De Witt County
Cuero, DeWitt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Included in the colonial grant in 1825 to Green De Witt, Texas Empresario, settled until 1840 largely by Anglo Americans. Created a county of the State of Texas March 24, 1846. Its area being taken from Gonzales, Victoria and Goliad counties. Organized July 13, 1846, with Cameron as the county seat, named in honor of its original grantee Green De Witt 1787-1835. By 1860 half its population was of German birth. Clinton served as county seat, 1849-1877. Cuero, incorporated April 23, 1873. Was made county seat in 1876, in memory of Arthur Burns. First settler in De Witt County, 1826, Columbus Burns, first Anglo-American child born in the county, 1829. George Washington Davis, delegate to the Second Convention of Texas, 1833. George W. Davis, participant in the Battle of Gonzales, 1835. George W. Davis, delegate to the Consultation, 1835. Captain John York, Captain David Murphree, James M. Bell, Albrecht Von Roeder, Louis Von Roeder, Squire Burns, John F. Pettus, participants in the capture of San Antonio, 1835. Thomas R. Miller, William Dearduff, martyrs of the Alamo, 1836. J. L. Allen a messenger from the Alamo, 1836. O. H. Perry Davis of Fannin's command who escaped the Refugio Massacre 1836. Captain David Murphree, John F. Pettus, James Bell, Joseph Kent Berry Doolittle, Allen Caruthers, Robert J. Kleberg, John MC Crabb, James J. Tumlinson, Louis Von Roder, heroes of San Jacinto. Creed Taylor, Squire Burns, Josiah Taylor, Chas. A. Ogsbury, George W. Davis, soldiers in the Texas Army 1836; James Norman Smith, first school teacher in De Witt County 1840. Captain Daniel B. Friar, Miles S. Bennet, James J. Tumlinson, Josiah Taylor, Creed Taylor, participants in the Battle of Salado Creek, Bexar County, 1842. George Lord, Alfred A. Allee members of the Mier Expedition 1842 and all other pioneers of the Republic of Texas who resided in De Witt County prior to or after the Revolution.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This ground lay within Green De Witt's 1825 empresario grant and became DeWitt County in 1846, its seat shifting from Cameron to Clinton and finally to Cuero in 1876. Settled first by Anglo-Americans and, by 1860, half by German immigrants, the county sent its men into nearly every fight of the Texas Revolution — the Alamo, Goliad, Gonzales, and San Jacinto among them. The marker rolls out a long honor list of the pioneers and soldiers who founded and defended it.
Why it matters
DeWitt County distills the making of Texas: an empresario land grant, waves of Anglo and German settlers, and a citizenry woven into the revolution that won independence.
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Related people
- · Green De Witt
- · Creed Taylor
- · Robert J. Kleberg
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of the Home of Robert Justus Kleberg
Meyersville, TX
Robert Justus Kleberg, born in Germany in 1803, came to Texas in 1834 and fought at the Battle of San Jacinto in Captain Moseley Baker's company during the Texas Revolution. He went on to serve in the state legislature as a senator and lived in the Meyersville area until his death at Yorktown, Texas, in 1888. A Texas county was later named in his honor.
St. Michael's Catholic Church
Cuero, TX
Established in 1875 on land donated by a land and immigration company, St. Michael's Parish took its name in memory of an early member's late husband and soon opened a Catholic school. Its growth was shaped by disaster: when the 1886 hurricane destroyed the coastal town of Indianola, many fleeing families found refuge and faith in Cuero, swelling the parish before its brick church was finished in 1892. Across the twentieth century the congregation kept expanding its churches, schools, and halls to serve a community of hundreds of families.
Cuero Land and Immigration Company
Cuero, TX
Chartered in early 1872, the Cuero Land and Immigration Company set out to develop more than 4,000 acres carved from an 1833 Mexican land grant. Its founders were men of standing — among them civil engineer and congressman Gustav Schleicher and Fletcher S. Stockdale, who had briefly served as governor of Texas in 1865. By donating land to lure the Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific Railway, the company brought the first train in March 1873, touching off a land boom that made Cuero a thriving railroad terminus and civic center.
Taylor Family Cemetery
Cuero, TX
Also called Taylor-Bennett Cemetery, this DeWitt County burial ground began with Josiah Taylor, whose grave from 1830 is its oldest. Taylor first entered Texas in 1812 with the Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition, fighting at La Bahía and in the battles of Rosillo and Alazán Creek, then settled with his family as part of the DeWitt Colony in 1829. His descendants included Texas Rangers, veterans of the Texas Revolution, and participants in the Runaway Scrape, and among those buried here are men killed in the notorious Sutton-Taylor Feud.