East Texas History
A project by Sam Houston State UniversityEast Texas History is a free mobile app and web platform that places the past at your fingertips. Designed by the History Department at Sam Houston State University, the project seeks to highlight the distinctive people, places, and events that have shaped East Texas. Viewers may learn about the region through our interactive, map-based interface that includes historical stories, photographs, and oral interviews. Follow our progress on Twitter or connect with us on Facebook to learn more about the project or to become a participating author. Read more About Us
Featured Stories
Minnie Fisher Cunningham
During the twentieth century, Minnie Fisher Cunningham (1882-1964) worked as a leading reformer on women’s issues, including voting rights and equal pay. Born near New Waverly, Texas in southern Walker County, Minnie was raised by her parents,…
Wendell Harold Baker
The son of Jesse and Fannie Baker, Wendell Harold Baker (1922-2013) played a crucial role in the civil rights movement in Walker County. His parents provided him with a first rate public education, and he graduated with honors from Samuel Walker…
Goree Recordings
In his pursuit of folk music, John A. Lomax visited penitentiaries throughout the South specifically to document the music of African Americans that, because of racial segregation and the isolation of prison life, remained pure or relativity free of…
Featured Tours
John Lomax's East Texas Tour
12 Locations ~ Curated by Amy BertschThe Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1867
12 Locations ~ Curated by Zachary Doleshal, Ph.D., SHSU Public History Students of 2017Random Stories
Palmito Ranch Battlefield
On May 12, 1865, two small outfits of soldiers would engage in what is now considered the final battle of the Civil War. Though the war had officially ended with General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox more than a month before, Union…
Huntsville Branch Railway
The Huntsville Branch Railway was a "tap" rail line which was chartered as the Huntsville Branch Railway Company in 1871. Support of a railroad through Huntsville was split in the community for a number of reasons. Concerns about loss of…
Yellow Fever in Huntsville, Texas
On September 5, 1867, shortly after Huntsville declared the recent string of yellow fever attacks an epidemic, “a general panic ensued.” By the end of the month, families hid in their homes or had fled to the country, schools had dissolved,…
Dick Dowling and the Davis Guards
On September 8, 1863, four Union gunboats and 4,000 troops attacked Fort Griffin, a Confederate position controlling the Sabine River Pass, which divides Texas from Louisiana on the Gulf Coast. The Union was intent upon the conquest of Texas, which…
Woodland Home
In 1847, Sam Houston bought a 200-acre property on the outskirts of Huntsville, Texas, to be the site of his family’s home. Houston designed a house that would resemble that of his boyhood in Virginia. While away to serve as one of Texas’s first…
Peabody Library Building
The Peabody Memorial Library is the first separate college library building in Texas. Located east of Austin Hall and the Old Main Memorial in central campus, it is the university's oldest building constructed after its founding in 1879.
The…