Site of the Home of Captain John York
Yorktown, DeWitt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A member of one of Austin's ranging companies at San Felipe in 1829. Commanded A Company at the capture of San Antonio in 1835. Yorktown, named in his honor was laid out in 1848 on his land. Born July 4, 1800. Killed by Indians, October 11, 1848.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Captain John York came to Texas as a member of one of Stephen F. Austin's ranging companies, and in 1835 commanded a company at the capture of San Antonio during the Texas Revolution. The town of Yorktown, laid out on his land in 1848, was named in his honor. Born on Independence Day in 1800, he was killed by Indians that same year, 1848.
Why it matters
York's life spans the founding struggles of Anglo Texas — from Austin's colony through the Revolution to the violent frontier — and left his name on the DeWitt County town he helped establish.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Captain John York
- · Stephen F. Austin
Related events
- · Capture of San Antonio (1835)
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.
Allen Caruthers
Cuero, TX
Born in Kentucky in 1804, Allen Caruthers fought at the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive 1836 engagement that won Texas its independence. He and his wife Martha, a North Carolina native, were among the settlers who built lives in the young republic and state before his death in 1863. Their graves near Cuero mark the resting place of one of the veterans whose service is woven into the founding story of Texas.
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.
Josiah Taylor
Cuero, TX
Josiah Taylor's life traces the violent birth of Texas across three decades. He first rode into the province in 1812 with the Gutiérrez-Magee filibuster, an armed bid to pry Mexico from Spanish rule, and was wounded repeatedly at the disastrous Battle of Medina. Returning with his family in the 1820s, he took a headright in Green DeWitt's colony, and by 1842 five of his sons were riding with Jack Hays' Rangers against a Mexican invasion.