Cleburne (/ˈkliːbɜːrn/ KLEE-burn) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Johnson County. Located within the prairies and lakes region of North Texas, the city is located south of Fort Worth and southwest of Dallas. The closest neighboring state is Oklahoma to the north, and the closest international border is to the south with Mexico. Cleburne is the second-most-populous city in Johnson County at 31,352 in 2020. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, of which Cleburne is a part, has a total population of 8,477,157 in 2025, fourth-largest in the U.S.

Cleburne was founded near Buffalo Creek as Camp Henderson in 1862 and incorporated in 1871, changing its name to honor Patrick R. Cleburne. Ready access to fresh water and being located at the center of the county accounted for the town's early growth. Water access played a key role in luring the Santa Fe shops, where it became the largest employer for the next century. The population grew steadily until the Great Depression, when it contracted until the postwar boom after 1945. The city from then on saw steady growth as people moved to the DFW Metroplex.

Cleburne is crisscrossed with many railroads, thus sees much freight move through, which BNSF Railways controls. Industry makes up a large portion of the economy and is concentrated in the north of town in the industrial parks, many using the railroads. Public services such as city/county employees and school district employees make up large numbers of employed people, as well as retail stores. Proximity to the DFW Metroplex has led to a construction boom in both the residential and industrial sectors.

Cleburne houses many cultural centers, including the Layland Museum of History, Chisholm Trail Outdoor Museum, Cleburne Railroad Museum, J.N. Long Cultural Arts Center, Cleburne Public Library, Dudley Hall, Plaza Main Street Theatre, Helmcamp Community Theatre, and the Hill College extension. The city has many parks, including the Cleburne State Park to the south and Lake Pat Cleburne. Cleburne hosts the Cleburne Railroaders (baseball; AA).

History Founding

In 1862, Cleburne began as an army camp during the Civil War known as Camp Henderson. The waters of the Buffalo Creeks made for a good site for the first volunteer Confederate camp in Johnson County on Colonel W.F. Henderson's land. Camp Henderson became the third county seat of Johnson County in 1867 after Hood County was established, throwing Buchanan out of the county's legal boundaries. The name was soon changed to Cleburne, named after Patrick R. Cleburne, a major general of the CSA, under whom many of the locals served. Many of the residents of Buchanan relocated to Cleburne along with the public buildings and residences.

One of the early city leaders was Colonel B.J. Chambers, who contributed 40 acres of land to the town. He owned large lots throughout Johnson County, but ended up selling most of it to help fund public improvements in town. He aided in surveying and laying out lots, donated land for a public cemetery, and continued making improvements and aiding enterprises towards the welfare of the town. Another early leader was Colonel W.F. Henderson, a business partner of Chambers'. Henderson donated half the lots that made up Cleburne, giving the town an early head start.

Late 1800s

Cleburne was incorporated on May 3, 1871, with John Cunningham serving as the town's first mayor. The city limits extended half a mile in each direction from the public square. The early municipal government found rather difficult the governing people who were used to living on the frontier, and who quickly came at odds over the early ordinances that were passed. Due to these difficulties, the council in 1873 did virtually nothing, prompting citizens to vote candidates in the next election under a "do nothing" ticket. Citizens later signed a petition causing the disestablishment of the city government that "outlived its usefulness". The city government was re-established in 1876 to deal with "rip-roarius" human beings.

Early industrial growth in the city was characterized as slow and steady, never experiencing a "boom or bust". In 1881, the railroad came to Cleburne, but was not met with much fanfare. Excitement grew, however, when the city won the contract for the Santa Fe shops in 1897. The shops became fully operational in 1899. Existing lines in Cleburne included one between Fort Worth and Temple built by Santa Fe in 1881, the Dallas branch of the Chicago, Texas, and Mexican Central in 1884, and the Weatherford branch of the Santa Fe in 1887. In 1895, Cleburne had access to electric lighting for the first time, provided by the Cleburne Electric Light Company. Telephones came in 1897, provided by the Bell Telephone Company.

Early to mid 1900s

The Texas State Federation of Labor, after several attempts during the 1890s, organized in January 1900 in Cleburne. The convention had 23 delegates representing 8,475 members from seven cities and had early success that corresponded with the early progressive movement in Texas. The Cleburne Public Library had its origins in 1901 under the direction of the local women's club, who in 1902, secured funding from Andrew Carnegie to build a library that opened in 1905. In 1909, the State Christian Junior College moved from Denton to Cleburne, operating as Clebarro Junior College until its closing in 1919.

Several railroads came to Cleburne around this time, including the Dallas, Cleburne, and Southwestern Railway in 1902, and the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway in 1904. The latter was sold to the Missouri, Kansas and Texas in 1910 before being abandoned by 1920. Cleburne operated a local streetcar service from 1911 until 1917, while the interurban of Fort Worth served Cleburne beginning in 1912, operating for 18 years. Between 1911 and 1914, the Cleburne Motor Car Manufacturing Company produced the "Luck" truck, "Luck" utility, and the "Cleburne" car. The Texas Motor Car Association built "Texan" cars in Cleburne between 1918 and 1922. In 1911, Slats Rodgers built the first airplane in Texas in Cleburne. He named the craft Old Soggy No.1 due to a drooping right wing. The 1883 courthouse burned to the ground on April 15, 1912, the same day the Titanic sank. Albert Bledsoe, an assistant city marshal, perished in the fire while fighting it on the second floor with a squad of men. Construction of the new courthouse, designed by Charles Erwin Barglebaugh, was completed in 1913.

By 1920, Cleburne had reached a population of 12,820. During the '20s, the failure of all four banks in town, a regional agricultural depression, and a strike at the Santa Fe shops that required the Texas Rangers to end, caused the local economy to buckle well before the Great Depression set in. Cleburne also dealt with frequent large dust storms from the Dust Bowl during the 1930s. These factors likely led to the decreased population of 10,558 in 1940. In 1935, The Civilian Conservation Corp established Company 3804 to live and work on Cleburne State Park, building roads, the dam, and stacked-rock structures, until work ceased in 1940. Between 1939 and 1940, the Works Progress Administration constructed Yellow Jacket Stadium. Built of concrete and rough-cut limestone from Somervell County, it replaced Rhome Field as the home of the Cleburne Yellow Jackets. During World War II, the library housed a war information center. In 1944, Camp Cleburne for German prisoners of war was established, which provided labor to shorthanded farms in Johnson County. Prior to the war, the Battery B, 132nd Field Artillery, 36th Infantry Division (I.D.) trained in Johnson County, later being deployed overseas in 1942. The courthouse held the draft board and rationing board.

Late 1900s to 2000s

Starting in 1950, Cleburne along with much of Texas, suffered through one of the worst droughts in the state's history. Relief did not come until 1957, when torrential rains fell in May of that year. The 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education had a direct effect on Cleburne, since it practiced racial segregation under state law. Due to wording in the court decision, change did not come until the passage of the Civil Rights Acts and the threat of federal legal action. This culminated in the closing of the Booker T. Washington High School of Cleburne in 1965. However, in 1968, the school district got swept up in the case United States v. Texas, which found that the state still practiced segregation, thus came under federal supervision. Several city projects occurred during the 1960s, including the damming of the Nolan River to create Lake Pat Cleburne, and the opening of the Cleburne Regional Airport.

In 1973, the GOEX munitions plant experienced an explosion that killed four and injured 35, most of them women. The same plant experienced two more explosions, one in 1978 and another in 1983, killing a combined six people. In 1974, Hill College built a 32-acre extension in Cleburne by the lake. Several tornadoes touched down directly northwest of Cleburne, causing damage to several rural structures in May 1976. The city faced legal action in the case of City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center for denying a permit in 1980. The Supreme Court in 1985 ruled against the city, saying that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Cleburne faced a different issue in 1980, when it denied the use of the civic center to the KKK on the grounds of it being controversial, which led to a march on the courthouse that made the news. The opening of the Comanche Peak Nuclear Plant in the '80s provided new well-paying jobs to the city. Later on in 1989, the Santa Fe shops closed, with the Greenbrier Companies purchasing the shops in 1992.

By 2000, Cleburne had a population of 26,005. During the first decade of the 2000s, Cleburne underwent a natural-gas boom from the fracking of the Barnett Shale. The city also experienced its first recorded earthquakes in the region, with a probable link to the fracking in the area. During this boom in 2005, the courthouse received renovations and was rededicated in 2007. Beginning in 2010, Cleburne experienced another drought that persisted into 2015. In 2013, however, a severe weather outbreak occurred that would result in an EF3, mile-wide tornado through southern Cleburne after crossing over the lake. About 600 homes were damaged, with 9 people suffering minor injuries. The drought came to an end with record-breaking rain in May 2015. The Chisholm Trail Parkway, opened in 2014, linked Cleburne directly to downtown Fort Worth. February 2021 brought one of the harshest freezes the city has experienced in recent memory. In 2026, an EF0 tornado crossed the lake with no reported damage.

Geography

Cleburne has a total area of , of which are covered by water. Lake Pat Cleburne's conservation pool lies at above mean sea level. The city consists of low-rolling to flat terrain with sandy clay loam and dark calcareous clay topsoils. Scrub brush, cacti, mesquite, and grasses are the predominant flora supported in this environment. The East and West Buffalo Creeks cut through to the south, where they meet the Nolan River. The average elevation of the city is . The highest elevation lies in the northwest at , while the lowest elevation sits to the south at .

Cleburne lies in the geographic center of Johnson County and borders Joshua to the north and Keene to the east. Other cities in the county include Burleson, Briaroaks, and Cross Timber to the north, and Alvarado, Coyote Flats and Venus are to the east. Rio Vista and Grandview are to the south and southeast, while Godley and Cresson are to the northwest.

Architecture