Old Sweet Home

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Old Sweet Home, out in Lavaca County. Now, some places earn their names and then quietly earn their rest. Sweet Home is one of those places.

It started the way a lot of Texas towns did, somebody showing up in the mid-1800s and deciding this patch of ground was worth staying on. By 1852, things had gotten serious enough that a post office went in, with Captain J.A. York serving as postmaster.

York wasn't the kind of man to stop at one job. He laid out the town in 1860 and partnered with the West family, early settlers in the area, in business ventures. When a man lays out a town and gets into business with the founding families, well, he's putting down more than roots.

He's building something meant to last. Then came the Civil War, and Sweet Home found itself with a new purpose. Confederate forces used the town as a winter camp.

Freight wagons and cotton wagons passed through, hauling supplies all the way from Alleyton up in Colorado County down to Brownsville in Cameron County. That is a long road, and Sweet Home sat right along it. A stagecoach ran regular service through town too, because Sweet Home was positioned on the old Spanish trail running between Houston and San Antonio.

All that traffic, all those wagons and horses and travelers, turned the settlement into a thriving trading community. People weren't just passing through either. Residents farmed the land, and cotton and corn became the staple crops of the area.

After the war, the character of the place shifted again. Sweet Home became a thriving ranching community, and one name rose above the rest. George West.

He was a noted rancher, and the marker tells one story about him that stops you cold. He drove a herd of fourteen thousand cattle from Lavaca County all the way to an Indian reservation in Montana. Fourteen thousand cattle.

George West also built a store, a hotel, and stables right there in Sweet Home, so the man had range and roots both. During the late 1860s, Czech and German immigrants began settling in Sweet Home, and by the early 1870s both groups had a major presence in the community. The town was layered now, built up from Texas settlers and Confederate camps and immigrant families and a cattle trade that stretched to Montana.

You'd think a place with all that going for it would just keep growing. But here's where the story turns. In 1887, the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad laid its tracks five miles south of town.

Five miles. That gap doesn't sound like much, but in the railroad era, five miles was the difference between a future and a memory. George West and others moved their businesses south to be near those tracks, and that new cluster became the current town of Sweet Home.

The old one, the original, the one Captain York platted and the West family helped build and the wagons rolled through during the war, it didn't survive the move. Old Sweet Home ceased to exist. Today, only a cemetery and a few other vestiges remain of the former settlement.

But the marker is careful to say something worth holding onto. Old Sweet Home remains a significant part of Lavaca County history. Some places don't get to stay.

They just get to matter.

What the marker says

The Sweet Home community was originally settled during the mid-1800s. In 1852, a post office was established with Captain J.A. York as postmaster. York also laid out the town (1860) and partnered with the West family, early area settlers, in business ventures. During the Civil War, the town was used as a winter camp for the Confederacy, and as a camp for freight and cotton wagons which carried supplies from Alleyton (Colorado Co.) to Brownsville (Cameron Co.). A stagecoach provided regular service through Sweet Home, which was on the old Spanish trail between Houston and San Antonio, establishing the settlement as a thriving trading community. Residents also farmed, with cotton and corn becoming staple crops of the area. After the Civil War, Sweet Home became a thriving ranching community. George West, a noted rancher, became known for driving a herd of 14,000 cattle from Lavaca County to an Indian reservation in Montana. He also built a store, hotel and stables. During the late 1860s, Czech and German immigrants began to settle in Sweet Home and by the early 1870s, the two groups had a major presence in the community. In 1887, the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad built tracks five miles south of the town. George West and others moved their businesses near the railroad, establishing the current town of Sweet Home. Soon, Old Sweet Home ceased to exist. Today, only a cemetery and a few other vestiges remain of the former settlement. However, Old Sweet Home remains a significant part of Lavaca County history. (2009)