We recommend the Facebook Group "West Texas History & Memories" for history, famous people, old photos, stories, unclaimed estates and genealogy of the Western Half of Texas . . . Check it out and join the conversation

Good books about the history, people and places of Brown County, Brownwood, Bangs, Early, Blanket, Indian Creek and Lake Brownwood Texas

This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. For Example: As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Since 1819 over 3,000 souls found their personal ''eternity at the end of a rope'' in Texas. Some earned their way. Others were the victim of mistaken identity, or an act of vigilante justice. Deserved or not, when the hangman's knot is pulled up tight and the black cap snugged down over your head it is too late to plead your case. In August 1877 a man identified only as Monte was taken from officers transporting him from Fort Griffin to Brownwood and lynched. When his body was discovered a placard reading. "Beware of Horse Thieves" had been fastened to his chest. . . . Read more Look inside

This is a splendid collection of stories about Texas by Texans—stories that appeared in leading magazines in the first half of the twentieth century.

"Katherine Anne Porter, Texas' greatest contribution to the short story, was born at Indian Creek, Brown County, May 15, 1894. She herself is authority for the statement that she began to write stories before she was four years old . . . " Read more look Inside

Born in a log cabin on a Texas prairie in 1890, T. V. Smith—distinguished philosopher, teacher, politician, lecturer, and editor—left an imprint on the twentieth century seldom equaled by a university professor. "My log cabin was at Blanket, Texas, not exactly in the metropolis itself of some (now as then) two hundred souls, but in the suburbs of Blanket, nine miles in the country to the west. The date was April 26, 1890, the date of my birth . . . Read more Look inside

"Landing in Galveston, Arrington walked to Houston where he got a job in a sawmill. In the span of four years he hired on for a time with a railroad, worked in a commission house in Galveston, farmed, and then took up cowboying. That occupation took him to Brown County on the edge of settlement. There in April 1875, he tried to enlist in the Rangers, but he was denied a commission because of the Alabama murder indictment, which he owned up to " .. . . Read more Look inside

This is a family story which traces the lives of two families - The Packard's and the Fosters.

"Ruby Inez Packard was born in Brownwood, Texas in March of 1926. Her father was Bob Gay, a rancher and Santa Fe Railroad worker  " ... Read more Look inside

by John Avant

"Who has ever heard of Brownwood, Texas? God has! He is the God of passion who just may step into the next moment of your life and change the ordinary into the extraordinary. Are you ready? It was January 22, 1995. I was the pastor of Coggin Avenue Baptist Church in Brownwood, Texas. Things had not been going well. In fact, I wondered whether I was even in the right place " . . . Read more Look  inside . . . for more like this please see Texas Church History

Englishman Frank Collinson went to Texas in 1872, when he was seventeen, to work on Will Noonan’s ranch near Castroville. At the age of seventy-nine he began writing about the Old West he knew and loved. He had a flair for writing, a phenomenal memory, and a passion for truth that is evident in what he wrote and said. "I remember well one ride I made. I left the Colorado River country in Texas in March and rode my horse, Greyhound, belly deep in the Pacific near Los Angeles, and got back to Brownwood on Christmas Day. " . . . Read more Look inside . . .  for more like this please see Christmas in Texas

A twenty-first century reckoning with the legendary Texas Rangers that does justice to their heroic moments while also documenting atrocities, brutality, oppression, and corruption.

Found Inside: "Panic seized the county seat in December 1883, as the Austin Statesman reported a looming peasant revolt; "Yesterday was a very awful day in Brownwood. About three o'clock in the morning it was announced that over two hundred fence cutters were in arms, and determined to lay Brownwood in ashes and kill some of its citizens . . .  . . . " Read more Look inside

by James D. Norvell

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since Billie Sol Estes walked into my office with a proposal that he collaborate with me on a book about the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK as part of my fee to represent him in a sales tax fraud indictment in Brown County, Texas . . . Read more Look inside

by Brighten Cambridge

" It must have been in the late 1980's and I no more than eight years old. We had lived in Brownwood, Texas then and we were still a close family; that was a time before the divorce, and love still filled the home with laughter. The trip began by meeting relatives in Andrews, Texas and then all together driving ... " Read more Look inside

by Robert E. Howard

Robert Erwin Howard was born and raised in rural Texas, where he lived all his life. The son of a pioneer physician, he began writing professionally at the age of fifteen. Robert was buried at Greenleaf Cemetery in Brownwood, Texas in June 1936. He was just 30 at the time of his death , but already he had amassed a considerable body of work, as well as a reputation as one of the foremost writers of the sword and sorcery genre . . . Look inside The Right Hand of Doom or Read more about Robert E Howard

A badman is not necessarily a bad man, but he is not a man to mess with. He might be a killer, a con artist, or even a Texas Ranger with his own ideas about law enforcement; or he might just be "wuthless." A bad woman might be a criminal too, or she might just be one who didn’t conform to accepted notions of womanly conduct in her time and place. "The unquestioned murder of Deputy Sheriff Charles  "Charlie" Webb of Brown County on the town square in Comanche, Texas on May 26, 1874 . . . Read more Look inside

Katherine Anne Porter, best known for her novel Ship of Fools, was an inveterate traveler—a cosmopolitan jet-setter in the days before jets. But she was of humble origins, born on May 15, 1890 in the tiny hamlet of Indian Creek, Texas, and christened Callie Russell Porter. For most of her life she maintained a stormy relationship with her home state . . . Read more Look inside

20 years ago a revival movement beginning in Brownwood, Texas, and the Coggin Avenue Baptist Church spread to Howard Payne University and soon to over 100 campuses and many churches nationally. Revival Revived updates the movement with stories of those who were involved now 20 years later . . . Read more Look inside

Author Harry Marlin met everything in life head on. This collection of his writing explores a lifetime's experiences-growing up in tiny Blanket, Texas, during the Great Depression; flying combat missions over Germany during World War II; and managing life's perplexities. Called the "Will Rogers of Central Texas," Marlin wrote a weekly column for the Brownwood Bulletin for eleven years. I'll Get By presents the first volume of compilations of his best stories taking a humorous look at a plethora of topics . . . Read more Look inside

by Myka Allen-Johnson

I guess you could say my first crazy real estate experience happened when I was a freshman in high school in Brownwood, Texas. As a preacher's daughter, we were able to stay in what is called a parsonage, which is a home that the church ... Read more Look inside

John Wesley Hardin! His name spread terror in much of Texas in the years following the Civil War as the most wanted fugitive with a $4000 reward on his head. "The lines justifying his killings were written later after he had ample time to reflect on his life and career, he having been sentenced to serve twenty-five years in the penitentiary at Huntsville for the killing of Brown County, Texas, deputy Charles M. Webb . . . Read more Look inside

"Big Foot, the Kiowa, was no ordinary horse-thief as was demonstrated when he stole the mount of Captain Jeff from Sheriff's Gideon's lot in Brownwood one night in 1874. Big Foot had ranged this section of Texas from the close of the Civil War with a band of Indians, one of whom, Comanche Jape, was notoriously cruel. Prior to Captain Jeff taking charge, all efforts of the settlers and law officers from Burnet to Brown County had failed to cope with the band . . . Read more Look inside

Found Inside: "At the time Major Jones organized the Frontier Battalion, G. W. Arrington was living in Brown County and following the only pursuit then open to Brown County boys, that of a cowboy. He enlisted in the Ranger force under Lieutenant Foster and remained in service for eight years. From the first he distinguished himself for his ability and judgment, and began to rise from the ranks " . . . Read more Look inside

"Many people like to camp at Flat Rock Park since the camping area is well maintained and it borders on Lake Brownwood. However, many visitors have experienced problems with their boats while they attempt to load or unload using the boat ramp at Flat Rock Park. People have also mentioned receiving damage to their boats like they hit a large rock, but no rock would be anywhere the location. Legend has it that a small girl drowned in the Pecan Bayou Before the lake was built. Some campers as well as permanent residents of the area have mentioned hearing a little girl laugh at night, thous searchers have never found a little girl. Other residents have said that they have seen a little girl run down the walk to their dock and jump into the lake...". . . .  Check it out  . . . for more stories like this see: Mysterious Texas

Jim Dent, author of the New York Times bestselling The Junction Boys, returns with his most powerful story of human courage and determination.

"But he was determined to play his senior season at Howard Payne College in Brownwood, Texas. The lanky end, in spite of being the only player on the field wearing glasses, surprised them all. He was selected to the all-conference team . . . " Read more Look inside

See Also" Stories About Texas Football County by County

"Finally, in 1976 she returned to Texas to receive recognition from Howard Payne University in Brownwood. On that trip she visited her mother's grave in the little cemetery at Indian Creek and decided that her remains on her death belonged beside her mother. "she wrote , “ I long to return to my homeland just once more before I return as dust. " . . . Read more Look inside

"All these workers and hanger ons needed places to live, eat, and sleep, and almost overnight the town of Fry sprang up along the old road from Brownwood through Thrifty to Coleman. From a bare pasture in June 1926 it became an entire town in only six months..." Read more Look inside

Found inside: "About this time Dave Karnes remarked: "here comes that damned Brown county sheriff." I turned around and faced the man whom I had seen coming up the street. He had on two six-shooters and was in about fifteen steps from me, advancing. He stopped when he got to within five steps of me, then stopped and scrutinized me closely, with his hand behind him. . . " Read more Look inside

"Next to tackle Brownwood was a Ranger who had demonstrated a flair for undercover work. Ira Aten was a young man of twenty-four when General King sent him to Brownwood in August 1886" ...  Read more Look inside

Mildred Clark Cusey was a whore, a madam, an entrepreneur, and above all, a survivor. The story of Silver City Millie, as she referred to herself, is the story of one woman's personal tragedies and triumphs as an orphan, a Harvey Girl waitress on the Santa Fe railroad, a prostitute with innumerable paramours, and a highly successful bordello businesswoman. "She soon learned that his widowed mother owned a hotel and was majority stockholder of a bank at Brownwood, Texas ... Read more Look inside

A cross between Friday Night Lights and The Atomic City Girls, When The Men Were Gone is a debut historical novel based on the true story of Tylene Wilson, a woman in 1940's Texas who, in spite of extreme opposition, became a female football coach in order to keep her students from heading off to war. Football is the heartbeat of Brownwood, Texas. Every Friday night for as long as assistant principal Tylene Wilson can remember, the entire town has gathered in the stands, cheering their boys on. ... Read more Look inside

Historian Mike Cox has been writing about Texas history for four decades, sharing tales that have been overlooked or forgotten through the years.

"Born on April 10, 1880, in Alabama, W.R. "Bill" Chambers came to Texas with his family as a teenager in 1893. They settled in Brown County near Wolf Valley Community... " Read more Look inside

by Ken Bull

An author with the name of Bull is well qualified to write about the intelligence of animals. Ken Bull was raised on a farm in Brown County, Texas. His agriculture experiences began in the days when horses were used to pull the plows and the boys were used to hoe the weeds out of the cotton . . . Read more Look inside

Recounts the author's childhood as an organist's daughter for tent revivalist David Terrell, describing her witness to his mass "miracles" and his morally corrupt activities behind the scenes ... "The Terrellites descended on Bangs Texas like a biblical plague. They came in their broken-down trucks and leaky campers and station wagons that rattle when they rolled. A few drove new cars, all that remained of the middle-class life they had abandoned . . . Read more Look inside

The thirty-three Depression-era interviews presented here were culled from the WPA-Federal Writers' Project. They faithfully show how old-time Texas cowhands lived and how they felt about their glamour-less existence. "I was born on a farm near Slapout (now Holden, Brown County, Texas, March 1, 1885. When I was ten years old, my father dragged out to Haskell, Haskell County, Texas. My father had learned the carpenter trade and followed it in Haskell. The next year, 1896, I dragged out of Haskell for the Skillet section of Texas. I lit on the T Diamond  outfit which was located twenty-seven miles north of Amarillo, and there I nested for six years, quitting the outfit in 1902. When I " ... Read more Look inside

Rubber Guns: 'Bout A Little Texas Boy in a Texas 20's Town

Rubber Guns 'Bout a Little Boy in a Texas '20s Town This is the story of my adventures and escapades as a little Texas boy from Brownwood in the 1920's. The most vivid and some of the most pleasant recollections of my boyhood are about rubber guns - thus the title of this story. If you don't know what a rubber gun is, I feel sorry for you, but . . . Read more Look inside

by Patricia Springer

Details the horrifying true account of Ricky McGinn, a twisted man who brutally raped and murdered his 12-year-old stepdaughter as well as two other young women. "She decided to move to Brownwood, near her parents, who had retired near Lake Brownwood in 1985 ... Read more

A novel set in Brownwood by Sandy Wolters

"Officer Patrick Sheehan pulls in front of Rachael while she is bent over the hood of her car looking at a map. He overhears the conversation between Rachael and her partner and thanks fate for dropping a homicide detective right in his lap. His good friend, Emily, was murdered just days ago and Patrick knows who killed her, her husband and his boss, the Chief of Police of Brownwood, Texas . . . Read more Look inside

Found inside: "As for the Dixon boys, the way the Brown County men saw it, the mere fact that they had been with John Wesley Hardin at the time of the killing made them guilty. The Brown County delegation took the trio from the rock building being used as a temporary jail, carried them. . ." Read more Look inside

by Dr Joe H. Alcorta

Dr. Joe H. Alcorta was born in Novice, Texas in Coleman County, and at the age of two months, his parents took him to Monterrey, Mexico. For seven years, he lived in Mexico. Upon his return, he graduated from Olton High School, and then he received his bachelor's degree from Hardin-Simmons University in Brownwood. He obtained his master's degree from Howard Payne University and earned his PhD degree  Tech in Lubbock, Texas. He has served on many city boards, and he was elected to The Abilene City Council for two terms . . .  Read more Look inside

Found inside: "Brown County Sheriff Danny Neal was plainly worried. The children died after their parents declined to seek medical treatment ... The Prophet, whose real name was David Terrell, was rumored to live in a luxury bus. He sometimes flew a leased Aero Commander  ". . . Read more Look Inside

Bill Neal presents the evidence that shows how easy some folks found it to evade justice in the frontier West. "The Son family had originally settled in Brown County, Texas , and the federal census for 1880 lists five - year - old Alfred Son as being the child of John W. and Sarah Son ... Read more Look inside

Life is never easy but specially so when your born in a boxcar in the center of a railroad siding in the Great Depression. "The preacher caught me one day and told me I was wasting my life and needed to get some goal in sight. He gave me an address and a name, said he'd enrolled me in Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas. I needed to go to college. I packed the Dodge and headed for Brownwood and Howard Payne. Brownwood is in the exact center of ... Read more Look inside

by Landon Houle

 Landon was born in Brown County, Texas. Her collection of linked stories, Living Things, is the 2017 winner of the Red Hen Press Fiction Award ... Read more Look inside Living Things

Hell under the Rising Sun:

Texan POWs and the Building of the Burma-Thailand Death Railway

Late in 1940, the young men of the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery Regiment stepped off the trucks at Camp Bowie in Brownwood, Texas, ready to complete the training they would need for active duty in World War II. Many of them had grown up together in Jacksboro, Texas, and almost all of them were eager to face any challenge. Just over a year later, these carefree young Texans would be confronted by horrors they could never have imagined . . . Read more

The idea of locating a troop training center in Brownwood, Texas, had been suggested as early as 1923, but nothing had ever come of it until seventeen years later. In the summer of 1940, with a military draft imminent, the War ... Read more

Pat LaFontaine shares the personal details of his own struggle with depression and physical rehabilitation, as well as those other amazing athletes who were challenged by adversity and won.

"And in June, Morris headed off to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' major league tryout camp in Brownwood, Texas. Now what are the odds of a thirty-five-year-old high school science teacher and baseball coach becoming a professional baseball " ... Read more Look inside

"The trip was 5000 miles round trip taking 3 days each way to Bangs, Texas. On the way there, I met a man who told me of how his dad hid money in pipes around his house. I promised to keep this quiet since I didn't particularly want anyone to to keep this quiet since I didn't particularly want anyone to rob him. I told him the secret would be . . . "  Read more Look inside

In the early '30s Howard Kron took a bus to Hollywood to pursue his acting dreams. Before the decades end he had traveled the nightclub circuit as a popular singer, and discovered the world of pottery design, the arena in which he would excel. "No sooner than the smoke had cleared from the Midwest debacle than Howard began doing contract design work for Texas Ceramic Studio, located roughly 275 miles west of Tyler in the town of Bangs. Texas. Ceramic Studio came into being . . . Read more Look inside

James C. Gibson is a partially retired bi-vocational Christian minister living in Bangs, Texas. Honesty With God is the fruit of an experiment discovered while attempting to establish a new church. In 1968 a small group of adventurers wanted to form a church that would rightly demonstrate God to the world  . . . Read more Look inside . . . for more like this please see Texas Church History

The retreat , sponsored by the National Council of Churches Youth Department and the United Christian Youth Movement , was at a camp in Lake Brownwood, Texas. I decided I'd go and use the trip to visit Bob Hilliard , a Howard friend who . . . Read more . . . for more like this please see Texas Church History

Frontier's Generation: The Pioneer History of Brown County with Sidelights on the Surrounding Territory

by Tevis Clyde Smith

Texas Historical Markers: Brown County

Texas Historical Markers located in Brown County, Texas . . . Look inside

by Thomas Robert Havins

Freemasonry in Brownwood:

A centennial history of Brownwood Lodge No. 279

The Story of the Current Awakening in Brownwood, Ft. Worth, Wheaton, and Beyond

"H. O. Kelly, an Ohio native who had worked as a cowboy throughout the West, had settled in Blanket, Texas, in the 1920s. His correspondence with Bywaters, who “discovered” him in 1949, reveals that the two men held many similar views on art . . . " Read more Look inside

A Pictorial History of Brown County: The Early Years

During the past 140 years Brown County has been evolving from the natural state to thriving communities. Lest we forget, the pages in this pictorial history of Brown County will bring to mind some of the people and events that have shaped our county. The many people who brought their pictures to the Brown County Museum of History to offer them for inclusion in this publication are . . . Read more

1965 Bangs High School - Dragon Yearbook

1967 Bangs High School - Dragon Yearbook

1946 Blanket High School - Tiger Yearbook

1948 Blanket High School - Tiger Yearbook