HistoricSiteMarkers
Early RepublicReconstruction & Gilded Age

Stratton

Stratton, DeWitt County, Texas

Marker Inscription

The pioneer community of Stratton, which developed as the center of a large agricultural area, was established here before the Civil War. It was named for John Stratton, a Cuero saddler who had land interests in the vicinity. The settlement had a post office from 1887 to 1905, a general store, school, cotton gin, drugstore and blacksmith shops. The Primitive Baptist Church, organized in 1883 at Burnt Camp in Lavaca County, moved here in 1914. Pioneer area settlers and two veterans of the Civil War are buried in the community's Alexander Cemetery.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Established before the Civil War as the hub of a large farming district, Stratton took its name from John Stratton, a Cuero saddler with land interests nearby. At its height it had a post office (1887–1905), general store, school, cotton gin, drugstore, and blacksmith shops, and in 1914 the Primitive Baptist congregation relocated there. Pioneer settlers and two Civil War veterans rest in the community's Alexander Cemetery.

Why it matters

Stratton traces the familiar arc of a Texas cotton-country hamlet that briefly flourished and then dwindled, its cemetery now the chief marker of a once-busy rural crossroads.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • Β· John Stratton

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionGhost TownsFrontier HistoryLandmark

Nearby & related markers

Terryville

Yoakum, TX

Founded in the 1850s and named for the family of county judge James D. Terry, Terryville raised a cavalry company for the Confederate Army and had a post office by 1869. In the 1880s the post office and most residents relocated about 2.5 miles away, and the original office closed in 1907. Today an old cemetery marks the first townsite while a Baptist church survives at the second.

Hebron Community

Yoakum, TX

Hebron traces its beginnings to the 1840s, when the first wagon train of settlers reached the area and built their homes and a one-room log meeting house from the plentiful timber. The Hebron Missionary Baptist Church was formally organized in 1855 and still anchors the farming community, whose cemetery has received burials since 1867. A local school served the area into the early twentieth century.

Nancy Shows

Cuero, TX

Nancy Shows was among the pioneer settlers of the DeWitt County frontier in the 1850s, where her husband Adam Shows built the nearby Hebron Church around 1855. Mother of eight children, she represents the settler families who put down the first roots β€” homes, churches, and cemeteries β€” in this stretch of early Texas.

May-Hickey House

Yoakum, TX

This sturdy dogtrot house of hewn logs and stone chimneys went up in the 1840s, the frontier years when Texas was passing from republic to statehood. Built for the family of John Joseph May and later home to the Hickeys, its open central passage was a hallmark of early Texas building, designed to catch the breeze in a hot climate.