When American frontiersman and posthumous Texas hero Davy Crockett left politics in Tennessee, he famously said that they may go to Hell, but he would go to Texas. But once Crockett arrived in Texas, he may have been a bit surprised at how similar the Lone Star state was to Hades. Not only was Texas hot and sultry, but a portion of the population consisted of violent criminals and other unsavory characters. Mercifully, God had a plan to bring the Gospel message to the unsuspecting...

William Carroll Crawford was the last surviving signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence when he died at the age of 92. Amazingly, Crawford was a relative of Charles Carroll of Maryland, the last surviving signer of the United States Declaration of Independence.    Born in North Carolina in 1804, Crawford was a tailor by trade. But as the Second Great Awakening sparked a mighty revival along the East Coast, Crawford relinquished his needle and thread to embrace the pulpit and Bible....

Sippie Wallace was a Texas girl who became a nationally acclaimed blues singer. In the 1920s and '30s, Sippie was known as the Texas Nightingale, and performed with her husband Matt, and her brothers George and Hersal Thomas. Blues legends like Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, and Perry Bradford recorded songs with Sippie, who was signed by OKeh Records in Chicago.    The first two recordings that Sippie released on the OKeh label were “Shorty George” and “Up Country Blues.” She quickly became...