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| Kyle Texas USA Online Magazine | |||||
  
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History of Kyle The history of the town of Kyle begins with the native people who once inhabited this land. In a residential neighborhood near downtown Kyle, stone artifacts of our original residents have been found. Two of these artifacts, a broken spear point and stone tool, are shown below. Mirabeau B. Lamar waged war on the Comanche Nation and his policy resulted in the Council House Fight in San Antonio in 1840. Texas officials tried to arrest a Comanche Peace Commission. Fighting began. Thirty-five Comanche and seven Texans were killed. Later that summer the Comanche launched a raid in reprisal. More than 500 warriors led by Buffalo Hump swept through south Texas, overwhelming the towns of Victoria and Linnville and killing twenty-five Texans. As the Comanche headed north, they were intercepted by Texan forces at Plum Creek near the site of present day Lockhart . At least fifty Comanche died in the battle of Plum Creek.
In 1880, the International and the Great Northern Railroad Company planned construction of a railway line between San Antonio and Austin. On July 24, 1880, Judge Moore and his wife Annie Moore, Fergus Kyle and Annie Kyle and Miss M.E. Moore deeded 200 acres of land to the railroad company. The railroad deeded this land to the Texas Land Company, a corporation made up of railroad stockholders. The land was surveyed and the town named Kyle.
The railway tracks were laid and a date was set for an auction of the town lots. The auction was held under the great live oak which still stands on Sledge Street, just south of Center Street. The first business to open in Kyle was a combination Saloon and Meat market. It was at the southeast corner of the town square.
W.C. Weatherford opened a Livery Stable in 1881. The limestone Livery stood at the corner of South Nance and Miller Street. Horses and Buggy’s were rented at the Livery to visitors coming in by train. The Livery Stable was torn down in 2001. A two story hotel stood at the corner of Front and Center Streets. Travelers would disembark the train and walk to the hotel. Otto Groos opened the first dry goods store. In 1880, D.A. Young moved his general merchandise business to Kyle. It is the native stone building at the southwest corner of the town square. In more recent history, the old Bon Ton Grocery Store, built in the early 1900's, burned to the The new City Hall for Kyle was built on the Bon Ton property in 2006.
Ann Miller Strom, The Prairie City: A History of Kyle, Texas, 1880-1980 (Burnet, Texas: Nortex, 1981) Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/CC/bmc72.html (accessed September 21, 2006). |
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Tribes such as the Tonkawa, Comanche and others came to live in this area. A band of the Comanche called Penateka, or "Honey Eaters" were one of the earlier residents of Kyle. Their range extended from the Edwards 
Plateau to the headwaters of the Central Texas rivers.
Ferg Kyle, the son of Clairborne and Lucy Bugg Kyle, came with his family from Mississippi in 1844, just four years after the battle of Plum Creek. They settled on the Blanco River at the Clairborne Log Cabin. Ferg grew up and fought in the Civil War. He married Annie Moore, the daughter of Judge David E. Moore and Annie M. Moore from Alabama. The couple moved to the old Moore homestead. Ferg and Annie had eight children. 
ground in 2002.