Hempstead, Texas

Everything Hempstead is known for

5 songs mention this city 1 artist from here

Music in Hempstead

Songs About Hempstead

Waller County Jail
MC Sante
98%
"Waller County Jail"
Hempstead
Jed Clark
81%
"TITLE"
Devil’s Work
Joyner Lucas
7%
"Ain't no justice for Sandra Bland, we up like the ceiling fan"
Hempstead Highway
Steve Gilbert
7%
"Hempstead Highway"
Hell You Talmbout
Janelle Monáe
"Sandra Bland, say her name"

Artists From Hempstead

C
Cole Annoot
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Hempstead

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

Brazos River 42 songs Interstate 10 36 songs US Route 90 9 songs Texas Colorado River 6 songs Interstate 45 8 songs Texas State Highway 71 2 songs

Musical Heritage

Buster Pickens - Hempstead blues pianist RoadyGoat

1916

Edwin 'Buster' Pickens, born in Hempstead on June 3, 1916, was one of the last of the Texas barrelhouse blues pianists. In the 1930s he was part of the Santa Fe Group, pianists who rode the Santa Fe freight lines between the sawmill and oil-camp joints of east Texas. He backed singer Texas Alexander on his final recording session in 1950, cut a solo album in Houston in 1960 with tracks like 'Santa Fe Train' and 'Rock Island Blues,' and appeared on several Lightnin' Hopkins albums in the early 1960s, including Walkin' This Road by Myself. He died in Houston in 1964.

History of Hempstead

Six-Shooter Junction RoadyGoat

Welcome to 'Six-Shooter Junction,' once one of the most dangerous towns in Texas. The Houston and Texas Central Railway reached here in 1858 and made Hempstead a distribution center, and after the Civil War the place filled with everything that can go wrong at a crossroads: federal troops enforcing Reconstruction, disbanded Confederates, newly freed Black Texans finding their footing in a hostile world, and a saloon on every promising corner. But the nickname stuck for a reason that outlasted Reconstruction. For decades, disputes here got settled with a pistol — arguments among Klansmen, Radical Republicans, Greenbackers, Populists and prohibitionists. In 1875 the Radical Republicans held two conventions in town. And in 1905 it all came to a head inside the Waller County courthouse, when a meeting with prohibitionists turned into a two-minute gunfight that left four men dead, including U.S. Congressman John Pinckney and his brother Tom. As you pass through the quiet downtown today, it's hard to picture the tension that earned Hempstead its infamous name.

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Hempstead's Six Shooter Junction RoadyGoat

1870

Today Hempstead is the Waller County seat and proud watermelon country, but for about fifty years this town carried a rougher name: Six-Shooter Junction. It grew up where the railroads crossed, an hour northwest of Houston, and the trains poured in crowds, money, hot tempers, and trouble. Folks here had a habit of settling their arguments with the pistols on their hips, and there was never any shortage of things to argue about. Right after the Civil War, just controlling the county courthouse and its offices was a running fight between Republicans and Democrats, decided about as often by gunfire as by ballots. Then came the Greenbackers, debt-strapped farmers who wanted the government to keep printing paper money, betting that cheaper dollars and a little inflation would make their mortgages and crop loans easier to pay off. After them rose the Populists, the great farmers' revolt of the eighteen nineties, furious at the railroads and the banks for squeezing them with high freight rates and low cotton prices, and demanding the government step in and rein the railroads back. And hottest of all was the war between the drys and the wets, the fight over whether to outlaw the saloon, which every Texas town voted on for itself and nobody took lightly. That last one turned Hempstead into a killing ground in nineteen oh five, when a crowd packed the courthouse over a prohibition petition, the guns came out, and four men died, including a sitting United States congressman who was unarmed and only trying to break up the fight.

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Hempstead: The Science Behind the Sweetest Cargo RoadyGoat

1858

Hempstead was once one of America's watermelon capitals, and for good reason: into the 1940s it was the single largest shipper of watermelons in the whole United States. People still call it the Watermelon Capital of Texas. But that success was never just rich soil. It was a chain of problems solved. Growers had to manage irrigation, pick the right varieties, and judge to the day when each melon was ripe. Then came the hard part: moving thousands of pounds of a fruit that spoils fast, before it could rot. That is why the town grew up around the railroad. When the Houston and Texas Central reached Hempstead in 1858, it turned a farm town into a shipping point that could fling Texas melons to markets across the country. And the science never stopped. Today researchers measure a melon's sweetness with a beam of light, and breed new varieties for flavor, nutrition, and resistance to disease. The humble watermelon is one of the most engineered fruits you will ever eat.

Drennan, Lillie Elizabeth McGee

1928

Lillie Elizabeth Drennan, the first licensed female truck driver and trucking-firm owner in Texas (and the United States), was born at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Texas, on January 9, 1897. Her mother, about whom little is known, gave her up for adoption; at three weeks of age Lillie became the foster daughter of Francis Carolyn (Fannie, Grannie) Nichols McGee of Hempstead. Lillie married William Barney Jackson on December 18, 1912, when she was fifteen years old; the couple had a son but were divorced in June 1914. On July 17, 1917, Lillie married Willard Ernest Drennan; this couple, who had no children, were divorced in April 1929. Lillie married S. B. Boulware on October 31, 1931; they had no children and received a divorce in April 1943. Lillie dropped out of school in the fifth grade. At the age of thirteen she obtained employment as a telephone operator; by the time she was twenty-two, however, she had lost most of her hearing ability, probably as the result of scarlet fever suffered some years earlier; she wore a hearing aid throughout most of her adult life. She and her second husband started a trucking business in March 1928, primarily to take advantage of an oil boom near Hempstead. They purchased their first truck, a used, open-cab Model-T Ford, which her husband drove. As their business rapidly prospered, they bought a second truck, a closed-cab Chevrolet driven by Lillie. Later they added other trucks and hired additional drivers. After their divorce in 1929, Lillie became the sole owner of the Drennan Truck Line and, until 1934, a soft-drink bottling plant in Hempstead that the couple had also acquired. Lillie received her commercial truck-driver's license in 1929 after the Railroad Commission began supervising the motor-freight business in the state. Commission examiners appeared reluctant to grant her a license, contending that her hearing impairment would make her a safety risk. But Lillie perceived sex bias and effectively argued her case, based on her driving record: "If any man can beat my record I'll just get out of here." She operated the Drennan Truck Line for nearly twenty-four years and withstood opposition from unfair competitors, dishonest shipping clerks, and others who believed that a woman lacked the fortitude to manage a trucking company. She and her drivers, most of whom were black men, hauled oilfield equipment, explosives, soft drinks, and general freight throughout East Texas, braving mud and ice. On occasions Lillie drove over forty-eight hour stretches with virtually no sleep or rest, but apparently she never had an accident. Joe Carrington, a well-known insurance carrier for Texas trucking companies, wrote in 1946 that he knew of "no other truck owner" who enjoyed a safety record comparable to Lillie's. Carrington also praised the excellent reputation of her other drivers. Lillie received safety awards from the Railroad Commission and the Texas Motor Transportation Association. She also demonstrated her driving skills as a guest participant on a Texas Motor Transport Association "Roadeo" obstacle course at the state fairgrounds in Dallas in September 1950. Lillie Drennan achieved national fame for her colorful personality. Attired in her khaki pants and shirt, laced work boots, and a ten-gallon hat, she placed a loaded revolver by her side when she drove, although she never used it. She insisted upon training every driver she hired; she sometimes kicked her employees in the seat of their pants and threatened, in her foghorn voice, to "pistol-whip" or "brain them with an iron bar" for violating her rules. When criticized for her cursing, she responded, "Me and God have an understanding." During World War II the United States Army praised Lillie's success in its recruiting campaign to attract women truck drivers for the quartermaster corps. During her long career Lillie received media attention in periodicals, newspapers, and radio broadcasts. In 1943 she visited Hollywood, where the L

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Groce, Jared Ellison

1822

Jared Ellison Groce, planter, public official, and the wealthiest settler in Stephen F. Austin 's colony, was born in Halifax County, Virginia, on October 12, 1782, the son of Jared Ellison and Sarah (Sheppard) Groce. In 1802 he moved to South Carolina, where he acquired valuable property and married Mary Ann Waller, daughter of Texas pioneer Leonard Waller, on August 29, 1804. Later that year he moved to Lincoln County, Georgia, where he purchased a large estate. There he became a delegate to the convention that drafted the Georgia constitution. After his wife's death in 1814, Groce moved to Alabama and established a settlement known as Fort Groce. He heard of Austin's colonization scheme in 1821 and decided to move to Texas. With the aid of some fifty wagons and ninety slaves, Groce and his effects reached the Brazos River in January 1822. He began constructing a homestead, which soon became Bernardo Plantation , on the east bank four miles south of the site of present-day Hempstead. In recognition of the extensive property that he had brought with him, he was granted title to ten leagues of land by the Mexican government, on July 29, 1824. These original holdings were soon augmented by shrewd purchases. It is said, for example, that in 1828 Groce acquired the league on which Courtney was founded in exchange for a riding pony and a bolt of cloth. In 1822 he cultivated what may have been the first cotton crop in the Austin colony and in 1825 constructed one of the earliest gins in Texas, on the Brazos River, now in southwestern Grimes County. By the end of 1822 he had built a large house at Bernardo on a hill overlooking the Brazos near the mouth of Fish Pond Creek; here he resided until 1833, when the malarial environment of the Brazos bottoms compelled him to divide his estate among his children and move several miles northward to Wallace Prairie, now in Grimes County. Here, accompanied by twenty slaves, on an open hill in a three-league tract of land on the east bank of the Brazos, Groce constructed a new home known as Groce's Retreat . The establishment included a primitive sawmill for processing logs hewn from nearby junipers. During the 1830s, in order to defend his home against occasional Indian raids, Groce armed a company of his slaves. He had been a participant in the affairs of the Austin colony since 1824, when he chaired a committee to petition the Mexican congress for the protection of slave property in Texas. He actively opposed the Fredonian Movement and placed his ferry, wagons, teams, and slaves at the disposal of Col. Mateo Ahumada as he marched to Nacogdoches to suppress the uprising in 1827 ( see FREDONIAN REBELLION ). Groce was selected as a delegate from the District of Viesca (later Milam County) to the Convention of 1832 , where he opposed the resolution seeking independence for Texas and chaired a committee to draft petitions for tariff reduction. He was returned to the Convention of 1833 , where he again participated actively. But whatever the grounds of his earlier reluctance, by 1836 Groce had espoused revolution. Though he was crippled in both arms and unfit for military duty, he is reported to have personally outfitted five men for service in the Texas army. The draft of the Texas Declaration of Independence was completed before March 2 by George C. Childress at Groce's Retreat, whence it was returned to Washington-on-the-Brazos for ratification. Between March 18 and March 21, 1836, the Retreat served as the temporary capital of the Republic of Texas , while the interim government of David G. Burnet stopped there en route from Washington to Harrisburg. In April before the battle of San Jacinto , Gen. Sam Houston and his army camped on the west bank of the Brazos opposite Bernardo, which Groce's son, Leonard Waller Groce , had inherited. For two weeks Leonard Groce supplied the army with provisions, shelter, and medical attention. After San Jacinto, Groce's Retreat was among the venues considered

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Hannay, Allen Burroughs

1915

Allen Hannay, lawyer and judge, was born in Hempstead, Texas, on February 14, 1892, the son of Robert Edwards and Katherine Donaldson (Allen) Hannay. His father was a United States attorney and served as state attorney in six counties. Hannay finished high school at the age of fifteen, attended Texas A&M, and graduated from the University of Texas law school when he was twenty-one. He became the youngest county judge in the nation at the age of twenty-three. He enlisted in officers' training school as a private in World War I , supervised the Hempstead draft board, and taught beginning pilots military aeronautics. In 1918 he moved to Houston and became a law partner of Maurice Hirsch . In 1930 Hannay was appointed judge of the 113th Civil Court. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him to the federal bench on August 12, 1942, where he served as chief judge of the Southern District from 1954 to 1962. He relinquished this position when required to do so at the age of seventy, but continued presiding over cases. When he died at the age of ninety-one he was the oldest active federal judge in the nation. Hannay's judicial rulings were generally on the conservative side, but he became a favorite of environmental groups when he ruled that Armco Steel Company had to cease polluting the Houston Ship Channel . He was also involved in parts of Muhammed Ali's draft evasion trial (1967). In another case he demonstrated his fairness and commitment to equal rights when he ordered a Channelview school to allow a divorced female student to participate in extracurricular activities. Besides his illustrious judicial career, Hannay was a member of the Houston Buffs , a professional baseball team. He met Frances Johnson in Columbus, Ohio, during World War I. They were married on July 16, 1918, and had two children. Judge Hannay died on October 22, 1983.

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Waller, Edwin

1835

Plantation Home of Edwin Waller (1800-1883). Member of the consultation in 1835. Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. First mayor of the City of Austin. Member of the Secession Convention in 1861. On this property, acquired during the Republic, he resided from 1846 for many years.

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Jacob E. Freeman

1841

In response to the political, social and economic turmoil in Texas and the South after the Civil War, the federal government enacted the Reconstruction Act on March 2, 1867. Many local and state officials were removed from office and a constitutional convention convened in 1868 with ten African Americans elected to serve. The 12th Legislature met in 1870-1871 and was composed of 14 elected African American members. Amid struggles and violence, African American legislators continued to serve Texas. Among them was Jacob E. Freeman who served as a representative from Waller, Fort Bend and Wharton counties. Freeman was born a slave in Alabama around 1841 and came to Texas when he was eleven. He assisted his master in the Confederate army during the Civil War and, by 1873, was a mechanic in the Hempstead area and had served on a Waller County grand jury. In July 1873, Freeman served on the Colored Men’s Convention where attendees discussed political, civic and economic rights of minorities. As a member of the Republican Party, Freeman won a seat in the Texas House of Representatives in 1874 for the 14th Legislature where he served on the Penitentiary Committee. He was again elected to the 16th Legislature in 1879. In 1878, Freeman campaigned for the Greenback Party candidate for Governor, unsuccessfully ran for the Legislature as a People’s Party candidate in 1886 and campaigned for a gubernatorial candidate in 1892. Jacob E. Freeman and other 19th century African American legislators helped safeguard the rights of Texas and its Black citizens against tremendous odds and a sometimes hostile political climate. 175 Years of Texas Independence * 1836 - 2011

Historical Marker → · 4.9 mi away

Trooper Russell Lynn Boyd Memorial Highway

1983

Honors Highway Patrol Trooper Russell Lynn Boyd, Texas DPS Hempstead, killed October 11, 1983, during a traffic stop on State Highway 6 near Hempstead by Eliseo Hernandez Moreno. The honorary highway is on US-290; exact endpoints unconfirmed (single Facebook-post source as of 2026-05-13).

Historical Marker →

Things to Do in Hempstead

quirky 20.1 mi away
The Underground City Beneath the Streets

After fires ravaged Brenham three times in a decade the town did something no other Texas city had attempted. They built twenty-seven underground cisterns…
historical 20.1 mi away
The Night Federal Troops Burned Brenham

In 1866 Union soldiers occupying Brenham during Reconstruction clashed with local residents and set fire to an entire city block. The flames consumed…
quirky 20.1 mi away
From Cotton Gin to Ice Cream Empire

In 1907 a group of Washington County dairy farmers converted an abandoned cotton gin into a creamery and started making butter. Ice cream production began in…
quirky 20.4 mi away
The Blues Capital of Texas

Mance Lipscomb picked cotton all week and picked guitar all weekend on the farms outside Navasota for decades before anyone beyond Grimes County knew his name.…
historical 20.6 mi away
The Explorer Who Died Lost

On March 19 1687 the French explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle was walking through the bottomlands near the Navasota River when one of his own men…
food 19.0 mi away
Blue Bell Creameries

Tour the home of Texas' beloved ice cream in tiny Brenham. Free samples.
historical 19.9 mi away
Where Texas Declared Independence

Just outside Brenham lies the town of Independence where Texas declared its freedom from Mexico in 1836. Washington County became the cradle of Texas liberty…
historical 20.1 mi away
The Summer the Fever Came

In 1867 just one year after Union troops burned part of Brenham a yellow fever epidemic swept through town. The mosquito-borne disease killed dozens and…

Everything Near Hempstead

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

Explore Hempstead on the Map
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