Palestine, Texas

Everything Palestine is known for

15 songs mention this city 7 artists from here

Palestine, Texas, a charming East Texas town known for its dogwood blossoms and historic sites, is also home to a vibrant musical spirit. The city has produced country artists like Whiskey Myers, JB And The Moonshine Band, Justin Todd Herod, Cody Cannon, and Colton Ryan. Songs such as "Palestine Texas" by T Bone Burnett and "Texas Eagle" by Steve Earle and The Del McCoury Band also mention the town.

Music in Palestine

Songs About Palestine

Palestine Texas
T Bone Burnett
82%
"Palestine Texas"
texas eagle
steve earle & the del mccoury band
70%
Texas Eagle
Steve Earle And The Del McCoury Band
70%
Die Rockin’
Whiskey Myers
60%
Trailer We Call Home
Whiskey Myers
51%
"Little white church south of Palestine"
Texas Eagle
Steve Earle
50%
"We rode to Palestine and hitchhiked back"
Stone
Whiskey Myers
45%
Bury My Bones
Whiskey Myers
21%
"And take my vessel to Anderson County"
crazy train
ozzy osbourne
10%
Her First Mistake
Lyle Lovett
7%
"From Livingston to Palestine"
With Crippled Wings
Lift To Experience
6%
"From here to Palestine"
On Palastine
JJ Grey & Mofro
6%
"A lifetime lost On Palastine"
Broken Window Serenade
Whiskey Myers
5%
"Now you work down at the Timeout Off 155"
Beverly Hills
Jas Von
5%
"Ich träume von Palästina in Freiheit"
Superlover
Allison Russell
3%
"Palestine, Israel to Tennessee"

Artists From Palestine

W
Whiskey Myers
country
B
Blacktop Mojo
rock
J
Jb And The Moonshine Band
country
J
Justin Todd Herod
country
C
Cody Cannon
country
T
The Daygan Darst Band
country
C
Colton Ryan
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Palestine

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

Trinity River 11 songs Neches River 2 songs Interstate 45 8 songs Kickapoo Creek 4 songs Angelina River 4 songs

Musical Heritage

Texas State Railroad RoadyGoat

The Texas State Railroad started with prison labor. Convicts laid this track beginning in eighteen eighty-one, built to haul iron out of the Rusk penitentiary foundry. These days it hauls tourists instead — a twenty-five-mile round trip between Palestine and Rusk, four hours through the Piney Woods, pulled by a restored steam or diesel engine. Locomotive number three sixteen was built in nineteen oh-one and now sits inside the Hall of Giants at the Palestine depot. Taylor Sheridan shot the very first episode of "Eighteen Eighty-Three" out here. And back in two thousand, Evel Knievel's son jumped the entire train on a motorcycle. Come Christmas it runs as the Polar Express — Miranda Lambert rode it in twenty nineteen. Joyce Jones, eighty-one years old, has been working these cars for fourteen of them.

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History of Palestine

Named for a Town in Illinois RoadyGoat

1846

Say it like a local: PAL-uh-steen. This East Texas town has nothing to do with the Middle East. When Anderson County split off from Houston County in March 1846, a committee of Dan Lumpkin, William Turner Sadler, and John Parker picked a 100-acre tract near the county's center for a new seat of government. The Parker family had come from Palestine in Crawford County, Illinois, and at their suggestion the new town took that name. On July 30, 1846, the first county court met, and surveyors laid out a central courthouse square ringed by 24 blocks. The county itself honors Kenneth Lewis Anderson, the last vice president of the Republic of Texas. So the name traveled from an Illinois prairie to the Piney Woods, with a pronunciation all its own.

Palestine, TX RoadyGoat

Palestine's history is marked by significant events. In 1846, the Texas Legislature incorporated Palestine to serve as a seat for the newly established Anderson County. The city was named after Palestine, Illinois, by preacher Daniel Parker, who had migrated from that town. A notable event in its history was a book burning that took place shortly before the Civil War, where a vigilance committee destroyed textbooks considered an antislavery conspiracy. The postwar period saw the timber trade and town growth stimulated by the construction of a railroad through Palestine in the 1870s. The city had a population of more than 10,000 by 1898.

Palestine, TX RoadyGoat

On November 15, 2015, a mass shooting took place at a campsite several miles northwest of Palestine. Six people were killed by an intoxicated neighbor who was upset about losing his family's land. The shooter, 33-year-old William Mitchell Hudson, was charged with capital murder and was convicted and sentenced to death by a Brazos County jury on November 15, 2017.

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Captain Steven L. Bennett

1972

Born in Palestine on April 22, 1946, Steven Logan Bennett grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana. He graduated from Youngsville High School in 1964 and then enrolled at Southwestern Louisiana State (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) where he majored in Aeronautical Engineering and participated in the Air Force ROTC. While at university, Steven was Commander of the Arnold Air Society. In 1968, he joined the Air Force in Big Spring. In 1970, Bennett competed advance training on the B-52 bomber as well as training as a forward air controller. In 1972, following graduation, Bennett reported for active service in Vietnam. After only three months of combat, he earned the air medal with three oak leaf clusters.
 On June 29, 1972, Bennett was on a mission with back seater Marine Captain Mike Brown. On duty for three hours, they learned of several hundred North Vietnamese about to attack a small South Vietnamese platoon. Knowing that they were the platoon's only help, Bennett and Brown made several passes, chasing the North Vietnamese away. Their plane was hit from behind by a surface to air missile (SAM), damaging one engine, causing a fire abroad and forcing the plane down. Bennett headed to the Gulf of Tonkin to drop fuel and eject but discovered that Brown's parachute was damaged by the SAM hit. Rather than save himself, Bennett ditched the aircraft and the ensuing impact trapped him under water. Brown was able to escape and was rescued. With extraordinary heroism, Captain Steven Bennett gave his own life to save his companion. He was posthumously awarded the medal of honor on August 8, 1974, by President Gerald R. Ford, and is buried in Lafayette Memorial Park. (2018)

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John H. Reagan

1818

John Henninger Reagan, son of Timothy and Elizabeth Lusk Reagan, was born on October 8, 1818, in Sevierville, Tennessee. He joined the Republic of Texas Army in 1839 and served in the Cherokee War. In the early 1840s, he held several public offices in Nacogdoches County, and in 1847 he obtained a law license and was elected to the Texas House of Representatives. He moved to Palestine in 1851 and opened a law office in his home. He was elected Texas 9th Judicial District Judge in 1852. 
 Reagan, elected U.S. Congressman in 1857, resigned in 1861 over what he believed was a Federal takeover of states' rights. He served as postmaster general of the Confederacy during the Civil War. He was captured by Federal troops in 1865 and imprisoned for 18 months. He returned to Texas in 1866 and established a family farm near Palestine at the former site of Fort Houston. 
 During his later tenure as a U.S. Congressman (1876-1887) and U.S. Senator (1887-1891) Reagan led the fight that brought railroad monopolies under federal control with the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887. In 1891 he became the first chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, a position he held until 1901. 
 Reagan died of pneumonia on March 6, 1905. The entire Texas legislative assembly attended his funeral. (1994, 2006)

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Kolstad Jewelers

1853

Soren Kolstad (1823 - 1918), a skilled artisan and clockmaker, migrated to Texas from his native Norway in 1852. He settled in Palestine, where he opened a jewelry store in 1853. The store has occupied four locations. Mahogany display cases, installed in the third shop in 1916, were transferred to the present site in 1933. Managed by five generations of the Kolstad family, this is believed to be the oldest retail store in continuous operation by its founding family in the state of Texas. Members of the Kolstad family have also been leaders in religious, civic, and educational activities. (1977)

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Bennett, Steven L.

1972

Steven L. Bennett, Medal of Honor recipient, was born at Palestine, Texas, on April 22, 1946, son of Elwin Bennett. He received a bachelor of science degree from the University of Southwestern Louisiana and was a member of the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps. He was commissioned in the United States Air Force on August 12, 1968, and served on active duty until his death in Vietnam on June 29, 1972. He was assigned to the Twentieth Tactical Air Support Squadron at DaNang Air Base, with primary duty as a forward air controller. On June 29, 1972, he was the pilot of a light aircraft flying an artillery-adjustment mission along a heavily defended area over a large concentration of enemy troops massing to attack friendly forces. He requested tactical air support but was told that none was available. Determined to aid the endangered troops, he strafed the enemy positions four times, and the enemy began a retreat. Bennett continued his attack, and as he completed his fifth pass, his aircraft was struck by a surface-to-air missile. The plane was severely damaged in the left engine and the left main landing gear. With the aircraft on fire, he realized that a landing at a friendly airfield was impossible. He instructed his observer to prepare to eject, but was informed that the observer's parachute had been shredded during the attack. Bennett chose to ditch in the nearby Gulf of Tonkin, with the full knowledge that this type of aircraft had never been successfully ditched in water. When the plane struck the water it cartwheeled and was damaged so that escape from the cockpit was impossible. The observer escaped and was rescued, thanks to the selfless action of Captain Bennett. Bennett's wife, Linda, of San Antonio, received the posthumous award from Vice President Gerald Ford at the White House in Washington, on August 8, 1974. Bennett is buried in Lafayette Memorial Cemetery at Lafayette, Louisiana. In addition to his wife, he was survived by one child.

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Lowery, Fred

1909

Fred Lowery, the "king of whistlers," was born in Palestine, Texas, on November 2, 1909, the son of William and Mary (White) Lowery. He lost his eyesight before he was two years old. His mother died shortly after his birth, and his father deserted him and his three older sisters, who were then raised by their grandmother Lucy White. In September 1917, at the age of seven, Lowery entered the Texas School for the Blind (now the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired ) in Austin, where he was in attendance for the next twelve years. His whistling career began with the encouragement of his piano teacher, Peggy Richter, and a bird imitator named Ernest Nichols. In May 1929 Lowery and Richter traveled to Chicago, where Lowery took lessons in acting at the American Institute to develop stage presence. In August 1929 he had his first spot on a radio show, the Farm and Home Hour . In November of that year he left the School for the Blind and moved into the home of Peggy Richter. Lowery continued to perform, and soon after a performance at the National Business Confidence Week, a Lions Club event, he received a letter inviting him to try out for a full-time job with the Early Birds pogram on station WFAA in Dallas. In 1932 entrepreneur and carnival pitchman Henry Murphy hired Lowery, along with the other Early Birds stars, for a six-month tour with Lignon Smith's band in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. They worked out a two-hour program with music and comedy called "Heads Up!" When this program ran out of money, Lowery returned to work at WFAA. Despite some apprehension and self-doubt, in 1934 he moved to New York City to pursue his musical career. He joined the Vincent Lopez orchestra and, during the ensuing four years with Lopez, met and performed with many stars, including Bing Crosby, Mary Pickford, and Jack Dempsey. Toward the end of 1938 Lowery began working for Horace Heidt and his Musical Knights. After this stint he began touring solo. He had a radio show and hosted La Rue's Supper Club in Indianapolis in the early 1950s. From the 1960s into the early 1980s Lowery entertained schoolchildren at assembly programs. In his career he also appeared with Steve Allen, Edgar Bergen, Jackie Gleason, Bob Hope, Stan Kenton, Ed Sullivan, and Paul Whiteman. His biggest-selling single was "Indian Love Call" (1939) which sold over two million copies. His autobiography, Whistling in the Dark , was published in 1983. In 1932 Lowery began courting Gracie Johnston in Dallas. He had met her years earlier at a party he attended in Jacksonville, Texas. Fred and Gracie were married on December 20, 1940. Their only child, Fred M. Lowery, was born the next year. Lowery died at home in Jacksonville on December 11, 1984, and was survived by his wife and son.

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Robinson, Frank James

1964

Frank James Robinson, educator and civil rights activist, was born in the rural church community of Antioch in Smith County, Texas, on June 5, 1902, to Charlie Robinson and Olevia (Stephens) Robinson. Frank's mother died in 1914, and obligations to the family farm prevented him from completing grade school until 1923, when he enrolled in high school equivalency courses at Texas College in Tyler. He went on to attend Prairie View Normal and Industrial College (now Prairie View A&M University) where he earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural science in 1931. While at Prairie View he met Dorothy Redus , a future principal and school administrator. They married in 1930. In 1931 Robinson moved to Palestine, Anderson County, Texas, where he worked as an agent for the Texas Agricultural Extension Service . During World War II he briefly relocated to San Francisco, California, where he worked in the defense industry. In 1948 he returned to Palestine and began a career as a teacher at a community school in nearby Butler, Texas, where he was eventually promoted to superintendent. Robinson became a powerful advocate for the small community of Butler, where he facilitated the building of new roads, the expansion of electrical service, and the construction of a science building for the school, which later became a community center. Robinson decided to retire from academia in the early 1960s. He began a new career as a real estate investor and as a district supervisor for the American Woodmen Life Insurance Company, where he would eventually serve on the board of directors. A constant proponent of civil rights, he became very politically active and devoted much of the rest of his time to advocate for equal civil and voting rights for minorities in East Texas. After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Robinson was determined that these laws be applied to all citizens even if it meant challenging the system. As such, he organized the Anderson County Civic League. This group not only encouraged Blacks to become involved in civil rights but focused on the need to get more Blacks elected to public office, especially in Anderson County, where Blacks constituted a quarter of the population, but where no African American had ever held public office. He also chaired the Anderson County Voter's Committee and was heavily involved in the Progressive Voters League ( see DEMOCRATIC PROGRESSIVE VOTERS LEAGUE ), as well as the NAACP . In addition to these politically-active organizations, Robinson was a thirty-third-degree Mason, a leader in the Boy Scouts and 4-H Club, and a volunteer for a number of church youth groups. Robinson's largest victory as a political activist came after 1969, when the Anderson County commissioners court reapportioned the county's four voter precincts. In the process, the county's sizeable Black community was divided among three separate precincts, and Black voting power was severely hampered. To counter this action, in March 1970 Robinson organized the East Texas Leadership Forum, an organization which consisted of civic, labor, religious, social, and fraternal leaders in sixteen counties. The main objective of this organization was to get Blacks to pool their resources to seek redress in the court. To this end, he also elicited the organizational and financial support of the AFL-CIO, the ACLU, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and State Representative Paul Ragsdale of Dallas. With legal representation provided by ACLU attorney David R. Richards and with the help of the above organizations, Frank Robinson, Rodney Howard, and Timothy S. Smith filed suit against the Anderson County commissioners in December 1973. In the case Robinson v. Commissioner's Court, Anderson County , the plaintiffs cited the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments and argued that the commissioner's court engaged in redistricting in a deliberate attempt to dilute the Black vote. On March 15, 1974, district judge

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Things to Do in Palestine

food 0.2 mi away
Pint and Barrel Drafthouse

Gastropub in Old Town Palestine at 302 East Crawford Street. Craft beer, outdoor picnic seating, sandwiches and famously good fries. Closed Sundays.
day trip
Day Trip to Palestine 🐗 (FULL EPISODE) S8 E7

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

Everything Near Palestine

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

Explore Palestine on the Map
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