Jefferson, Texas

Everything Jefferson is known for

1 song mention this city 2 artists from here

Music in Jefferson

Songs About Jefferson

Railroadin’ Some
Henry Thomas
4%
"Tyler, Longview, Jefferson, Marshall, Little Sandy, Big Sandy"

Artists From Jefferson

S
Sarah Hobbs
country
J
Jarrod Sterrett and The Hired Guns
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Jefferson

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

U.S. Route 59 9 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Sabine River 13 songs Interstate 49 4 songs US Route 71 2 songs Red River 87 songs

Musical Heritage

Boogie Woogie Fest RoadyGoat

That rolling, hard-driving piano — the boogie-woogie — they'll tell you it was born right here in Marshall. It came up out of the East Texas logging camps, where formerly enslaved men sat down at whatever piano they could find and played. Two of the greats came straight off these streets: Floyd Dixon and Dave Alexander. So it fits that Marshall finally got its own Boogie Woogie Fest — an idea Dale Watson floated and Alan Loudermilk, who runs the restaurant Gnocchio in town, talked him into making real. One September weekend, the lineup runs Dale Watson, Linda Gail Lewis, Wayne Hancock, Scott Biram, Jason D. Williams, and more. It's a party, sure. But it's also Marshall finally taking a bow for something it handed the whole world.

RoadyGoat → · 14.7 mi away

Dale Watson RoadyGoat

Dale Watson's got the pompadour, the truck-driving country, the rockabilly snarl — and after decades in Austin and a stretch in Memphis, he landed in Marshall, East Texas, in twenty twenty. His thirtieth studio album is called "Starvation Box" — that was the name Lead Belly's father used for his son's guitar. And Lead Belly is the through-line here: Watson is helping build a Lead Belly museum right there in Marshall, and he kicked off the town's first Boogie Woogie Fest. The album itself is built around a nineteen fifty-seven twelve-string his wife gave him. One song, "Streets of Gold," came straight from his own father's stories of coal-mining life in Hazard, Kentucky. Thirty albums deep, and the man is still writing his roots into East Texas ground.

RoadyGoat → · 14.7 mi away

Marshall RoadyGoat

Marshall, East Texas — twenty-three thousand people, deep in the Piney Woods, a town a lot of freedmen made home after the Civil War. You'll hear it called the birthplace of boogie woogie. Careful with that one: that claim traces back to a single researcher, who ran the numbers and figured Marshall sat closest to the center of gravity for all that early piano playing. What's not in doubt is the music itself — boogie woogie came up out of Black communities in the East Texas railroad and logging camps in the late eighteen hundreds, born on barrelhouse pianos. And Marshall still keeps the beat: third weekend of every month, live blues rolls through Telegraph Park downtown, in a hundred-and-sixteen-year-old city hall that plays music now instead of politics.

RoadyGoat → · 14.7 mi away

Marshall as the birthplace of boogie-woogie RoadyGoat

1841

Marshall, Texas, founded 1841, calls itself the birthplace of boogie-woogie — and sure, a few other towns raise a hand at that. But hear Marshall out. The Texas and Pacific Railway rolled in about thirty years after the town went up and became one of the biggest employers around. Boogie-woogie got born in that world: African American workers in the late-1800s logging camps and rail yards, taking the chug and clatter of the trains and moving it onto a piano keyboard. Caddo Lake's just twenty minutes northeast. But here's the tell — one of the bedrock bass lines in the whole style is simply called "The Marshall." A rolling left hand, named after this town. Contest the birthplace all you like. Somebody in a rail yard here left their name on the low end.

RoadyGoat → · 14.7 mi away

History of Jefferson

Two Men, Two Grids, One Riverport RoadyGoat

1841

Jefferson was laid out in the early 1840s by two men who could not agree on a plan. Allen Urquhart, a North Carolina emigrant, took a headright on a bend of Big Cypress Bayou and aligned his streets to the water, running them at right angles to the crooked stream so boats could load easily. Daniel Alley claimed a 586-acre parcel next door, known as Alley's Addition, and squared his streets to the compass instead. Walk downtown today and the two grids still clash at odd angles, a fossil of that founding disagreement. The town was named for Thomas Jefferson. Its real fortune was geography: the bend sat at the head of navigation on the bayou, the westernmost port a steamboat could reach on the Red River system, making Jefferson the leading inland port in Texas. In 1860 it became the seat of the newly created Marion County.

Jefferson, TX RoadyGoat

Once a bustling river port, Jefferson was founded around 1841 on land ceded from the Caddo Indians. It became one of the most important ports in Texas between 1845 and 1872, with a peak population exceeding 30,000. The town's fortunes changed in 1873 when the Army Corps of Engineers used nitroglycerin to clear the Great Red River Raft, lowering water levels and ending riverboat traffic. Jefferson's population plummeted to just over 3,000 a few years later. The Sterne Fountain, given to the city in 1913, honors Jacob and Ernestine Sterne, prominent citizens who managed the post office and contributed to civic and cultural projects.

Jefferson, TX RoadyGoat

In 1873, the Army Corps of Engineers used nitroglycerin to clear the Great Red River Raft, a log jam that had long blocked the Red River. This event marked a turning point for Jefferson, as it lowered the water levels of Caddo Lake and Big Cypress Bayou, making riverboat traffic to the town commercially unfeasible. The once-thriving river port of Jefferson saw its population drop from over 7,000 at the peak of river traffic to a little over 3,000 a few years later.

RoadyGoat →

Jefferson - The Town That Lost Everything

1840

In the 1870s, Jefferson was the largest and wealthiest city in Texas, a steamboat port rivaling New Orleans. It collapsed when the railroad bypassed it and the river was drained.

Brantley, Hattie Rilla [H.R.]

1941

Hattie Rilla "H.R." Brantley, nurse, member of the United States Army, prisoner of war (POW) during World War II , and longtime women's advocate in the military, was born on April 4, 1916, in Jefferson, Marion County, Texas, to Albert Maxey Brantley (1879-1943) and Minnie Lou Emma (Sewell) Brantley (1883-1974). She grew up on a farm near Jefferson during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression and expressed a desire to see the world outside of her town. Brantley attended Dallas's Baylor School of Nursing from 1933 to 1937. She graduated with honors and joined the Baylor staff to help teach new nursing students and to treat patients in the Dallas area. She remained part of the Baylor staff until 1939, when, in keeping with her youthful desire to see the world, she joined the U. S. Army Nurse Corps. After enlisting she was sent to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. Six months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the subsequent U. S. entry into World War II, Brantley, a lieutenant, was assigned to the Philippines. As the war progressed she served in a makeshift hospital in the jungles of the Bataan Peninsula. The conditions were difficult due to mosquito infestation, hot and humid weather, dust storms, and a lack of medical supplies. However, Brantley and the other nurses continued their work to save the lives of the patients despite these conditions. Their efforts earned them the nickname "Angels of Bataan." On April 8, 1942, the nurses stationed in the Bataan Peninsula were ordered to evacuate to Corregidor in Manila Bay, because they received news that the Japanese Imperial Army was set to capture Bataan by April 11. Every nurse made it to Corregidor, and the troops that remained in Bataan surrendered on April 9. After the evacuation, Brantley and the other nurses continued to care for the wounded and sick underground in the Malinta Tunnel on the island of Corregidor. The conditions were even more dangerous and dire, because the island was under constant bombardment by the Japanese Army, and shipments of medical supplies and needed rations were not able to make it to the nurses. On May 6, after weeks of shelling bombardment by the Japanese Army, Corregidor surrendered. With the surrender of Corregidor, Brantley officially became a POW. The nurses had to march to Santo Tomas Internment Camp. The lack of water and food posed a great threat to Brantley and the other prisoners. The Japanese Army did not give out sufficient rations, and the POWs were expected to comb the surrounding area for anything edible. Brantley later recalled, "We never had enough to eat." Their diet often consisted of merely cornmeal gruel, watery coconut milk, horse meat, and fish heads. Brantley and some of the other nurses created a rope ladder and lowered it over the fence to get food from the Filipino people. Brantley kept the rope ladder under her bed and worried that this risky act could result in her execution. Despite these grueling conditions, Brantley continued to tend to the wounded and ill, while encouraging the women to remain hopeful and diligent. She later commented, "We never really thought we weren't going to make it." Amazingly all of the women survived, and Brantley credited her "faith in God and country, and the prayers of my family" for carrying her through. Brantley and her fellow POWs were freed on February 3, 1945, after almost three years of captivity. Her family was uncertain of her condition as the last letter they received from her was dated August 1943 and simply stated, "Well and working every day." Brantley returned home on February 26, 1945, and learned that her father had passed away in August 1943. She returned to a changed home life and nation, one that she was not expecting because she had not received mail or news in almost three years. In July 1945 she married Kenneth Erwin Harmon in Colorado. She met Harmon, a Navy civilian employee, while they were both being held captive at Santo Tomas Internme

Tsha Handbook →

Brooks House

1872

Built 1872 in Victorian style, with long galleries, bay window, 4 gables. Then a hotel, it became famous when guest "Diamond Bessie" Moore was killed west of town at a picnic in 1877. Fellow guest Abe Rothchild, cited for murder, was freed after sensational trial-- later subject of a drama.

Historical Marker →

Culberson, Charles Allen

1861

One of Texas' most forceful leaders; 32 years in office as attorney general, governor, U. S. Senator. Born in Alabama; in childhood moved with parents to Texas. Lived in Jefferson 1861-1887. Was educated Virginia Military Institute, University of Virginia. Began practice of law in Jefferson, 1877, in firm of his father, United States Congressman D. B. Culberson. He moved to Dallas 1887. Won elections as attorney general, 1890 and 1892. In this office recovered for Texas more than 2,000,000 acres of public domain illegally claimed by railroads. He also gave strong support to reforms of Gov. James S. Hogg, notably in antitrust laws, and creation of Railroad Commission. In two terms as governor (1895-1899), was famous for vigorous law enforcement and a strong fiscal policy which reduced state expenses. Although known as "veto governor," he was able to show Legislature and the people the justice of his vetoes. Elected to the United States Senate, 1898; became Senate Minority Leader, 1907, and was considered for the presidency, 1908, by National Democratic Party. Chief Senate service was on Judiciary Committee, of which he was chairman, 1913-1919. Retired in 1922. Died in Washington. Is buried in Fort Worth.

Historical Marker →

Jefferson, TX (Marion County)

1843

Jefferson, the county seat of Marion County, is at the junction of U.S. Highway 59 and State Highway 49, on Big Cypress Creek and Caddo Lake in the south central portion of the county. It was named for Thomas Jefferson when it was founded in the early 1840s by Allen Urquhart and Daniel Alley. In the late 1830s Urquhart, who immigrated to Texas from North Carolina, received a headright on a bend in the creek; he laid out a townsite there around 1842. At about the same time Alley obtained a 586-acre parcel adjacent to Urquhart's survey and laid out additional streets that became known as Alley's Addition. In contrast to most other town planners of the time, who arranged their plans around a central square, Urquhart laid out the town along Big Cypress Creek, with its streets running at right angles to the bayou. Alley's streets, on the other hand, followed the points of the compass. The intersection of the two plans gave the town its distinctive V-shaped layout. As the westernmost outpost for navigation on the Red River, Jefferson quickly developed into an important riverport. The first steamboat, the Llama , reached Jefferson in late 1843 or early 1844. A post office was established in 1846, and the town was incorporated in March 20, 1848, though because of various delays a city charter was not adopted until 1850. In the same year the town adopted the aldermanic form of city government. In 1846 Jefferson became the county seat of Cass County, upon that county's separation from Bowie County, and served as such until Linden became county seat in 1852. A Methodist church was organized in 1844, followed by the Presbyterian church between 1846 and 1850 and the Baptist church in 1855. The first newspaper, the Jefferson Democrat , was printed in 1847, and the following year the Jimplecute , the town's longest-running and most influential paper, made its appearance. During the late 1840s efforts were made to clear Big Cypress Creek for navigation. Within a few years steamboats were regularly making the trip from Shreveport and New Orleans, transporting cotton and other produce downstream and returning with supplies and manufactured goods, including materials and furnishings for many of the early homes. By the late 1840s Jefferson had emerged as the leading commercial and distribution center of Northeast Texas and the state's leading inland port. Among the persistent legends that have grown up around the town was the belief that Jeffersonians had shunned the railroads. While much of the city's wealth during the antebellum and early postbellum years derived from the river trade, city leaders recognized early the importance of rail transportation and made efforts to build a railroad linking the town with Shreveport and Marshall. Construction of a line began in 1860, but only forty-five miles of road was completed by the outbreak of the Civil War . In 1860 Jefferson became county seat of the newly established Marion County. After Abraham Lincoln was elected, Marion County voted unanimously for secession . Jefferson men volunteered for military service in large numbers, and during the Civil War a meat cannery was established there, as were factories for boots and shoes. After the war the town's economy recovered quickly. A fire destroyed practically the entire business section in 1866, but it was rebuilt within a few years. In 1867 Jefferson became the first town in Texas to use natural gas for artificial lighting purposes, and ice was first manufactured on a commercial scale there in 1868. By 1870 Jefferson, with a population of 4,180, was the sixth largest city in Texas. Between 1867 and 1870 trade grew from $3 million to $8 million, and in the late 1860s more than 75,000 bales of cotton were being shipped annually. By 1870 only Galveston surpassed Jefferson in volume of commerce. The town reached its peak in 1872, when a supplementary census reported 7,297 inhabitants. But in 1873 two events occurred that eventually spelled the end of Jef

Tsha Handbook →

Mabry, Hinche Parham Jr.

1861

Hinche Parham Mabry Jr., soldier and jurist, was born at Laurel Hill, Carroll County, Georgia, on October 27, 1829, one of six children of Hinche Parham and Lynnea (Stallings) Mabry. He attended the University of Tennessee and, after moving to Jefferson, Texas, at the age of twenty-one, read law until he was admitted to the bar in 1856. In 1854 he married Sarah Abigail Haywood, and the couple had three children, including Woodford H. Mabry . Mabry became a successful and prosperous lawyer and served terms as a state legislator in the 6th and 8th Legislatures. Though initially opposed to secession , Mabry joined the volunteer expedition of North Texas that seized the federal forts in Indian Territory in May 1861. When Col. Elkanah B. Greer organized the Third Texas Cavalry a month later, Mabry became captain of Company G and quickly established a reputation for audacity, courage, and strict discipline. He fought at the battles of Wilson's Creek and Pea Ridge. He was promoted to colonel in July 1862 and became the commander of his regiment. At the battle of Iuka on September 19, 1862, he was severely wounded and captured. Refusing to sign a parole that read "so called Confederate States," he remained a prisoner until 1863 when he was exchanged. He rejoined his regiment in the spring of 1863, held temporary command of Lawrence Sullivan Ross 's Texas Cavalry Brigade from October to December 1863, and then led another brigade composed of a number of under-strength Arkansas and Mississippi units from March 1864 to February 1865. He molded this unpromising material into an effective force. His men captured a federal gunboat on the Yazoo River in April 1864 and gave a good account of themselves in Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry campaigns in northern Mississippi and West Tennessee during the summer and fall. At least one contemporary source indicates that Mabry was commissioned brigadier general in 1865. After his brigade was broken up in February 1865 Mabry was reassigned to duty west of the Mississippi. He signed his parole at Shreveport on June 22, 1865. During Presidential Reconstruction, he served in the Constitutional Convention of 1866 and was elected in June 1866 to preside over Texas's Eighth Judicial District. However, when Congressional Reconstruction began in 1867, Federal military authorities removed him from the bench. He soon became a leader of the Knights of the Rising Sun, a Klan-type organization that opposed Reconstruction, and after the notorious murder of George Washington Smith in Jefferson in 1869, he fled to Canada to avoid prosecution. All the men who murdered Smith escaped significant punishment, and Mabry returned to his law practice in Jefferson. Then, in 1879 he relocated to Fort Worth, where he resided the rest of his life. He died of an accidental pistol wound to the foot on March 21, 1884, in Sherman, Texas, and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Jefferson.

Tsha Handbook →

Things to Do in Jefferson

quirky 0.1 mi away
Jay Goulds Curse on Jefferson

When railroad baron Jay Gould rolled into Jefferson in the 1870s he had a simple proposition: let me bring my railroad through town. The city fathers flush…
historical 0.1 mi away
The Great Raft That Built a City

For centuries an 80-mile logjam called the Great Raft choked the Red River so completely that it backed water all the way up into Caddo Lake. That accidental…
historical 3.9 mi away
The Diamond Bessie Murder

On a winter day in 1877 a well-dressed couple crossed the bridge over Cypress Bayou carrying a picnic basket. He was Abraham Rothschild heir to a jewelry…
quirky 13.9 mi away
Caddo Lake

The only natural lake in Texas is also the most haunted-looking -- twenty-five thousand acres of bald cypress swamp draped in Spanish moss straddling the…
historical 0.1 mi away
Last Confederate Powder Magazine in Texas

In 1863 with the Civil War grinding on the Confederacy needed a safe place to store gunpowder and ammunition deep in the Texas interior. They built an ordnance…
quirky 0.2 mi away
Spielberg Fled the Excelsior House

The Excelsior House has been hosting guests since the 1850s and most of them sleep just fine. Steven Spielberg was not one of them. The story goes that the…
spooky 0.2 mi away
The Jefferson Hotel

One of the most haunted hotels in the South. Built in the 1850s in the once-booming riverport of Jefferson. Guests report phantom footsteps slamming doors and…
historical 0.2 mi away
Texas Second City on the Bayou

Picture this: its 1850 and youre standing on the banks of Big Cypress Bayou watching a parade of steamboats stacked high with cotton bales. Jefferson was no…
day trip
Day Trip to Jefferson 🐸 (FULL EPISODE) S3 E7

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

Everything Near Jefferson

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

Explore Jefferson on the Map
All music from Texas → · Browse more cities