Whitney, Texas

Everything Whitney is known for

1 song mention this city 1 artist from here

Music in Whitney

Songs About Whitney

feeling whitney
warren zeiders
85%

Artists From Whitney

L
Lincoln Durham
americana Pop: 34

Rivers & Roads in Song near Whitney

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

Brazos River 37 songs Interstate 35 42 songs Chisholm Trail 7 songs

Musical Heritage

The Fire That Saved Texas Courthouses RoadyGoat

1993

The fire that nearly destroyed Hillsboro's courthouse ended up saving historic courthouses across Texas. On New Year's Day in 1993, an electrical short set the 1890 Hill County Courthouse ablaze. The roof and the seventy-foot clock tower collapsed, and the courthouse bell, cast in Baltimore and weighing more than fifteen hundred pounds, crashed down into the district courtroom. When the smoke cleared, only the limestone exterior walls were still standing. Instead of replacing it with a modern box, Hill County chose to rebuild the courthouse exactly as architect W. C. Dodson had drawn it, finishing the restoration in 1999. Hillsboro native Bob Bullock, then the lieutenant governor, championed the effort, and the most famous musician from a tiny town just down the road in Hill County played benefit concerts to help pay for it. The disaster helped inspire what became the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program, which has since rescued courthouses all over the state. (Sources: Texas Highways; Texas Historical Commission; Architexas.)

11.9 mi away

The Hillsboro Drummer Who Helped Invent Rock RoadyGoat

1939

Hillsboro's best music story might be a drummer. Jerry Allison was born here in 1939, and he became the drummer for Buddy Holly and the Crickets, one of the bands that essentially invented rock and roll. Allison co-wrote two of the songs that started it all, Peggy Sue and That'll Be the Day. He always told the story that the second title came straight off the movie screen: he and Holly had just watched John Wayne repeat the line over and over in the 1956 western The Searchers, and as Allison remembered it, within about thirty minutes they had written the song. It is a remarkable thing to stand on the Hillsboro square and realize this small Central Texas town has a direct line to the birth of modern rock. (Sources: Wikipedia, with cited sources; Vintage Rock, 2022 interview.)

11.9 mi away

Hillsboro's Hand in a Famous Prison Album RoadyGoat

1932

Coming out of Huntsville's prison-music history, there is a perfect Hillsboro footnote. Record producer Bob Johnston was born here in 1932. He went on to produce some of the most important records of his era, working with Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Simon and Garfunkel. And he produced the man in black's landmark live album recorded inside Folsom Prison, which means this Hill County town has an indirect hand in one of the most famous prison recordings ever made. Johnston summed up his whole production philosophy in one rough, honest line that fit a room full of inmates as well as any studio: don't ever quit, don't stop playing, and if you do, don't come back. (Sources: Wikipedia, with cited sources; UNCUT; Briscoe Center.)

11.9 mi away

Hill County Courthouse RoadyGoat

1890

New Year's Day, 1993. An electrical short caught somewhere inside the Hill County Courthouse in Hillsboro, and before the day was out, the seventy-foot bell tower came down in flames. When the smoke cleared, this 1890 landmark was four limestone walls and not much else. Most towns would have bulldozed it and moved on. Hillsboro rebuilt — six years, nine million dollars, pulled together from grants, state money, and donations, including the take from a benefit concert Willie Nelson played to help save it. They rededicated it in 1999. And the fire lit a fuse statewide: then-Governor George W. Bush turned around and asked the Texas Historical Commission to check every old courthouse in Texas — and found a whole lot of them quietly falling apart. One building burned. It ended up saving dozens.

RoadyGoat → · 12.6 mi away

Bobbie Nelson RoadyGoat

Before Willie Nelson was Willie Nelson, there was his big sister Bobbie at the piano. She came out of Abbott, Texas, same as him, and for decades she was the piano in his band — Sister Bobbie, he called her. Willie always said she was the real prodigy, not him. But the road wasn't kind to her early on: she once lost custody of her sons, in part because a woman playing music wasn't seen as a respectable way to make a living. She outlasted every bit of it. She was in Nashville for the birth of outlaw country, she wrote a memoir alongside her brother, and when she passed in 2022, she left one more record behind — "Loving You," made with Amanda Shires, released after she was gone. The backbone of the whole band, and she never once had to raise her voice.

RoadyGoat → · 14.4 mi away

Mynar's Bar RoadyGoat

1923

Downtown West, Texas, a Czech town straddling Interstate 35 — and on one side of the street sits Mynar's. The Mynar family bought the building back in 1923, but don't let that fool you: it ran as a grocery store through Prohibition, and only became a beer joint years down the road. Rick Mynar runs it now in the spirit of his late father, Felix, who was a religious man and opened just six days a week. "If you can't make it in six," he'd say, "why try seven?" Look close at the bar and you'll see a single brown streak worn into the linoleum, from Felix pacing and passing a mug hand to hand while he talked. His Stetson still hangs off the antler of a cousin's elk head. Beer and wine only. Bikers and cowboys, same rail.

RoadyGoat → · 17.0 mi away

Wolf's Sports Bar RoadyGoat

Across the street from Mynar's in downtown West stands Wolf's — and Wolf's leans sports bar over honky-tonk. The walls are painted up with Texas team logos, there's a University of Oklahoma logo hung in memory of an old regular, and a television over every surface, including the one above the urinal, running football, baseball, golf, rodeo, all of it. There's a table of older men here who call themselves the Table of Knowledge. Beer and wine, no liquor. The owner, Stephanie Gray, cooks on Easter and Thanksgiving for anybody with nowhere else to be — a lot of older widowed men in that crowd. James Miller's been coming since 1986. And when the live music kicks up, the Wolf's crowd and the Mynar's crowd forget which side of the street they came from.

RoadyGoat → · 17.0 mi away

History of Whitney

Walling, Jesse RoadyGoat

1836

You're driving past the site of the Battle of San Jacinto, where Texas won its independence. But this marker? It's not about Sam Houston or Santa Anna. It's about Jesse Walling — a private soldier who picked up a rifle and showed up. Walling enlisted on March 6, 1836, in Captain Hayden Arnold's Company and marched into that final, decisive battle. Eighteen minutes. That's all it took for Houston's men to break Santa Anna's army. Walling was one of the men who made those eighteen minutes happen — a forgotten foot soldier of San Jacinto.

RoadyGoat →

The Town That Moved for the Train RoadyGoat

The Aquilla you see today isn't where it started. The original village, settled in the 1850s, sat a few miles north of here, and the neighbors called it Mudtown. Then around 1880 the Texas Central Railroad came building across southwestern Hill County, and the surveyors ran the line several miles south of that timber settlement. The settlers faced a choice: stay where they were and become irrelevant, or follow the future. They chose the future. Businesses and families pulled up stakes and moved south to the tracks, dismantling and rebuilding to be next to the rails. The new Aquilla shipped cotton and took in goods, though it wasn't easy living at first — people kept getting sick on creek water until a well was finally dug in 1897. The railroad was the lifeline, and this town's very existence is a testament to that powerful 19th-century partnership between steam power and ambition.

RoadyGoat → · 8.5 mi away

Taming Aquilla Creek RoadyGoat

Just north of here lies a massive piece of engineering that reshaped this entire region: the Aquilla Dam. The town's namesake, Aquilla Creek, was prone to the same flash flooding that plagues many Texas waterways. To control that and to lock in a dependable water supply for Hillsboro and the rural systems across Hill County, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers embarked on a major project. Completed in January 1983, the Aquilla Dam is a rolled earthfill structure with a crest nearly 11,900 feet long, standing about 104 feet above the streambed. It's a carefully engineered barrier designed to hold back the creek's flow, creating the 3,280-acre Aquilla Lake behind it. This project was a massive undertaking in hydrology and civil engineering, turning a winding creek and prairie farmland into a huge reservoir. It permanently altered the local ecology and provides critical flood control and drinking water, showing how modern engineering can fundamentally change a landscape to meet human needs.

RoadyGoat → · 8.5 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 "

Tsha Handbook →

Whitney

1879

Whitney, the first railroad town in Hill County, was established in 1879 on the route of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad and was named for railroad investor Charles A. Whitney. Lots in the new town were sold at a "Grand Picnic" on November 25, 1879. An eager crowd bid on the lots which sold at prices ranging between $100 and $750. Several merchants who purchased lots established "tent stores" while carpenters worked night and day to complete wooden frame stores. Soon a central business district was in operation. The new town included a post office, bank, school, several churches, civic organizations, a newspaper, and many businesses. The opera house was the cultural center for entertainment, offering theatrical and musical productions and, later, movies. Several devastating fires burned much of the downtown area over the years, but the citizens rebuilt each time. The building of nearby Whitney Dam caused the town's population to expand in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and brought increased tourism from those visiting the newly created Lake Whitney. The town of Whitney observed its 100th birthday on November 25, 1979. A centennial celebration included a parade, musical entertainment, and fireworks.

Historical Marker →

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

Tsha Handbook →

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.

Tsha Handbook →

Things to Do in Whitney

food 16.7 mi away
The Czech Stop

In 1983 Bill Polk opened a little convenience store off I-35 in West Texas and started selling kolaches he bought from a nearby bakery. The pastries moved so…
historical 19.0 mi away
Murder of the Disk Plow Inventor

Young Ole Ringness grew up on a Norse farm near Clifton watching mud cup inside a wagon wheel. That observation inspired the disk plow and disk harrow. In 1872…
historical 19.0 mi away
The 11000-Year-Old Shaman Burial

In 1970 archaeologists excavated a limestone overhang along the Bosque River near Clifton and found something extraordinary. The 11000-year-old remains of a…
quirky 19.0 mi away
The Day Clifton Out-Snowed the Panhandle

On December 21 1929 a weather station near Clifton recorded 24 inches of snowfall in a single day. That is the all-time daily snowfall record for the entire…
historical 19.0 mi away
Norwegian Capital of Texas

In 1854 a band of eighteen Norwegian immigrants led by Cleng Peerson settled in the hills west of Clifton. They built homes from native limestone because rock…
historical 19.1 mi away
The Father of Norwegian Immigration

Cleng Peerson is buried near Clifton in the tiny Norse community he helped found. Known as the Father of Norwegian Immigration to America he first scouted New…
food 16.5 mi away
Slovacek's West

I-35 exit 353 in West, Texas — the rival Czech bakery to the Czech Stop across the highway. Over 35 kolache varieties, in-house smoked meats, and a full deli…
quirky 18.9 mi away
The Limestone Homesteads of Norse

The Norwegian settlers near Clifton built everything from native limestone because trees were scarce on the Bosque County prairie. About 40 of these hand-cut…

Everything Near Whitney

263 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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