Italy, Texas

Everything Italy is known for

3 songs mention this city 0 artists from here

Music in Italy

Songs About Italy

Texas Twister
Little Feat
8%
"It's ladies night in Italy"
La Reina del Sur
Los Tigres Del Norte
6%
"otros que vive en Italia"
Those Feat’ll Steer Ya Wrong Sometimes
Little Feat
3%
"Now we're going to London, Liverpool, Italy, Paris, Egypt, Dublin, Frisco, Waco"

Artists From Italy

No artists from Italy in the database yet.

Rivers & Roads in Song near Italy

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

Interstate 35 43 songs Interstate 45 8 songs Trinity River 11 songs Chisholm Trail 8 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Brazos River 42 songs

History of Italy

The Black City Hall on The Hill RoadyGoat

Under segregation, Italy's Black neighborhood, known locally as The Hill and centered on Hardeman, Williams, and Harris streets and parts of Poplar and Clark, went without running water, sewers, paved streets, and adequate streetlights that other parts of town already had. Rather than simply petition and wait, community leaders organized what became the Italy Colored Council and sat down with the all-white city government to press for basic services. In the council's first election, residents chose John Henry Farrow as mayor, Nelton Tarrant as secretary, and five aldermen. A March 1951 feature in Ebony magazine called Farrow Texas' First Negro Mayor and reported that roughly 95 percent of Italy's Black residents owned their homes and 60 percent paid the poll tax required to vote. In 1953 the town built a dedicated Colored City Hall, its dedication photographed by Dallas photographer R. C. Hickman. The small building grew obsolete around 1965 as segregation weakened and the municipal governments were unified. Longtime resident and preservationist Elmerine Allen Bell later worked to protect the structure and win it a Texas historical marker, documenting plainly that this parallel government was never ceremonial, it existed because one part of town had been denied infrastructure available everywhere else. (Source: Texas Historical Commission; Ebony, March 1951.)

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The 900-Foot Tornado Down Main Street RoadyGoat

If Italy's downtown looks like a patchwork of older masonry, altered storefronts, and newer construction rather than an intact nineteenth-century row, this is largely why. At about 7:20 p.m. on March 26, 1961, a tornado entered Italy from the southwest and ground northeast straight through the main business district. Mayor Robert Windham put the losses at 500,000 dollars, an enormous sum for a town of roughly 1,200 people. A contemporary Associated Press report stated bluntly that no business on Main Street escaped damage. Ennis patrolman A. E. Chapman, who helped with rescue and cleanup, estimated the tornado's path at 900 feet wide, running the length of town from one end to the other. W. Lee Coulston was inside an Italy cafe with about a dozen other people when it hit. They took shelter as the roof was peeled away and dishes flew through the building, and remarkably, everyone in the cafe survived without injury. Rescue vehicles came from as far as Dallas. Stand on this stretch of downtown and you're standing in the storm's old path. (Source: Associated Press archives.)

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The Town That Was Almost Called Egypt RoadyGoat

The little Blackland Prairie town you're passing through, the one locals pronounce IT-lee, came within a postmaster's whim of being named something else entirely. The first building on this site went up in 1879, raised by the Aycock brothers and serving all at once as their home, a grocery store, and a post office. When residents sat down to name the place, they argued over a few candidates. One faction pushed for Houston Creek, citing a local tradition that Sam Houston had once camped beside the creek running through the settlement, though no firm contemporary record confirms the visit. Others liked Egypt. Postal officials rejected Houston Creek outright, worried it would be confused with another Texas locality. So in 1880 the Waxahachie postmaster, Gabriel J. Penn, made the call: Italy, because he thought the climate here resembled that of sunny Italy. The town was never founded by Italian immigrants or named for an Italian landowner. It owes its name to one man's optimistic comparison between Central Texas weather and the Mediterranean, a judgment that sounds awfully generous come a Texas August. (Source: Texas State Historical Association.)

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Italy Colored City Hall

1950

Frustrated by poor infrastructure, residents of an African American community in Italy called “the Hill” rallied to get a hearing with the city council in the mid-twentieth century. A group of African American men met in a small building on Poplar Street to discuss their impending meeting with the city council. The meeting between them and the all-white city council led to the establishment of the Italy Colored City Council around 1950. Elections for both city councils were held at the same time, and all citizens could vote on both ballots. In the first election for the Colored City Council, the people elected John Henry Farrow (1891-1959) as mayor, Nelton Tarrant (1913-1989) as secretary, and James “Jim” Hardeman (1885-1953), Matthew Sweatt (1882-1969), Walter Smith (1893-1961), Edd Lee Lewis (1900-1967), and William Costonia Jennings (1920-2009) as aldermen. A march 1951 issue of Ebony magazine featured the men in the article, “Texas’ first Negro Mayor.” Most, if not all, of the men elected to the council were descendants of enslaved people in Ellis County, illustrating the continued endurance of African Americans in Ellis County. The small wooden building with the sign “Colored City Hall” on the front was built in 1953 on Williams Street. The building served as a meeting place for African American council members and represented hope and progress for the Italy African American community. Despite the history of racial violence and segregation in Ellis County, the Italy Colored City Hall stands as a symbol of African American self-determination and political activism. (2017)

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Shawnee Cattle Trail

1850

In use from approximately 1850 to 1873, the Shawnee Cattle Trail was the first north-south cattle trail and reached the farthest east of the four great cattle-driving Trails from Texas to the northern markets. These included the Shawnee, Chisholm, Great Western and Goodnight-Loving trails. The Shawnee Trail passed through western Ellis County crossing the Brazos River at Waco, the Trinity River at Dallas and the Red River at Preston en route to Missouri. The trail was well-suited for cattle drives as Ellis County is situated within the Blackland Prairie. The prairie transitioned from gently rolling terrain to level ground in the central corridor, which provided an easy pathway for cattle transport. In the 19th century, the prairie provided an abundance of forage and water, which ensured safe passage for their journey north. Waxahachie, the Ellis County seat, was created in 1850 and was a supply stop on the trail. However, by 1855, an epidemic of Texas fever, also called tick fever, began to pass from unaffected Texas cattle to northern cattle. The fever ravaged cattle and enraged local stockmen, but the drives continued. Between 1861 and 1865, the cattle drives were all but discontinued due to the outbreak of the Civil War and laws that regulated infected Texas cattle. Famed cattle baron Joseph Geiting McCoy first used the Chisholm Trail in 1867, which followed the Shawnee Trail through Waco but then travelled west through Fort Worth. Although the Chisholm trail eventually became the major route for Texas cattle, drives up the Shawnee trail continued through 1873.

Historical Marker → · 4.3 mi away

Italy, TX

1879

Italy is at the junction of U.S. Highway 77 and State Highway 34, on the Blackland Prairie forty-five miles south of Dallas in southwest Ellis County. Although a few families had settled in the vicinity by 1860, the Aycock brothers built the first house on the present site of the town in 1879 and used it as a dwelling, grocery store, and post office. That year residents debated what to name the settlement. Some favored Houston Creek, because Sam Houston reportedly camped on the creek that flowed through town. Others wanted the name Egypt or Italy. The postal department rejected the first choice because of possible confusion with Houston Creek in Harris County. Gabriel J. Penn, postmaster in Waxahachie, named the town Italy in 1880 because the climate was much like that found in "sunny Italy." The population was 500 in 1890. Settlers found the land good for cotton, corn, sweet potatoes, and wheat. The greatest impetus for growth occurred in December 1890, when the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad arrived, and the town became a market center for the surrounding area. The next year the first newspaper was published, and Italy was officially incorporated. Besides trade and agriculture, residents were attracted to Italy because of its many schools and churches. Italy Institute, Southwestern Normal College, and Hope Institute educated the youth of the community and the surrounding counties. By 1894 more than 350 students were attending classes. Six churches held Sunday services by 1900. In March 1925 the Italy Independent School District was established. The population grew steadily in the early twentieth century, rising from 1,061 in 1900 to 1,500 in 1925. The International-Great Northern Railroad reached the town in 1901. In 1913 the first cream and crimson interurbans opened service between Dallas and Waco on what became the Texas Electric Railway. Italy profited from this service, particularly when the Texas Electric made the town an exchange point for freight with the Katy. Cotton ruled the economy by the 1920s, when Italy had five gins, a compress, and a cottonseed oil mill. The main road through Italy, a graded dirt road stretching from Dallas to Waco, was known as the King of Trails Highway. Although the local ice plant produced some electricity for the town, most electricity was brought in from Waco by transmission towers built by the Texas Electric. The Great Depression started a downward trend for Italy that lasted for thirty-five years. In 1930 the town had 1,230 residents and forty-five businesses. In 1960 the population was 1,183, and in 1970 the businesses numbered twenty. Throughout the period agricultural operations expanded and displaced much of the rural population. An upswing began in 1975, when milo and corn production increased. The town had become a bedroom community for the Dallas-Fort Worth area by 1980, when the population was 1,306. The town sponsors an Italian festival each June and supports the S. M. Dunlap Memorial Library. In 1990 the population was 1,699. In 2000 the population reached 1,993.

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Meharg, Emma Grigsby

1925

Emma Grigsby Meharg, the first Texas woman secretary of state, was born on August 14, 1873, at Lynnville, Tennessee, the daughter of Jasper N. and Mary Amanda (Calvert) Grigsby. In 1883 the family moved to Italy, Texas, where she attended public school. She graduated from Southwestern Normal College in 1895. She married Samuel W. Meharg, a native of Anniston, Alabama, on June 24, 1902, and went as a bride to Plainview, Texas, where her husband became principal of the public school. Mrs. Meharg also taught school both in Italy and Plainview. The couple had two children. Emma Meharg was appointed secretary of state by Governor Miriam A. Ferguson and served during 1925 and 1926. In her official biennial report she made a number of recommendations for changes in laws relating to corporations, securities, administration of the secretary of state 's office, and the institution of a civil service system for state employees. Subsequent legislatures enacted into law many of her proposals. She strongly recommended that the office of the secretary of state be made an elective rather than appointive office because the duties of the office were of a more public nature than at the time of the adoption of the Constitution of 1876 . She also advocated adoption of a constitutional amendment to raise the salary of the secretary of state from the $2,000 per year set by the Constitution of 1876. During her administration as secretary of state many historical records were taken out of storage, restored, and processed for easy reference and exhibit. Mrs. Meharg was a leader in civic, cultural, church, and political affairs. She served on the Plainview board of school trustees and on the board of regents of Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University) from 1932 to 1937. She died at Plainview on September 4, 1937, and was buried there.

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Tarrant, General Edward H.

1796

Veteran of the War of 1812, member of the Texas Congress and a courageous indian fighter. Born in North Carolina, 1796, died in Parker County, Texas, August 2, 1858. Reburied in Ellis County near his former plantation, 1859. His remains removed to the county named in his honor in 1928 and reinterred in Fort Worth.

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Watson, Benjamin William

1862

Benjamin William Abner Joseph John Frederick Watson, landowner, farmer, and Confederate officer, was born on June 9, 1828, in Virginia. He was the son of Richard Price Watson and Elizabeth (McGeeHee) Watson. Watson came to Ellis County in the 1850s with his father and assisted in the establishment of a plantation on Chambers Creek a few miles northeast of Italy, Texas. Upon his father's death in 1859, Watson took charge of the plantation and by 1860 owned thirty slaves. On May 15, 1850, he married Mary E. Scott in Harrison, Texas. Mary died in 1851. Watson married Margaret Ruth Overstreet in 1854 and the couple produced six children—four daughters and two sons. In 1862 Watson helped recruit and organize the Nineteenth Texas Cavalry Regiment. He enlisted as a captain on March 16, 1862, at Chambers Creek and was elected lieutenant colonel on April 10, 1862. He participated in the Marmaduke Raid into Missouri on April 1, 1863, as well as the Red River campaign . Watson quickly gained recognition for his gallantry and coolness in action. In the summer of 1864 Watson succeeded Nathaniel M. Burford as commander of the Nineteenth Cavalry. At the close of the war, Watson was on the verge of promotion to brigadier general. After the war, he returned to his plantation in Barnham, Ellis County. He died in Waxahachie on September 11, 1873. In 1999 the Texas Historical Commission placed a marker at the Watson Family Cemetery.

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Everything Near Italy

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

Explore Italy on the Map
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