The History of Gilmer, Texas

When Upshur County was established in 1846, its seat was to be located within five miles of the county's geographic center and named Gilmer — for Thomas Walker Gilmer, the former Secretary of the Navy. Gilmer had died only two years earlier, on February 28, 1844, in the disastrous explosion of a new cannon during a test firing aboard the USS Princeton.

So the town carried a national tragedy's name to the East Texas frontier, and grew up as the governmental and commercial center of Upshur County. The Upshur County Courthouse has long anchored its downtown square, the focal point of civic life.

Gilmer's early economy was built on agriculture. In its first decades it was a cotton-ginning center, with as many as six gins in operation — one of which continued running into the 1950s. Over time, sweet potatoes — locally called yams — became a major regional crop.

That crop's fortunes shaped the town's most famous tradition. In the late 1920s a weevil infestation led to a quarantine on the sweet potato, but when the quarantine lifted and the yam thrived again, the community had reason to celebrate. The stage was set for the festival that would define Gilmer.

In 1935, as Texas counties organized festivals to mark the state's upcoming Centennial, Upshur County chose to honor the sweet potato — and the first East Texas Yamboree was held that October. It proved so popular that it became an annual event, growing into one of the oldest continuous festivals in Texas and a celebration that now draws around 100,000 visitors to Gilmer each fall.

Gilmer's other great legacy is musical: the small town is the birthplace of Eagles drummer and singer Don Henley, pop legend Johnny Mathis, and blues guitarist Freddie King. From cotton gins to the Yamboree to a remarkable run of musical talent, Gilmer's history is rich out of all proportion to its size.