DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the one passin' it along. Now pull up a log and listen close, because Yorktown, Texas didn't just happen. It took two men — one from Kentucky, one from Germany — both of them the kind of fellows who seemed to show up wherever history was being made whether history liked it or not.
First man: John York. Born 1800. He came to Texas in 1821, which — if you know your Texas timeline — means he arrived before there was much of anything to arrive to.
That kind of early. By 1835 he was a captain in the siege that expelled the Mexican Army from Bexar. A captain.
In that siege. Let that settle for a moment. Then in 1847, he gave the very site for the town that would carry his name.
John York, born 1800, died in an Indian fight — one that his men won. Won. He didn't live to see that, but his men did, and they finished what he started.
Second man: Charles Eckhardt. Born 1813, came from Germany. He fought in the war for Independence and in the Mexican War.
Two wars. After all that fighting, you might think a man would want to sit down for a while. Not Eckhardt.
His mercantile and freighting interests led to the founding of Yorktown — on a trail he himself had surveyed, all the way from Indianola to New Braunfels. He didn't just use the trail. He made it.
And in 1848, he built the first house in Yorktown. Charles Eckhardt died in 1852. Two men.
One town. One surveyed a trail, one gave the land. One built the first house, one never came home from a fight his men went on to win.
The marker calls them soldiers and builders of Texas, and friend, I can't think of a tighter two words to hold all of that.
What the marker says
John York (1800 - 1848) -- Charles Eckhardt (1813 - 1852) Soldiers and builders of Texas. York, born in Kentucky, came to Texas in 1821; was a captain in siege which expelled Mexican Army from Bexar, 1835. Gave site for Yorktown, 1847. Died in an Indian fight won by his men. Eckhardt came from Germany. Fought in war for Independence and Mexican War. His mercantile and freighting interests led to founding of Yorktown on trail he had surveyed from Indianola to New Braunfels. He built the first house in Yorktown, 1848. (1966)