In June 1841, Republic of Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar commissioned an effort to increase Texas' political, military and commercial influence in Santa Fe, then a part of Mexico claimed by the Republic of Texas. A party of 321 men set out from . . . — — Map (db m200134) HM
A leading public man in Texas, 1896-1939. Born in Wise County to early (1854) settlers. After two years at Texas A. & M., read law and began practice in 1886. Served 1888-92 as Decatur City Attorney; 1892-96 as County Attorney; 1896-1901 and . . . — — Map (db m108521) HM
For over 100 years beginning in 1882 this cemetery has been the sole graveyard serving the community of Keeter. The oldest recorded gravesite in the cemetery is that of Ida Mae Ryan (1881-1882). Albert Lafayette Keeter, for whom the community of . . . — — Map (db m146879) HM
Georgia native George Lawson Bledsoe (b. 1805), a carpenter and cotton gin builder, came to Texas in 1834. A veteran of the Texas Revolution and the Battle of San Jacinto, he received a pension for his military service and patented land grants in . . . — — Map (db m183376) HM
A native of Tennessee, Samuel G. Evetts came to Texas in the 1830s. In December 1835 he was wounded at the Siege of Bexar. He later lived in Austin and Coryell counties and received land grants in those counties as well as in the counties of . . . — — Map (db m309555) HM
Born in Wise County, Texas, on December 11, 1879, Amon Giles Carter left home at an early age and worked at a variety of odd jobs around the country before his arrival in Fort Worth in 1905. Carter became the advertising manager of the “Fort . . . — — Map (db m52831) HM
County named for Henry A. Wise, U.S. Senator from Virginia who supported Texas annexation, later Governor and C.S.A. general. Wise County was part of District One of 33 brigade districts of Texas established to recruit men for Confederate and state . . . — — Map (db m108530) HM
Born in Illinois, William Renshaw studied medicine and set up practice in Sparta, Tennessee. His wife Sarah received from the Mexican government a grant of land in Texas, where her father Samuel Worthington lost his life in a colonization attempt . . . — — Map (db m201914) HM
The Legend of Mount Lookout
Just south of town is the red sandstone bluff first known as Manning's Peak following the killing of a cowboy by that name in a gunfight in town in 1872. Manning's brothers refused to bury him in . . . — — Map (db m96550) HM
Born in Ithaca, New York, William Hudson Hunt became a principal figure in the development of Wise County. He came to Texas in 1836, joining the War for Independence. He then served in the Army of the Texas Republic, participating in the Santa Fe . . . — — Map (db m309573) HM
Absalom Bishop (1804-1883) began his military service as a Captain of Militia in the Seminole War in Florida. He later attained the rank of Colonel. Bishop lived in several states before arriving in Hopkins County, Texas, in 1852, and then in what . . . — — Map (db m108529) HM
Tennessee pioneer Sam Woody (1826-1920) migrated to Texas in the 1840s. He brought his family to Wise County in 1854. This cabin, located near Deep Creek, was the first dwelling in the area. After Woody cut the logs, friends and relatives helped . . . — — Map (db m256733) HM
A center of pioneer culture in North Texas, drawing crowds to meet here at good spring of water issuing from beneath hill that gave community its name. First church (Methodist) in territory to become Wise County was organized in home of Jim . . . — — Map (db m184108) HM
Georgia native the Reverend Henry Fullingim, his wife Martha, and their 17 children came to northeast Texas in 1849. Henry Fullingim served the area as a circuit-riding Methodist minister. Their son, Archibald, and their son-in-law, John Hale, came . . . — — Map (db m255058) HM
As railroads expanded across Texas in the 1880s, the Dallas, Pacific & Southeastern Railway was planned to link Dallas and Albuquerque. The road, which was graded northwest from Dallas to near this site, traversed southern Wise County, including . . . — — Map (db m309583) HM
This financial institution was organized in 1883 by Decatur bankers Dan Waggoner, Henry Greathouse, and other pioneer businessmen. Waggoner's son, W. T. Waggoner (b. 1854), a prominent Texas cattleman and oilman, served as bank president from 1904 . . . — — Map (db m108543) HM
Born a slave near Savannah, GA., Randolph Vesey was body servant to Confederate General William Lewis Cabell during the Civil War. In 1868, while living on the Montague-Wise County line, Vesey was captured by Indians and taken to Kansas. Black . . . — — Map (db m309553) HM
On Journalism Day, March 16, 1961, Dr. George Lynn Cross announced that the Journalism Building, first occupied in 1958, would be named Copeland Hall in honor of Dr. Fayette Copeland. As director of the School of Journalism, Copeland dedicated forty . . . — — Map (db m277660) HM
County Line Road Bridge was installed in 1940 over Denton Creek on the Denton-Wise county line to give a number of communities access to the newly improved and gravel-paved section of Texas Highway 24, now US 380, between Denton and Decatur. The . . . — — Map (db m289447) HM
A surveyor, part-time Methodist preacher, and Wise County's first tax assessor-collector, R. C. Mount (1826-97) began this structure in 1872 to house his large family. Built of rock that Mount and his sons hauled by wagon from Palo Pinto County, the . . . — — Map (db m255050) HM
Captain George W. Stevens was born in Lowndes County, Alabama, on July 12, 1830. He lived in Arkansas briefly where he married Martha McDonald in 1852. The couple moved to the Wise County area in 1855 and Stevens became a leader in the efforts to . . . — — Map (db m108526) HM
The tumultuous years of the Great Depression were much the same in Decatur as in other small towns throughout the United States. Massive unemployment, bank closures, school closures and loss of farms and homes prompted President Franklin D. . . . — — Map (db m198795) HM
Born in Gibson County, Tennessee, S. W. Tilghman (1846-1913) came in 1870 by wagon train to Wise County. In 1872 he married a Decatur native, Eliza Bland Miller (1856-1931), and became father of a daughter and three sons. A master builder, he . . . — — Map (db m184085) HM
George Lafayette Ramsdale (1820-1884) was a native of Devonshire, England. By 1836, he had come to Texas and enlisted in the Army during the War for Independence from Mexico. After the Revolution, Ramsdale, his wife, Elizabeth (1825-1909), and . . . — — Map (db m146880) HM
First stone house in Decatur. Erected by prison labor about 1859. Main house was residence of sheriff or deputy. Basement was used as jail. Meals were sent down a dumb-waiter located outside the east end of the house.
County sold property in . . . — — Map (db m108539) HM
This is dedicated in loving memory of Elmer "Red” and Elsie G. Cruze,
early day settlers of the Indian Creek area, north of Carter, Oklahoma.
Elsie moved to the Indian Creek area at the age of 3, with her parents
Pearl J. and Kate King, . . . — — Map (db m162457) HM
In the 1890s, large Catholic communities were established in north Texas. Father J.J. O'Riordan from Henrietta traveled to Bridgeport once a month by train to hold mass, so a mission was established. The mission of St. John the Baptizer was the . . . — — Map (db m200135) HM
The watershed of the West Fork of the Trinity River is fed by a large acreage located in Jack and Wise counties. This flows southeastward downriver toward Tarrant and Dallas counties where it eventually merges with the Clear, Elm and East Forks . . . — — Map (db m178180) HM
When General Henry McCulloch arrived in Bonham in 1863 to take command of the Northern Sub-District of the Confederate Army, one of his first charges from his superiors was to ferret out the large number of suspected army deserters and possible . . . — — Map (db m234139) HM
Thin black lines indicate changes in relevance. Between each pair of lines entries are ordered geographically but all have the same relevance.
* Inflectional forms of words are their plurals, singulars, and possessives as well as gramatical tenses and similar variations.
