YORKTOWN

A short history of Yorktown

The city was founded by Captain John York and Charles Eckhardt and named in honor of Captain John York, a famous Indian fighter and was in command of a company of citizens who, under Ben Milam, defeated General Cos in 1835 at the Siege of Béxar. For his military services, York received many acres of land in the Coleto Creek area.

Charles Eckhardt started a mercantile business in Indianola, which at that time was a major Texas seaport. Eckhardt participated in the Texas Revolution and may have met Captain York during military service. Eckhardt contracted with John A. King, one of the pioneers of West Texas, to survey a road from Indianola through Yorktown to New Braunfels, later known as the Old Indianola Trail. From its inception in February, 1848, this road remained the chief thoroughfare for this part of the state to New Braunfels and San Antonio. This trail shortened the former route by twenty miles and established Yorktown as an important relay station for freighters, prairie schooners, trail drivers, and stagecoaches bringing mail and passengers. They came through upper town on North Riedel Street.

Early in 1848, after the founders had the proposed town surveyed, they offered 10 acres (40,000 m2) and the choice of a lot free to the first ten families to settle the townsite. Many German, Bohemian, Lithuanian and Polish families came and soon changed this wilderness into one of the most prosperous sections of the entire state.

In May 1848, Peter Metz and John Frank built the first house in the settlement of Yorktown, for Charles Eckhardt. It was built of logs, twelve by twenty feet, with a back room and chimney. This house was later occupied by a brother, Caesar Eckhardt, who was the founder of C. Eckhardt and Sons Mercantile Company, known for half a century as the leading firm of its kind in western DeWitt County.

Unfortunately, neither of the founders lived to see the town develop beyond this point. In October 1848, in a battle with Marauding Indians, Captain York and his son-in-law, James Madison Bell, were killed. They were buried in a single hand-made coffin in the Yorktown Cemetery some seven miles (11 km) east of Yorktown; a historical marker designates York's grave. In 1852, on an inspection of some of his properties in Central America, Eckhardt contracted yellow fever and died at sea on his return trip. He is buried in New Orleans. The Eckhardts did not have any children, while the Yorks had ten children.

The Catholics established a church in 1867 and the Lutherans followed in 1872. The huge oak tree on the lawn of the latter church is one of the oldest in the state. The town was incorporated in 1871.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Yorktown, Texas, revision 1379723916 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.