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 UsFeatured Stories
The Rice Building
The Rice Building at 909 Texas Avenue sits atop one of the most historic and fascinating pieces of real estate in all of Houston. Initially set aside by Augustus and John Kirby Allen for the Republic of Texas, the site served as home of the…
Sugar Land Recordings
Searching for authentic folk music, John A. Lomax made multiple trips to the Sugar Land area in the 1930s. First in 1933 and 1934, he and his son Alan visited the Central State correctional facility to document work songs of African American…
Andrew Female College
Huntsville’s Andrew Female College was founded in 1852 and chartered by the Texas Conference of Methodist Churches on February 7, 1853. Its creation mirrored that of Austin College, a men’s institution in Huntsville that had admitted its first class…
Featured Tours
The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1867
12 Locations ~ Curated by Zachary Doleshal, Ph.D., SHSU Public History Students of 2017Random Stories
Mark Manning
Mark Manning served in the American Revolution from the Halifax District of North Carolina, his native state. He later lived in South Carolina and in Conecuh County, Alabama, and came to Texas at the age of 97 to live with his sons, who had large…
Bernadine Oliphint
Bernadine Oliphint was born in Huntsville, Texas, in 1933 to Tom and Catherine Bolden Oliphint. She was one of eleven children and was raised in the Smith Hill community. Both of her parents were educated and taught school prior to the birth of…
Historic American Buildings Survey of the Halfway Inn
When the National Park Service (NPS) launched the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) as a New Deal initiative, it intended to measure and record "the complete field of ... American Architecture from the earliest aboriginal structures to…
Upshur Rural Electric Cooperative
Electric light came to the farmers of Upshur County, Texas in July 1938. Citizens of the county and surrounding rural areas created the Upshur Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation (URECC) in 1937. They applied for a loan of $140,000 from the Rural…
Sam Houston & Chief Bowl (Duwali) (AKA "The Treaty")
This statue is located on the south side of Main Street in Nacogdoches just east of the square and features Sam Houston (1793-1863) and Cherokee Chief Bowl (1756-1839). On February 23, 1836, Sam Houston and Chief Bowl signed a treaty granting…
Aldridge Sawmill
Sitting on the south side of the Angelina National Forest, the Aldridge Sawmill stands as a reminder of a once prosperous period in the history of East Texas. In operation from 1905 to 1923, the Aldridge mill at one time churned out 125,000 board…