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History in
a Pecan Shell
Buffalo was named
for the once-abundant animals when the International-Great Northern
Railroad arrived in 1872. The Buffalo post office was granted four
years later. Buffalo's first school was held in a two-story building
that later became a community center and later still - a hotel.
The population of Buffalo grew from 200 to 500 from 1890 to 1892.
Buffalo incorporated in 1913 when the town comprised an area of four
square miles. It was unincorporated in 1917 and later reincorporated.
From a pre-Depression population of 650 in 1929, it fell to 470 by
1931 but grew to 850 by the end of the 1930s. Passenger service was
discontinued in 1970. |
Buffalo City
Hall, by the water tower
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, April 2006 |
Shuffle
off to Buffalo by Mike Cox
... In Texas, the Leon County Buffalo is the largest community with
a population of 1,847 counted in the 2010 Census. The town dates back
to 1872, when the International and Great Northern Railroad laid tracks
through the county. Four years later, the government approved a post
office for Buffalo. Rail passenger service through Buffalo ended in
1970, but its location on I-45 kept the town alive as a way point.
Despite its evocative name, the Leon County town has not seen much
colorful history. Well, there was one case of frontier-style extralegal
adjudication. Back in 1888, on the night of May 10, one W.T. Martin
-- accused of equine misappropriation -- was taken into custody by
a deputy sheriff. As the lawman escorted the suspected horse thief
to the Leon County
jail in Centerville, parties
unknown shotgunned Martin in an ambush. The sheriff had three suspects
(one of them had accidentally left his hat near the crime scene) but
it is unclear whether they ever faced trial in the killing. Tragedy
put Buffalo in the national news media's cross hairs in 1959, when
Braniff Airlines flight 542 plummeted 15,000 feet and crashed into
a sweet potato field just outside the town. Thirty-four people died
in the aviation accident.
On a happier note, Buffalo residents have been staunch supporters
of the Dallas Cowboys. In 1993 and again the following year, the town
temporarily renamed itself "Blue Star" when Dallas faced the Buffalo
Bills in Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII. The Bills lost both games and
Blue Star went back to being Buffalo...
Read full article |
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From
Random Notes
from East Texas by Bob Bowman:
The Holy Oak
Images of Jesus and Mary are always popping up in strange places,
such as a tortilla in 1977, a grilled cheese sandwich in 2004, and
on a dental X-ray, also in 2004.
But when Timo Bueno, an employee of a construction company, paused
for a lunch break on Jimmy Ezell’s property at Buffalo in Leon County,
he looked up at a limb which had been cut.
There, he saw an image of Jesus in the end of the limb.
Since then, folks have been coming to Buffalo from all over to see
the image and Ezell regrets that the end of the limb, which might
have contained additional images, was burned.
After all, a ten-year-old sandwich with the Virgin Mary’s image
recently sold on e-Bay for $28,000.
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Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
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