Name: Whitney, Texas
Address: Whitney, TX

West, TX RoadyGoat

West, Texas, isn’t just another dot on the I-35 map, though that interstate is undeniably key to its story. The town sits on a slight rise, a little bump in the Blackland Prairie, high enough that you notice the change from the pancake-flat fields surrounding it. That little bit of elevation made it a good spot for a railroad stop back in the late 19th century, and when the tracks went in, a town named for surveyor T.M. West sprang up around it. But what really makes West special is what the Czech immigrants brought with them. They came for the promise of fertile land, watered by aquifers like the Woodbine beneath their feet, and they built a community around agriculture. They also brought their traditions, and none is more famous than the kolache. It's more than just a pastry here; it's a symbol of heritage, a taste of home. You can find kolaches all over Texas now, but folks will tell you the ones in West are the real deal. People stop for the kolaches, sure, but they stay because West feels like a place where time moves a little slower, where community still matters, and where the past is always present, even in the face of tragedy like the fertilizer plant explosion a decade ago.

17.0 mi away

West, TX RoadyGoat

West, Texas, might look like a blur to folks speeding down I-35, but there's a lot more to this place than meets the eye. It's a town built on hard work, where agriculture feeds families and the Woodbine Aquifer keeps the taps flowing. We're proud of our Czech heritage, and you can't visit without trying a kolache – it’s practically a requirement. But beyond the fields and bakeries, West has also nurtured some real talent.

17.0 mi away

West, TX RoadyGoat

West, Texas, wasn't always here, you know. It sprang up almost overnight when the railroad came through in 1892, named for T.M. West, who surveyed the land. Before that, this was just rolling prairie, dotted with post oak and blackjack oak, a part of the Blackland Prairie where the soil is rich and dark. The slight rise in elevation, six hundred and seventy-three feet above sea level, gave it an advantage, a little bit of breathing room above the flatlands. The Woodbine Aquifer runs beneath it all, a life-giving source that made farming possible. For decades, West has been a crossroads, a place where Czech heritage meets classic Texas. You can taste it in the kolaches, a culinary tradition that runs deep. Interstate 35, that ribbon of concrete, now slices through, bringing travelers and commerce. But West is more than just a stop on the highway. The fertilizer plant explosion in 2013 was a tragedy that shook the town to its core, a scar that will never fully heal. Still, the community endures, rooted in the land and its history, a testament to the resilience of small-town Texas.

17.0 mi away

Whitney - Battle of the Benches

1949

In 1949 the women of Whitney, Texas, tried to have the cedar benches on Main Street moved to an alley because of the spitting, whittling, and cussing of the men who sat on them. The dispute went to an election. The men won. Life magazine covered the story. The refurbished benches now sit on the porch of the Lake Whitney Museum at 303 North Brazos Street.

Duncan, Thomas Elmer [Tommy]

1932

Thomas (Tommy) Elmer Duncan, singer and songwriter, was born on January 11, 1911, in Whitney, Texas, into a large and impoverished family of truck farmers. He was the son of Jackson Limuel Byrd Duncan and Edna Nash (Powers) Duncan. On the farm he worked with African Americans who indelibly marked his singing style and repertoire. He was influenced, according to his sister Corrine Andrews, "by the records of colored people and by the recordings of Jimmie Rodgers" ( James Charles Rodgers ). When he was seventeen he left home and moved in with a cousin near Hedley, where residents remembered that Duncan sang Jimmie Rodgers songs as he drove along in an "old stripped-down car." He evidently went broke on a farm he had leased in Hedley and in the early 1930s was still broke, out of work, and living in Fort Worth. But the show-business bug had bitten him, and he was determined to have a career as a singer. Clifton "Sleepy" Johnson, an early member of the Light Crust Doughboys , recalled first seeing Duncan playing a little cheap guitar "about a foot and a half long" and singing at the Ace High root beer stand for tips. In 1932 Duncan won an audition against sixty-six other singers to join bandleader James Robert (Bob) Wills as the vocalist for the Light Crust Doughboys. He was versatile in his singing style and repertoire, had a fine voice and range, and was ideal for the kind of dance music Wills performed. In his earliest recording sessions for Wills, he sang everything from ballads and folk to pop, Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and cowboy songs. Even in songs with sad lyrics he maintained a touch of fun. Duncan had "soul" in his singing like black blues singers, not the sentimentality of some country singers. His versatility was well-suited to the western swing music that he and Wills pioneered. When Wills left the Light Crust Doughboys in August 1933 to form the Texas Playboys, Duncan went with him. Alton Stricklin , a member of the group, observed that Duncan remembered the lyrics to more than 4,000 songs and could learn the words to a new song within fifteen minutes. The song that made the Texas Playboys famous was a folk-rooted pop song that Irving Berlin heard Wills play as a fiddle instrumental and published in 1940. Since Berlin wanted lyrics for the selection, Wills asked Duncan and several other band members to help him write words for the fiddle tune. Wills called it "New San Antonio Rose." In 1940 Wills recorded it in Dallas. That recording, with the brilliant Duncan vocals, sold three million copies for Columbia Records (now CBS Records). Bing Crosby then recorded it and won his second gold record. Tommy Duncan was the first member of Wills's band to volunteer for the armed services after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He rejoined Wills in 1944 as the war neared its end and as Bob Wills was becoming even more famous in music and the movies. Duncan appeared with Wills in several movies, including Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys (1944), Rhythm Roundup (1945), Blazing the Western Trail (1945), Lawless Empire (1945), and Frontier Frolic (1946). He became not only a movie star but the most famous singer in all of western swing. His voice matured in the middle to late 1940s, and he became a star in his own right, second only to Wills himself in the Texas Playboy band. Duncan, who could also play piano and guitar, joined Wills in writing several numbers, including "New Spanish Two Step" (1945), "Stay a Little Longer" (1945), "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (1946), and "Sally Goodin" (1947). For various reasons, including Wills's periodic drinking and Duncan's own ego and ambition to strike out on his own, Duncan left the Texas Playboys in 1948. He organized one of the best western swing bands ever assembled, Tommy Duncan and His Western All Stars. Although the band was technically perfect, and Duncan's singing was excellent, the band lacked the spark that had made Wills's group exciting. The band had only minor success with such recordings as "

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Whitney, TX

1876

Whitney is at the intersection of State Highway 22 and Farm roads 933 and 1244, two miles southeast of Lake Whitney and twelve miles southwest of Hillsboro in western Hill County. It was established in 1876 when the Houston and Texas Central Railroad built a line through Hill County to Cleburne. On November 25, 1879, the town lots were auctioned from a wagon on the site of the future depot. The land, which was originally part of the Sterling Robertson grant, was purchased by the railroad from I. E. Griffith, C. C. Hicks, and Lewis Raborn for fifteen dollars an acre. The sale, which served as entertainment for Hill County residents, netted $32,000 for the lots that sold for $100 to $750 each. The town was named for Charles A. Whitney, the son-in-law of Charles Morgan , and a principal stock holder in the H&TC. Whitney became a boom town with merchants setting up tents to serve as temporary stores. Merchants from nearby communities, such as Towash, moved their businesses and buildings to Whitney because of the growth expected from the railroad. The postmasters of Towash and Hamilton Springs, two nearby communities, moved their post offices to Whitney. Several months later John Napier was appointed the first official postmaster, and Whitney officially had a post office in 1880. Hill County crops in 1880 were a failure, and the railroad promised that the first train to town would bring a bushel of corn for each person in the area. Many residents had not had bread for months, and the trains carried carloads of corn for months. In 1882 a good crop sent 22,000 bales of cotton from Whitney. In 1880 Whitney was incorporated, and the first bank opened. By 1883 the population was estimated at 1,200. School was held in a store and then in the Presbyterian church before enough money was raised through donations to build a schoolhouse in 1884. In 1885 Whitney was incorporated as a school district and levied a school tax. That same year a black school was built. By then the town had a newspaper named the Whitney Messenger , the Boesche Lumber Company, and four churches, Methodist Episcopal, Cumberland Presbyterian, First Baptist, and Church of Christ. After 1883 the population of Whitney began a decline. A fire in 1885 destroyed thirty of the community's frame buildings. By the end of the decade most of the frame buildings had been replaced by brick. In 1890 the population was 400, and businesses included two gristmills and cotton gins, grocery stores, millinery shops, saloons, and shoemakers. The railroad shipped cotton, grain, livestock, and wool. Because of the declining population the citizens of Whitney decided to promote their town with a picnic in 1891. The community barbecued 3,500 pounds of meat, and special excursion trains ran from as far as Brenham to bring people to Whitney. There were political speakers, tournaments, races, and dancing. The picnic was a success. Six thousand people attended, and by 1895 the population was once again over 1,000. The town was incorporated and unincorporated several times and finally incorporated permanently in 1912. The city government was established in 1915. At that time they purchased the water and electric company, founded in 1896, which supplied water with very low pressure and electricity only at night. After the decline of the cotton market in 1915 the population began to decline. By 1930 Whitney had 750 residents and thirty businesses. During the Great Depression Texas relief funds provided some jobs on roads and opened a cannery by 1934. The Work Projects Administration provided funds to build a concrete bridge to replace a wooden one, a lighted athletic field, and a sewer system in 1935. When the Whitney Dam and Reservoir Project was authorized in 1944 a bond election was held to raise taxes to improve city services. The reservoir project began in 1946, and Highway 22, relocated over the dam, was opened in 1951. The power plant was in operation by 1953. In 1950 Whitney had a population

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Walling, Jesse

1836

Star and Wreath Participated in the Battle of San Jacinto. Erected by the State of Texas 1957

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Carver Homestead

1838

In 1838, Mary Beacham received a headright land grant of one league and one labor (about 4600 acres), including this property, making her first in a line of notable women associated with the site. Following multiple ownership transfers, Eliphas Spencer acquired the land and built a two-room log cabin in Dec. 1845. Eliphas later transferred title to his wife, Catherine, whom he married in 1847. The Spencers raised their only child, Emmeline, in the house. Fort Graham (active 1849-54, six miles NW) afforded some protection for the frontier house. Eliphas died in 1860. Surviving letters between Catherine and distant family speak of economic, health and communication problems, and of scarce and expensive commodities. Colmon Carver, who visited the house in 1860, hauled supplies including salt, coffee and flour for the Confederate government during the Civil War. Carver returned and married Emmeline in 1868. In 1875, the Spencer cabin was incorporated as a kitchen into a larger Victorian-style home. Four years later, the Houston and Texas Central Railroad platted the town of Whitney on land west of the Carver property. Catherine lived with her daughter and son-in-law until her death in 1882. The Carvers owned thousands of acres all across Texas. Colmon Carver died in 1911. Emmeline and her son, Charles, hired John E. Bruyere of Waco to add a second story in 1912, creating a Neoclassical style house with full-height entry porch and lower full-length porch. Emmeline Carver died in 1936. Later owners included former Whitney mayor Fred Basham and his wife, Jennye Mae. After a 1971 tornado destroyed chimneys and 18 windows, the Bashams made repairs and added a small rear addition. The historic homestead includes a carriage house, slave quarters, henhouse, and outhouse, all of frame construction, and a smokehouse/pantry of native limestone. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2011

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Whitney Messenger

1883

The Whitney Messenger , the community newspaper of Whitney, Texas, was founded on November 2, 1883, by H. P. and J. O. Jones. Throughout its history the paper was owned and edited by a variety of people expressing different political views, but its most important duty from its founding in 1883 to the present was in reporting community events and carrying advertising for local merchants. The Mayes family's long relationship with the paper began in 1890, when it was sold to J. T. and D. S. Mayes. Several different members of the Mayes family controlled the paper until 1916. From 1916 to 1933 it was owned by J. L. Yarbro. From 1933 to 1951 it was once again run by the Mayes family. Leonard Webb bought the paper in 1951 and served as its editor for the next twenty-three years; he was also serving twenty-eight years as justice of the peace. After 1951 the newspaper had several different owners. The Whitney Messenger was published continuously from its founding in 1883 to the 1990s, except for a year and a half during World War II when its editor, L. B. Mayes, went to California to work in a defense plant. In 1991 the weekly newspaper was edited by Nelson Bryan and had a circulation of 450.

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Whitney, Texas

Music in Whitney

Songs About Whitney

Artists From Whitney

Rivers & Roads in Song near Whitney

History of Whitney

West, TX RoadyGoat

West, TX RoadyGoat

West, TX RoadyGoat

Whitney - Battle of the Benches

Duncan, Thomas Elmer [Tommy]

Whitney, TX

Walling, Jesse

Carver Homestead

Whitney Messenger

Things to Do in Whitney

Everything Near Whitney