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History in
a Pecan Shell
The town was named
for Leon Blum, a prominent Galveston
merchant and railroad official.
Philip Nolan
was reportedly capturing horses in the area long before Texas Independence.
Real settlement didn't get underway until the 1880s with the arrival
of the railroad (the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe). The town was platted
on land belonging to one W. H. Taylor who sold farmland as city lots.
A post office was granted in 1882, and the first school opened the
following year.
Blum was the home of Gus Bailey, the husband of Circus Queen Mollie
Bailey. He remained in Blum because of poor health while Mollie traveled
all over the state managing the circus.
The population of Blum was just over 300 in 1890 and it surpassed
1,000 by 1908.
That same year over 5,000 bales of cotton were ginned and shipped
and the town incorporated in 1913. The population dropped to 550 in
the 1920s and it declined further to 403 during the Great Depression.
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The
Town's Namesake - Leon Blum, 1837-1906
Leon
Blum, businessman and philanthropist, was born in Alsace, in 1837,
immigrating to Texas in 1854. His first
store in Richmond moved to Galveston
in 1869 and he reportedly became the largest importer of dry goods
in the state.
His interest in cotton led him
to invest in the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway, resulting in
Blum, Texas being named in his honor in 1881.
He contributed to the Bayland Orphans' Home for Boys and to various
schools. He died at Galveston
and was buried in the Hebrew Cemetery there. |
Blum Cemetery
Avenue F at 8th Street, Blum, TX
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, July 2007 |
Historical Marker
Blum Cemetery
Blum Cemetery
This burial ground was established about the time the town of Blum
was formed in 1881 as a stop on the newly laid track of the Gulf,
Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. A. J. Davis (1840-1912), a local landowner,
is said to have gifted the land, specifying that burial lots would
be free. The oldest dated stone is that of nine-year-old Robert E.
Lee McCullough, who died in 1882, but earlier burials likely exist.
Area pioneers and many local veterans are among those honored here.
Descendants support a perpetual care fund and an association to oversee
the care of this site that chronicles the heritage of the Blum community.
Historic Texas Cemetery - 2001 |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and vintage/historic photos, please contact
us. |
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