Hays County Historical Commission

11/11/2025

10/24/2025

We are proud of the support by the community as well as the hard work done and coordination of our Cemetery and Historical Markers committees.

07/24/2025

On this day in 1880, the town of Kyle was established when David E. Moore and Fergus Kyle (for whom the town was named) deeded 200 acres for a townsite to the International-Great Northern Railroad. Kyle is on Interstate Highway 35 eight miles north of San Marcos and twenty miles south of Austin in northeastern Hays County. The new town drew residents and businesses from Mountain City, three miles west, and Blanco, some forty miles west. Tom Martin operated the first business in Kyle. The community's population exceeded 500 by 1882 but later declined. Kyle was incorporated in 1928 as a general-law city with a mayor and five council members. In 1937 Mary Kyle Hartson, a seventy-two-year-old great-grandmother and the daughter of Fergus Kyle, was elected mayor by a write-in vote; her victory attracted national attention, including a feature story in Life magazine which proclaimed her the only woman mayor in Texas. In the early 1940s Kyle was noted as the only Texas town with an all-woman government. In the year 2000 Kyle contained some 200 businesses and 5,314 inhabitants.

05/25/2025

Good news everyone! After a bit of finicking around with login credentials and trying to get a working storefront operating, we finally have a donations link for people to use to simply donate to the HCHC. We should soon be able to get a storefront as well for those of y'all looking to get some HCHC and Train Depot swag but people often ask for a cashless way to donate to us so this comes first.

You can use your phone's camera or a QR reader to get to the Square link, but if you'd prefer we do have a link: https://checkout.square.site/merchant/Z59A7F9Z3BXNM/checkout/N6NQ6552BM66G7NFVISJEXG7?src=webqr

As always the Depot will still take cash donations in person and you can already get some of our stuff there as we work to get this online storefront functioning.

05/24/2025

What: Juneteenth Children’s Art Exhibit & Reception
When: Thursday, June 19th, 2025 from 5:30 to 7:00 pm
Where: Calaboose African American History Museum
200 W Martin Luther King Dr., San Marcos, TX 78666

FREE EVENT!
Come see Juneteenth through the eyes of 2nd graders. Free refreshments at the Cephas House, across the street from the museum.

02/25/2025

Alrighty, folks of the County of Hays, we've got a meeting coming up on Thursday evening for appointing the new leadership of your local County Historical Commission. The agenda is linked below and any who wish to make comments or bring forth matters to the historical commission may do so following the inscribed instructions. We will be at the historic Kyle Railroad Depot and Heritage Center at 6pm for which we shall begin this new term with appointed chairs and officers in tow!
See y'all there!

01/28/2025

It's the first HCHC meeting of 2025 and the HCHC's 2025-26 Term!

Due to MLK Day last week, we could not follow through on our Open Meetings Act criteria to have a meeting announcement at least 72 hours in advance and had to postpone it to the following Thursday. Nevertheless, we've got the agenda posted around the county as well as linked here on our site for public perusal should they like to attend and welcome in committee chairs.

Should anyone outside our commission wish to speak on the record, just follow the Citizens Comments instructions and welcome to the start of another Hays County Historical Commission term!

10/23/2024

Words from our Chair:

10/22/2024

Agenda for the next HCHC Meeting
Location: Kyle Railroad Depot and Heritage Center
Date/Time: 24 October 2024, 6:00pm
Open to the Public

10/02/2024

𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐃𝐎, 𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐄, 𝐁𝐔𝐅𝐅, 𝐅𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐎𝐑 𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐇𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐎𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘?

Established in 1953 the Hays County Historical Commission is a group of volunteers appointed by the Hays County Commissioner's Court on odd-numbered years for a two-year term to preserve the history and cultural resources of Hays County. In addition to implementing the State Historical Marker program of the Texas Historical Commission on a local level, the Hays Historical Commission is active in the preservation of area cemeteries and historical sites. Our purpose is to provide information to the public and educational resources on the significance of our heritage in Hays County .

Here is your opportunity to get involved by joining the Hays County Historical Commission!

Click the link below or head to our website at www.hayshistoricalcommission.com/pdf/HCHC-Application-2025.pdf for our application for you to download, print, and scan if you're interested in serving.

Completed applications may be sent to our office or emailed to us via the instructions on the application.

2025-26 Term Application Window Closes: 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟓, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒

06/11/2024

At the Texas Historical Commission Real Places Conference, we got a great idea in one of the sessions from Parker County Historical Commission regarding cemeteries and new development. Our Planning and Development Department has agreed and is going to include the following verbiage in our packets they are updating:

“Identification and access to cemeteries are to be shown on plat maps with accurate dimensions in feet and decimals along with appropriate easements to the cemetery.”

Thank you, Parker County Historical Commission County!!!

05/05/2024

Had a great morning with the Burleson Family Research Group. For those that don't know General Edward Burleson, along with William Lindsey and Eli Merriman purchased the land from the Veramendi family and platted San Marcos. He also proposed the legislation that created our County and naming it Hays. Had a great time with fellow history enthusiasts. And they gave me this totally awesome commemorative coin.