Kleberg

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Kleberg, and it's got more twists than the Trinity River itself. Back in 1850, this town took root on the land grant of one Robert Justus Kleberg (born 1803, died 1888), a veteran of the Republic of Texas Army and a man who'd stood on the field at the Battle of San Jacinto. Whatever ground that man walked on, history had a way of following.

The town that bore his name started out as something modest: a stage stop, sitting right where two wagon trails crossed. Just a place to rest the horses and catch your breath before pushing on. But modest has a way of growing into something more.

Kleberg did exactly that, filling out into a proper farming community, the kind of place where roots go deep and neighbors know your name. Then 1881 rolled in, and with it, the railroad. Now, when the railroad came to a Texas town, the whole conversation changed.

Kleberg found itself with a post office, a bank, and a number of retail businesses humming along. The future looked like a straight line running right down those iron rails. But then came the Trinity River, and the Trinity had other ideas.

In the early 1900s, a series of dams and locks went up along that river; real work, hard work, jobs for the community and ambition built right into the clay banks. Then 1908 arrived, and a flood destroyed it. All of it.

Just like that, the river reclaimed what men had spent years trying to tame. Kleberg kept on. It was incorporated in 1956, more than a century after that first wagon stopped to rest at the crossroads.

And then, in 1978, Dallas annexed it. The big city finally caught up to the old stage stop. Some towns get swallowed by history.

Kleberg just kept getting found by it.

What the marker says

The town of Kleberg began in 1850 on the land grant of Robert Justus Kleberg (1803 - 1888), veteran of the Republic of Texas Army and a participant in the Battle of San Jacinto. Originally a stage stop where two wagon trails crossed, Kleberg grew into a farming community. After the railroad came in 1881, the town boasted a post office, bank, and a number of retail businesses. The construction of a series of dams and locks on the Trinity River provided jobs in the early 1900s, but a 1908 flood destroyed the work. Incorporated in 1956, Kleberg was annexed by Dallas in 1978.