Keller, Texas

Everything Keller is known for

1 song mention this city 4 artists from here

Music in Keller

Songs About Keller

Keller Song (Live)
Cold Hill
80%
"Song about Keller"

Artists From Keller

T
The Unlikely Candidates
indie
R
Ryker Hall
indie
C
Colby Yates
country
E
Embree Crossing
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Keller

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

Texas State Highway 199 8 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Interstate 35 43 songs Trinity River 11 songs Interstate 45 8 songs Chisholm Trail 8 songs

History of Keller

Double Springs to Athol to Keller in One Decade RoadyGoat

The town you're rolling into changed its name twice before it stuck. Settlers first gathered a few miles west at a spot called Double Springs, named for the two springs that watered an early cluster of families, a cotton gin, a grist mill, and a blacksmith shop by the 1870s. Everything moved when the Texas and Pacific Railway pushed its line between Fort Worth and Texarkana in 1881; the first train is traditionally said to have run on May 9 of that year. Residents relocated their businesses east to be on the tracks, and druggist H.W. Black set aside 40 acres on July 19, 1881, for a townsite he called Athol. Within a year the name was swapped again to honor John C. Keller, a construction foreman on the railroad, on the understanding that the spot would become a stop. The post office opened under the name Keller in 1888. The whole place exists because of those rails: a farm town reorganized itself around the promise of a train that would haul its cotton to market. (Source: Handbook of Texas; City of Keller.)

RoadyGoat →

Old Town Keller, Built Around a Boxcar Stop RoadyGoat

This stretch of Old Town Keller, running along US 377 just north and south of FM 1709, is the original townsite, and it was laid out for one reason: to sit on the railroad. After the Texas and Pacific stop opened in the early 1880s, Keller quickly became the trade center for the surrounding farms. Within a few years the little town supported two hotels, three doctors, a newspaper, and a school, and the Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian congregations shared a single Union Church building put up in 1886. Cotton wagons rolled in from the countryside, were ginned, and loaded onto trains here. The district stayed a quiet farm-town main street for generations; Keller counted just 827 residents as late as 1960. Only later did the population explode into the tens of thousands as Dallas-Fort Worth sprawled north. Walk the old storefronts today and you're standing on the exact commercial spine that the railroad drew, the front door that every load of cotton and every new arrival once passed through. (Source: Handbook of Texas; City of Keller.)

RoadyGoat →

The Widow Who Led 25 Families to Bear Creek RoadyGoat

Out where Bancroft Road meets J.T. Ottinger Road lies Mount Gilead Cemetery, the resting place of the pioneers who settled this corner of Tarrant County years before there was a Keller. The burial ground grew out of a group of related families who came down from Missouri in 1847 under the Peters Colony, the empresario land program that lured settlers to North Texas with promised acreage. What makes the story remarkable is who led them: a widow named Permelia Allen, who at a time when women held almost no legal standing guided some 25 families on a roughly 600-mile overland trek from Moniteau County, Missouri, to the Bear Creek country. The land for the cemetery was first held by her sons-in-law Daniel Barcroft and Iraneous Neace, both buried here. Permelia Allen herself died in 1866 and lies in an unmarked grave somewhere on the grounds she helped settle. The oldest legible marker belongs to William Joyce, who died in 1854. It's the quiet heart of old Keller, founded by people who walked here. (Source: Mt. Gilead Cemetery; THC historical marker.)

RoadyGoat →

Quinn Ewers at Southlake Carroll

Quinn Ewers, Southlake Carroll (Carroll Senior HS, grades 11-12). Sophomore 2019: ~4,000 pass yds, 45 TD, 3 INT, team 13-1, District 5-6A unanimous MVP. Junior 2020: 2,442 yds, 28 TD, missed ~6 games (core-muscle injury), reached 6A Div I state title game (lost to Westlake). Career (22 games): 6,445 pass yds, 73 TD. No. 1 overall recruit, class of 2022. Reclassified Aug 2021, skipped senior season, enrolled early at Ohio State for NIL (deal reported ~$1.4M). Sources: Wikipedia, MaxPreps, WFAA, 247Sports, CBS Sports, ESPN, USA Today HSS.

Sports Alumni → · 3.8 mi away

Mount Gilead Baptist Church

1849

The earliest religious meetings here began in the late 1840s as part of Lonesome Dove Baptist Church. The Mt. Gilead Congregation was chartered in 1850 under the direction of the Rev. John Allen Freeman (1821-1919) with 8 members, including 2 slaves. It was the first church started after the formation of Tarrant County in 1849. Early services were held in homes and in a log schoolhouse at this site on land owned by Daniel Barcroft (1812-81). Except for a time in the late 1870s and early 1880s when meetings were held elsewhere, the church has worshiped at this site. (1981)

Historical Marker →

Hightower, Alfred Madison

1858

Alfred M. Hightower came to Smithfield from Illinois with his family in 1858 and became a rancher. When the debate over secession arose, Hightower opposed it, but when the Civil War began, he sided with the South. As a mounted rifleman in the Confederate Army, Hightower fought in many battles, including Elkhorn Tavern (Pea Ridge) in Arkansas, one of the biggest battles west of the Mississippi. After the War, he relocated to Kansas during the 1870s, but returned here in 1880 and continued ranching until his death. Nearby Hightower Street is named in his honor. (1991)

Historical Marker → · 4.3 mi away

Smith, Eli

1859

A native of Missouri, Eli Smith moved to Texas in 1859 with his parents. They settled in this part of Tarrant County, and in 1868 Smith married Sarah J. Hightower. About 1876 Smith donated part of his farmland to the community, then known as Zion, for a Methodist church and cemetery. Residents of the area honored Smith for his generosity and community service by renaming the settlement Smithfield. Smith remained an active Mason and a successful farmer until his sudden death shortly before his thirty-first birthday. He is buried at this site.

Historical Marker → · 4.3 mi away

Keller, TX

1879

Keller is on U.S. Highway 377 fifteen miles north of Fort Worth in northeast Tarrant County. Double Springs, two miles north and east of the present site of the community, was settled in the early 1850s, although pioneers had come to the area sooner. The Lonesome Dove Baptist Church sent some members, among them Daniel Barcroft and Permelia Allen, to establish the Mount Gilead Baptist Church in 1852. In 1879, as rumors spread that the Texas and Pacific Railway would push into the northern district of the county, residents began to move to a site nearer the route. They called their settlement Athol. In 1848 Samuel Needham transferred to Isaac Roberts 640 acres of land for $200. The land contained both the settlements of Double Springs and the site of future Keller. In 1875 Roberts left some of his land to A. G. Roberts, who sold a right-of-way to the Texas and Pacific in 1882 for twenty-five dollars. In July 1881 H. W. Wood gave forty acres to the public for a townsite to be known as Athol. Hoping to have a station and a permanent stop on the line in Athol, the citizens, at the urging of a Texas Pacific foreman or official named Keller, agreed to name the town after him if the site became a stop on the line. The name Athol was dropped, and by 1882 the site was called Keller in abstracts. Tradition says that the train first came through Keller on May 9, 1881, although that date precedes the 1882 date when Roberts sold the right-of-way to the Texas Pacific. A post office was established as Keller in 1888. Cemetery records of Mount Gilead reveal that many settlers in the area were of Scots-Irish-English descent. The town is in the Eastern Cross Timbers region, with the open prairie directly to the west. In 1716 the explorer Domingo Ramón referred to the region as Monte Grande and commented: "This day I travelled through a dense wooded region of oaks. The forest was so impenetrable that we could not pass through on horseback without cutting down some trees with axes and knives." The Texas settlers maintained their homes, grew gardens, and raised fruits such as peaches and pears. Hog raising was especially good in the area because of the plentiful supply of acorns from the oak trees. Grapevines grew profusely and provided another source of fruit. Most homes, many of the two-pen variety, were built of lumber brought in by wagon from Grapevine or other locations. Lumber in the Cross Timbers area was not suitable for building, although the woods were thick with a variety of trees, including mesquite, cedar, and dense underbrush. Some maintained farms and ranches out on the prairie but kept their homes in the timber. Keller has become part of the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport complex and is close to the new Alliance Airport developed by Ross Perot, Jr., in connection with Fort Worth business interests. In 1990 the population of Keller was 13,683. Most residents of the town work outside of Keller, but many businesses, including commercial and industrial, are beginning to locate in the area. In 1983 nearby subdivisions opposed annexation to Keller. By 2000 the population had almost doubled to 27,345.

Tsha Handbook →

Westlake, TX

1956

The town of Westlake is located on State Highway 114 about nineteen miles north-northeast of Fort Worth on the Denton-Tarrant county boundary. In 1956 Dallas attorney Glen Turner founded Circle T Ranch. That year ranchers and homeowners in that area near Grapevine Lake incorporated under the name of Westlake. In 1960 the population was 112. In 1973 Westlake disannexed some of its northern area, which became the upscale development that eventually incorporated as Trophy Club. Oil magnate Nelson Bunker Hunt purchased the Circle T Ranch in the mid-1970s. In 1980 the population of Westlake had increased to 214, and during the mid-1980s a multiuse office complex called Solana was constructed. Ross Perot Jr. purchased the Circle T Ranch in 1993. Controversy developed between the city of Westlake and the development of Circle T Ranch under Westlake's jurisdiction in 1997. After ousting the mayor, members of Westlake's board of aldermen voted to disannex Circle T Ranch and other properties, thereby effectively dissolving the town. This resulted in months of conflicts and lawsuits, while neighboring cities attempted to annex the Westlake land. In July 1998 Perot and the Circle T Ranch agreed to pursue development under the jurisdiction of Westlake, and Westlake eventually won back its disputed properties. In 2000 the population was 207. Major corporations located at the Solana complex have included the Mercedes-Benz Credit Corporation, IBM, and Verizon Wireless.

Tsha Handbook → · 4.1 mi away

Things to Do in Keller

quirky 18.9 mi away
Chewbacca's Grave — May the 4th

May the 4th be with you — and with the Wookiee. Peter Mayhew the seven-foot-three British actor who brought Chewbacca to life in every Star Wars film from 1977…
historical 12.0 mi away
Fort Worth Stockyards

Daily cattle drives down the street. Honky-tonks and rodeos in the old West.
historical 12.0 mi away
Billy Bob's Texas

Billy Bob's opened in 1981 in an old cattle barn in the Fort Worth Stockyards and at one hundred twenty-seven thousand square feet it is the largest honky-tonk…
food 12.8 mi away
Joe T. Garcia's

Joe T opened his little family restaurant behind the packing plant in the Fort Worth Stockyards in 1935. There was no menu. His wife Jessie served whatever she…
historical 18.7 mi away
WWII Marine Glider Base at Eagle Mountain

In 1942 the United States Marines bought 2931 acres of ranchland on Eagle Mountain Lake for a purpose that sounds almost unbelievable now — training pilots to…
quirky 18.7 mi away
The Azle Earthquake Swarm

Starting in November 2013 the ground beneath Azle started shaking and it did not stop for 84 days. Twenty-seven earthquakes rattled windows cracked foundations…
quirky 19.0 mi away
Chewbacca's Grave

The seven-foot-three British actor who played Chewbacca in every Star Wars film from 1977 to The Force Awakens is buried right here at Azleland Memorial Park.…
spooky 16.2 mi away
Lake Worth Monster

In 1969 dozens of witnesses reported a half-man half-goat creature prowling the shores of Lake Worth. Police investigated. The monster was never caught.

Sports in Keller

🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 6A · Softball · 2017

Keller — 2017 UIL 6A Softball State Champions

Most recent: 2017 6A

The Keller High School softball program, competing in Class 6A, stands as a point of pride for the community. The team secured a state championship in 2017, a significant achievement for the school and its dedicated athletes.

Located in Keller, Texas, the high school's athletic programs reflect the spirit of competition found across the Lone Star State. While no alumni from the softball program are listed as having gone pro or to major colleges, the 2017 state title remains a notable highlight in the school's sports history.

State titles
2017
Most recent
2017
Class
6A
The moment

The 2017 6A state championship marked a high point for Keller High School softball.

Sources: UIL State Championship Archives · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near Keller

1505 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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