Name: Pleasanton, Texas
Address: Pleasanton, TX

The Town That Calls Itself the Birthplace of the Cowboy RoadyGoat

1860

Pleasanton proudly calls itself the Birthplace of the Cowboy, a claim it stakes on the vaquero and longhorn heritage of the Atascosa River country. After the Civil War the county's herds exploded, from about twenty-nine thousand cattle in 1860 to more than ninety-two thousand by 1870, and Pleasanton became a gathering point for the ranchers and cowhands working them. Locals point to the Western Stock Journal, a newspaper published here starting in 1873, as early proof the town was cowboy headquarters. To honor that heritage, residents began the Cowboy Homecoming festival in 1966, an annual celebration of cook-offs, fiddling, and rodeo held at the river park. Downtown, the Mr. Cowboy statue, a gift of Ben and Mona Parker, stands near City Hall across from a giant oak, keeping the town's self-made title in bronze. It is Pleasanton's own claim, worn with pride.

John T. Lytle Points 3,500 Longhorns North Past Town RoadyGoat

1874

In 1874 South Texas rancher John T. Lytle blazed what became the Great Western Cattle Trail, and it ran right past Pleasanton on the east bank of the Atascosa River. Lytle, born in Pennsylvania in 1844, moved to San Antonio as a young man and worked on an Atascosa County ranch with his uncle. He had a government contract to deliver cattle to the Red Cloud Agency at Camp Robinson, Nebraska. That first drive pushed roughly thirty-five hundred longhorns north out of South Texas. The Western Trail outlasted and outgrew the older Chisholm Trail; an estimated six million head eventually moved over the Western system, more than all the other cattle trails combined. A granite marker commemorating the trail now stands on the Pleasanton City Hall lawn, placed by the local Rotary Club, the city, and the county historical commission, marking the ground those herds crossed.

A River Named for Getting Stuck in the Mud RoadyGoat

1788

The Atascosa River that shaped Pleasanton carries a warning in its name. Atascosa comes from Spanish and means boggy or miry, from the verb atascar, to become stuck or bogged down. Spanish speakers were using the word for this country by 1788, describing the soft, mud-prone banks that could trap a horse or a cart. The river is more than a local creek: it belongs to the Nueces River basin, one of the great watersheds of south Texas. The Atascosa runs about a hundred miles south and southeast and joins the Frio River near Three Rivers, and the Frio in turn feeds the Nueces on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. That plumbing matters. The same low, water-holding ground that bogged travelers also grew the grass that fed the longhorn herds, so the river's boggy nature helped build the very cattle country the town celebrates today.

Capt. Peter F. Tumlinson

1823

Peter Tumlinson was 19 years old when his family moved to Texas in 1821. During an 1823 skirmish with Waco Indians, his father, John Jackson Tumlinson, became the first Texas Ranger to die in the line of duty. Peter followed his father into the Texas Rangers. During his forty years of service, Tumlinson clashed with Indian raiders and the infamous Mexican bandit Juan Cortina. He also fought in the Texas Revolution, and family tradition holds that he was present at Sam Houston’s meeting with Santa Anna following the Battle of San Jacinto. For his service, Tumlinson was granted land in Atascosa County, where he served as county commissioner and founded Pleasanton Masonic Lodge No. 283 A.F. & A.M. and served as charter treasurer.

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San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad

1909

The San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad had its beginning as a short line railroad and began in 1909 under the original name of the Crystal City and Uvalde (CC&U) Railroad. With the advent of drilling and discovery of deep artesian water wells in the western portion of the brush country, irrigation farming of fruits and vegetables became very profitable which increased the need for better transportation to ship goods to distant markets. Land promoters soon saw the value of the CC&U Railroad, offering “bonuses” to bring the railroad to new areas of the brush country. In 1912, it expanded into North Pleasanton, created by railroad officials to include a round house, railroad shops and a two-story depot. The train from San Antonio made its first trip to Pleasanton on September 16, 1912. By the time the tracks reached Pleasanton, the railroad became the San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf railroad (SAU&G), or “The Sausage.” In January 1913, a bridge over the Atascosa River was completed and train service continued to Campbellton and, eventually, to the coast. In the early 1920s, the SAU&G was purchased by the New Orleans, Texas and Mexico Railroad for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. In 1982, Missouri Pacific merged into the Union Pacific Railroad. The railroad was a major factor in transforming the hot, dry, brush and prickly pear area into the vast farming and ranching lands of south Texas. The old SAU&G Railroad tracks from San Antonio to Corpus Christi are the last remaining tracks between the two cities. Union Pacific crews still refer to this stretch of tracks as “The Sausage.”

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Pleasanton

1858

(Founded 1858) Named for early Texas settler John Pleasants, by John Bowen (d.1867), San Antonio's first Anglo-American postmaster. Bowen, assisted financially by associate Henry L. Radaz, in Sept. 1858 founded this town at the juncture of Atascosa River and Bonita Creek as the county seat of Atascosa County. The first courthouse in Pleasanton (second in county) stood on this site. Men from this and surrounding counties met here in Civil War (1862) to form Co. E, 32nd Texas Volunteer Cavalry, Confederate Army, under Captain Lewis Maverick. In an area thick with Longhorns since Spanish and Indian days, Pleasanton became a cattlemen's capital. Beginning in 1860s, the Stock Raisers' Association of Western Texas often convened here. This was place of publication of "Western Stock Journal," founded 1873. Here gathered the hardiest and most skillful cowboys, including those driving herds from Mexican border to shipping points in Kansas. In spring of 1873 they drove 43,000 Atascosa county cattle up the trail. Pleasanton was county seat until 1911, and still grows. In 1961 it absorbed North Pleasanton (founded 1912 as site for San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad shops). County's largest town, it is famous for liveoak trees, and commerce in beef, peanuts, and petroleum. (1973)

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Pleasanton, TX

1858

Pleasanton is at the intersections of Farm Roads 476, 5350, 1334 and U.S. Highway 281, five miles northeast of Jourdanton in northeast Atascosa County. It was founded in 1858, when conflicts with Indians caused the settlers to move the location of the county seat from Amphion. The mouth of Bonita Creek seemed the perfect location for the new seat, so the county residents voted this area as the official townsite. John Bowen, who later named the town after early settler John Pleasant, donated five square miles of land for development. E. B. Thomas, the first settler, opened the first general store in Pleasanton. In 1860 Pleasanton became county school district number 1, with W. J. Pepham as the first teacher. By 1861 the town had a dozen families, two blacksmiths, and three lawyers. A log cabin served as the courthouse for nine years. After the new courthouse was built by William Guynes, the log cabin was rented to the school district until 1875, when a rock schoolhouse was built. The old courthouse also served as a church at one time. By the early twentieth century Pleasanton, had two newspapers, the Pleasanton Picayune , which became the Pleasanton Express in 1909, and the Pleasanton Reporter . Although Jourdanton became the county seat in 1910, Pleasanton continued to grow. In 1912 the Missouri Pacific Railroad linked the town to San Antonio, and in 1914 Pleasanton became connected by railroad to Corpus Christi. At this time the population was 1,500. In 1917 the town was officially incorporated. Pleasanton profited from the thriving cattle industry of the area and became a gathering place for cowboys driving cattle to Kansas. The Stock Raisers Association of Western Texas often held meetings or conventions in the town. By the 1940s the population reached 2,074; it had increased by another 1,000 by the 1960s. In 1966 the "Cowboy Homecoming" was begun in Pleasanton. Since many locals claimed the town was the birthplace of the cowboy, they decided to commemorate the tradition officially. The festival, which occurs annually in August, has cook-offs, fiddler contests, and carnivals in tribute to the cattle industry. Other important industries of the area are peanuts and petroleum. The population of Pleasanton was 6,091 in 1980 and 8,042 in 1994. In 1989 the town adopted a manager-council government. Pleasanton has four state historical markers: the Cooper Chapter 101 of the Masons was recognized in 1971, the town was honored with a marker on the city hall grounds in 1973, and in 1984 the First United Methodist Church and the old site of the San Augustine Church received plaques. The population was 8,266 in 2000.

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Medina, Battle of

1813

The battle of Medina was fought on August 18, 1813, between the republican forces of the Gutiérrez-Magee expedition under Gen. José Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois and a Spanish royalist army under Gen. Joaquín de Arredondo . This bloodiest battle ever fought on Texas soil took place twenty miles south of San Antonio in a sandy oak forest region then called el encinal de Medina . Occurring during a very confused and turbulent period of world history, the battle of Medina affected the destinies of Spain, Mexico, the United States, England, and France. Mexico and Latin America were in revolt against Spain, whose king was Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, who was on a rampage in Europe, and the United States was at war with England, later to be called the War of 1812. In this cauldron of world events, José Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara and Augustus William Magee , abetted by the United States, organized an expedition to wrest Texas from Spain. Adopting a "Green Flag" for a banner, their Republican Army of the North crossed from the Neutral Ground in Louisiana into Texas on August 7, 1812, and soon captured Nacogdoches, Trinidad de Salcedo, La Bahía , where Magee died, and San Antonio, where a declaration of independence for the State of Texas under the Republic of Mexico was proclaimed on April 6, 1813. This, however, was short-lived, for Joaquín de Arredondo, commandant-general of the Provincias Internas , organized an army of 1,830 men and marched them early in August from Laredo toward San Antonio to quell the rebellion. In the meantime, Toledo deposed Gutiérrez and became the new commander of the republicans on August 4. With a force of about 1,400 men composed of Anglos, Tejanos , Indians, and former royalists, Toledo, urged by Tejanos who wanted to spare San Antonio from the ravages of battle, chose to meet the enemy south of the city. The night of August 17 he encamped his forces about six miles from Arredondo's camp between the Atascosa and Medina rivers and planned to ambush the royalists as they traveled through a defile along the Laredo road. The next morning, however, royalist scouts flushed the republicans and lured them into an ambush in a dense oak forest. Acting against Toledo's orders, the republicans, led by Miguel Menchaca , trudged through deep sand for several hours in pursuit of a cavalry unit, which they mistook for an army. In the meantime, Arredondo prepared breastworks on favorable ground and ordered his men not to fire on the rebels until they were within forty paces. By the time the republicans came within range, they were very hot, thirsty, and tired. After a furious four-hour battle involving infantry, cavalry, and artillery, the republicans broke ranks and ran. Most of those not killed on the battlefield were caught and executed during the retreat. The republicans were decimated. Less than 100 were able to escape alive. Of these, no more than twenty have thus far been identified. Arredondo lost only fifty-five men, who were given honorable burial the next day on the way to San Antonio, where he established martial law and severely punished the rebels and their families. One of Arredondo's more notable subalterns was Lt. Antonio López de Santa Anna , who learned the lessons of war well and returned to Texas with another army twenty-three years later. After the battle of Medina, Arredondo ordered his men to imprison women, primarily widows and daughters of men who Arredondo suspected to be rebels, in la Quinta , where the women were held and mistreated for months. The bodies of the republican warriors lost in battle were left to lie nine years on the battlefield until 1822 when José Félix Trespalacios , the first governor of the state of Texas under the newly established Republic of Mexico, ordered a detachment of soldiers to gather their bones and bury them honorably under an oak tree that grew on the battlefield. A Texas counterpart to the Mexican War of Independence , the Gutiérrez-Magee expedi

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Esparza, Enrique

1836

Enrique Esparza, witness of the battle of the Alamo , son of Gregorio Esparza and Ana Salazar, was probably born in September 1828, although he claimed to have been born in 1824. His father was killed in the defense of the Alamo. In an interview with Charles Merritt Barnes , writer for the San Antonio Express , in 1907, Esparza begins his narration concerning his Alamo experience by saying, "All the others are dead. I alone live of they who were within the Alamo when it fell. There is none other left now to tell its story, and when I go to sleep my last slumber in the Campo de los Santos (cemetery), there will then be no one left to tell. You ask me do I remember it, I tell you, Yes. It is burned into my brain and indelibly seared there. Neither age nor infirmity could make me forget for the scene was one of such horror that it could never be forgotten." Esparza's story also appeared in the San Antonio Express in 1902 and 1904. His account is one of the few that attested to the presence of several other Alamo noncombatants including Concepción de los Angeles Charlí (who he called Concepcion Losoya), her son Juan, and her daughter Juana, wife of Eliel Melton . Esparza was married to Gertrudes Hernández. They had seven children. A daughter, María Josefa, was one of the first area women to be invested in the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word on January 4, 1871, when she became Sister Claude. Esparza first farmed in the San Augustine community in Atascosa County, Texas. He moved to San Antonio and truck-farmed in the Nogalitos-South Flores area. He also transported merchandise to and from Indianola, Texas, in carts. So burdensome and dangerous was the trip, that on his return, the first place he visited was the church to give thanks for his safe return. Esparza died on December 20, 1917, and is buried in El Carmen Cemetery, Losoya.

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Pleasanton, Texas

Music in Pleasanton

Songs About Pleasanton

Artists From Pleasanton

Rivers & Roads in Song near Pleasanton

History of Pleasanton

The Town That Calls Itself the Birthplace of the Cowboy RoadyGoat

John T. Lytle Points 3,500 Longhorns North Past Town RoadyGoat

A River Named for Getting Stuck in the Mud RoadyGoat

Capt. Peter F. Tumlinson

San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad

Pleasanton

Pleasanton, TX

Medina, Battle of

Esparza, Enrique

Things to Do in Pleasanton

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