Yorktown

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Yorktown, DeWitt County. Now, some towns announce themselves.

Yorktown just quietly got to work. It started in 1848, a way station on the old Indianola Trail. You picture it: a stop, a breath, a place to water the horses and square your shoulders before moving on.

But way stations have a way of becoming something more, and Yorktown was no exception. By 1853, the town had its first school organized. Folks were putting down roots, raising children, thinking about tomorrow.

Then came August 2, 1854, the day Yorktown was chartered, and the town had a name on paper to match what it already was on the ground. Incorporation followed in 1871, another layer of permanence, another declaration that this place intended to stay. And then, 1886, the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad reached Yorktown.

When the rails arrive, the world gets a little smaller and a little bigger all at once. Yorktown prospered, as a center of farming and ranching first, and later, of oil and gas. The land kept giving, and the people kept finding new ways to receive what it offered.

Now, here is the part I want you to sit with for a moment. The marker names the pioneer strains that built this town: German, American, Pole, Czech, Spaniard, Mexican, Negro. That is not a footnote.

That is the story. Different languages, different traditions, different roads that all bent toward the same stretch of South Texas soil. Yorktown didn't happen because of one kind of people.

It happened because of all of them. That's a way station worth stopping at.

What the marker says

Founded 1848 as way station on old Indianola Trail. Chartered August 2, 1854. Incorporated 1871. San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad reached here 1886. Town's first school organized 1853. Prospered as center of farming and ranching; later, of oil and gas. Pioneer strains are German, American, Pole, Czech, Spaniard, Mexican, Negro.