BULA, TEXAS. Bula, on Farm Road 54 in southeastern Bailey County, was established in 1924 and named Newsome, for W. B. Newsome. The Newsome Ranch of W. B. and Tom Newsome was sold and subdivided into farms of 177.7 acres in 1924-25. Since the name Newsome duplicated another post office name, the name Bula was chosen in 1925, in honor of either Bula Maude Oakes, daughter of Methodist preacher Roma A. Oakes, or Bula Thorn, wife of William H. Thorn, the first postmaster. In 1925 Bula also opened a school and in 1929 a cotton gin. Its school later moved and was closed in 1975. Bula remained a farming community with a population of 105 in 1980 and 1990, when it still had its post office. The population dropped to thirty-five in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Kathleen E. and Clifton R. St. Clair, eds., Little Towns of Texas (Jacksonville, Texas: Jayroe Graphic Arts, 1982). Fred Tarpley, 1001 Texas Place Names (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980).

William R. Hunt