Itasca, Texas

Everything Itasca is known for

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Music in Itasca

Songs About Itasca

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Artists From Itasca

S
Sam Baker
americana

Rivers & Roads in Song near Itasca

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

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

Musical Heritage

The Songwriter Who Survived the Train RoadyGoat

Songwriter Sam Baker was born here in Itasca, and he played varsity football at Itasca High, back when people called him Dick Baker. In nineteen eighty six, when he was thirty two, he was riding the train from Cuzco to the ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru when a bomb went off in the car. The steel bars of the luggage rack became a rain of shrapnel, killing seven people and injuring nearly forty. Baker survived a severed femoral artery and bleeding in his brain, and the blast wrecked his hearing for more than twenty years. He moved to Austin in the early nineteen nineties, taught himself to play guitar left handed to work around his injuries, and turned all of it into songs, starting with an album he called Mercy.

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Searchin from Itasca RoadyGoat

One of the voices of early rock and roll came from Itasca. Billy Guy of the Coasters was born Frank Phillips Junior here on the twentieth of June, nineteen thirty six. He was the group's baritone and one of its lead singers, and he sang lead on their hit Searchin'. The Coasters were famous for comic, story telling songs, and in nineteen eighty seven they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with Billy Guy among the members honored.

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History of Itasca

The Doctor, the Banker and the Duel RoadyGoat

Dr. Franklin Maner was prominent in Itasca for more than thirty years, and E. E. Griffin had once worked in the drugstore that filled the doctor's prescriptions. Griffin went on to be a lumber agent and then a banker here, and the two men were the best of friends. Then they fell out. They took opposite sides in running the town, and each blamed the other for criminal charges brought against him. On Monday, the twenty sixth of June, nineteen oh five, they met on the street, about thirty five feet apart, and opened fire. About eight shots were fired. Dr. Maner, shot in the chest, fell to the ground and kept shooting, and he died within the hour. Griffin surrendered, was tried for murder, and was acquitted. Maner had carried more than a hundred thousand dollars in life insurance, and one company refused to pay, arguing he had sought his own death. The federal courts agreed. And in May of nineteen oh seven, the doctor's son shot Griffin twice. Griffin survived, and the son was indicted for assault with intent to murder.

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Three Stories for One Name RoadyGoat

How did Itasca get its name? The Handbook of Texas says it's named for Lake Itasca in Minnesota, where the Mississippi River begins. A book of Texas place names adds the local version: a Katy railroad engineer supposedly saw a mirage out on this prairie that reminded him of Lake Itasca. And the name itself was invented, since Lake Itasca was named by an explorer in the eighteen thirties. Then there's the folklorist J. Frank Dobie, who had his own theory. Dobie wrote that Itasca descends from the Spanish word atasca, it sticks, a reference to the sticky black waxy soil the town sits on. Anyone who's walked these fields after a rain can see his point.

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The Paper the Kids Ran RoadyGoat

After Itasca's last commercial newspaper closed, the town's news came from an unlikely place: the high school. The Paw Print Press, started by Itasca students in nineteen ninety seven, covered the town every week, and the students did it all, right down to printing, folding, stamping and mailing the paper. In January of two thousand three, The New Yorker magazine sent writer Mark Singer to Itasca, and his story was titled Teen Beat, with the question: what happens when a high school weekly is the only newspaper in town?

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Itasca Cotton Manufacturing Company

1900

Until 1900 raw cotton grown in Hill County had to be shipped to the coast and from there to the East for processing. The Itasca Cotton Manufacturing Company was organized at Itasca, Texas, on March 6, 1900, to meet the need for a local processing facility. Many of the stockholders were members of the Files family, which had been prominent in local affairs since the 1850s, and family members managed the ICMC during its sixty-seven years of operation. From the beginning, the mill was a vertical operation that processed raw cotton by dyeing, spinning, and weaving it into finished fabrics. Initially the mill produced drill to be made into overalls and sheeting for flour sacks. It began production with 100 bales of cotton on September 7, 1901, and operated with 6,000 spindles and 200 thirty-six-inch plain Mason looms powered by steam engines. In 1902 the ICMC board decided to build a mill village to provide low-rent housing for the workers. When a child was accidentally killed while playing in the mill area, the board took out its first employees' liability insurance. The company houses were provided with free water and sewerage, and also free electricity as soon as the mill itself was electrified in the 1920s. In 1906 the board added a nondenominational church and a schoolhouse to the mill village. Occasionally whole families were employed by the mill, and many employees worked for the company their entire lives. For the first fourteen years the company's fortunes fluctuated widely. At times the ICMC was close to bankruptcy; at other times it was fairly prosperous. World War I , however, brought solvency to the company by generating a great need for cotton duck, the heavy fabric used to make army tents. The government bought Itasca's entire output during the war years. Subsequently, the mill erected another building and added more looms. In addition to duck and sheeting, it began to produce ratiné, a popular dress fabric, in the 1920s. In 1922–23 Itasca added more looms and spindles and purchased adjacent acreage. The mill continued to prosper until the Great Depression , during which the facility was closed for a while. By 1940, however, ICMC was in full-time operation again, producing a wide variety of clothing fabrics in addition to duck and sheeting. During World War II the company was again converted to making duck for the government and operated day and night. After the war the growth of labor unions and the synthetic fiber industry beset the mill. By the mid-1950s the company was losing money, and plans were made for liquidation. The plant was shut down in 1959. The company dissolved on March 27, 1967. The ICMC was founded partly in order that area farmers might have a local market for their cotton. By the time the company was dissolved farming in the area had become much more diversified, and the relatively small mill could not compete with larger mills, particularly those that were parts of multipurpose corporations.

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Itasca, TX

1901

Itasca is on Interstate 35 West at the edge of the Blackland Prairie in the northeast corner of Hill County. The elevation of the town is 702 feet above sea level. A limestone outcropping overlooks Itasca from the east at an elevation of 858 feet. The town is at the head of Richland Creek on a natural watershed that divides the Brazos and Trinity river basins. It is named after Lake Itasca, at the head of the Mississippi River in Minnesota. G. M. Dodge of New York purchased 100 acres as an agent for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad in 1881. The town was platted on the Arthur Renshaw survey. Town lots went on sale on October 10, 1881. The first building, a general store, was erected by Will I. Hooks and James H. Griffin. Rev. J. W. Lackey became the pastor of the newly built Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1884. The Itasca Mail began the same year; in 1900 its name was changed to Itasca Item . The weekly paper continued publication for over 100 years. The town was incorporated in 1885 and by 1890 had a population of 548. An artesian well dug in 1893 was the primary source of water. A two-story frame schoolhouse built by Robert E. Lee Masonic Lodge No. 449 opened in 1887. In 1920 the streets were paved, and Lone Star Gas began providing service in 1923. The Itasca Cotton Manufacturing Company began operation in 1901. The mill and mill village were completed within the year. On an average the company purchased 10,000 bales of local cotton annually. The company manufactured sheeting, drill, and ducking and employed 350 people. The mill was closed from January 1932 to May 1933. About 1935 the Itasca Weavers Guild was established to utilize cloth left over from wholesale orders. A "factory direct store" was organized in Dallas as early as 1949. Within five years eleven stores were located throughout Texas. Switzer Woman's College and Conservatory of Music moved from Weatherford to Itasca in 1902, then to Dallas in 1912. Burney Military Academy subsequently operated for two years before it too closed. By 1906 the town population was 2,500. The community supported seven grocery stores, two furniture stores, two banks, two hotels, four cotton gins, and a bottling works. In 1937 Hill County Electric Cooperative was founded by Earl Farrow to service the rapidly growing rural population. The cooperative was the third to be established under the Rural Electrification Act. The town began to decline in May 1962, when the Itasca Cotton Manufacturing Company was sold to Harris Electric Manufacturing Company. Fewer employees were necessary, and the need for local raw materials dropped. The population of Itasca in 1990 was 1,523. Major businesses included the Hill County Electric Cooperative, the Itasca Item , Itasca Grain and Storage, the Itasca Gin, and the Itasca Presbyterian Children's Home. Wheat, grain sorghum, some cotton, and cattle are grown in the area. In 2000 the town reported sixty-nine businesses and a population of 1,503.

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Southwestern Presbyterian Home and Service Agency

1902

Southwestern Presbyterian Home and Service Agency, in Hill County, originally Southwestern Presbyterian Home and School for Orphans, was founded in 1902, when C. C. Weaver requested the Presbyterian Synod of Texas to establish an orphanage. In October 1903 members of the synod traveled to Milford, Ellis County, home of Texas Presbyterian College, where they secured a charter and made plans to receive bids for an orphanage. In December 1904 they selected a site located on an elevated plateau that overlooked Files Valley, 5½ miles east of Itasca in Hill County. Mr. and Mrs. D. J. Files donated 360 acres of land and $3,000 in cash for the orphanage. An administrative staff under the direction of the institution's first president, J. D. McLean, oversaw the financing, construction, and initial enrollment of the first class over the next two years. In the spring of 1906 two spacious wood-and-brick residential buildings welcomed the first twenty-two children to their new home and school. The Files Cottage for Boys and the Grace Knox Home for Girls were gifts of Pat E. and Will I. Hooker of Itasca and Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Knox of Dallas. A matron resided in each cottage and was responsible for the children. In addition to the cottage, the grounds also held a twelve-grade elementary school, a laundry room, a barn, a dairy, and the president's home, provided by Simon Fraser and known as the Simon Fraser Annex. In 1910 the board amended the original charter to allow the synods of Arkansas and Oklahoma to have joint control of the institution. For the next forty-seven years the operated under the 1910 charter. During that time school enrollment hovered around 100. In 1955 the institution merged with the Presbyterian Child Placement Agency to form the Presbyterian Children's Home and Service Agency with offices in Itasca, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Two years later the board of trustees voted to discontinue the school and enroll the children in the nearby public schools at Itasca. Over the next twenty-five years the institution gradually shifted its care to dependent and neglected children rather than orphans. In 1980 sixty children lived in the cottages of the Southwestern Presbyterian Home.

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Site of Switzer College

1902

Founded 1902 by David and Rebecca Switzer as Woman's College and Conservatory of Music. Offered liberal arts, sciences, music. Had average of 125 students. Social activities included literary societies, lyceum courses, receptions. Moved to Dallas, 1912. Plant was sold, dismantled in 1917. (1966)

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Itasca Railroad Depot

1895

The second railroad depot for Itasca, this Victorian structure was built in 1895, fourteen years after the town was founded along a line of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad. It was constructed large enough to accommodate both passenger and freight service. A landmark in the town and a symbol of the area's early economic growth, the depot served as a transportation center until the late 1960s. In 1972 it was moved to this site. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1982

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Eureka Cemetery

1870

This burial ground served the early residents of the agricultural Eureka community. Eureka was settled in the 1870s mostly by residents looking to farm cotton in the region’s rich, blackland soil. The community did not have a cotton gin or store, depending on nearby Lovelace and Itasca, but it did have a school and Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Early Eureka settlers included the Kimmons, Eagleston, McDaniel, Faries, Clack, London, Hambright, Priddy, Hamilton and Wilson families. Oral tradition relates that the first burial here was of a young niece of William R. Kimmons (d. 1931), who owned the property. The earliest documented burial in Eureka Cemetery, though, is of Willie D. Kimmons (d. 1887), the infant son of W.R. and Ella (Eagleston) Kimmons (d. 1934). After this interment, the Kimmons opened the graveyard to their friends and neighbors. Eureka Cemetery features interior fencing, curbing and vertical stones in a wooded setting. Of the 20 marked graves in Eureka Cemetery, 13 are for children less than 10 years of age. From the mid-to-late 20th century, the Kimmons-Eagleston family cared for the graveyard. In 2008, the Eureka Cemetery Association formed to maintain the burial ground after interest was spurred by state and county preservationists. Today, with the old schoolhouse and church building gone, Eureka Cemetery is the only physical reminder of the community’s early history, and remains as a chronicle of its pioneers.

Historical Marker → · 3.3 mi away

Things to Do in Itasca

food 24.8 mi away
The Czech Stop

In 1983 Bill Polk opened a little convenience store off I-35 in West Texas and started selling kolaches he bought from a nearby bakery. The pastries moved so…
food 24.8 mi away
Slovacek's West

I-35 exit 353 in West, Texas — the rival Czech bakery to the Czech Stop across the highway. Over 35 kolache varieties, in-house smoked meats, and a full deli…

Everything Near Itasca

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

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