Skip to content Skip to main navigation Skip to footer

Every little podunk town has stories, but who would have thought that a small town of a thousand citizens would have so many stories? Five years of a story a week and the tales keep coming.

It would seem natural that there would be a lot of, “It didn’t happen that way.” That has not been the case. To stimulate others more knowledgeable about local history to tell better stories or add details or spin off another tale was the hope, and that is exactly what has occurred.

It has been wonderful.

Numerous people have come forward with more complete stories. Several folks have spun off stories tangential to one told earlier. All this adds to the story of Santa Anna.

That’s all one can hope for.

These stories may differ from someone else’s. But getting those stories out there is a start. If one of these tales calls up a memory of a story, put it to paper. Together maybe we can increase our community memory and pass that memory to those who come behind.

– Montie Guthrie

Some of the Stories

Santa Anna Station Milepost 369+1436’
person could argue that the coming of the railroads is the single most important event in the history of Santa Anna, because it brought civilization. The Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway was incorporated in Galveston in 1873 and …
The Santa Anna Glass Plant
Few citizens of Santa Anna know that our city has been pivotal in a suit argued before the Supreme Court.Yes, THAT Supreme Court.And few of us know that the preeminent historian of Texas, Walter Prescott Webb, wrote in detail …
Founding Fathers
L. L. Shield W. R. Kelly A. G. Weaver T. M. Hays V. L. Grady L. W. Hunter W. J. Hosch S. H. Phillips Jason Tyson Marion Tyson L. V. Stockard H. W. Kingsbery A. W. Blue Fred Turner …
Coleman County Telephone Cooperative
According to A History of Coleman County and Its People, the first telephone line in Santa Anna was built in 1892 from Brownwood to Santa Anna’s Melton Hotel, which stood across the street west from Santa Anna National Bank. …
Selling cars in Santa Anna
Cars came to Santa Anna just about as quickly as they did all over America in the early twentieth century. The thing is, there just never was a huge market in Santa Anna, especially after customers bought their first …
Santa Anna National Bank
What we know now as Santa Anna National Bank did not start off by that name. At the turn of the nineteenth century every little town had one or more individuals who started private banks. From the research I …
Adams and Childers Mercantile
There were dry goods stores, millinery stores, hardware stores, grocery stores, furniture stores, general stores— and then there were mercantile stores. In truth, this is like saying “store stores,” because “mercantile” means something like “retail sales.” But it was …