Waco History Podcast

As the twentieth century began, Waco grew rapidly as a cotton hub and transportation center, modernizing with schools, streetcars, and expanding industry. Cultural life thrived, anchored by Baylor University. Yet this period also came with deep societal divisions and vulnerabilities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and...

As the twentieth century began, Waco grew rapidly as a cotton hub and transportation center, modernizing with schools, streetcars, and expanding industry. Cultural life thrived, anchored by Baylor University. Yet this period also came with deep societal divisions and vulnerabilities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and...

As the twentieth century began, Waco grew rapidly as a cotton hub and transportation center, modernizing with schools, streetcars, and expanding industry. Cultural life thrived, anchored by Baylor University. Yet this period also came with deep societal divisions and vulnerabilities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and...

As the twentieth century began, Waco grew rapidly as a cotton hub and transportation center, modernizing with schools, streetcars, and expanding industry. Cultural life thrived, anchored by Baylor University. Yet this period also came with deep societal divisions and vulnerabilities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and...

Between 1875 and 1900, Waco experienced significant growth and transformation as it evolved from a frontier settlement into a key regional hub of commerce, education, and culture. The city grew from around 3,000 to over 20,000 as the town transformed into a vital Texas city. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Californi...

Between 1875 and 1900, Waco experienced significant growth and transformation as it evolved from a frontier settlement into a key regional hub of commerce, education, and culture. The city grew from around 3,000 to over 20,000 as the town transformed into a vital Texas city. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Californi...

Between 1875 and 1900, Waco experienced significant growth and transformation as it evolved from a frontier settlement into a key regional hub of commerce, education, and culture. The city grew from around 3,000 to over 20,000 as the town transformed into a vital Texas city. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Californi...

Between 1875 and 1900, Waco experienced significant growth and transformation as it evolved from a frontier settlement into a key regional hub of commerce, education, and culture. The city grew from around 3,000 to over 20,000 as the town transformed into a vital Texas city. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Californi...

Between 1875 and 1900, Waco experienced significant growth and transformation as it evolved from a frontier settlement into a key regional hub of commerce, education, and culture. The city grew from around 3,000 to over 20,000 as the town transformed into a vital Texas city. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Californi...

In their journey through Waco’s first 175 years, hosts Stephen Sloan and Rick Tullis tackle the founding era of Waco 1850 to 1875. Here, they start their countdown of the top five events, issues, or topics from the first 25 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy...

In their journey through Waco’s first 175 years, hosts Stephen Sloan and Rick Tullis tackle the founding era of Waco 1850 to 1875. Here, they start their countdown of the top five events, issues, or topics from the first 25 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy...

In their journey through Waco’s first 175 years, hosts Stephen Sloan and Rick Tullis tackle the founding era of Waco 1850 to 1875. Here, they start their countdown of the top five events, issues, or topics from the first 25 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy...

In their journey through Waco’s first 175 years, hosts Stephen Sloan and Rick Tullis tackle the founding era of Waco 1850 to 1875. Here, they start their countdown of the top five events, issues, or topics from the first 25 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy...

In their journey through Waco’s first 175 years, hosts Stephen Sloan and Rick Tullis tackle the founding era of Waco 1850 to 1875. Here, they start their countdown of the top five events, issues, or topics from the first 25 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy...

Host Stephen Sloan and guest host Rick Tullis launch a new season exploring the top events, issues, and individuals from each generation of Waco’s History. They also debut the new song, Wacotown by Wes Cunningham. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-i...

Guest host Rick Tullis sits down with Dr, Stephen Sloan as they explore the long history of banks in town with fourth-generation Waco banker David Lacy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

During WWI in Waco, the puttering, sputtering sounds of biplanes filled the skies. The area around today's Extraco Events Center had been converted into an airfield to serve as a military training facility, and by the time the war ended, Rich Field had graduated some 400 flyers, many of whom served in France. Lee Lockwood , the son of a Waco banker, remembers how the financial community, knowing t...

Numerous expressions exist about how much the devil loves to take advantage of the idle hands and minds of mortals. But while some people find trouble in their free time, or simply waste it, others use it in positive ways. Frank Curre  of Waco ended up with some downtime in June of 1945, when the escort carrier he was serving on was sent to the docks at San Francisco because of engine trouble. Whi...

As the war in Europe was winding down in the spring of 1945, exhausted troops probably thought they were immune to being shocked. But knowledge of the atrocities committed in Nazi concentration camps was on the horizon. Nothing could have prepared them for that. Hank Josephs  of Corpus Christi served in Intelligence & Reconnaissance during the war and recalls checking out reports of a concentr...

During cold weather, most people want to huddle inside around heat sources, but some jobs force people to brave the elements. Waco businessman and historian  Roger Conger  delivered groceries for J. C. Crippen & Sons as a teenager in the 1920s. He recalls a winter delivery to Waco High English teacher Marie Leslie that can only be described as a learning experience: "Her house was on the west...

Many memories from our youth are intertwined with those of school, the place where we were making friends and developing interests. Waco native  Helen Geltemeyer  shares a treasured memory from her schooldays: "My earliest memories of Bell's Hill is going to school, walking every morning and with our dog, Tex, following my sister and I and maybe my brother. And the dog would stand at the door of t...

Pawnbroking—or lending money on portable security—is one of the world's oldest professions. It can be traced back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire in the West and to China three thousand years ago in the East. Hank Josephs  of Corpus Christi remembers he got the idea to change his family's dry goods store into a pawn shop during WWII: "Our sergeant would lend the guys five bucks on their wat...

Some of the clearest memories from our youth usually include times we got in trouble. Victor Newman  of Waco grew up amidst cowboys in West Texas. In 1923, at the age of ten, he came to live at the recently opened Waco State Home. Newman explains how the home reacted to his cowboy ways: "Well, every time I turned around, well, somebody would grab me up and give me a spanking because of something t...

Bullies are people who try to harm or intimidate others who they perceive as weaker. It starts in childhood. Maggie Langham Washington  moved to Waco in the fifth grade and remembers how she was an easy target for bullies: "If you were a minister's child that's new in a school, you saw hard time, a real hard time because kids would do things to you just because they felt like you weren't supposed...