Bertram
Bertram, Burnet County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The town of Bertram was founded in 1882 when the Austin and Northwestern Railroad established a route through the area. The community was named for Rudolph Bertram, an Austin merchant who was instrumental in the development of the rail line. Many early residents were from the settlement of South Gabriel (2 mi. SE). Homes and commercial buildings of the pioneer settlers were moved here by brothers L. R. and J. W. Gray. The first store, also relocated from South Gabriel, was run by James E. Riley and Capt. Tom D. Vaughan. Bertram developed as a marketing center for the area's diversified agricultural production. Continued growth came during World War I when the demand for farm and ranch products increased. By the 1920s it was the site of auto dealerships, four banks, a newspaper, a hotel and a variety of other businesses. The economic depression of the 1930s, World War II and improved methods of transportation combined to limit Bertram's growth. Incorporated in the 1970s, the town remains an agricultural center. It serves as a reminder of the pioneers who settled here over a century ago. Many of their descendants still live in the area and serve as leaders of the community.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Bertram was born in 1882 when the Austin and Northwestern Railroad ran its line through the area, drawing residents — and even whole buildings — from the older settlement of South Gabriel two miles away. Named for Austin merchant Rudolph Bertram, who helped finance the railroad, the town became an agricultural marketing hub, booming during World War I before Depression and changing transportation slowed its growth. It remains a farming community whose founders' descendants still live nearby.
Why it matters
Bertram is a classic "railroad town," illustrating how the rails literally moved and made communities across the American West.
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Related people
- · Rudolph Bertram
- · L. R. Gray
- · J. W. Gray
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Village of South Gabriel
Bertram, TX
South Gabriel took shape around a post office that opened in Thomas Lewiston's store in 1871, on the Austin-Burnet road and named for the nearby river. The little village — also called Lewiston — soon had two stores, a hotel, saloon, cotton gin, school, church, and a cluster of tradesmen's shops, with a population of thirty-nine in 1880. When the Austin and Northwestern Railroad passed to the north in 1882, the post office moved to the new town of Bertram and South Gabriel vanished.
Site of Town of Strickling
Bertram, TX
Strickling grew up in the 1850s as a rural crossroads on the Central Texas frontier, named for Martha Webster Strickling, who settled here in 1853. As a child she had survived the infamous Webster Massacre near Leander and months of Indian captivity—a harrowing frontier ordeal. With a post office established in 1857, the town became a mail terminal and stage stop where lumber and buffalo hides moved through, supporting a school, churches, a doctor, and stores until the railroad bypassed it in 1882.
Bryson Stagecoach Stop
Liberty Hill, TX
John T. Bryson and his wife Amelia, among the first settlers of Liberty Hill, raised this home in the 1850s from notched and fitted hewn cedar logs with chimneys of native stone. Its open dog-trot plan was classic pioneer Texas construction, built for the heat with a breezeway between two log pens. The house doubled as a stop on the stagecoach line running between Austin and Fort Croghan near present-day Burnet.
Mahomet-Sycamore Springs Community
Bertram, TX
Settlement of this part of Burnet County began in the 1850s with two neighboring communities, Mahomet and Sycamore Springs, some eight miles apart. Sycamore Springs once boasted gins, a store, and churches but has all but vanished, while Mahomet—likely named by its first postmaster for Mahomet, Illinois—hosted a post office and an Austin-Lampasas stage stop. Its Christian church and Masonic lodge still mark the site.