
"They pay two-fifty down in Hallettsville"
Just Outside of Hallettsville
The Drunken Hawks
26%
"Just Outside of Hallettsville"
Just Outside of Hallettsville (Rust and Jadi Jo)
The Drunken Hawks
23%
"Just Outside of Hallettsville"
88 Miles out of Hallettsville
Steven Garcia
2%
"88 Miles out of Hallettsville"

Artists From Hallettsville

C
Chris Rybak
polka
R
Ryan Thompson Band
country
R
Reagan Hicks
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Hallettsville

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

US Route 90 9 songs Interstate 10 36 songs Guadalupe River 17 songs Texas Colorado River 6 songs Texas State Highway 71 2 songs U.S. Route 59 9 songs

Musical Heritage

The Biggest Fiddle Contest in the World, in a Czech Catholic Hall RoadyGoat

Every April, fiddlers from across the country and beyond pour into Hallettsville for the Texas State Championship Fiddlers' Frolics, billed as the largest fiddlers' contest in the world. It started in 1971 as a fundraiser to build the Knights of Columbus Hall, where it's still held, and it grew straight out of this county's deep Czech-Moravian Catholic roots. The rules keep it pure: acoustic instruments only, no more than four accompanists per fiddler. Players compete across divisions including a seniors bracket for those 65 and up, the Forest H. Craig freshman division for kids 15 and younger, an out-of-state class, the Texas-only state championship, and a crowd-judged Anything Goes round that rewards the most acrobatic showmanship. Inside the hall hangs the Texas Fiddlers Hall of Fame, founded in 1977, whose walls trace the lineage of Texas-style fiddling; its honor roll includes fiddle legend Eck Robertson and Bob Wills. For three days the dominoes, kolaches, barbecue, and bow strokes all run together. (Source: Handbook of Texas.)

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The Bugler Who Blew a Charge in a Union Prison RoadyGoat

Louis Turner left Hallettsville as chief bugler of Whitfield's Legion, which means his job in a battle was to be heard over it. He was at Iuka and came out of it wounded in the side with five bullet holes through his coat. At the second fight at Corinth he was captured on the Hatchie River and taken to Bolivar, Tennessee. Second day in the prison, some of the boys asked him to play reveille. Being, as his biographer put it, always full of sport, he did. And then he blew a charge. In a prison. Later, exchanged and back in the fight in Arkansas, he was shot in the leg before the line had even formed up, the bone broken and the horse killed under him.

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History of Hallettsville

Eight Dollars of Tools and a Fifteen Thousand Dollar Bonus RoadyGoat

A. Levytansky got to Texas in 1882 from Russian Poland, seventeen years old, and started at Luling with eight dollars worth of jeweller's tools. He would not work for anyone else. By late 1883 he had moved to Hallettsville and was making his own stock rather than buying it. Now here is why this town should remember him. When the San Antonio and Aransas Pass was choosing where to lay track, Levytansky is the man who raised the fifteen thousand dollar bonus that bought Hallettsville a railroad. Towns that missed out on that kind of subscription got bypassed and died. He also brought his brothers over one at a time and set each of them up in a different town. It did not end well for all of them. One brother, running a jewellery store at Laredo, was robbed and shot dead in December of 1911. A burglar was tried for it, convicted, and hanged.

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The Widow Who Built a Town on the Lavaca RoadyGoat

This town carries a woman's name, which was rare in 1838. John Hallett, an English-born sea merchant, took a league of land in Stephen F. Austin's colony on the east bank of the Lavaca River around 1831. When he died in 1836, his widow Margaret Leatherbury Hallett did not retreat. She moved onto the property, set up a trading post, raised horses under her own brand, and bartered corn, hides, and pelts with both settlers and the Tonkawa, even picking up a working vocabulary of their language. Legend says Chief Lolo gave her the nickname Brave Squaw after she stood her ground in a dispute over goods. In 1838 Margaret donated the land beside her trading post for a townsite, and the place was named Hallettsville in her honor, not her late husband's. Born in Virginia on Christmas Day 1787, she lived to see the town fight for and win the county seat, and she died in 1863. Her grave in City Memorial Park still calls her the founder of Hallettsville. (Source: Handbook of Texas.)

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They Took the County Records by Force of Arms RoadyGoat

When Lavaca County organized in 1846, the courthouse stood not here but in Petersburg, a few miles southwest. Hallettsville wanted the seat of government, and so began one of Texas's rowdier county-seat fights. In an election on June 14, 1852, Hallettsville won a majority, but Petersburg refused to hand over the county records, the legal lifeblood of any county. According to the accounts, only by force of arms were the men of Hallettsville able to ride in and liberate those records, carrying them back here where they have stayed ever since. The town was formally declared county seat on August 28, 1852, though the lawsuits dragged on until a final ruling settled the matter in 1860. Petersburg never recovered. Stripped of its courthouse, it withered into a ghost town, and by 1880 little more than a single establishment remained. The records you'd find in the courthouse downtown sit where they do because somebody once came and got them. (Source: Handbook of Texas.)

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Hallett, Margaret Leatherbury

1818

Margaret Leatherbury (Letherbury, Leatherberry) Hallett was born on December 25, 1787, in Stafford County, Virginia. At the age of eighteen she fell in love with John Hallett, an English-born merchant seaman, whom her well-to-do family considered an unsuitable match. In 1808 she left home and joined him in Baltimore. They were married aboard ship in Chesapeake Bay and lived in Baltimore for several years before moving west. Their first two sons were born in 1813 and 1815 in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, where the Halletts operated a store until it was confiscated by the Mexican government. They then moved to Goliad, Texas, and set up a trading post. There a third son was born in 1818 and a daughter in 1822. The Halletts were still living in Goliad in 1833, when John took a league of land in Stephen F. Austin 's colony on the east bank of the Lavaca River in what is now Lavaca County. He brought workers and building materials from Goliad to construct a cabin, but not long after it was completed he died and was buried in Goliad. After the Runaway Scrape Margaret and her daughter, her only surviving child, moved onto the Hallett league. Margaret turned the cabin into a store and traded for pelts and hides with the Tonkawa Indians and the White settlers, who were beginning to fill up the area; she then had the hides carted to Gonzales and exchanged for corn. She had a field cleared for a crop, raised horses under her own brand, and acquired a basic vocabulary in Tonkawa. Legend credits her with raising a lump on the head of a Tonkawa who attempted to help himself to merchandise. Chief Lolo is said to have rewarded her with the nickname Brave Squaw and with honorary tribal membership. In 1838 Margaret Hallett donated land adjoining her trading post for a townsite, which was named Hallettsville in her honor. She built a new home there and promoted the town vigorously. In 1842 the legislature authorized the establishment of a judicial county to be named La Baca, which later became Lavaca County. County and district court sessions were held in the Hallett home pending the selection of a county seat. Hallettsville and the older town of Petersburg were contesting for the honor; some sources report that Margaret Hallett was instrumental in having the county records moved from Petersburg to Hallettsville in the early 1850s and seeing that they remained there. In 1852 she gave the building site for Alma Male and Female Institute and helped organize the new institution. She died in 1863 and was buried on the Hallett league. Later her remains were transferred to City Memorial Park, where a grave marker acknowledges her as the founder of Hallettsville.

Tsha Handbook →

Arthur Pendleton Bagby

1852

(May 17, 1833 - February 21, 1921) Star and Wreath Native Alabamian, last surviving member of West Point class of 1852, lawyer, colonel in 7th Texas Confederate Cavalry, participant in Sibley's New Mexico campaign, commanded volunteer land troops on board Confederate ship Neptune during Battle of Galveston, wounded and commended for role in engagement near Berwick Bay in Louisiana, led brigade at battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill in Louisiana, major-general in Confederate Army. Buried in city cemetery, Hallettsville. 1963

Historical Marker →

William Smothers

1775

(1760-1837) A Veteran of the American Revolution. A native of Virginia, William Smothers was orphaned at 12 when Indians killed his father, and his mother died of shock. In the American Revolution, he fought at King's Mountain, Guilford Courthouse, Camden, and Eutaw Springs. He moved to Kentucky in 1781, built two forts near present Hartford, originally called "Smothers Station," and in 1798 founded an Ohio river port that later became Owensboro. He was a leader in civil affairs in early Kentucky, was a militia captain, and commanded troops in the War of 1812. Smothers Park in Owensboro is named in his honor. 
 Smothers scouted in Texas before 1820, returned in 1821 with the exploring party of Stephen F. Austin, and helped build Fort Bend for the safety of the "Old 300" settlers. In 1824 Mexico gave him a land grant; in 1826, he and two sons helped settle DeWitt's Colony, receiving land grants in the vicinity of this marker. Fearless and a skillful guide, he often hunted with his friend Jim Bowie. Reputedly he tomahawked bears in hand combat. Married twice, he was ancestor of many leading Texans. He died in 1837, after seeing a son and three grandsons help to win the Texas War for Independence. (1977)

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Jack, Spencer Houston

1831

Spencer Houston Jack, Austin colony pioneer, lawyer, and revolutionist, the eighth of twelve children of Patrick and Harriet (Spencer) Jack, was born in Wilkes County, Georgia, on April 13, 1809. He accompanied his brother William H. and William's family to Texas in 1830. They located in San Felipe de Austin. Jack was the first colonist to draw Mexican blood in resistance to Mexican authority. On November 24, 1831, George Fisher ordered shipmasters to obtain clearance at Anahuac before sailing from the Brazos and certain other ports. Compliance for a vessel docked on the lower Brazos necessitated an overland journey of 200 miles or more, round-trip. On December 15, 1831, the Sabine , commanded by Capt. Jeremiah Brown , ran past the Mexican barracks at the mouth of the Brazos with cotton bales arranged on deck to protect the passengers and crew. The Mexican fusillade damaged only the ship's rigging. The Nelson , under Capt. Samuel Fuller, following in the Sabine's wake, also drew fire that slightly wounded Captain Fuller, who then called for his rifle, which Jack, a passenger, seized and fired, wounding one of the soldiers in the thigh. On Christmas Day the Spica , commanded by Capt. Isaiah Doane of Boston, also sailed from the Brazos without clearance. Gen. Manuel de Mier y Terán issued an order to arrest Jack and thus prevented his immediate return to Texas. In June 1832 Jack marched with his brother William on Anahuac to demand the release of their brother Patrick C. Jack and William Barret Travis and others imprisoned there by order of Col. John (Juan) Davis Bradburn . Years later, Jack gave Mirabeau B. Lamar an interesting written account of his activities during the Anahuac Disturbances . On April 20, 1833, Jack was issued title to one-fourth league of land in Austin's second colony in what is now Lavaca County. At Bexar, on September 23, 1833, after a complaint filed against Jack the same day by Oliver Jones , "Deputy of this State," Manuel Ximenes (first regidor and acting alcalde ruled that Jack had "offended with a cutting instrument." Jack had cut Jones on the nose. Early in 1834 Samuel M. Williams appointed Jack as his agent for settling families in the "upper colony," which had been granted to Williams and Stephen F. Austin by the legislature of Coahuila and Texas on February 25, 1831. Jack thus opened a land office at Tenoxtitlán in March 1834. The grant, however, was revoked on May 22, 1834, and Williams, then in New Orleans, instructed Jack to go to Monclova to reopen the case. Additionally, Jack and Peter W. Grayson , both lawyers, were commissioned to continue to Mexico City to present memorials from the ayuntamientos of Texas requesting the release of Stephen F. Austin, who was then imprisoned there. They left San Felipe on August 10, 1834, accompanying Col. Juan N. Almonte , an aide to President Antonio López de Santa Anna , who was making an overland return from his inspection tour of Texas. Jack was unable to achieve much at Monclova. Likewise, he and Grayson failed to get Austin freed, though they did bring about his release on bail on Christmas Day, 1834. By the end of December Jack had returned to San Felipe. During the final days of the 1835 legislative session, Governor Agustín Viesca restored the upper colony to Williams, who again designated Jack as his agent for receiving applications for land. On September 20, 1835, Jack received title to ten leagues of land under the terms of Decree 278, passed by the legislature of Coahuila and Texas on April 19, 1834, which provided for the sale of land to mobilize a frontier force against Indian attack. Jack had an interest in cargo aboard the schooner Martha , which was seized at Galveston Bay by the Mexican warship Moctezuma on May 3, 1835, taken to Veracruz, and condemned. He was a participant in the siege of Bexar . On October 28, 1835, he and George Huff wrote from Gonzales to the "President of the Council at San Felipe," criticizing Sam Houston 's effort

Tsha Handbook → · 4.4 mi away

McGonagill, Henry Clay

1879

Clay McGonagill (McGonegill, McGonigle, or McGonagil), rodeo cowboy, was born on September 24, 1879, in Sweet Home, Lavaca County, Texas, the youngest of six children of George M. and E. C. McGonagill. When he was four the family moved to the vicinity of Midland, where his father raised the Billy and steeldust breeds of quarter horse . The young McGonagill spent his early years on the ranch learning to ride and rope his father's horses. When not working for his father, Clay traveled through West Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona cowboying for ranches in the area. He was a personable and genial fellow, yet he possessed an ornery side. Any chance for formal education was cut short in 1897 when Clay and a friend, Joe Gardner, threatened to kill the school principal and a grade school teacher after a fight with the school superintendent. In 1907 he was charged with horse theft, though the charges were later dropped and Clay won a "malicious prosecution" suit. In March 1912 charges were filed in the district court of Gaines County against him for "robbery with firearms" of a bank in Seminole. Allegedly, Clay and notorious outlaw Tom Ross perpetrated the offense, but charges were later dropped against Clay, apparently for lack of evidence. As a rodeo cowboy, herding and roping steers for prize money throughout the western United States and as far away as England and South America, Clay fast established himself as the world's best steer roper. In 1902 he accompanied legendary cowboy humorist Will Rogers and other cowboys to Montevideo, Uruguay, for the First International Rodeo. Legend had Clay McGonagill winning more than 500 roping contests in his day. He set several records over a period of time for steer roping, time and again besting his own marks. He was a colorful character willing to take on all comers in steer roping competitions, known around the turn of the century as "fairgroundings." In July 1907 he challenged Bob Gentry, an Indian and popular Oklahoma champion, to a test of skill, claiming he could rope eleven steers to Gentry's ten in less time. After falling behind early, he proceeded to back up his brash talk with his roping skill and won the bet. In April of that same year he had set a record of 21½ seconds. In doing so, he won a unique bet for a gambler's wooden leg, which the fellow had wagered upon hearing Clay boast that he could break the record. After parading around the arena with his new prize, McGonagill returned the trophy to its needy owner. McGonagill married Annie Laurie Johnston on January 16, 1904. He had met her only four days earlier in San Antonio, where she was attending a boarding school. The couple had one son. Clay McGonagill was killed on October 24, 1921, while hauling a load of hay on the Papago Indian Reservation, near Sacaton, Arizona. He had stopped the wagon he was driving to clear the road of a steel power line. The line carried more than 11,000 volts, and Clay was killed instantly. He was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1975.

Tsha Handbook → · 4.4 mi away

Galveston, Battle of

1863

Jan. 1, 1863 --- Jan. 1, 1914 In commemorating the 50th anniversary of the capture of Galveston by the Southern Confederacy. Gen. Arthur P. Bagby commanding the "Neptune." Dedicated to the heroes who wore the gray at the battle of Galveston. Jan. 1, 1863 Capt. J. T. Whitfield Lieut. J. W. Carson Private Jno. Buchanan Capt. Jas. Walker Sergeant W. H. Turk Capt. J. W. Whitfield In memory of Lavaca Co. men who fought in the Civil War. Capt. James Walker Gen. John B. Magruder Col. Tom Green Col. Arthur P. Bagby Com. Leon Smith Co. G. W. H. H. Brazier Banners may be furled but heroism lives forever.

Historical Marker →

Things to Do in Hallettsville

historical 13.8 mi away
The Brewmaster from Egypt

Kosmos Spoetzl took one of the strangest paths to small-town Texas. Born in Bavaria he trained at brewmaster school in Germany then spent eight years brewing…
historical 13.8 mi away
The Only Female Brewery Owner in America

When Kosmos Spoetzl died in 1950 his daughter Cecile -- known as Miss Celie -- took over the brewery. She became the only female brewery owner in the entire…
food 13.8 mi away
Spoetzl Brewery

Home of Shiner beer since 1909. Free tours and tastings in tiny Shiner Texas.
quirky 13.8 mi away
The Beer That Tasted Like Medicine

In 1909 a group of homesick German and Czech farmers in tiny Shiner Texas pooled their money built a ramshackle brewery and tried to make beer that reminded…
quirky 13.9 mi away
When Hippies Discovered Shiner Beer

For its first 60 years Shiner Beer barely left the county. Then in the 1970s something unexpected happened. At the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin an…
historical 13.5 mi away
Surviving Prohibition with Near Beer and Ice

When Prohibition hit in 1920 most breweries across America shut their doors forever. Not Kosmos Spoetzl. He kept the Shiner brewery alive by officially…
quirky 13.8 mi away
The Shiner Hobo Band

After World War I the town of Shiner did what any proud small Texas town would do -- it formed a band. But not just any band. The Shiner Hobo Band dressed in…
historical 13.8 mi away
The Town That Swallowed Half Moon

Before Shiner existed there was a little community called Half Moon named for the peculiar crescent shape of the local timber. Half Moon had been around since…

Sports in Hallettsville

🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 3A · Softball · 2022

Hallettsville Brahmas — 2022 UIL 3A Softball State Champions

Most recent: 2022 3A

Down in Lavaca County, Hallettsville High School fields a spirited Class 3A softball team, a true point of pride for the community. The Lady Brahmas have established a notable record in Texas high school softball, with their dedicated play reflecting the strong local support for athletic programs.

The Hallettsville softball program has reached the pinnacle of UIL competition, securing a state championship in 2022. This achievement underscores the consistent effort and competitive spirit found within this close-knit Texas town, known for its community involvement in school activities.

State titles
2022
Most recent
2022
Class
3A
The moment

The Hallettsville Lady Brahmas celebrated a significant milestone by winning the 3A state championship in 2022.

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

Everything Near Hallettsville

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

Explore Hallettsville on the Map
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