Blogs from Texas, United States, North America - page 8

A few years ago I purchased a book on 1891 New Birmingham, Texas. I got pics from that book before I lost the book. The book documents the third year (of five years) that New Birmingham was a national boom town before it went bust in 1893. In 1888 Anderson Blevins and a group of investors aquired the Cherokee Land and Iron Company and 20,000 acres of land with plenty of iron ore to be mined or picked up off the ground. (There was nearby lignite coal to be used for fuel.) In 1889 New Birmingham was incorporated and open for business. They had two 50 ton iron blast furnaces: "Tassie Belle" (named after Blevins wife), and the "Star and Crescent" that provided pig iron and iron pipe for sale. New Birmingham had one of the ... read more

Breakfast this morning was to be provided by Wyndham Resorts at our sales pitch. When we got there we were told no coffee because of Covid. Now anyone who knows Terry Wilson knows he needs a cup of coffee to get started each day. I must say he behaved very nicely on only juice. I was hoping this would be short. As soon as we sat down I told the salesman we really weren’t interested in making any kind of purchase, we were only interested in the gifts. He did cut his presentation somewhat short and we were in our way in about an hour. First up was to find a cup of coffee. McDonalds to the rescue!!! We found the McDonalds right around the corner from The Alamo. We then headed off to The Alamo. ... read more

Following breakfast at IHOP, we headed out toward San Antonio. Our goal was Sweetwater, Tx where we planned to spend the night. It was an ambitious goal as it was a 9 hr 10 min drive. That really doesn’t sound too bad but when you factor in pit stops, meals, and traffic it can be a long day. Plus Terry Wilson likes to do all the driving. I do love watching the scenery as we drive along. Sometimes it feels like we’re driving along in West Virginia but most of the time it’s so much different. Today’s drive started out with the mountains and rocks of Colorado, then the dry desert-like fields of New Mexico. Once we got into Texas it was the story of two sides of the car, again. On one side there were ... read more

April, 2019 -- In retrospect, it was a mistake not to devote an extra day to see Waco on this Texas trip. The day we spent exploring the ‘new face’ of Waco was pretty much a whirlwind tour – plenty to see and do to fill up a day, but one day is not enough time to get a real feel for this city. In fact, in hindsight, a lot more time was needed to see and get a feel for Texas as a whole. I would have liked to see New Braunfels and Grapevine; and, though it would have been way off our north-south-north course, I would have liked to have seen Odessa for personal reasons but it was too far west. So, the last full day in Texas began with a drive back to ... read more

Knoxville, Texas was an early settlement founded by the Norman family from Knoxville, Tennessee. I think it was Sam Norman (and father of Thomas Norman) that founded this town. According to TSHA (Texas State Historical Association) Knoxville, Texas was founded by immigrants from Tennessee in the late 1840s. In 1854 Thomas Norman sold 2/3 interest of the land to William Pope and Archibald Carmichael. Later in 1854 a post office opened and Knoxville became a town in Cherokee County, Texas. Also in 1854 William Pope opened a general store. During the US Civil War Knoxville had four general stores, a gristmill, sawmill, distillery (for whiskey sold in general stores), tanyard, and a church that served several denominations. In the early 1870s the railroad bypassed Knoxville; and in 1875 the post office closed. The cemetery is all ... read more