City of Bartlett

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Settlers had already been pushin into this part of Texas back in the 1830s, when Texas was still a republic, still findin its own footing in the world. But a handful of people movin through an area doesn't make a town, and for a good long while, that's all this was.

Country. Open country. Then came the 1870s, and two men decided to change that.

J. Edward Pietzsch and Captain John T. Bartlett.

Between the two of them, they founded a town, and they gave it a name. Well, one of them did, anyway. The community was named for Captain Bartlett himself, which is the kind of honor that tends to outlast a man by a good long while.

Now, a town is one thing. A town with a railroad is something else entirely. In 1882, the railroad was extended to Bartlett, and that changed the calculus completely.

Cotton was king in this part of Texas, and the moment those tracks arrived, Bartlett became a major regional cotton center. Farmers knew it. Merchants knew it.

The railroad knew it. By 1890, the city was incorporated, official, on the map in every sense. And here's the detail that separates Bartlett from just about anywhere else you'll drive through today.

The city sits right on the Williamson-Bell county line, and that line doesn't politely walk around the buildings. It cuts straight through them. Several homes, several commercial buildings, divided right down the middle by a county boundary.

Two counties, one roof. You have to admire a town stubborn enough to sit exactly where it wants to sit and let the mapmakers sort it out. Bartlett's still there.

Still serving as a trade center for the surrounding agricultural district. The settlers came in the 1830s, the founders came in the 1870s, the railroad came in 1882, and the town just kept going. Some places have a way of doing that.

What the marker says

Settlers began moving to this area in the 1830s, when Texas was a republic, but the town of Bartlett was not established until the 1870s. The founders were J. Edward Pietzsch and Capt. John T. Bartlett, for whom the community was named. In 1882 the railroad was extended to Bartlett, making the city a major regional cotton center. Incorporated in 1890, the city is located on the Williamson-Bell county line, which divides several homes and commercial buildings. Today Bartlett continues to serve as a trade center for the surrounding agricultural district. (1981)