February 8, 2024
Cleburne (/ˈkliːbɜːrn/ KLEE-burn[6]) is a city in and the county seat of Johnson County, Texas, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 31,352. The city is named in honor of Patrick Cleburne, a Confederate general.[7] Lake Pat Cleburne, the reservoir that provides water to the city and surrounding area, is also named after him.
Motto: "This is Texas"
Major employers include Walmart, which maintains a Supercenter retail outlet and a distribution center. Together, those facilities employ 914 workers. The Cleburne Independent School District is a major employer with 968 employees. Local government is also a major employer, providing 348 jobs, and Johnson County has 598 employees in the city. Johns Manville, Texas Resources Harris Methodist Hospital, Greenbrier rail service (operating at the rail yards previously occupied by Burlington Northern Santa Fe), Supreme Corporation of Texas, and Broan-Nutone are among other major private-sector employers. A recent natural gas boom has now brought related companies to the district and surrounding areas.
Fun Town RV, the nation's largest single-location towable RV dealer employs 412 at its corporate headquarters and sales office.
Cleburne is Johnson County's third county seat (the first being Wardville, now under Lake Pat Cleburne). It was formerly known as Camp Henderson, a temporary Civil War outpost from which Johnson County soldiers would depart for war (most of them served under General Cleburne). The city was formally incorporated in 1871.
Cleburne was near the earliest road in the county. The location featured water from West Buffalo Creek, making it a stop for cattlemen from the Chisholm Trail.
In August 1886, the Texas Farmers' Alliance met at Lee's Academy[8] and adopted a 17-point political resolution, commonly known as the Cleburne Demands, which was the first major document of the agrarian revolt occurring at the end of the late 19th century.
In 1900, Cleburne was the site of the founding convention of the Texas State Federation of Labor.
Cleburne was primarily an agricultural center and county seat until the Santa Fe Railroad opened a major facility there in 1898. During this time, the population boomed, as it became a sizable city for the area with over 12,000 residents by 1920. The Chicago, Texas and Mexican Central Railway connected Cleburne to Dallas in 1882. Two other railroads had terminals in Cleburne. The Dallas, Cleburne, and Southwestern Railway completed a route to Egan in 1902, and the Trinity and Brazos Valley, nicknamed the Boll Weevil, operated from Cleburne from 1904 to 1924.
Cleburne was the site of a prisoner-of-war camp for German soldiers during World War 2. The POWs worked as laborers on local farms.
In 1985, the city was the petitioner in the U.S. Supreme Court case City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, Inc. after being sued over a special-use permit.
Cleburne is on the fringe of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Growth in the area has been primarily attributed to suburbanization.
On May 15, 2013, Cleburne was hit by a powerful tornado that cut a mile-wide path through part of the city and damaged about 600 homes and two schools. The National Weather Service rated it EF-3, which has winds between 136 and 165 miles per hour (219 and 266 km/h). No deaths or severe injuries were reported.
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