Buffalo Evolved From Cedar Creek

"They heard the neigh of the iron horse, sounding the death knell for Cedar Creek."

That's how the town of Buffalo was begun, according to W. S. Coleman, former mayor of Buffalo and avid collector of area history.

"Cedar Creek was the original town; it was the only one between Fairfield and Centerville," Coleman explained. The settlement was about four miles west of the present site of Buffalo, in the northern portion of Leon County.

In those days, however. towns went where the railroad lines went, and that's what happened in Cedar Creek. It was a bustling little settlement, Coleman said, with a stage coach depot, school, churches and debating society.

But in the early 1870's lines for the International and Great Northern Railroad were being laid down and the Buffalo townsite was laid out in 1871 in preparation for the iron horse.

"This was the last division of the line to be completed," Coleman said. "The crew from Hearne was way ahead of the one from Palestine, since the Palestine crew had to build a trestle over the Trinity River, and the last spike was driven by the banks of Buffalo Creek in May 1872, as far as we can tell from records in Palestine."

Although Buffalo was a small town and relatively far from large population centers, Coleman says his records show there was plenty of activity in town.

In the 1880's Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian churches were built, and townspeople could also view minstrel shows at the opera house.

"They played checker games with human checkers," Coleman related, "and 'Tom Thumb' weddings were popular. Early in Buffalo history the town was "wet", with several saloons, but had already been voted dry by 1913, when Buffalo was incorporated."

Upon incorporation, Frank Bigham was chosen first mayor of Buffalo, so-named for the great herds of buffalo which roamed this area.

Buffalo included about four square miles at the time and had a population of about 500 people, Coleman said.

"But that corporation only lasted about three years and then they dissolved it. And then, about two or three years later, they started it up again."

The first school building in Buffalo was a two-story rectangular frame structure adjacent to Commerce, Main and East streets. A second building was constructed near 1900; Coleman says the exact year is not known.

And a new brick building was built in 1917, still in use as the eastern half of the main building of the Buffalo ISD elementary school, Coleman explained.

Coleman, mayor of Buffalo from 1957 through 1961, was born in 1902 in Oakwood and moved to Buffalo in 1910 from Pearsall.

He is retired from 57 years in the U, S. Navy, including 25 years of active duty. "I've been interested in history ever since I was born," Coleman said. "I'm about the only one who knows or cares anything about it, and I've lived a good part of it."

Buffalo Historian W.S. Coleman, former mayor of Buffalo,
leafs through his extensive historical records of the town. (Staff Photo)

BACK