Lithuanians in Texas

Researchers say these settlers came from Lithuania Minor, the Lithuanian-speaking part of East Prussia, not the Russian-ruled lands where serfdom limited emigration. Raised among Germans, they merged into German communities, but their surnames kept the record: Kirlikas, Mertinas, Joniskis, Lenkaitis. Their graveyard south of Yorktown, called Jonischkies or Smith Creek Cemetery, has inscriptions mostly in German, and the oldest stone is dated 1864. St. Paul Lutheran Church in Yorktown, founded in 1874, has windows with Jonischkies family donor inscriptions, and the Yorktown museum keeps their Lithuanian-language letters.

What the plaque says

Lithuanians in Texas Among the many European immigrants arriving in Texas in the mid-19th century was a small group of Lithuanians who settled in the Yorktown vicinity of DeWitt County. Due to their eventual assimilation with the numerous German immigrants in the area, the Lithuanians and their contributions to the history of this region were overlooked for generations. Records reveal that the first Lithuanian family to settle in this area probably was that of David and Dora (Scholze) Stanchos. They arrived about 1852, making them among the earliest documented Lithuanian immigrants to America. By 1874 they were joined by about 70 more immigrants, most from the province of Gumbinnen in what was then part of East Prussia. Leaving their homeland for a variety of religious and political reasons, the Lithuanians arrived in Texas primarily through the ports of Galveston and Indianola. Establishing farms in the area, the Lithuanians became American citizens and contributed to the history and culture of this area. Men from the community fought on both sides of the American Civil War. A small graveyard south of Yorktown known as Jonischkies Cemetery contains the interments of many of these early settlers. (1994)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum — 17 mi
  A cattle-country museum in Cuero's 1903 Knights of Pythias Hall, telling the Guadalupe Valley's 1866 drive north and the Sutton-Taylor feud that bloodied DeWitt County.
• Goliad State Park and Historic Site — 20 mi
  Mission Espíritu Santo on the San Antonio River, a mission ranch whose herds seeded Texas cattle country, rebuilt from ruin by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.
• Presidio La Bahía — 21 mi
  A Spanish fort on its third site since 1749, held in turn by filibusters, insurgents and Fannin's Fort Defiance, rebuilt in stone in the 1960s around a chapel that never fell.
• Zaragoza Birthplace State Historic Site — 21 mi
  A rebuilt stone house beside La Bahía marking where Ignacio Seguín Zaragoza, the general of the Battle of Puebla and Cinco de Mayo, was born in 1829.

More markers nearby

• Co-Founders of Yorktown: John York_Charles Eckhardt — 3.7 mi
• De Witt County — 3.8 mi
• Shiloh — 6.5 mi
• Pilot Knob — 6.7 mi