Railroad turns Bagdad into Leander

Railroad turns Bagdad into Leander

Written by Amy Stansbury Sunday, 07 May 2006

In 1835, Stephen F. Austin sent a group of armed rangers led by Capt. John J. Tumlinson to build a blockhouse fort to help protect the settlers from Indian attacks. This was one of the first buildings of what is now Williamson County. The fort was burned by the Comanche Indians less than two years after it was built.

By the late 1840s, small groups of settlers began moving into the area and in 1855, the town of Bagdad was established, named for one of the first settler’s hometown, Bagdad, Tennessee. Another settler, John Frederick Heinatz, built his home with an adjoining general store near the present-day intersection of Bagdad Rd. and Nameless Rd. Heinatz married Emilie Krohn and had nine children, and he eventually became the town’s postmaster, banker, public school trustee, and Sunday school superintendent.

In 1857, the Bagdad Cemetery was established when Charles Babcock donated the land where his three-year-old son was buried. That same year, Rev. R. M. Overstreet organized the Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church, later renamed the Bagdad Presbyterian Church. By 1860, the United Methodist Church was conducting services in a log cabin also used as a school for nearly 11 years, until the Masonic Lodge was built in 1871, and became the new Bagdad public school.

In 1886, the Granite Mountain and Marble Falls City Railroad Company made a deal with the state to donate the granite for the new capitol if it would extend the railroad from Austin all the way to Marble Falls. The railroad was to run through downtown Bagdad, but the local citizens opposed so fiercely that the Austin and Northwestern Railroad officials gave in and moved the route one mile east.

The town of Leander was formed in 1882 when the citizens of Bagdad realized their mistake in not considering the great benefits the railroad would bring, so they began moving their homes, businesses and churches closer to the rail line. The town’s namesake, Leander “Catfish” Brown, was one of the men responsible for completion of the rail line. Bagdad was a deserted town by the end of that year, but with the growth of the cedar post business and cotton farming, Leander citizens were shipping products via railway and the local economy was thriving.

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