Luling, Texas

History

In the 1870s, the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway (GH&SA) built a railroad west from Alleyton on the Colorado River near Columbus towards San Antonio. In 1874, construction paused for about two years at a point 71 miles beyond the Colorado River. A small town developed at the railhead.

That town was named after a New York banker, Charles Luling. He was a personal friend of Thomas Wentworth Pierce and provided the financing for the GH&SA railroad as well the purchase of the land that became Luling. Prior to the founding of the town, a small farming community named Atlanta was established nearby, with residents associating themselves with the newly founded Luling, causing Atlanta to fade.

Luling was founded in 1874 as a railroad town and became a rowdy center for the cattle drivers on the Chisholm Trail. Contempt of the law by the cowboys helped Luling become known as the "toughest town in Texas". After the great cattle drives ended in the late 1880s, Luling quieted down to a town of about 500 and cotton ruled the local economy. Perhaps due to arrival of immigrants, including a sizeable Jewish population, in the late-19th century, Luling began a long, slow, period of growth, and by 1925 the population reached 1,500.

From the History section of Luling, Texas on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.