About Rosebud
Rosebud is on State Highway 77, 38 miles south of Waco in southwestern Falls County. It was developed by the Texas Townsite Company in 1889 and was incorporated on November 7, 1905. The original settlement, known as Pool’s Crossing or Greer’s Horse Pen, was on the west bank of Pond Creek.
In 1884, Albert G. Tarver established a post office called Mormon after a group of Mormons settled there. 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. However, 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 was built through Rosebud on its route from Waco to Giddings, and after that, the town multiplied. The rich black land soil of the area produced abundant cotton and grain; by the 1920s, the town had seven cotton gins and a cottonseed mill. Rosebud declined; however, during the Great Depression, 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, 13 churches–and a rosebush in every yard, a tradition initiated by an editor of the town paper. Many residents commuted to work in other cities. The population in 1990 was 1,638. The population dropped to 1,493 in 2000.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Ralph Kilgore, Rosebud-A Good Town to Live In (Rosebud, Texas: Rosebud News, 1939).
Lillian L. St. Romain, Western Falls County, Texas (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1951).
Rosebud Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture, Rosebud: Where the Past and Future Meet (Rosebud, Texas: Rosebud News, 1939).