 
 
Welcome to Len Kubiak's
Texas History Series
HISTORY OF ROSEBUD, WILDERVILLE AND CEDAR SPRINGS, FALLS COUNTY, TEXAS
ROSEBUD, WILDERVILLE, CEDAR SPRINGS AREA ANNOUNCEMENTS/EMAILS
Received the following email from Susie Kennedy regarding
William Augustus Kimbrough, ancestor of "jarrin" John Kimbrough:
Len, I am interested in any info that you can provide re: William Augustus Kimbrough who was born in Alabama April 3, 1832 and died in Rosebud, Texas in Dec. 1907.
He and his first wife (who died in Alabama) are my gggrandparents. His second wife inherited land in Rosebud and they moved.
I read somewhere that he was Rosebud's first doctor.
"Jarrin" John Kimbrough was his son or grandson. I remember my Daddy sending John K. a congratulatory telegram after some big Texas A&M football victory.
I met a Rosebud couple in November here in Clarke County, Alabama at Pioneer Days in Grove Hill, Alabama. Charlotte Pomykal, 204 CR 326, Rosebud, TX 76570 and her husband.
Thanks in advance for any assistance that you can provide..
Susie Kennedy, 5998 Nettlesboro Rd. Lower Peach Tree, AL 36751
susiek101@wildblue.net
Received the following email from Marilyn Wedemeyer regarding the old El Tampico Cafe:
As I recall, the El Tampico Cafe in Rosebud was a nice restaurant that served Mexican food on the south side of Main Street about a block west of the red light (toward Temple) and may have been owned in the early 1950's by a family name Hanusch. They had a daughter named Phyllis who went to Rosebud High School. They also had other relatives in Rosebud. There was also a lady named Susie Flores who was either an owner or manager there.
Marilyn Wedemeyer
Received the following email from Rosalie:
120th anniversary FBC -Rosebud
Monday, February 1, 2010 7:31 PM
From: "Rosalie" (txroz@valornet.com)
Hi len, ran across your site trying to find some history on our church--
we celebrated our 120th anniversary at FBC of Rosebud on Sunday March 28th, 2010 with special events on the preceding Friday and Saturday. The church email address is fbcrosebud@windstream.net---
also my mother worked as a waitress at El Tampico in Rosebud in the late 40s/early 50s.
Received the following email from Lisa Smesny:
Subject: Need info on
El Tampico, Rosebud
April 11, 2009
From: Lisa
My Great Grandmother and her family owned and operated a restaurant/cafe
in Rosebud in the 50's.... possibly late 40's ....
She was married to Garrett Asbury. Her name was Bessie Mae Asbury.
Do you know of this place or have any info on old pictures that i could find.
My Grandmother worked for them and has told us all many stories about
growing up and working in Rosebud.
We were in Temple this past weekend and drove through Rosebud. I have no idea
what street to look for or if the building still stands....
any help or info would be appreciated.
Received the following email from Bobby Jackson:
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008
From: "Bobby Jackson" (bobby8957@sbcglobal.net)
Subject: Rosebud History
To: lenkubiak.geo@yahoo.com
Just happened to come across your website & saw where a Darrell Jackson was the grand son of Daniel Vincent Jackson. My name is Bobby Jackson, the youngest son of Dan Jackson. I am pretty sure that my grandfather had the same name as my dad. If so, then Daniel Vincent Jackson would also be my grandfather. My dad was married to Anita & they had 3- boys & a girl. Lee Roy, Wessie Lee, Bobby & Nina Pearl. I am the only one still living.
Would like for him to e-mail me & figure out if we are kin.
Thanks, Bobby Jackson
bobby8957@sbcglobal.net
Received the following informative email from Darrell Jackson:
I have enjoyed your web site immensely. I have been encountering it periodically on my genealogical trail of the Jackson family. My cousin Shirley, myself and family have been tracing history. The music is very soothing and a calming element in this search.
I knew Theo Looney very well as he was a close friend of my father. He is in your web section of Rosebud in the Looney family picture of 1927. Our grandmother should be in the Pleasant Grove 1915 class picture.
Our grandfather D. V. or Daniel Vincent Jackson had a farm that was east of Rosebud around 1900. We think it was east of 2027 and was backed up by the Brazos. I guess Powers Chapel and Pleasant Grove were relatively in front of the farm. That is our memory from visits in the 50's and 60's. He, his wife and several of his children and their wives are buried at Powers Chapel
This quest is relatively new to me and I am seeking information from Jacksons, McBrides, Loonys or any other family member that can help. We have great hopes of passing on this history to our children.
I defer to my cousin Shirley who has been pursuing this for some time. I will forward any email to her. We of course are pursuing the standard avenues but family could tell us so much more. We are interested it talking to all of them.
I thank you for your help in referring this to my kinfolk. I'll be by to see you soon.
Sincerely,
Darrell Jackson, dvjac@aol.com or dvjac@sbcglobal.net
If anyone has an area announcement to post or pictures/history to add to the website, send me an email at lenkubiak.geo@yahoo.com. For photos, jpeg is the preferred format.
Thanks,
Leonard Kubiak
History of Rosebud, Falls County, Texas
Texas was opened to Anglo-American colonization in 1822 when the government of Spain granted Moses Austin
permission to bring in three hundred families from the United States. Moses died while planning this major
undertaking, but his son, Stephen F. Austin, replaced him as empresario.
The region in Falls County located below the falls on the Brazos along the west bank was home to several
early-day Texas settlements in the 1800's including Cedar Springs, Wilderville, and Pool's Crossing (later
became Rosebud).
For untold centuries, the region, rich in wildlife, fish, fertile river bottoms was home to many ancient
Indian tribes including the Huacos, the Tonkawas, the Caddoes, the Apaches, the Cherokees, the Yeguas, and
later the Comanches and Kiowas.
Pool's Crossing/Rosebud
Rosebud grew out of a settlement along the west bank of Pond Creed in 1878 and early-on called Pool's Crossing
or Greer's Horse Pen. In 1884 Albert G. Tarver established a post office there called Mormon, after a group of Mormons who had settled in the area. The settlement was destroyed by fire in 1887, and Tarver resigned as postmaster. Allin Taylor took up postmaster duties in his home, at a site now in southwestern Rosebud. Taylor wanted to name the post office Mullins to honor a local family known for their beautiful roses, but a Mullins community already existed in Texas, so he named it Rosebud instead; the post office officially became Rosebud on April 23, 1887.
By 1892 the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway had built through Rosebud on its route from Waco to Giddings, and thereafter the town grew rapidly. The rich blackland soil of the area produced abundant cotton and grain, and by the 1920s the town had seven cotton gins and a cottonseed mill.
The present town of Rosebud was developed by the Texas Townsite Company in 1889 and was incorporated on November 7, 1905.
Early-day photo of Rosebud taken around 1900 when Rosebud was a thriving horse and buggy community.
One of the early-day residents, GL Mayer, operated a soda pop bottling company in Rosebud from 1904 to 1926. These were the glory days for Rosebud. Shortly thereafter, the great depression struck and the farming-based economy of Rosebud never again recovered.
Rosebud declined during the Great Depression, and local farmers turned to ranching and raising wheat and small grain. The railroad was discontinued in 1968, and the tracks and the station were removed.
In the late 1980s Rosebud had 2,076 residents, a hospital, a nursing home, a consolidated high school, thirteen churches-and a rosebush in every yard, a tradition initiated by an editor of the town paper.
HISTORICAL MARKERS IN ROSEBUD
Marker Title: McLennan's Bluff
Year Marker Erected: 1986
Marker Location: From Rosebud, take FM 1963 W. about 1.5 mi., then go north on CR 347 about .5 mi.
Marker Text: Once known as "Sugar Loaf," this bluff overlooking Pond Creek was a landmark to early settlers in area. In 1835, Neil McLennan, a native of Scotland, built his home here, on land that had been granted to him as a member of Sterling Clack Robertson's Colony.
The present town of Rosebud is located on part of Neil McLennan's land grant. McLennan's brother Laughlin settled his family about one mile north of this site. During the spring of 1836, Indians killed Laughlin McLennan, his wife and his mother, and captured three of his sons. As a result, the Neil McLennan family spent much of their ten years in Falls County in the nearby town of Nashville, a haven for settlers that had been begun by Sterling Robertson.
In 1839, while a member of Capt. George Erath's scouting expedition, Neil McLennan first saw the territory that was to become McLennan County. He returned there in 1846, built a home, and lived there until his death in 1867. As part of the earliest Anglo settlement in this part of Texas, the McLennan family helped open the frontier for later immigrants. Their part in the area's history has been remembered with the naming of this bluff and the neighboring county.
Early-day Rosebud natives, R.N. Ward, Sara E. Chick Ward, and George Washington Ward (photo taken in the late 1800's)
This picture was taken 1949-1950 behind the old Rosebud High School. The Fourth Grade Class;
Mrs. Lloyd Piper, Teacher.
Back row left to right; Charles Hyde, John Lee McIntosh, unknown, Alex Springer, Jimmy Matheson, Jimmy Martin,
W.C. Roper, Bennie Kaulfus, Robert Borden, Bobby Jackson, Nolan Hinson.
Front row left to right; Dee Ann Wiese, Brenda McAtee, Peggy Henson, Patsy Hudson, Cora Bell Long, unknown,
Patricia Springer, Margaret Ellison, Patsy Conner, Thelma Peschel, Barbara Hejl, Agnes Sapp, Mina Beth
Jones.)
Photo Curtesy of Nolan Hinson (seagull@stonemedia.com).
1958 Rosebud High Graduating Seniors
Curtesy Nolan Hinson, one of the graduating seniors!
Rosebud Schools (1920)
Photo Curtesy of Nolan Hinson
Rosebud's Class of 1904
Photo Curtesy of Nolan Hinson
FORMER RESIDENTS OF THE ROSEBUD AREA
E.R. and Louise Brown.
Mrs. Brown was born Feb. 5, 1922 in Falls County to Walter and Nettie Stem Borden. She lived in Falls County most of her life. She married E. R. Brown on June 20, 1942. She was a member of New Salem Baptist Church.
Ferguson Family
Dorothy Hughes
May 17, 1914 � Nov. 24, 2001
Dorothy Hughes, 87, of Rosebud was born in Falls County near Travis, Texas, and moved to Bryan from Rosebud in
1950 and returned to Rosebud in 1983.
She was a retired registered nurse and worked in Cameron and Bryan. She was a member of the First United
Methodist Church in Rosebud.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Ray Hughes.
Survivors include a son, Michael Hughes of Temple; a sister, Hazel Plasek of Rosebud; and two grandchildren.
Dennis Asbury and Mary Emma (McBride) Looney
Early-Day Photo of Dennis Asbury and Mary Emma (McBride) Looney
The following picture was taken in front of the Looney home a few miles east of Rosebud around 1927. From Left
to Right (Back Row):
John D., Gladis., Fountain A., Zola Mae, Mary Emma (McBride), Eula Bea (Baby), and Dennis A. Looney
Front Row: Annie E., Theo J., Alma, Margie, Opal M. The Baby on the ground is their first Grandson,
Leonard
Dennis was a farmer and worked as a share cropper most of his life. Dennis's
children were primarily raised on farms around Rosebud, Pleasant Grove and the
Cedar Springs area. Dennis and Emma attended the Rosebud Church of Christ.
Dennis died of a heart attack at his home in Rosebud, February, 1956. Emma
died at Rosebud, April, 1979 and was buried with Dennis, Frances, John D.
along with her family (the McBrides) in the Powers Chapel Cemetery.
The three boys, Fountain, John D. and Theo served with the Army during WWII.
Fountain married Faye Fikes of Rosebud, has two sons (Ray and Roy) operated a
salvage business and was a preacher at the Rosebud Methodist Church until his
death in 1966. John D. died at Houston soon after the end of the war.
Theo
married Eulaha Davis of Rosebud, has two sons, Nelson and Dale, worked
construction jobs, worked on the pipeline all the way from Texas to Minnesota,
was remarried at Austin and has another son, John. Theo was living near
Wilderville, Texas when he died on August, 1988.
The following history of the Cedar Springs, Wilderville, and Rosebud area was written by Dennis
Asbury Looney who lived in the area in 1888. This is an incredible piece of history and we are indebted to the
Looney family for preserving and sharing this important work.
"In the fall of 1888 when I was a lad of 16 father and mother moved to
Rosebud. Four years before there was a store here. Cedar Springs (Valasca
then) had a store and old - what we call a mule gin across the road from the
present school. The men would tramp the press full of lint cotton. There was
a beam attached to a press underneath and a mule would go round and round
like a sorgum mill. Until the cotton was pressed.
There was a gin at Wilderville run by steam. A Dr. Role, a grocery
store and a beer joint.
We picked cotton for old man Rick Harris on the Polk farm, mile west
of Wilderville. We also picked cotton for fitty Bill Smith on the ridge east
of Travis about 3/4 mile. Father rented land from Bill Grooby 1889. Grooby
had the first gin in Rosebud. It was on Marlin and Rosebud Road near the Eddy
Pashel place. There was no store in Rosebud. Just Post Office and Black
Smith shop owned by Allen Taylor. There was 8 families lived in the present
city limits. The Gotts, Ben Grooby, Frances A. Looney, Tom Perkins, John
Grady, Shed Grady, Mr. Mullins, Jim Gott. There were wild turkey, deer,
racoons, wolves and wild cats. I wish the boys of Rosebud just had the game
we boys had then. Jess Howard and half brother of mine was hunting in Pond
Creek bottoms, a deer jumped up and both shot at him and killed him, but never
knew which one killed him. Both had old time muzzle load rifles. Anyway
they divided 50-50. We chased a wild cat one night with hounds until he got
to Pond Creek bottoms, the racoons was so thick every dog taken a coon trail
and we lost track of the cat. Yes there was lots of deer and turkey here up
to 1902.
There is only one woman living that was here in 1888 that I remember.
Mrs. Marthy (Howard) Williams, George Williams wife. Miss Marthy lived with
her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Howard south of Rosebud. There is only 5 men
with myself that lived here 1888 and 1890. Tom Gotts, Dares Furgeson, Neely
Watkins, Hall Stalsworth. We moved from Rosebud in 1891. Came back in 1899
and worked the S. J. Slade land the same we worked in 1889. Made 31 bales
cotton, sold it at 8 cents. Made a crop on Thorton Asbury place 1900, that
was on Hogg Creek east of Tom Gotts present home and where the Brama Cattle
Ranch is now. I went to Spindle Top oil field July 1902, thru Beaumont, Sour
Lake, and married Miss Emma McBride Sept. 3, 1903. Moved back to Rosebud 1904
thru to the grove. And here I am now wife and one daughter. Living in three
blocks of where I lived with my parents in 1889 - 1899 and give God praise for
my long life and good home.
Thomas McBride Family
Thomas (TOM) Pleas McBride and his second wife, Ora Artie Dawson McBride.
Tom was born on March 3, 1855 in Illinois and died on November 27, 1925 near Rosebud, Texas. Ora was born in Falls county on April 24, 1894 and died at Weatherford, Oklahoma on the 5th of April, 1962.(photo curtesy Barb Vaughn (barbokie@hotmail.com).
Tom McBride is shown in the 1880 Texas census married to Julia
(Holley).
Julia May Hawthorn McBride, first wife of Thomas Pleas McBride.
A family Bible indicates her maiden name may have been Hawthorn. Family lore says that Tom married Julia in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. (photo curtesy Barb Vaughn (barbokie@hotmail.com).
Julia, her sister, Charity and their mother were travelling to Texas from Arkansas when the mother drowned
crossing the Red River. The girls returned to Arkansas and were taken in by different families. Julia was not
happy with this arrangement and one day rode up on horseback to the place where Charity was staying and
signaled for her sister to join her. Charity did and they both rode off to Texas. Julia is shown in the census
to be born in Mississippi.
Children of Thomas (TOM) P. McBride and Julia Holley McBride:
Willie (1876)
Ann (1878)
Emma
Tom
George
Minnie
Mack (Jack)
Tom appears again in the 1900 Washington Co., Texas census without a wife in the house and with five (5)
children, Emma, Tom, George, Minnie, and Mack (Jack) all born in Texas. In the 1900 Texas census Julia McBride
is shown as being an inmate in the State Lunatic Asylum located at Austin, Texas. She was still there in the
1920 census and ended up dying there in 1932.
The 1920 Falls County, Texas census shows T.B. McBride, age 64, born in Illinois married to Artie, age 26 with
two (2) children, Barney, age 5 and Mattie May, age 3. Other children were Jesse Viola (Pat), born in 1920 and Dora Lee (Christine) born in 1922. A son, Dennis, died in infancy.
They lived on Rosebud Road in Falls County. Tom had a
stroke while picking cotton and died 27 Nov. 1925 from a ruptured blood vessel in his brain.
Julia died 26 FEB. 1932 at the Texas State Asylum from third degree burns caused by a radiator. Tom and Julia
are buried along with many of their descendants at the Powers Chapel Cemetery which is about eight miles east
of Rosebud, Texas.
Woodrow and Avant McBride in the Cotton Patch
Kenneth Allen McDuff
Ms. Ellen Roberts, one of Kenneth's teachers remembered Kenneth as always being a bad boy. She also remembers him coming from a hard-working family headed by a stern mother
and a father who worked so much that it seemed as if that was all he did. Other neighbors said that the
McDuffs were hard to figure. They were not overly loud and obnoxious � but they were not warm people either.
To many Rosebud old timers, Kenneth Allen McDuff was a rowdy, downright mean, bully on a loud motorcycle. He
liked to fight and he liked to scare the small and the weak. Sometimes he hurt people, but the only time he
ever fought someone with a reasonable chance of fighting back he got kicked around a ravine traversed by a
bridge where school children crowded in order to relish the long-overdue administration of "justice for
McDuff.".
Kennith McDuff was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1966 "Broomstick Murders" of three
teenagers.
According to the former editor of the Rosebud paper,"Before McDuff, only a few people from Rosebud ever went
to prison, and one of them was for stealing two turkeys!"
In October of 1989, the State of Texas set Kenneth Allen McDuff free on parole.
The very sad irony was that, 30 years after he had dropped out of school, Kenneth McDuff was still scaring
school children and giving principals trouble. Rosebud, and the world, would soon discover that he had never
grown up; he had only gotten frightfully larger and much more dangerous.
It turns out that from 1965 to 1992, McDuff had been arrested for burglary, sent to prison, paroled,
arrested for three brutal murders while on parole, sent back to prison and placed on death row, taken off of
death row, convicted of a felony while in prison, paroled, arrested for making terroristic threats while on
parole, sent back to prison, paroled again, arrested for driving while intoxicated while on parole, put in
jail, released from jail, placed on probation, arrested for public intoxication while on parole and probation,
arrested for murder while on parole and probation again, and finally, put back on death row and executed by
lethal injection in February 1998.
Texas state officials received thousands of appeals for clemency, including those from the Pope, Jerry
Falwell, Pat Robertson, Amnesty International, and the United Nations. Significantly, even after such an
outpouring of support, he would not receive a single favorable vote from the 18-member Board of Pardons and
Paroles. Governor George W. Bush, hardly a rabid advocate of capital punishment, refused to intervene.
Mrs. Guy Huddleston
Jones Family
This page serves as a bulletin board for the Rosebud, Texas area where former residents, teachers, students,
historians and other interested parties can obtain and exchange information about this area of Falls
County.
WE NEED YOUR PHOTOS AND STORIES!
This is a work in progress! Anyone having anything to contribute in the way of stories and photos are urged to
contact Len Kubiak lenkubiak.geo@yahoo.com
If you have any information of a historic nature to post on this webpage, please send me an email.
Thanks...
Len Kubiak
OTHER HISTORY PAGE LINKS
Prehistoric History of the Liberty Hill Region
Liberty Hill Settlement in the 1850's
History of the Liberty Hill Stage Coach Stop (1852)
Liberty Hill -Then and Now
The Founding of New Liberty Hill (1882)
History of Reagan, Texas
History of Busksnort and Marlin, Texas
Eye Witness Accounts of Busksnort and Marlin, Texas
History of Reagan, Texas
Sam Houston-Early-day Texas History
History of Trains in Texas
Officers and Men of the Republic of Texas
General George Custer
Generals Robert E. Lee and U.S. Grant
Famous Sam Bass Outlaw Gang
Indian Treaty Signed With the Comanches, Kiowas, and Apaches in 1867
Governor John Conally, Another Tall Texan
Important Documents of Early-Day Texas
Battle of San Jacinto-Victory for the Republic of Texas Army
History of Rockdale, Milam County, Texas
Military Forts in Early Day Texas
History of Cedar
Springs, Wilderville, and Rosebud
Blueridge Cemetery Roll, Falls County,
Texas
History of Bremond and Wootan Wells, Robertson County, Texas
Waite (Reagan)Cemetery Listing
North Blue Ridge (Stranger)Settlement
Blue Ridge (Reagan)Cemetery Listing
Hog Island (Reagan) Cemetery Listing
Johnson (Reagan)Cemetery Listing
Powers/McCaleb(Reagan)Cemetery Listing
Historic Liberty Hill Cemetery Listing.
Kosse History and Home Page.
Kosse Cemetery Listing.
Mustang Prairie Settlement Webpage
Old 300 Anglo Settlers in Texas.
How Texas Got It's Name.
The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker.
Highbank, Falls County, Texas Home Page.
Liberty Hill, Williamson County, Texas Home Page.
Texas History-General Santa Anna.
Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the U.S.
History of the Cowboy and Cattle Drives in Early-Day texas
History of The Western Stagecoach
Cowboys of the Silver Screen.
History of the Tarahumara Indians of Copper Canyon.
OTHER LINKS ON OUR WEBSITE
Copyright � 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002,2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, & 2011. All rights
reserved by Leonard Kubiak. Fort Tumbleweed and forttumbleweed are trademarks of Leonard Kubiak. No Part of this Website nor any of
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reproduced in any manner without written permission of lenkubiak.geo@yahoo.com
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