Kyle, Texas

Everything Kyle is known for

1 song mention this city 2 artists from here

Music in Kyle

Songs About Kyle

the interstate 35 waltz
garret t. capps & justin boyd
10%

Artists From Kyle

B
Broken Arrow
country
J
Joe Goynes
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Kyle

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Kyle.

Interstate 35 43 songs Blanco River 4 songs Texas State Highway 71 2 songs Guadalupe River 17 songs Texas Colorado River 6 songs US Route 90 9 songs

History of Kyle

When the Whole Town Government Was Women RoadyGoat

In 1937, the voters of Kyle did something that landed their town in Life magazine and, later, Ripley's Believe It or Not. They elected Mary Kyle Hartson, a seventy-two-year-old great-grandmother and a daughter of town founder Fergus Kyle, as mayor, and they did it by write-in vote. Life ran her picture on May 10, 1937, calling her the only woman mayor in Texas at the time. Hartson was no novice to public life; she had served as Kyle's postmistress for nearly a quarter-century. As mayor she pushed through real improvements, building a municipal water system, installing street lights, and modernizing the fire department. Then it got more remarkable: in 1944 the town elected an all-woman city council to go with its woman mayor, making Kyle, by the accounts of the era, the only town in Texas with an entirely female government. In an age when women had held the vote for barely two decades, this small railroad town quietly ran itself on women's leadership, and the oddity of it carried Kyle's name across the country. (Source: Handbook of Texas; Austin American-Statesman.)

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Kyle, TX RoadyGoat

In the late 19th century, Kyle, Texas, was born out of a strategic decision by railroad tycoon Jay Gould. Seeking to expand the International-Great Northern Railroad between Austin and San Marcos, Gould opted for a direct route through the private lands of Fergus Kyle and his wife, Anne Moore. This decision, made for $1 and the enhanced value of 200 acres of developed land, set the stage for Kyle's growth. The town was plotted by the Texas Land Company in 1880, with the first lots sold under the 'Auction Oak'. By 1883, Kyle's population had exceeded 500. The town faced a decline during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl but was incorporated in 1928. A unique moment in Kyle's history came in 1944 when Mary Kyle Hartson, daughter of Fergus Kyle, led an all-woman city council, a first for Texas.

Kyle, TX RoadyGoat

In 1937, Kyle made history when Mary Kyle Hartson, daughter of Fergus Kyle, was elected mayor by a write-in vote. She went on to win re-election in 1944 and served as mayor as part of an all-woman city council, making Kyle the only Texas town with an all-woman government at the time.

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Porter, Katherine Anne

1890

(May 15, 1890 - September 18, 1980) Katherine Anne Porter, one of America's most distinguished writers of fiction, was born Callie Russell Porter in Indian Creek, Brown County, Texas. Her mother, Mary Alice Jones Porter, died in 1892, and her father, Harrison Boone Porter (1858-1942) returned with the children to his native Hays County to live with his mother, Catherine Ann Skaggs Porter (1826-1901). Porter spent her childhood in Kyle and attended the public schools here. Following a brief failed marriage, she left Texas in 1915. She went to Chicago and, using the name she adopted from her grandmother, became a journalist. She traveled throughout the world and began her writing career. Porter's first book of short stories, "Flowering Judas and Other Stories," was published in 1930. Considered a preeminent writer of short stories, she published another collection, "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" in 1939. Her acclaimed 1962 novel "Ship of Fools" was followed by the Pulitzer prize-winning "The Collected Stores of Katherine Anne Porter" in 1965. Porter returned to Texas to visit her former homes in her later years and, according to her request, upon her death her ashes were interred next to her mother's grave in the Indian Creek Cemetery. (1990)

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Hartson, Mary Lucy Kyle

1937

Mary Lucy Kyle Hartson, early woman mayor, was born on December 6, 1865, at Kyle, Texas, the daughter of Anna Elizabeth (Moore) and Fergus Kyle , for whom the town was named. She was the granddaughter of Lucy (Bugg) and Claiborne Kyle , who settled with their eight children near the Blanco River in 1850. Both her grandfather and father served in the Texas legislature. Her brother Edwin Jackson Kyle was president of the athletic association at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (later Texas A&M University) and later ambassador to Guatemala. Mary attended school at Blanco Chapel and the Kyle Seminary. In 1888 she graduated from Sam Houston Normal Institute at Huntsville and began a teaching career in Taylor, Texas. While visiting in Dallas in 1891 she met George Dorr Hartson, a young electrical engineer from New York, who moved to Texas to supervise the construction of the Electrical Street Car System. On November 21, 1891, Mary and George were married in Kyle. They made their home in Dallas, later in Laredo, and in 1898 George Hartson accepted the position of electrical supervisor with the Avino Mining Company, thirty miles from Durango, Mexico. On February 4, 1901, Hartson was killed in an accident during an inspection tour of the upper mines, leaving Mary a young widow with two children and another born three months after his burial in Kyle, Texas. In the spring of 1901 Mary Kyle Hartson was appointed postmistress of Kyle, and although a staunch Democrat she served through five administrations until August 1925. As a seventy-two-year-old great-grandmother she was elected mayor of Kyle by a write-in vote in 1937. A picture of Mayor Hartson appeared in the May 10, 1937, Life magazine, where she was written up as the only woman mayor in Texas at the time. From 1937 until 1941 and from 1944 until 1946 Mary Hartson was mayor, and along with the "all woman" city council elected in 1944 made Ripley's Believe It or Not . During her term of office as mayor, the town built a municipal water system, installed street lights, updated the fire department, and kept the city clean. Of her administration Mrs. Hartson said, "We balanced the budget, and cleaned up the town. Then when everything was under control, I retired." After retiring at age eighty-one, she went to Wichita Falls to live with her daughter. She continued to be active in the Woman's Forum in Wichita Falls, the Daughters of the American Revolution , and the United Daughters of the Confederacy . She was a Methodist. She died on March 20, 1956, and was buried in the Kyle cemetery.

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Nance, Ezekiel Edward

1852

Ezekiel Edward Nance, farmer, cattleman, and mill owner, one of two sons of Lewis and Lucy (Kepler) Nance, was born in Tennessee on September 12, 1816. In the late 1820s Lewis Nance moved his family to a farm near Fulton in Hempstead County, Arkansas. Later orphaned, Ezekiel in his youth lived with various relatives. Eventually he settled at Old Washington, Hempstead County, Arkansas, and on October 22, 1840, he married Luany Weightsell Pate, the daughter of Jeremiah and Sarah Pate. Ezekiel and Luany had two daughters and four sons, including Jeremiah Milton Nance . In 1847 Ezekiel filled out the term of the sheriff of Hempstead County when the incumbent resigned. He then ran and won a full term. Nance also served as treasurer of the state of Arkansas from 1848 to 1854. His wife died on February 22, 1852, and later that year he made a hurried exploratory trip to Texas seeking a homestead there. He selected a site at the junction of a small creek (which he named the Little Arkansas) and the Blanco River, to the west of what is now Kyle in Hays County. On June 15, 1852, Nance acquired title to about 10,000 acres in the Seaborn Berry and J. W. Fogg surveys. He later increased his holdings to more than 14,000 acres. He returned to Arkansas and on April 7, 1853, in Hempstead County, married Martha Jane Alexander; the couple had six children. That fall Nance returned to Texas. With him went his new wife, the five surviving children from his first marriage, his first wife's sister (Deborah Jane Pate), his brother James Nance, and George Green and his wife; he also took a number of slaves. James Nance and the Greens went on to San Marcos. In November 1853 Ezekiel registered a horse brand in Hays County, the second-oldest such brand recorded there. One of the first things he did upon arriving was to put up a rock fence around his cropland to protect it from roving wild cattle. He developed one of the earliest working ranches in the area, and, with his sons and slaves, he and his neighbors annually rounded up and branded wild cattle. On the Blanco River , Ezekiel built a dog-run house with a large fireplace at the end of each room. As his family grew, he added three rooms and covered the chinked log walls with cypress panels sawed at his mill; in 1994 the house still stood at its original site. At the site were also built a smokehouse, slave quarters, a carriage house, and an additional two-room house for the eight boys in the family (this house in 1994 bore a Texas Historical Commission marker). Within five years, using slave labor, Nance had built a dam on the Blanco. There he built a sawmill, a gristmill, and later a cotton gin. The Blanco Community (also called the Nance Community and Nance's Mill ) grew rapidly during the late 1850s. Residents conducted much of their business at Mountain City, four miles to the northeast, which had a post office and was on the stage road from Austin to San Antonio. Nance built a blacksmith shop and tenant houses. In April 1858 Nance (with Edward Burleson, Jr. , and William Smith) was appointed by the Hays County commissioners to locate a road from San Marcos to Nance's house on the Blanco River; from there the road ran on to Dripping Springs. In 1860 Nance built a one-room log schoolhouse (and chapel) on his property for his family and his neighbors. That year he persuaded a Bishop Kavanaugh (of Tennessee) to move to Texas to preach and teach school. In 1865 he built of native limestone a larger schoolhouse-chapel that came to be called the Blanco Chapel; it served as a school and a place of worship until 1881. Later for a brief period it served as a Mexican Presbyterian church. In 1863 during the Civil War , Ezekiel operated a small cotton textile mill that supplied coarse cloth to the Confederacy; he also shipped hogsheads of beef to the Confederate Army. In late 1863 he had his slaves fence several thousand acres of his land. After the war ended in April 1865, he applied for-and on May 23 was gr

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Bunton, John Wheeler

1833

Born in Sumner County, Tenn., John Wheeler Bunton migrated to Texas in 1833. To secure freedom for his new homeland, he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, helped draft a constitution, and fought in the Siege of Bexar and the Battle of San Jacinto. A lawyer, rancher, and owner of extensive lands, Bunton served in the 1st and 3rd congresses of the Republic of Texas. He lived in Austin and Bastrop counties before settling in Hays County near Mountain City. Originally buried in this county, Bunton was reinterred in the state cemetery in Austin in 1932.

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Kyle

1880

Two antebellum settlements, the Blanco or Nance community (7 mi. W) and Mountain City (3 mi. W), provided the early population and business for Kyle after the city was founded in 1880. Fergus Kyle, for whom the town was named, and the family of David Moore donated 200 acres of land for a townsite when the International & Great Northern Railroad built a line from Austin to San Antonio. Lots were first sold in October 1880 as an auction held beneath a liveoak at 204 S. sledge Street. The first business was a saloon and meat market owned by Tom Martin. An 1895 election incorporated the town but voters discontinued the status two years later. Kyle was incorporated again in 1906 and J. W. Tompkins served as the first mayor. In the 1940s Kyle residents elected an all-woman municipal government. The mayor, who won using a write-in campaign, was Mary Kyle Hartson (1865-1956), daughter of Fergus Kyle. Her brother Edwin Jackson Kyle (b. 1876) was dean of the Texas A&M School of Agriculture. He later served in the administrations of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman as the ambassador to Guatemala (1944-48). Kyle Football Field at Texas A&M University is named in his honor.

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Kyle, Claiborne

1844

Claiborne Kyle, early Texas politician and settler of Mountain City, Hays County, was born on August 8, 1800, in Hawkins County, Tennessee, the son of Maj. John William and Rebecca (Young) Kyle. His parents had been early settlers in Tennessee and were large landholders there. Kyle married Lucy Bugg in 1829 in Lincoln County, Tennessee, and the couple had nine children. After leaving Tennessee, the Kyles lived in Alabama and Mississippi, where their children were born. Kyle served as state senator in Marshall County, Mississippi, from 1837 to 1841. After a friend for whom he had posted bond absconded, Kyle and his family were placed in great financial difficulty, which precipitated their move to Texas about 1844. The family spent a year in Gonzales, then lived in Austin from 1846 to 1850, when they moved permanently to Hays County. In Texas, Kyle was a member of the Travis County District Court grand jury in 1849. In November 1850 he served on the first grand jury of Hays County and as county treasurer. He also served in the fifth Texas Senate (1853–54) and in the Texas House of Representatives during the Civil War . Five of Kyle's sons fought in the Civil War. One son, Fergus Kyle , founded the town of Kyle, served as captain of Terry's Texas Rangers (the Eighth Texas Cavalry ) during the Civil War, and replaced his father in the Texas House, where he introduced a bill to save the Alamo and a bill to establish Southwest Texas Normal School (later Southwest Texas State University) at San Marcos. A daughter, Lucy Emma, married Maj. Edward Burleson, Jr. , and their son, Albert Sidney Burleson , became postmaster general under the Woodrow Wilson administration. In Hays County Kyle's family built an unusual four-room log house near Kyle, Texas, which has been restored and is open to the public on special occasions. In 1863 Lucy died, and Claiborne died in 1867. Both are buried on land they donated to establish the Kyle Cemetery.

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Things to Do in Kyle

historical 21.2 mi away
Gruene Hall

Gruene Hall opened in 1878 and has never closed its doors making it the oldest continuously operating dance hall in Texas. The wooden floor is scuffed smooth…
food 21.3 mi away
Franklin Barbecue

Legendary Austin BBQ with 2-3 hour waits. Obama waited in line here.
nature 7.3 mi away
San Marcos Springs

San Marcos Springs is the second-largest spring system in Texas and the longest continuously inhabited site in North America. Archaeologists found evidence of…
food 14.0 mi away
Kreuz Market

Charles Kreuz opened his meat market in 1900 and by the nineteen twenties the butcher was smoking cuts out back and serving them hot off the pit with no plates…
food 14.1 mi away
Black's Barbecue

Edgar Black opened this Lockhart meat market in 1932 and four generations of Blacks have run the pits ever since making it the oldest family-run barbecue joint…
food 14.1 mi away
Black's Barbecue

Texas' oldest BBQ joint in continuous operation since 1932. Lockhart institution where the beef sausage is legendary.
food 14.1 mi away
Smitty's Market

Walk through the flames to get your meat. Built around the original Kreuz pit room in Lockhart since 1999.
food 14.2 mi away
Kreuz Market

No sauce no forks no kidding. Lockhart's iconic smoked meat temple since 1900. Post oak pits and old-school rules.
day trip
Day Trip to Kyle 🥧 (FULL EPISODE) S14 E2

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Everything Near Kyle

494 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Explore Kyle on the Map
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