Scott Joplin, the “King of Ragtime” music, was born near Linden, Texas on November 24, 1868. He moved with his family to Texarkana at the age of about seven. Even at this early age, Joplin demonstrated his extraordinary talent for music. Encouraged by his parents, he was already proficient on the banjo and was beginning … Read more
Anson Jones was born in Massachusetts in 1798. He studied medicine and began a medical practice in Philadelphia in 1826. Jones came to Texas in 1833 and during the struggle for independence entered the army as a private soldier. Following the revolution, Jones was elected to the second Congress of Texas in 1837, and the … Read more
William Barret Travis and almost two hundred other defenders found themselves surrounded at the Alamo Mission in San Antonio in late February of 1836. Refusing to surrender, they held off the invading armies of Mexican Dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna for almost two weeks. On March 6, the courageous Texans were overrun and slaughtered by well over … Read more
Born in Washington, Kentucky in 1803, Albert Sidney Johnston attended Transylvania University before graduating from the U. S. Military Academy in 1826. Johnston resigned his military commission in 1834 because of his wife’s illness, and farmed near St. Louis in 1835 before coming to Texas to enlist as a private in the Texas army. Because … Read more
One of the most colorful and controversial figures in Texas history, Sam Houston was born in Virginia on March 2, 1793. He spent much of his youth, however, in the mountains of Tennessee. There, young Houston became acquainted with the Cherokee Indians, and he spent much time with them, an activity which he much preferred … Read more
James S. Hogg was born March 24, 1851 near Rusk, in east Texas. His birthplace would later give him the distinction of becoming the first native-born governor of Texas. Hogg was orphaned at the age of eleven when his father, a Confederate general, died in May 1862, and his mother died soon afterwards. To help … Read more
J. Pinckney Henderson was an active proponent for the annexation of Texas into the United States. Partly in recognition of his efforts toward statehood, Henderson was elected Texas’ first governor when it became a state in 1845. Henderson was born in North Carolina on March 31, 1808. He studied law and was admitted to the … Read more
A noted Indian fighter and early Texas Ranger, John Coffee (Jack) Hays was a man of less than average size. He was exceptionally wiry, however, and had almost supernatural powers of endurance in the rugged west Texas terrain. Born in Tennessee, Hays spent some time in Mississippi before arriving in Texas around the beginning of … Read more
William Polk “Old Gotch” Hardeman has the distinction of having served Texas, in either a military or official government position, spanning a period longer than any other Texan. In 1835, within days after he arrived in Texas at the age of eighteen, he became an active participant in the Texas Revolution. When Hardeman died in … Read more
As a 21-year-old college graduate when he first came to Texas in 1835, Tom Green was no doubt one of the most schooled of all Texans. Over the next twenty nine years in Texas, he would also prove to be one of the most courageous. Green was born in Virginia on June 8, 1814, but … Read more