Have you ever driven through East Texas on Hwy 59, aka future I-69? If so, you’ve probably driven through Timpson and/or Tenaha.

The Railroad

On March 11, 1875, the Houston East and West Texas Railway Company (HE&WT) was chartered. The narrow-gauge railroad would connect Houston to Texarkana in the north, and Corpus Christi and Laredo down south. The company even projected building lines to Tyler and Waco, but none of these lines ever materialized. In fact, the only one built—the east line—went toward Shreveport, Louisiana, instead of Texarkana.

Construction on the railway began on July 4, 1876, and continued through 1885. The line gradually reached new towns. First Cleveland, then Livingston, Lufkin, and Nacogdoches. Finally, it reached the state boundary, where it connected to the affiliated Shreveport and Houston Railway Company, creating a through line from Houston to Shreveport.

Did You Know…

• The HE&WT railroad was 191 miles long.
• HE&WT’s first two locomotives were used at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. After their purchase, the Girard and the Centennial reached Houston in late 1876.
• “Rabbit” was the HE&WT’s nickname.
• On January 26, 1886, the first HE&WT train crossed into Louisiana from Texas.
• The company’s decision to originally use a narrow-gage track proved a costly mistake because the entire rail line between Houston and Shreveport had to be converted to standard gage. This switch—from narrow to standard gage—happened on July 29, 1894.
• The company’s “HE&WT” initials supposedly stood for “Hell Either Way Taken.”

The Singer and His Song

Last year, as Mom and I were returning from visiting her sisters in South Carolina, we stopped in East Texas to visit one of Mom’s great-nieces. This was our first visit to their new home outside the small town of Tenaha.

Later, when we reached our home and told the rest of the family about the visit, Dad started singing, “Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair.” Of course, we looked at him like he was crazy until he explained the line was from an old Tex Rittter song. Released in the 1940s, the song had made the four East Texas towns in Shelby County famous. (To hear the song Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair click here.)

The towns were on the HE&WT line not far from where Tex Ritter grew up. He claimed that because the towns were so close together the train would pass through all four towns before the conductor could walk from one end of the train to the other, calling out the first stop’s name. So, instead of hollering one name at a time, the conductor called all four names as he walked through the coaches.

Did You Know…

• Tex Ritter was born in 1905 just north of Timpson and was familiar with the HE&WT and the four, small towns.
• Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair was a hit song for Tex Ritter.
• Tex Ritter’s East Texas accent made him pronounce “Tenaha” as “Ten-ee-haw.” This made the way he said the town’s name, sound like the original name the Mexican government had given the municipality in 1824.

The Towns

All four “towns”—Teneha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair—were stops along the HE&WT railroad. Both Timpson and Tenaha were founded by the railroad in 1885 and are the only ones that still exist today.

Google maps show an area called Bobo between the two towns, but of Blair—on the other side of Timpson—there is no sign. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a cemetery, a house, or even a church still standing. But today the community of Blair survives only in people’s memories and an old country song.

Did You Know…

Timpson was named for T.B. Timpson, an engineer on the railroad.

Timpson had a population boom in the 1920s when they began shipping lignite, but by the 1930s the population began to decline. The town went from approximately 2,500 people in 1927 to 989 in 2020.

HE&WT founded Tenaha as a water stop for the trains and a shipping point for East Texas agriculture products.

Tenaha also had a population of 989 in 2020.

The Saying

Though the song lists the towns as “Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair,” the train (headed south to Houston) would reach Tenaha, then Bobo, Timpson, and Blair. Since the conductor wouldn’t call the towns out of order, this isn’t the origin of the saying.

That honor probably goes to a World War I National Guard Unit made up of men from Shelby County. They replaced the “hup, two, three, four” cadence they sang while marching with their hometowns of “Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair.”

East Texas craps players took up the chant next. When trying to roll double fives, a player would yell this plea for good luck as he threw the dice, “Come on Tennyhaw—most pronounced Tenaha as “Tennyhaw”—Timpson, Bobo, and Blair.”

American soldiers in WWII helped spread this saying around the world. But in the States, after the war, it was Tex Ritter’s song that made these four Texas towns famous.