DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker at Pleasanton tells it this way, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, you want to talk about a town with deep roots and a long reach, pull off the highway in Atascosa County and let me tell you about Pleasanton. It starts with a name — and the name starts with a man.
John Bowen, who would go on to become San Antonio's first Anglo-American postmaster, looked out at the juncture of the Atascosa River and Bonita Creek and saw a county seat waiting to happen. In September of 1858, with financial help from his associate Henry L. Radaz, Bowen founded this town and named it for an early Texas settler by the name of John Pleasants.
Bowen himself didn't live to see everything that followed — he died in 1867 — but what he set in motion kept right on going. The first courthouse in Pleasanton went up right here, the second courthouse in the county's history, standing on this very site. And before long, the county seat was drawing men from all the surrounding territory.
In 1862, during the Civil War, men from this area and the counties around it gathered here to form Company E of the 32nd Texas Volunteer Cavalry, Confederate Army, under Captain Lewis Maverick. But if war put Pleasanton on the map of history, cattle put it on the map of legend. This land had been thick with Longhorns since Spanish and Indian days, and Pleasanton grew into a cattlemen's capital of the first order.
Starting in the 1860s, the Stock Raisers' Association of Western Texas convened here often. The Western Stock Journal, founded in 1873, was published right here. And the cowboys who gathered in Pleasanton — the marker calls them the hardiest and most skillful — drove herds from the Mexican border all the way north to shipping points in Kansas.
In the spring of 1873 alone, they pushed forty-three thousand Atascosa County cattle up the trail. Forty-three thousand. Let that number ride with you a while.
Pleasanton held the county seat until 1911, and the town kept growing. In 1961 it absorbed North Pleasanton — founded back in 1912 as the site for San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad shops — and by then it was already the largest town in the county. Today it's known for its liveoak trees, and for commerce in beef, peanuts, and petroleum.
Three things that don't have much in common except this: they all found a home in a town that John Bowen staked out at the fork of a river and a creek, in September of 1858, and named for a man named Pleasants. Some places just have a way of becoming exactly what they were always going to be.
What the marker says
(Founded 1858) Named for early Texas settler John Pleasants, by John Bowen (d.1867), San Antonio's first Anglo-American postmaster. Bowen, assisted financially by associate Henry L. Radaz, in Sept. 1858 founded this town at the juncture of Atascosa River and Bonita Creek as the county seat of Atascosa County. The first courthouse in Pleasanton (second in county) stood on this site. Men from this and surrounding counties met here in Civil War (1862) to form Co. E, 32nd Texas Volunteer Cavalry, Confederate Army, under Captain Lewis Maverick. In an area thick with Longhorns since Spanish and Indian days, Pleasanton became a cattlemen's capital. Beginning in 1860s, the Stock Raisers' Association of Western Texas often convened here. This was place of publication of "Western Stock Journal," founded 1873. Here gathered the hardiest and most skillful cowboys, including those driving herds from Mexican border to shipping points in Kansas. In spring of 1873 they drove 43,000 Atascosa county cattle up the trail. Pleasanton was county seat until 1911, and still grows. In 1961 it absorbed North Pleasanton (founded 1912 as site for San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad shops). County's largest town, it is famous for liveoak trees, and commerce in beef, peanuts, and petroleum. (1973)