Hico, Texas

Everything Hico is known for

2 songs mention this city 1 artist from here

Music in Hico

Songs About Hico

Leavin’ Fort Worth
James Steinle
53%
"Somewhere north of Hico"
I’ve Been Everywhere...In Texas
Brian Burns
1%
"Hico"

Artists From Hico

D
Don Edwards
country Pop: 37

Rivers & Roads in Song near Hico

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

Brazos River 37 songs Interstate 20 13 songs

History of Hico

Hico, TX RoadyGoat

Hico's fame is tied to one of the most persistent legends of the Old West. In the late 1940s, an elderly man living here named Ollie 'Brushy Bill' Roberts made a startling claim: he was Billy the Kid. He alleged that Sheriff Pat Garrett had killed the wrong man back in 1881 and that he had lived out his life in secret. In 1950, Brushy Bill went to New Mexico to seek a pardon from the governor, but his claim was met with skepticism. Just a month later, he collapsed and died on a sidewalk right here in Hico. While historians almost universally dispute his story, Hico has embraced its unique connection to the legend. You can visit the Billy the Kid Museum downtown and decide for yourself. Was he a simple man with a tall tale, or the real outlaw living his last days in this quiet Texas town?

The Ghost of Billy the Kid RoadyGoat

Right in the heart of Hico, you can find a museum dedicated to a man who claimed to be a ghost from the Old West. In 1949, William Morrison, a lawyer working on an estate case, tracked down an elderly Hico resident named Ollie 'Brushy Bill' Roberts. Roberts confessed a secret he'd kept for nearly 70 years: he was William H. Bonney, the infamous outlaw Billy the Kid. He claimed Pat Garrett had shot another man and let him escape. Brushy Bill, hoping to clear his name, traveled to New Mexico in 1950 to request a pardon, but the governor was unconvinced. A month later, while walking to mail a package, Brushy Bill collapsed from a heart attack on a Hico sidewalk and died. Documented records put him at seventy-one, though he'd insisted he was born back in 1859 — the older age he needed to be if his story were true. While historians have largely debunked his claim, the tale put Hico on the map. The town doesn't claim it's true, but it proudly tells the story of the man who might have been Billy the Kid.

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The Town That Moved for a Train RoadyGoat

The Hico you're driving through isn't where it started. The original town, founded in 1856, was two miles from here, on Honey Creek. But in 1880, the Texas Central Railway was laying track, and its surveyors chose a path that completely bypassed the settlement. For a 19th-century town, no railroad meant no future. The citizens of Hico faced a choice: stay and wither, or move and thrive. They chose to move. In a remarkable feat of pioneer determination, they dismantled their homes and businesses, loaded them onto wagons, and hauled them across the prairie to this new site. Some buildings were moved whole, dragged by teams of oxen. Imagine seeing a general store slowly rolling across the landscape. The railroad tracks that still cross through downtown are the very reason Hico is here today—a town so committed to survival it literally picked itself up and moved.

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Don Edwards — Hico, Texas

1939

Donald Edward Hezlitt (March 20, 1939 – October 23, 2022) was an American country and western singer, born in Boonton, New Jersey. Left home at 16 for the Texas oil fields. Pro debut 1961 as a singer/actor/stuntman at newly opened Six Flags Over Texas; spent 5 years there before moving to Nashville. Inducted into Western Music Association Hall of Fame, 2005. Died in Hico, Texas, aged 83.

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John Rankin Alford

1860

John Rankin Alford was born in Tennessee in 1834, and he arrived in Hamilton County, Texas, in 1860 with his wife Martha Ann (Malone). The couple settled on Honey Creek and Alford began selling goods that he had brought with him by wagon and also engaged in the cattle business. The small settlement along Honey Creek was on the mail route between Meridian and Brownwood, and as the community grew, a petition was made for the establishment of a post office at the site; Alford selected the name Hico, after his childhood home of Hico, Calloway County, Kentucky, and served as the young town’s first postmaster. After serving in the second frontier regiment of Texas State Troops during the Civil War and surviving the battle of Dove Creek, Alford became a physician by standing before an examining board of physicians in Meridian in 1875, and remained a doctor in good standing for the remainder of his life, practicing medicine well into his eighties. Alford married Lerona King in 1877 after the death of his first wife. He fathered fourteen children. Alford was a charter member of the Hico Masonic Lodge and was a founding member of the Hico Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In 1880, when the railroad came to Hamilton County and the citizens of Hico chose to move the town to be adjacent to the rail line, Alford also relocated, and he established a drug store at the new townsite. Alford remained in Hico for the rest of his life, and he died in his home on April 1, 1928. He is buried in the Hico Cemetery, surrounded by his family and generations of Hico citizens who recognize his dedication and contributions to the town of Hico and its people.

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Old Hico

1856

This site on Honey Creek marks the beginning in 1856 of the settlement of Hico. Earliest families to locate here were those of John Q. Anderson, M. A. Fuller, J. G. Barbee, James R. and Henry Fuller, Isaac Steen, Isaac and Thomas Malone. In 1860 John R. Alford, a merchant, became the first postmaster. Rocks from ruins of the old mill were used in the erection of this memorial.

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Hudspeth, Frances B. Hellums

1958

Frances B. Hellums Hudspeth, museum administrator, curator, and librarian, was born on November 4, 1907, in Hico, Texas, the daughter of William E. and B. (Morgan) Hellums. While growing up she lived in several Texas cities, but by 1924 the family had settled in Austin. Frances Hellums graduated from Austin High School and subsequently taught in the high schools of Lamesa and Rising Star. She received a B.A. degree with honors from the University of Texas in 1933 and taught science in the Austin public schools from 1930 to 1939. She married Jack Chever Hudspeth on June 1, 1934. She began her association with the University of Texas in 1940 as an attendance clerk and continued as statistical clerk, administrative secretary, and executive assistant in the office of the dean of arts and sciences. During most of her university career she worked closely with Harry H. Ransom and served in his succession of offices. Ransom referred to her appreciatively as "the Colonel." In 1958 she began her official association with the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center and the publication of the Texas Quarterly , of which she was managing editor from 1958 until her death. She handled a vast range of responsibilities for the growing Humanities Research Center, working on acquisitions with donors, estates, and dealers, and on the housing, sorting, and exhibiting of collections at a time when the HRC did not have a permanent home. Hudspeth's wide experience helped her to bring her talents and energy to bear on her most important project, the task of putting together a central repository for the HRC. She and Ransom had unique insights into the needs of the center and on a daily basis attended to the work of architects, engineers, builders, furnishers, and staff members in every phase of construction. With Ransom she shared a remarkable knowledge not only of the holdings of the HRC in its formative years but of the many special collections such as the Cora Maud O'neal collection of French decorative arts, the library and study from the home of John Foster Dulles, and the Willoughby-Blake silver collection. She and Ransom planned the HRC building to house collections in rare books and manuscripts, theater arts, photography, and the history of science, as well as reading rooms, study rooms, a conservation lab, offices, and carrels for graduate students. Frances Hudspeth had a special interest in the first two floors, which house the James A. Michener Collection of Twentieth Century American Paintings. She was working on this part of the center at the time of her death in an Austin hospital on January 29, 1972. She was a self-effacing woman who shunned credit for her work. She lived a life of devotion to her family, the university, and books. She is buried beside the grave of her mother in Hico, Texas.

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Cole House

1901

This home was built by real estate investor J. Van Steenwyck in 1901-1902. It was purchased by John Baldwin Cole (1860-1924) and his wife, the former Minnie Victoria Grace, in 1907. A druggist, Cole operated the Cole and Grace Drugstore in partnership with his father-in-law, Dr. J. W. Grace. The two-story wooden home features an offset gable front, one-story wraparound porch with a Chippendale screen, and a steep-pitch hipped roof. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1988

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Things to Do in Hico

nature 22.3 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 0.2 mi away
Koffee Kup Family Restaurant

Hico institution on West 2nd Street, serving comfort plates and homemade pie for nearly 50 years. Named one of Texas Monthly's 40 Best Cafes.
spooky 14.7 mi away
McDow's Hole

In 1880s Erath County a young bride named Jenny Papworth was murdered and thrown into this swimming hole on the Green Creek. Her ghost guards the water and…
quirky 14.9 mi away
Fairy, Texas
food 7.4 mi away
Dutchman's Hidden Valley

Roadside country store and deli on US Highway 281 north of Hamilton. Known for sourdough sandwiches, pie, and a Hill Country general-store vibe.
day trip
Day Trip to Hico 🥷🏻 (FULL EPISODE) S9 E3

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Everything Near Hico

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

Explore Hico on the Map
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