Chilton, TX RoadyGoat

Chilton, Texas. It’s easy to miss if you’re just barreling down the highway, but it has a story like anywhere else. The slightly higher elevation here, just a bit above Waco, might not seem like much, but it meant slightly better drainage back when cotton was king. That, and being right in the Brazos River watershed, made this a good spot for farming. Robert Chilton saw that potential, and the town grew from there. Of course, it wasn’t all sunshine and cotton. The Great Depression hit Chilton hard. Folks left, searching for work, and the town never quite bounced back to what it was. Still, that agricultural spirit remains. Some come looking for that connection to the blues, or to relive the glory days of the 1985 Chilton High School football team. Then there's the legend of that buried treasure near the cemetery. But truth be told, locals will tell you people end up in Chilton for the peace and quiet. A little slower pace. A little piece of Texas that hasn't changed much in a hundred years.

11.3 mi away

Chilton, TX RoadyGoat

Chilton, Texas, a place where a quiet, peaceful serenity hangs in the air, wasn't always so still. Established in 1881 and named for Robert Chilton, one of the first settlers, it grew around cotton. That rich soil, part of the Brazos River watershed, made it a natural for farming. It was a boom time, but the Great Depression hit hard. Cotton prices plummeted, and Chilton, like so many other small towns, saw families pack up, leaving behind empty fields and weathered homes. Even with the hardships, the spirit of Chilton endured. Agriculture, particularly cotton and grain, remains vital. The Dallas Cowboys winning Super Bowl XXX in the mid-90s was a point of pride for the whole state, Chilton included. And, of course, there’s always the legend of buried treasure near the old Chilton Cemetery, a whisper of the past that keeps things interesting. Maybe it's the elevation, a bit higher than Waco, but Chilton feels like it holds onto its history, remembering the booms and busts, the music and the land. The undefeated Chilton High School football team of '85 is still talked about, just like those harder times, all part of what makes this place what it is.

11.3 mi away

Chilton, TX RoadyGoat

Chilton, Texas. It's a place where the air feels different, slower. You can still see the cotton fields stretching out, a reminder of the land's hold on this town. But there's more to Chilton than just farming. We have a musical legacy, too.

11.3 mi away

Coryell, James

1837

James Coryell, for whom Coryell County was named, was born near West Union, Ohio, in 1803, the son of Lewis and Sarah (Voshall) Coryell. He left home at the age of eighteen and made his way to Texas. He was in San Antonio by 1831, when he joined James and Rezin P. Bowie on an exploring expedition to the San Saba region in search of silver mines. After his return to San Antonio, Coryell went with Andrew Cavitt to Sarahville de Viesca , a settlement near Marlin founded by Sterling C. Robertson , who was empresario of the colony in 1834. Coryell made his home with the Cavitt family. Sarahville was also the site of Fort Milam, which was built to protect the inhabitants in the region. In 1835 Coryell explored the Leon River country with Cavitt and applied for a land grant in what is now Coryell County. In 1836 Robertson became captain of a company of Texas Rangers who were stationed at Fort Milam . During the spring and summer of 1836 Coryell was a private in Robertson's Ranger company, and in the fall he joined Capt. Thomas H. Barron's Ranger militia to protect the 200 settlers living in Sarahville. On May 27, 1837, Coryell and two other Rangers, Ezra Webb and Michael Castleman, were raiding a bee tree a short distance from the fort when they were attacked by Caddo Indians . His companions escaped, but Coryell, who was in poor health and unable to run, was shot and scalped. A party of men from the fort returned to the site of the attack and found Coryell wounded and bloodied, but still alive. He died two days later and was buried nearby. The exact location of the grave was not recorded and was eventually lost. In the late summer of 1837, the Fort Milam Ranger company disbanded and Sarahville was abandoned. In 1853 a landowner named Churchill Jones established a plantation near the site. Jones owned a large number of enslaved workers and provided them with a cemetery, called Bull Hill, about a mile northwest of the old Sarahville settlement. The Jones plantation declined after emancipation, but most of the formerly enslaved families stayed in the area. Jones plantation descendants continued to use Bull Hill to bury their dead until the 1960s, when the cemetery was closed. Many of the grave markers and locations were subsequently lost. In 2006 Churchill Jones III sold the property to the Summerlee Foundation of Dallas. Jones informed foundation president John Crain about Bull Hill, but was unsure of the exact location of the cemetery. Crain asked the Texas Historical Commission (THC) to conduct archaeological investigations and determine the location and boundaries of the burial ground. The THC team contacted former Jones plantation families in Marlin and discovered the oral history of Ned Broadus, a former enslaved worker. Broadus recalled there was a grave off the south line of Bull Hill that was reputed to be that of "Mr. Jim Coryell." He recalled that after the grave caved in, enslaved workers covered the area with stones, so Coryell's spirit would be at ease and not disturb the dead of Bull Hill. In 2010, Crain was monitoring the clearing operations when a concentration of thirty-five large rocks was uncovered. THC archaeologists discovered a grave shaft beneath the stones and exhumation was conducted in February 2011 with the assistance of forensic anthropologists from the Smithsonian Institution. The body was an adult male, 35 to 40 years of age, and 5'5" tall. The skeleton was in very poor condition and the top of the skull was covered with a dark substance. A piece of iron located in the rib cage appeared to be part of an arrow point. Much of the anecdotal information about Coryell's death was confirmed. However, although a mitochondrial DNA sample had been obtained from a female Coryell family descendant, the remains were too degraded to definitively confirm the identity of the body through DNA. In 2019 the Smithsonian scientists re-examined the exhumed remains and discovered that the dark substance on the skull appeared t

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Johnson, "Blind Willie"

1927

"Blind Willie" Johnson, known as the "Sightless Visionary" and bluesman and virtuoso of the "bottleneck" or slide guitar, was born near Brenham, Texas, on January 22, 1897 (according to his death certificate). He was the son of Willie and Mary (Fields) Johnson. The family moved to Marlin when he was a small child. Reportedly his mother died, and his father remarried. According to one legend, young Johnson was blinded when his stepmother threw lye at his father and some of it got in Willie's eyes. Johnson had aspirations to be a preacher. His father made for him a cigar box guitar, and he taught himself to play. He performed at Baptist Association meetings and churches around Marlin and nearby Hearne, Texas. At some point Johnson moved to Dallas. He may have married Willie B. Harris, though no marriage certificate has been found. They had one daughter. Willie B. Harris sang accompaniment with Johnson on some of his recordings for Columbia Records between 1927 and 1930. A second woman, Angeline (listed as Anna in the 1920 census), sister of blues guitarist L. C. "Good Rockin'" Robinson, claimed to have married Johnson in 1927. According to Johnson's daughter, her father lived with the family in Marlin, Texas, until the late 1930s. Eventually he settled in Beaumont. Blind Willie made his professional debut as a gospel artist. It total, he made thirty recordings for Columbia during four sessions. He was known to his followers as a performer "capable of making religious songs sound like the blues" and of endowing his secular songs with "religious feeling." Johnson's unique voice and his original compositions influenced musicians throughout the South, especially Texas bluesmen. He sang in a "rasping false bass," and played bottleneck guitar with "uncanny left handed strength, accuracy and agility." So forceful was his voice that legend has it he was once arrested for inciting a riot simply by standing in front of the New Orleans Customs House singing "If I Had My Way I'd Tear This Building Down," a chant-and-response number that stimulated great audience enthusiasm. Johnson's celebrity career ended with the Great Depression, after which he continued to perform as a street singer but did no further recording. A 1944 Beaumont city directory listed him as operating the House of Prayer in that city. He died in Beaumont on September 18, 1945, and was buried in Blanchette Cemetery in that city. Anna Johnson was listed as his widow in a 1947 Beaumont directory. Johnson left behind a legacy of musical masterpieces, some of which have been rerecorded on Yazoo Records. His work includes such classics as "Nobody's Fault but Mine," "God Don't Never Change," "Mother's Children Have a Hard Time," "Bye and Bye I'm Going to See the King," "God Moves on the Water," "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed," and "I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole." His recording "Dark was the Night (Cold was the Ground)" was among the musical selections placed on board Voyager 1 in 1977 as a representative sampling of music on Earth. Johnson's recordings were released by Sony/Legacy in 1993 on a double CD titled Complete Blind Willie Johnson . A Texas Historical Marker honoring Johnson was dedicated at Pilgrim's Rest Baptist Church (the site of Johnson's residence and House of Prayer during the 1940s) on December 15, 2010. Johnson was also recognized as a music legend in the Museum of the Gulf Coast's Music Hall of Fame in Port Arthur. A children's book, Dark was the Night: Blind Willie Johnson's Journey to the Stars , written by Gary Golio and illustrated by E. B. Lewis, was published in 2020.

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McLennan's Bluff

1835

McLennan's Bluff, a steep bank on the northwest shore of Rosebud Lake a mile west of Rosebud near Pond Creek in southwest Falls County (at 31°04' N, 97°00' W), is on land of the original league granted to Neil McLennan by Coahuila and Texas on July 28, 1835. The bluff, on which McLennan's home was located, is 400 feet above the surface of the lake. In 1835 three McLennan brothers, who had immigrated from Scotland to North Carolina and later resided in Florida, brought their families to Texas to join Sterling Clack Robertson 's colony, sailing up the Brazos River from its mouth and eventually stopping at Sugar Loaf on Pond Creek, later called McLennan's Bluff. After receiving grants on Pond Creek and building houses on the bluff that also overlooked rolling prairie land, the families were threatened by Indians, who had posed few problems for settlers in the area during the early 1830s, but who were beginning to increase their attacks on White settlers. In the spring of 1836 Indians raided the Laughlin McLennan household, killing Laughlin, his wife, and his crippled mother, whose head they split with an ax before casting her body into the house and setting everything on fire. Three children were taken into captivity, during which two of them died; the third one, a seven-year-old boy, was adopted by the Indians and the boy rejoined his relatives in 1846. In the spring of 1837 the Indians attacked Neil McLennan, his son John, and his young slave. Neil and his son escaped, but the slave was taken prisoner; however, through the mediation of friendly Indians and by his own efforts, he was released and returned to his master. After living at the site for ten years, the McLennans abandoned their home, and Neil McLennan eventually exchanged his land on Pond Creek for claims on the Bosque River near Waco.

Tsha Handbook → · 4.3 mi away

Hilton Hotel, Early

1900

After Conrad Hilton had initiated career that later made him foremost innkeeper in the world, at first venture in boom town of Cisco brought a dream of Texas "wearing a chain of Hilton Hotels." Reality outran dreams. This was his eighth hotel. Marker dedicated to Conrad N. Hilton (born in 1887), one of the great men of America's southwestern frontier.

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Hot Mineral Water

1892

A well drilled on this site in 1892, in an effort to secure a public water supply, produced 48,000 gallons of hot mineral water daily from an artesian deposit underlying the area. At first believed unfit for human use, analysis proved the water possessed curative powers. On initiative of T. A. Cheeves, Drs. J. W. Cook, J. W. Torbett,and N. D. Buie, a health resort was developed, with a bath house built in 1895, and another well drilled in 1910. Marlin became a Mecca for health-seekers from all parts of the country, providing basis for local prosperity.

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Denson, Rev. Nelson T. and Marlin Missionary Baptist Church

1845

Born into slavery in Arkansas, Nelson Taylor Denson (1845-1938) was brought to Falls County in 1856 at the age of eleven. After accompanying his master in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, he returned to Marlin where he was a pioneer educator and Baptist circuit preacher. Educated by his master and inspired by the noted Texas statesman Sam Houston, he became a prominent leader among the area Freedmen. On Nov. 8, 1868, the Rev. Denson started Marlin Missionary Baptist Church, the earliest black congregation in the county. Assisting him in the organization meeting was the pioneer Baptist preacher, the Rev. Z. N. Morrell. Rev. Denson was active in the establishment of several black schools, including one sponsored by the Marlin Missionary Baptist Church in 1877. Through his efforts, the opportunity for a formal education became a reality for area blacks by the mid-1880s. In 1882 the Rev. Denson became the first elected black official in the county when he was chosen commissioner of precinct one. Trusted and respected by all races, he continued to play a significant role in the community until his death at the age of 93. Today the church he founded in 1868 carries on the tradition of his enthusiasm and his service for others.

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Marlin, Texas

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Chilton, TX RoadyGoat

Chilton, TX RoadyGoat

Chilton, TX RoadyGoat

Coryell, James

Johnson, "Blind Willie"

McLennan's Bluff

Hilton Hotel, Early

Hot Mineral Water

Denson, Rev. Nelson T. and Marlin Missionary Baptist Church

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