HISTORY OF CLEBURNE
Cleburne ’ s frontier roots stretch back to the 1800s . Soldiers used a wagon road , Johnson County ’ s earliest road , to pass through the area while traveling from Fort Belknap in Young County to Fort Graham near Hillsboro .
Soldiers established Camp Henderson as a shelter for Civil War troops heading to combat , which led to the establishment of a permanent settlement in 1867 . It was formally incorporated in 1871 . Many of the new settlement ’ s residents served under Confederate Gen . Patrick R . Cleburne during the war and later named the town in his honor .
Cleburne centered around the first road in Johnson County , which had water from West Buffalo Creek and served as a stop for cattleman on the Chisholm Trail .
Cleburne grew primarily as an agricultural
12 | Cleburne Chamber of Commerce center before the railroad came to town . The city grew with the coming of the railroad . The Gulf , Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad arrived in 1881 , and the city ’ s population dramatically increased . Santa Fe opened machine shops in the late 1800s , securing Cleburne ’ s future and serving as a major employer for the town .
Cleburne also served as the site of a prisoner of war camp for German soldiers during World War II . The POWs worked as laborers on local farms .
The railroad shops closed years ago , but other industries , such as Walmart Distribution Center and other businesses in Cleburne ’ s Industrial Park , sustain Cleburne ’ s economy .
The onset of natural gas exploration in the Barnett Shale , underlying Cleburne and Johnson County , supplied new opportunities , employment and the promise of more growth .
NOTABLE CLEBURNITES
• Pat Culpepper , All-American linebacker for the University of Texas at Austin , was inducted into the Longhorn Hall of Honor in 1994 and to the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame in 2010 , along with Drew Brees .
• Donnie Dacus , former guitarist for Chicago
• Dillon Gee , pitcher for the New York Mets ,
Minnesota Twins , and Texas Rangers
• Joe Keeble , football player
• David “ Benedict ” McWilliams , a former player and head football coach of the University of Texas at Austin and head coach at Texas Tech University , was raised in Cleburne .
• Spike Owen , a former Major League Baseball shortstop
• Derrell Palmer , a 1950s Cleveland Browns lineman
• Randy Rogers , singer and front man of Randy Rogers Band
• Del Sharbutt , radio and television announcer , songwriter , and composer of a popular Campbell ’ s Soup jingle , was born in Cleburne .
• Barbara Staff , co-chairman of 1976 Ronald Reagan Texas presidential primary campaign , was born in Cleburne in 1924 .
• Anne Stratton , composer
• William H . Bledsoe , a member of both houses of Texas legislature from Lubbock , 1915 to 1929 ; co-author of bill establishing Texas Tech University , was born in Cleburne in 1869 .
• Johnny Carroll , a rockabilly singer , recorded for Sun Records , Decca Records , and Warner Bros .
• Claude Porter White , composer