Tehuacana

The name predates the colleges. The Handbook of Texas says the first post office, opened in 1847, was Tewockony Springs, named for the Tawakoni people who lived here until the late 1840s. When Tehuacana Academy opened in 1852 the village was called Tehuacana Hills, though the post office kept the springs name. It took the present name only in 1869. The town incorporated in 1890 with a mayor and council, and in 1903 the Trinity and Brazos Valley completed track through it. Rail service ended in 1942 when the line was abandoned as a wartime measure.

What the plaque says

Tehuacana Located at one of highest points (altitude 661 ft.) between Dallas and Houston. First noted in history by Philip Nolan's trading expedition, 1797. Home in early days of Tehuacana Indians, a Wichita tribe, who engaged in farming and peaceful pursuits until they were destroyed in early 1830s by Cherokees. Town is on Mexican land grant obtained 1835 by John Boyd, member First Congress Republic of Texas. In 1847 Boyd became first postmaster, and in 1849 nominated Tehuacana for capital of State of Texas. However, Austin won in election held in 1850. Tehuacana Academy, a Presbyterian school locally organized and supported, operated ten years. It was organized and supported, operated ten years. It was closed during Civil War, but furnished incentive (with help of Boyd) for founding in 1869 of Trinity University. Boyd's gift of 1,520 acres of land for college use includes present campus, where Trinity (now in San Antonio) operated until 1902. School plant was deeded to Methodist Protestant Church, which relocated here Westminster College, one of first junior colleges (1916) in Texas. The Congregational Methodist Church bought the property in 1953 and now operates Westminster College and Bible Institute on the historic campus. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 6.2 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.
• Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site — 7.7 mi
  Where Limestone County Confederate veterans gathered each summer from 1888, later a water supplier in the Mexia oil boom, now a Texas Historical Commission site on the Navasota River.
• Old Fort Parker — 12 mi
  A rebuilt 1830s family stockade near the Navasota River, where a May 1836 attack killed men of the Parker settlement and took five captives, among them nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker.
• Petroleum Industry Park — 24 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.

More markers nearby

• One Half Mile North to the Site Once Occupied by Trinity University — 0.4 mi
• Robert M. Love — 0.7 mi
• Joseph W. Stubenrauch — 2.9 mi
• Mrs. Lucy Haggard Longbotham — 5.0 mi