Congressman Sam Rayburn
Bonham, Fannin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born in Tennessee on Jan. 6, 1882, Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn came to north Texas with his parents in 1887. His political career began in 1906 with his election to the Texas House of Representatives, where he was Speaker of the 1911-13 Session. Rayburn was elected to the U.S. Congress from the 4th District in 1912, the first of his 25 consecutive terms there. Rising quickly to a leadership position, he was chairman of the Democratic party caucus in 1921. As head of the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee (1931-37) and then Majority Leader (1937-40), Rayburn sponsored much of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation. On Sept. 16, 1940 Rayburn was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. Except for the 80th (1947-49) and 83rd (1953-55) Congresses, when he was Minority Leader, Rayburn held the speakership until 1961, longer than anyone in the nation's history. A party leader as well, he was chairman of the Democratic National Conventions of 1948, 1952, and 1956. Rayburn died on Nov. 16, 1961, and Presidents Harry S Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy, along with Lyndon B. Johnson, were among national figures at his funeral. He is buried in Willow Wild Cemetery. (1975)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Sam Rayburn came to North Texas as a boy in 1887 and rose from the state legislature to become one of the most powerful figures in American government. Elected to Congress in 1912, he served 25 consecutive terms and, as Speaker of the House for longer than anyone in the nation's history, shepherded much of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal into law. His 1961 funeral in Bonham drew Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy alongside Lyndon Johnson.
Why it matters
Rayburn's decades-long grip on the speakership made a small-town Texan one of the central architects of twentieth-century federal policy.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn
- · Franklin D. Roosevelt
- · Lyndon B. Johnson
Related events
- · New Deal
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Sam Rayburn House
Bonham, TX
In 1916, three years into his long career in the U.S. Congress, Sam Rayburn built this Bonham home for his parents after they left their farm at Windom. Originally a two-story house with a porch on each floor, it was enlarged in 1934 by architect W. B. Yarborough into "The Home Place," its porches reworked into a two-story portico. Rayburn lived here with family whenever he was away from Washington, and the house became a museum after being deeded to the Texas Historical Commission in 1972.
Dr. Tom Douglas Spies
Bonham, TX
Born in the Fannin County community of Ravenna in 1902, Dr. Tom Douglas Spies became a leading authority on nutritional disease. In the 1930s he helped prove that pellagra—a diet-caused disorder that once sickened and killed thousands across the South—could be cured, transforming public health in the region. His work earned the American Medical Association's Distinguished Service Award and international recognition in tropical medicine.
Old Home of Pioneer Banker A. B. Scarborough
Bonham, TX
Built in 1897, this exuberant Bonham residence was the home of pioneer banker A. B. Scarborough, its silhouette bristling with the arches, balconies, cupola, turrets, and gables of the late Victorian age. The design blends Gothic, Grecian, and seventeenth-century motifs into the eclectic Victorian Romanesque style that prosperous townsfolk favored during the Gilded Age. Purchased in 1937 by Joe C. Denton, who preserved it, the house was named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1966.
Bonham Cotton Mill
Bonham, TX
In 1900 nine Bonham businessmen pooled their capital to build a cotton mill on the northern edge of the blackland prairie, where cotton grew abundantly. Opening in 1901 as the town's first major industrial plant, it built company homes and offered free day care for workers' children—an early gesture toward industrial welfare. It weathered a 1920 merger, the Great Depression, and a peak of wartime production in the 1940s before finally closing in the 1970s.