| Stephanie Montoya | Spring 2003 |
| History 1302 | Hines |
ORIGINS: When the town was founded it's original name was not Buda, but instead Du Pre. The story behind the name Du Pre started with a postmaster from mountain city, Colonel W. W. Haupt, who one day mentioned to a officer of the railroad "Do pray, give us a depot!(Barnes 7)." The name Du Pre from then on stayed and became the name of the town. In the year of 1885 the name was changed due to some confusion with another town named Dupree. "One of the well known explanations for the name change is that it comes from the Spanish name for widow (Greene 1)." There was a railroad depot close to the Carrington Hotel in Buda and there lived two widows who would cook for the passengers of trains passing through. "
This is the recently built city hall of Buda, Texas. Its one of the newest buildings in Buda. Its probably the only new building there. Mr. Grey White, the Assistant Administrator's office is in this building.
The town of Buda was founded on April 1, 1881 when a lady by the name of Cornelia Tremble donated some of the land that she owned to the town. Her and her family were the founders of Buda or at the time "Du Pre." The building of the railroad had a large contribution to the development of the town also. At first there was no depot station in the town for the passengers of the town. Soon enough one was built for the community people and passengers of the train. A lot of new settlement was because of the establishment of the Great Northern Railroad. People abandoned other towns like Mountain City and came from all over different states to start a new life in a new town. This move to a newly developed town creates a small problem, the vanishment "of Mountain City, the old stage coach stop, which was bypassed by the railroad(Barnes 7)." Property was bought, houses were built and business were established to form the town of Du Pre.
This is a picture of the Buda water tower located on the outskirts of Buda.
Some of the local economy consisted of "mills, hotels, banks, a lumberyard, two newspapers, a cheese factory, a movie theater, and a skating rink (Greene 1)." A chamber of commerce was organized by local businesses. Local businesses and the railroad remained a very active part of the town up until the Great Depression. The population began to decrease from "600 to an estimated 300 in 1933 (Greene 2)." The economy was boosted when finally the railroad reached us in 1880. It would have reached Buda sooner but due to the "1876 economic problems nationwide and the panic of '76 made financing the building of the bridge to cross the Colorado River difficult (Barnes 7)."
Some of the historical landmarks of Buda were the mills, lumberyards, cheese factory and a movie theater. White mentioned in his interview "that the cheese factory and movie theater were unfortunetly destroyed by fires. Buda also had a bank that they lost due to a fire also."
This is the railroad crossing, which had alot to do with the growth and development of Buda.
Some of Buda's traditions for the past 23 years have been a festival called the Buda Fest. It's a two day event that has arts and crafts, a parade and a carnival. It's more or less Buda's fiesta like in San Antonio. "They also have a Red, White and Buda festival held the Saturday before July 4th and is a one-day event(White interview)."
"There is a small Black community off the west side of Buda called the Antioch Community. This is a black communtiy that has developed and grown since right after the Civil War. Black families migrated to this community. The community and churches of Buda help raise money and donate to the Antioch Community to help rebuild schools, parks and other areas of the community (White interview)."
The Community and minorities
INTERVIEWS:
What brought your family to Buda? White and His Family move to Buda looking for work. They moved here from Asherton Springs. White graduated from buda High School, then attended SWT for only a year and soon after joined the military. After the military he went back to school and recieved a BBA in accounting.
Throughout the years Buda has grown and been known for it's cotton fariming, ranching and commercial industrial. They slowly but surely started to generate an economy. Buda once had the population of 400-500 people and now there is a population of 3500 people. When White was younger him and his mother always traveled to Austin on the weekends to do their main shopping and to just get out and about.
TIES TO THE COMMUNITY: White is the Assistant Administrator of Buda. He was played a large part in the growth of Buda. White was born and raised here and never intended to leave his homeland.
WEBSITES:
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Kyle, Buda, Moutain City of Generations Past and Present, Joe E. Bostwich, Kyle Tx, Community Library 1984
This source gave me alot of insight about what other people experienced in Buda in the past. This contained nothing more than interviews from all sorts of people who live or lived in Buda. I didn't mention a lot about other people and their past because it would go into a lot of detail about their life.
People and Places in and Around Historic Buda, Mary Giberson and Barbara Barton Younts. Buda, Tx Press Corps 2003.
This source had a lot of information about who founded the town and how the names came to be for the town. There were two different names for the town and it expained how they were changed and why.
Buda scrapbook, Catherine Hafner, Buda,Tx, Buda pack 128, 1985
With the scrapbook I saw a lot about how the town changed and grew from a population of about 300 people to a recent population count of 3500 people. It shows a geographic map of how the land changed and expanded.
History of Buda, Susan Barnes, Buda,Tx 1985
THis source helped me to inform myself with the first settlers of Buda, the founding date and the importance of the railroad. The changes that the railroad cause the town of Buda and other cities around. It also mentions the founder and how the town began with Cornelia Trimble.
www.BudaTx.net
This is the main Buda website to the town. It contributed a little to the history of how Buda became Buda and some information about the town in a present day sence. It informes you about what is going on in the town and when everything is happening. It tells non-Buda residence about whats happening in the BIG town of Buda.
www.Buda.lib.tx.us
This website helped me alot. It contains about the same information that the books did but it does go into detail alittle more. The town of Buda, as a community did a history project about their town and i was able to read alot of interesting things about them. Everyone gets to give there stories about their past history. I was told about this website from my interviewer Mr. Grey White.
My interviewer was Mr. Grey White, he helped me with alot of the history of Buda also, it was all information that i could find in the books or website. Although, he did tell me a little about his past history and when he was a little kid. It was very interesting.
By: Stephanie S. Montoya