Way back in 1881, the Santa Fe Railway laid tracks through the wilds of central Texas. The railroad purchased 360 acres just southwest of the small farming town of Palo Alto. Following the purchase, the railroad developed plans for a 70-block town on its land and named it after Frank P. Killeen, the assistant general manager of the Santa Fe Railway. By the next year the town included a railroad depot, a saloon, several stores, and a school. Since many railway towns of the day were hubs of commerce, many people from the surrounding communities relocated to Killeen. By 1884 the town was starting to show signs of life and had a population of about 350 people. At the time, Killeen had two saloons, a lumberyard, a blacksmith shop, two cotton gins, two gristmills, a hotel and five general stores. Killeen began a fairly rapid expansion as it became an increasingly important shipping hub for wool, grain and cotton. By 1900 the population had reached 780 people, and by 1905 city leaders and businesses talked the Texas legislature into building bridges over Cowhouse Creek and other water ways, which in effect, doubled the trade area for the city of Killeen. In 1914 a public water system was established, and the population surged to approximately 1,300 residents.
For the first half of the 20th century, Killeen remained relatively unchanged until the 1940′s. With the increased demands of the Second World War, the Army had decided to establish a new military training post, known as Camp Hood. This post would later be re-commissioned as Fort Hood. This began an explosion of growth in the Killeen area as soldiers, their families, laborers, contractors, and construction workers moved into the area.
With Fort Hood came a sweeping change to the local economy. Since the post covered so much of the area, it effectively killed much of the farming trade in Killeen. This resulted in the loss of more than three hundred farms and ranches. These losses resulted in the demise of the local cotton gin and other farming businesses. Although new businesses were established to cater to the military post, the area suffered a deep recession at the end of World War Two when the it was nearly abandoned. However, when Fort Hood was established as a permanent military installation in 1950, the city once again boomed. It’s population soaring from 1,300 in 1949 to 7,045 in 1950.
By the time 1955 rolled around, Killeen had a population in excess of 21,000 people and there were over 220 businesses serving the area. Another recession hit in the mid-fifties as troop cuts and transfers occurred, but by 1959 many of those divisions had returned to Fort Hood. Steady growth continued through the 1960′s, fueled in part by the ongoing war in Vietnam. By 1970 Killeen had a population of over 35,000 people, and now featured a municipal airport, a junior college, and a new city library. By the end of the 1980 census period, there were just under 50,000 inhabitants in the city of Killeen and it officially became the largest city in Bell county.
1991 was a year of both tragedy and triumph. On October 16th, George Hennard drove his truck through a large plate glass window of Luby’s Cafeteria. He then exited the truck and began a murderous shooting rampage that claimed the lives of 23 people and wounded another 20. He was methodical, and approached his task like a hunter stalking his prey. He took time to reload on multiple occasions. Hennard was eventually cornered in the restroom where he took his own life. Two months after the Luby’s massacre, Killeen would see one of it’s high school football teams, the Killeen Kangaroos, win the 5-A Division I state championship.
By 2000, the census listed Killeen’s population as 86,911, although it is now over 100,000, making the greater Killeen area one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation. A large number of military personnel from Killeen have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As of April 2008, over 400 of its soldiers have died in the two wars.