In a state as big as Texas it is really not surprising that there are some mighty peculiar town names among the thousands of communities that make up this state! What is surprising however, are the mundane reasons for many of the odd-sounding choices. Of course there are also some very strange reasons for some very strange names!    

How many capital cities has Texas had? The answer, as with so many questions about Texas history, is: it depends. It depends on whether you are talking about French Texas, Spanish Texas, Mexican Texas, or present-day Texas. Nevertheless, forgotten history is full of surprises, and the story of Texas’s many capitals is no exception. 

In the summer of 1854, a destitute stowaway on a Texas-bound schooner was discovered and forced to work for his passage. After handling freight to pay for his travel, nineteen-year-old Abel Head Pierce, a native of Little Compton, Rhode Island, landed at the Texas port of Indianola five months after leaving home. The meeting between Pierce and the rich soil of the coastal plains of Texas might have been destiny. The young man would go on to amass a fortune in land and cattle, not far from where he first disembarked.