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BUCKHOLTS,
TEXAS
Milam County, Central
Texas S
FM 1915
Highways 36 and 190
22 miles SE of Temple
9 miles NW of Cameron
Population: 335 (2000)
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Main
Street in Buckholts
Photo by John Troesser, 6-03 |
History
in a Pecan Shell
John A. Buckholts donated land for the townsite when the Gulf, Colorado
and Santa Fe Railway arrived in 1881. It was named in his honor and
a post office was granted the following year.
German, Austrian, and Czech farmers grew the dominant crop of cotton
in the 1880s and 1890s. The school was built in 1896. Buckholtz had
telephone service by 1914.
Population estimates:
1884: 61
1900: 182
1920s to the 1940s: 800
1980: 362
2000: 335
Today the wide main street still has many buildings dating to the
1930s as well as two cotton gins – one of witch is still in use. |
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Buckholts has one of the rare SPJST octagonal buildings, used as dance
and meeting hall.
Photo by John Troesser, 6-03 |
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Old store
buildings on main street
Photo by John Troesser, 6-03 |
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A Coca Cola ghost sign
Photo by John Troesser, 6-03 |
Local
Personality
Renaissance
Man of Buckholts by Clay Coppedge
Civilization as we know it did not develop on John Greiner's place
northwest of here but it might seem that way when you're touring his
place via the Little River Miniature Railroad.
Greiner lives in a castle on the backroads - almost the backwoods
- of Milam County. He built the castle himself, stone by stone, over
the course of 20 years and 120 tons of limestone rock.
The Little River Miniature Railroad rolls above its turgid namesake,
across Beetle Gulch and past the workshop with the words "Little River
Aeroplane" written across the front.
Greiner is the man at the throttle. He built and installed the tracks
on which the steam engine travels. The steam engine? It took three
years of working two hours a night but, yes, he built that too. "I
never missed a night," he says. "Of course, I worked on it some during
the day too."
The first 1/8 replica steam engine has been such a success ... more |
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