Site of Friar-Cardwell Stage Stand

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Site of the Friar-Cardwell Stage Stand in DeWitt County. Now, some places earn their history slowly, a little at a time. And then there are places like the one that stood half a mile east of where you're standing right now, places that seemed to pull the whole county's story right through their front door.

Sometime around 1839 or 1840, a man named Daniel Boone Friar built a home and store at the junction of the La Grange to La Bahia Road and the Victoria to Gonzales Road. Two of the busiest routes in early Texas, crossing right there. Friar, born in 1800, had an eye for location, and that crossroads became a social, political, transportation, and trade center for early De Witt County.

By 1841 the two-story frame structure had grown into something more. Stagecoach lines running between San Antonio and the coastal towns made it an overnight stop. Travelers coming in trail-worn and road-dusty could rest under that roof before pushing on.

Then in 1842, the place was designated a temporary courthouse for the short-lived judicial county of De Witt. Short-lived, mind you. When the county was actually organized in 1846, the court met at Friar's place again, this time for several months, as if the building simply refused to let go of its civic duty.

And it wasn't done yet. On May 22, 1846, the county's first post office was established right there. They named it Cuero.

And Friar himself served as postmaster. In 1849, Friar sold the building to a man named Crockett Cardwell, born in 1812. Cardwell kept it all going, the stage stand, the store, the post office, the community gathering place.

And in November of 1850, an upstairs room in that building became the birthplace of Cameron Lodge No. 76, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the county's first Masonic lodge. That lodge met right there until January of 1853. For decades, that stand at the crossroads was the beating heart of the county.

But then came 1873, and with it the Gulf, Western Texas, and Pacific Railroad. The railroad located the town of Cuero four miles south of the Cardwell stand. The post office followed the railroad.

The town along the tracks grew. And out at the old stage stand, one by one, the activities wound down and went quiet. Daniel Boone Friar had died back in 1858.

Crockett Cardwell lived until 1891. The building outlasted them both, holding its ground at that old crossroads long after the stagecoaches stopped coming. In 1916, it was torn down.

Two roads crossed there, a town got its name there, a county got its courthouse and its post office and its first Masonic lodge there. And today, the marker is what remains to tell you so.

What the marker says

In 1839 or 1840 at the junction of the La Grange - La Bahia and Victoria - Gonzales Roads (.5 miles east), Daniel Boone Friar (1800-58) built a home and store that served as a social, political, transportation, and trade center for early De Witt County. In 1841 the two-story frame structure became an overnight stop on stagecoach lines between San Antonio and coastal towns. It was designed as a temporary courthouse for the short-lived judicial county of De Witt in 1842. When the county was actually organized in 1846, the court met at Friar's place for several months. It was also the county's first post office, established on May 22, 1846, and named Cuero, with Friar as postmaster. In 1849 Friar sold the building to Crockett Cardwell (1812-91), who continued to operate it as a stage stand, store, post office, and community meeting place. The county's first Masonic lodge, Cameron Lodge No. 76, A. F. & A. M., was organized in an upstairs room in Nov. 1850 and met there until Jan. 1853. When the Gulf, Western Texas, and Pacific Railroad located the town of Cuero four miles south of the Cardwell stand in 1873, the post office was moved to that site. As the town along the railroad grew, other activities at the old stage stand ended. It was torn down in 1916.