DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the city of Luling, Caldwell County, Texas. Now, some towns get to ease into existence — a little church here, a general store there, folks drifting in gradual and polite. Luling was not that kind of town.
It started the way a lot of Texas stories start: with a road and a railroad finding each other. The Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad came cutting through the landscape, and right where its line crossed a main wagon road running from South Texas up to Austin — that's where Luling planted its flag. Families from the Atlanta community, just three miles to the southeast, looked at that intersection and figured they'd better relocate while the relocating was good.
And the Plum Creek Post Office, which had been opened nearby back in 1848, packed up and moved here too, taking on a new name in the process: Luling. The city was chartered September 19, 1874. W.
H. McClelland stepped in as the original mayor. The first aldermen were Jesse R.
Bond, L. C. Cunningham, J.
N. Stagner, Mike Tierney, and L. C.
Wilder. Five men, a mayor, and a whole lot of ambition. That same October — the fifteenth, to be precise — a G.H. and S.A. locator by the name of James Converse sat down and platted the townsite.
The railroad was staking its claim, and it wasn't being stingy about it. The G.H. and S.A. gave land for four public parks. And its president, a man named T.
W. Peirce, went so far as to will two thousand dollars to the town. That's not a passing interest — that's a man who believed in the place.
And for a while, Luling had every reason to believe in itself right back. It was the terminus of that railroad — the end of the line — until the middle of 1875. You know what that means: every bit of heavy shipping, every trade route, every supply chain in that region funneled right through Luling.
In its infancy, business was booming. But here's the thing about boom towns at the end of a railroad line. They attract all kinds.
By late 1874, the population had swelled to somewhere between eight hundred and a thousand people. And mixed in among the settlers and the merchants and the churchgoers were drifters — enough of them to give Luling an early reputation as a tough town. You can imagine what that looked like on a busy night near the terminus.
The law-abiding citizens, though — they didn't flinch. They established churches, they built schools, they put down roots and cultivated something steadier than reputation. Within a few years, the wild railroad boom town was nothing but a legend.
The railroad moved on, the drifters moved on, and Luling settled into being a real place. Then 1922 rolled around, and the ground underneath Luling had a second opinion about staying quiet. An oil boom began, and before long, a hundred and twenty-five producing wells had been drilled right within the city limits.
Three major oil fields took shape surrounding the town. And as if that weren't enough, Luling went on to become an agribusiness center as well. From a wagon road crossing to an oil field, from a tough railroad terminus to a town that outlasted every boom that tried to define it — Luling, Texas, has had more than a few chapters.
And every one of them started right there at that intersection.
What the marker says
Founded when Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railroad line intersected a main wagon road from South Texas to Austin. Many families of the Atlanta community (3 mi. SE) relocated here. Plum Creek Post Office, opened nearby in 1848, also moved here and was renamed Luling. The city was chartered Sept. 19, 1874. Original mayor was W. H. McClelland. The first aldermen were Jesse R. Bond, L. C. Cunningham, J. N. Stagner, Mike Tierney, and L. C. Wilder. Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio locator James Converse platted the townsite on Oct. 15, 1874. The G.H. & S.A. gave land for four public parks, and its president, T. W. Peirce, willed $2,000.00 to the town. Terminus of the railroad until mid-1875, Luling had heavy shipping and trade in its infancy. In late 1874 the population was 800 to 1,000, including drifters who gave the place an early reputation as a tough town. The law-abiding, however, established churches, schools, and stability, and within a few years the railroad boom town was only a legend. An oil boom began in 1922, and 125 producing wells have now been drilled within the city limits. Three major oil fields surround the town, which in later years has become also an agribusiness center.