Bertram’s founding tied to railroad and Rudolph Bertram
In December 1946, O. R. Bertram of Austin presented a picture of his uncle, Rudolph Bertram, to the Bertram Chamber of Commerce. The picture is now in the Farmers State Bank, and hopefully will find its way to the future Bertram Museum.
Plans are being discussed to transform the old Fire Department building, next to the Johnnie Mae Wheeler Park on Vaughn Street, into a Bertram museum. There the picture of Rudolph Bertram will find a permanent home.
O. R. Bertram’s written speech has survived and in it he gives an accounting of his uncle’s business dealings and the circumstances, as reported in the Austin and local newspapers, of the founding of the town of Bertram.
Rudolph Bertram was the largest stockholder in the Austin and North Western Rail Road Company, or A&NWRR, when the line was built in 1882. At that time another town about two miles southeast of the line, first named Lewistown and then changed to South Gabriel, was originally bypassed by the railroad. The citizens of the established community offered a bonus of $3,000 to the A&NWRR to bring the line to their village, but that offer was denied and the railroad was built to the north.
When their village was skipped, they moved two stores and 13 residences to newly purchased lots in the new town of Bertram. The trip took two days with 13 yoke of oxen pulling the buildings. The owners of the houses that were moved continued to cook meals and sleep in structures during the two-mile trip.
Bertram never lived in the town that bears his name, but he did purchase four lots in June 1882. That was the day an excursion train traveled from Austin to Bertram carrying four coaches full of prospective buyers. The available land was within a 40-acre square track that had been surveyed and turned into lots surrounding the railroad. The outside boundary of the first lots was, and still is, the streets named North, South, East and West.
Originally Bertram had settled in Austin in 1853 and established a restaurant. Later he purchased a block at West 16th and Guadalupe streets and built a successful general mercantile store and wagon yard.
In 1875 he purchased 40 acres, two miles east of the existing Austin city limits. Over the years, the acreage was sold and developed. The last 17 acres was sold by Rudolph’s daughter, Mrs. Charles Huppertz, to the city of Austin Recreation Department for a playground that is still in operation and is named Rosewood Park.
The excursion train was advertised in the Austin Statesman in June 1882 by the railroad to encourage people to take the train to the new town that “…promises to be one of the best points between Austin and Burnet, possessing excellent farming land, producing good crops of cotton, corn, wheat and oats.”
The train left Austin at 7 a.m. on June 24 — a Saturday — and would return in the afternoon for 75 cents. There was also a train that left from Burnet at 8:30 a.m. for 50 cents.
The advertisement also said, “Lots will be sold in the new town of Bertram on said day. Terms: one-half cash, balance payable Jan. 1, 1883.”
The Austin newspaper reported the four coaches were crowded, with a large portion being women who all seemed to enjoy the trip. The sale began at 11 a.m. and 70 lots were sold. Some of the buyers were from the town of San Gabriel and one of the buyers was Rudolph Bertram.
So on that day, in 1882, the town of Bertram was born.
Bryson is a former Highland Lakes reporter who lives in north Burnet County. Her
e-mail is oliverplaceranch@wildblue.net.