A brilliant (and not just because of color) use of a large vacant wall, this mural lights up and energizes Wright Plaza, a downtown reviatlization initiative now underway in Cleburne TX.
Johnson County TX has a colorful past begging to be discovered. This mural helps explain the origins of this comunity. We were generally aware of the Indian and Civil War history here, but from the mural today we learned that Spanish explorers had come though in the 1500s!
The mural is 216 feet long, and encompasses almost 500 years (at least) of Johnson County and Cleburne's past in seven panels separated by bands of explanatory text.
In the center of the mural is a huge formal-portrait style rendering of Confederate General Patrick Cleburne, namesake of the city, and famous as "The Stonewall of the West." Behind his portrait is a scene of Cleburne leading his men into battle. Framing the top third of the portrait are the six flags of Texas with a small Alamo and a lone star overhead.
Despite this homage to the Texas Revolution, there is no evidence that Cleburne ever got any closer to Texas than Helena, Arkansas. Beneath his portrait is an abbreviated biography, listing his battle service, and how Cleburne came to be named for him. Learn more here: (
visit link)
The topmost upper left panel shows Spanish explorer Luis de Moscoso Alvardo (namesake of a nearby Johnson Co. town) encountering the local Caddo Indian tribe as he explored this part of Texas in 1542. Moscoso had explored with Hernando de Soto before heading out on expeditions of his own. Learn more about Moscoso here: (
visit link)
The middle left side panel is an old-style 1850s-era map of the topography of the Cross-Timbers frontier, with the Nolan and Brazos Rivers and both Caddo Peak and Comanche Peak on it. The map looks like it is on old paper or maybe cowhide.
The bottom left panel is of buffalo watering themselves at Buffalo Springs, which flowed along Boffalo Creek, a secondary stream of the nearby Nolan River. The multiple springs provided an important source of water for animals and humans, and led to the location of Cleburne. Some of these spirngs are near the current city square. Learn more about Johnson County here: (
visit link)
On the other side of the Gen. Cleburne portrait, the top-right panel shows a Caddo Indian village with their traditional cone-shaped grass huts about 1830. The Caddo Indians were farmers who cleared fields in woods and grew squash, grains, and other vegtables. They also hunted, fashioning sturdy axes from wood and rocks. They used trees and grasses to make homes and furniture. They wove and dyed plant fibers, like flax. Generally peaceful, the Caddo now mostly live in Oklahoma, where they are recognized as a sovereign nation. Learn more about the Caddo here: (
visit link) and here: (
visit link)
The middle panel depicts Philip Nolan, a mustanger and filibusterer who came to New Spanish Texas around 1801. Nolan led a group of men to liberate Texas from the Spanish, and was killed in battle near the Johnson County town of Blum in 1801. Many of his men were captured and executed. More about Nolan can be found here: (
visit link) and here: (
visit link)
The bottom panel shows scenes and people important to the development early Cleburne and Johnson County, including portraits of prominent citizens Jospehine Wren (ran first boardinghouse in Cleburne), Samuel Kirkham (an early settler), Tate Johnson (namesake of Johnson County), Major Elbert Heath (CSA veteran and "father of Johnson County"). The mural also shows three courthouses of Johnson County: The first log cabin courthouse at Wardville, the 1883 courthouse that burned, and the 1912 (and current) courthouse.
To learn more about the subjects of this last panel see the following websites:
Elbert Heath: (
visit link)
Tate Johnson and the Wadville Courthouse: (
visit link)
Josephine Wren and early Cleburne history, including Buffalo Springs: (
visit link) and (
visit link)
Samuel Kirkham: (
visit link)
Johnson Co. TX Courthouses: (
visit link)