Kyle

History

As part of railroad expansion along the International-Great Northern Railroad (I&GN), railroad tycoon and entrepreneur Jay Gould found an opportunity for additional revenue between the cities of Austin and San Marcos which were lined with cotton fields and livestock farms. Originally, the railline was to cross over to Mountain City, located three miles (4.8 km) north of Kyle, but when addressing with his secretary, Ira Evans, it was seen as more cost effective to build a straight track from Austin to San Marcos which went right through the private lands of Fergus Kyle and his wife, Anne Moore. Following an agreement between the I&GN and the Kyle and Moore families, 200 acres were deeded to the railroad in exchange for $1. The rights to the track through Kyle was then sold to the Texas Land Company, which would be in charge of plotting the town, who then sent a surveying party and filed plans with the county clerk for the town on September 7, 1880. The town originally consisted only of 6x3 city blocks for both commercial and residential zoning, as well as a combination train depot and separate cotton platform along the tracks. The first lots were sold at an auction on September 25 under the now historically designated 'Auction Oak' with the railroad offering free rides and food for attendees from Austin. The new town drew residents and businesses from Mountain City and Blanco, four miles (6.4 km) west, as well as independent farmers and ranchers in the county. Tom Martin operated the first business in Kyle as a saloon-meat market combination, the first of four saloons to open in the town's inaugural year. Other founding families like the Nance and Wallace families would open a cotton gin and lumberyard not long after, and by 1883 the population exceeded 500, growing…

Geography

Kyle is in eastern Hays County and is bordered to the south by San Marcos and to the northwest by Mountain City. Kyle is southwest of downtown Austin and northeast of San Antonio on Interstate 35. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and , 1.06%, is covered by water. The Blanco River runs through the western side of the city, while the central and eastern parts of the city drain east to Plum Creek. Both waterways are tributaries of the San Marcos River.

Race & ethnicity