Rockdale Grew Where Railroad, Cotton, and Lignite Met
Rockdale started with the railroad. In 1873, George Green, B. F. Ackerman, and Frank Smith sold 400 acres to the International-Great Northern Railroad as it laid track from Hearne toward Austin. Town lots went on sale that September, and the track reached Rockdale in early February 1874.
The town's name came from a nearby rock. The old account measured it at 12 feet high and 20 feet around. Rockdale soon became a shipping and supply point for cotton, wool, grain, hides, livestock, fruit, and vegetables from nearby farms. By 1884, the town had five churches, two schools, two steam gristmill-cotton gins, a bank, a newspaper, and a 250-seat opera house.
Coal mines established near Rockdale in the 1890s added another economic boost. In 1891, the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway completed a line between Lexington and Cameron, giving Rockdale a north-south railroad as well as its east-west route. Together, farm shipping, two rail routes, and nearby coal mines gave Rockdale more than one reason to grow.