Looking back to 1900 in Granbury — a foundation for things to come

BRIDGE STREET HISTORY CENTER

Dan Vanderburg is a local author and speaker who loves Texas history. He has published six historical fiction novels to date about exciting events in Texas history. As a speaker, Dan presents programs about everyday life in early Texas.

The town of Granbury by 1900 had grown and progressed tremendously since it was founded almost 30 years earlier. By then, the architecture on the square had changed from its rough wood and log buildings to look much like it does now.

Let’s see if you can imagine what things were like here more than 120 years ago. Stepping onto the Granbury square today is like opening a door to the past. Its limestone and brick buildings and classic architecture with iron store fronts, fancy roof cornices and tall, narrow windows and doors can easily take you back in time if you let your imagination wander.

So, let’s go back and look at Granbury in 1900. It’s a Saturday afternoon in late fall. The air has cooled from the scorching heat of the summer. It’s harvest time.

The farmers and their large families have been working hard, picking cotton. Most of the farmers have already harvested their grain and brought it to the grist mill for processing.

The ranchers have taken advantage of the new railroad and sent their stock to market in the cattle cars. The added cost of shipping the steers by rail is covered by the weight they kept on the stock by not walking it off on a long trail drive.

Saturday afternoon on the square at harvest time is a hive of activity. Dozens of teams of horses and wagons loaded with loose, raw cotton on their way to the gin are parked  around the square. Others are loaded with processed bales, ready to go to market.

Saddle horses and buggies are tied to hitching rails next to the courthouse. Women shop and visit in the stores while the men swap stories outside. Children skip along the boardwalks, darting in and out of the stores to look at the new items for fall and winter.

Along with new buildings on the square replacing the original wooden ones, many fine homes were built off the square in classic styles of the times. Of course, the most notable construction project was the magnificent courthouse in the middle of the town square. Built in the French Second Empire style of the finest materials, including imported woods and local limestone from our own quarry, it was completed in 1891 at the cost of $40,000.

This area was populated with hard-working people with strong religious and family values. Having good schools was high on their priority list. By the mid-1880s there were several schools with about 50 teachers in the county.

Public water and city electrical power was still several years away, so citizens got along fine with private water wells. They heated their homes with wood fireplaces and lit them at night with oil lamps. With no running water, residences and businesses all made use of outhouses behind the main buildings and baths took place with wash basins or a tub on the kitchen floor.

By 1900 Granbury boasted a population of around 2,000. Most came from the southern states after the Civil War, looking for a place to start over. Some grew to become very successful and gave back to their community by raising funds for churches, schools, bridges, the railroad, and served in public office. Through everyone’s effort, their little town made it and thrived.

So, as you stroll these days along downtown Granbury’s sidewalks enjoying the architecture of the historically preserved buildings, the great merchandise in the shops, the food and beverages in the restaurants, wineries and saloons and the music and entertainment the night life has to offer, think about its past. Read the many historic markers and monuments scattered about the square and think of those people who made Granbury the “Best Historic Small Town in America” that will always be “Where Texas History Lives.”

Dan Vanderburg, 2022

www.bshc-granbury.org