Oakland
Oakland, Colorado County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Originally known as Prairie Point, a town was platted at this site in 1856 by A. C. Hereford. A native of Virginia, Hereford was a veteran of the Mexican War who had arrived in this area in the early 1850s. Located on part of the original James Bowie Survey, the community is the second oldest in Colorado County. When Hereford applied for a post office for Prairie Point in 1861, his request was denied because of the settlement's close proximity to an existing post office on the plantation of Amasa Turner (1800-1877). Turner agreed to relocate his post office to Prairie Point upon the condition that its name, Oakland, be retained. The town was thereafter known as Oakland. Oakland was a stop on the Old Gonzales Road, an important early route form San Felipe to Gonzales. As settlement in the town increased, a school was established in 1859. Soon churches, stores, business, and fraternal organizations were also in operation. The town became a major trading and social center for the farm families of western Colorado County. The population of Oakland began to decline in the 1870s when the railroad bypassed the community in favor of Weimar.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Platted in 1856 as Prairie Point by Virginia-born Mexican War veteran A. C. Hereford, this became the second-oldest community in Colorado County, sitting on the original James Bowie land survey. When a post office was denied over its nearness to planter Amasa Turner's office, Turner agreed to move his—provided the town keep its name, Oakland. A stop on the Old Gonzales Road between San Felipe and Gonzales, Oakland thrived as a trade and social hub until the railroad bypassed it in the 1870s.
Why it matters
Oakland's rise and quiet decline capture how the coming of the railroads redrew the map of frontier Texas, making and unmaking towns overnight.
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Related people
- · A. C. Hereford
- · Amasa Turner
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Clear Creek Cemetery
Oakland, TX
The Clear Creek community took root in the 1850s along the Old Gonzales Road, the wagon route linking San Felipe, Columbus, and San Antonio. A Methodist church organized there, and the burial ground that grew beside it served the area for decades, holding more than a dozen Civil War veterans and members of the Sons of Temperance among its marble, granite, and local sandstone markers. When the railroad reached nearby Weimar in 1873, the community faded, but families kept returning to the cemetery, whose last recorded burial came in 1929.
Site of Former Town of Lyons
Schulenburg, TX
Laid out on Keziah Cryer's land grant, the town of Lyons took its name from settler James Lyons, killed in an 1837 Comanche raid that also carried off his son Warren. By the 1860s Lyons had stores, a Masonic lodge, school, and post office and sat on the wartime 'Cotton Road' to Mexico—but it withered in the 1870s when the Southern Pacific Railroad bypassed it.
Old Osage
Weimar, TX
This quiet park in Weimar marks a spot that helped decide the Texas Revolution. Jesse Burnam opened a trading post here in 1820, and his ferry across the Colorado River sped Sam Houston's army toward San Jacinto in 1836 — after which Houston burned the crossing to slow Santa Anna's pursuit. The town that later rose here took its name from the Osage orange trees nearby, and in 1861 it became a Confederate recruiting center that raised most of Company A, 5th Texas Cavalry.
Burnam's Ferry
La Grange vicinity, TX
In the mid-1820s, as Stephen F. Austin's colonists were spreading across the lower Colorado River country, Jesse Burnam set up a ferry where the old La Bahia Road met the water — the first in what is now Fayette County. It became a vital link on a route that carried settlers, traders, and travelers deep into Mexican Texas. During the frantic retreat of the 'Runaway Scrape' in March 1836, the Army of the Republic of Texas crossed here, and Sam Houston ordered the ferry destroyed so the pursuing Mexican army could not follow.