Marker Number: 9780
Marker Text:
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.
(1974)
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