Buck Kilgore donated a 200-foot railroad right-of-way in 1871. Kilgore recognized the benefits which come from a railroad and built a new home near the station and many followed suit.
Like other museums in East Texas, this one is a state historical marker. This week’s subject of "A Mark in Texas History" by Mark Scirto highlights the Tyler Carnegie Library.
This small Gregg County town has gone through many names since its establishment before the Civil War. But today, her name is Liberty and is the subject of this week’s Mark in Texas History.
The City of Tyler may not be what it is today without one major figure. Rudolph Bergfeld is the subject of this week’s Mark in Texas History with Mark Scirto.
Burell Cannon was a Baptist minister and inventor. In 1902, Cannon led some investors in Pittsburg to create the Ezekiel Airship. It was modeled after a description in the Biblical book of Ezekiel.
It was a thriving industrial town carved out of the Piney Woods in Cherokee County, but that only lasted about five years. Mark Scirto talked about the Iron Queen of the Southwest in his most recent Mark in Texas History.
It started in 1902 and grew during the oil boom of the 30s. Mark Scirto talks about First Baptist Church of Kilgore in this week’s edition of A Mark in Texas History.
It was in the 1930s when the greatest concentration of oil derricks in the world was right here in East Texas. It’s the subject of this week’s Mark in Texas History by Mark Scirto.
The bakery was launched after Eilenberger took his mother’s fruitcake recipe, started making fruitcakes and pastries and a business in town wanted to mail cakes to customers and friends.
Since photos back then were black and white, finding the correct old paint colors was no easy feat. The Texas Historical Commission sent an expert to help.
It was 110 years ago when groups of armed white men shot and killed Black residents of Slocum, a small town in Anderson County. The Black residents who survived scattered, never to return.
Longview’s Temple Emanu-El has its origins out of Kilgore and the Temple Beth Sholom. The oil boom of the 1900s saw many Jewish families settling in East Texas and they met at the Kilgore temple, which was founded in 1936.
“Winston Churchill, at the end of the war, said that the war was won on a sea of East Texas oil. Miraculous that we were able to get this built. That was the single largest contributing factor to the Allies winning World War 2.”
This week, Mark Scirto’s Mark in Texas History is about an industry that thrives today, rich in business and tradition. It’s the Smith County Rose Industry and Tyler Rose Garden.
On the Stephen F. Austin State University campus is one of the first preservation efforts in Texas, and it is the topic of this week’s Mark in Texas History by Mark Scirto.
When the Smith County Jail was replaced by a new jail in 1916, the old building was transformed into the Lewis Hotel open for business for the next 70 years.
Celebrities like Sissy Spacek have been an audience for it, while others like Kacy Musgraves have been the show. It’s formerly the Select Theater in Mineola and it’s the subject of this week’s Mark in Texas History with Mark Scirto.
It’s housed everything from a grocery store to Athens City Hall. Today, it houses Henderson County history. It’s the Faulk and Gauntt Building and this week’s subject of a Mark in Texas History with Mark Scirto.
