The Tonk Valley Community

The Tonkawas were a union of independent bands, the Tonkawas proper, the Mayeyes and several smaller groups, whose remnants joined in Central Texas early in the eighteenth century. The Handbook of Texas gives the name as a Waco term meaning 'they all stay together,' and cites evidence that they came from the high plains as late as the 1600s. Maternal clans were the basis of their society: children belonged to their mothers' clans, and men lived with their wives'. Between 1746 and 1749 Spain founded three missions for them on the San Xavier River, now the San Gabriel.

What the plaque says

Earliest known attempt at permanent settlement in this valley was made in 1851 by Elijah Skidmore, who was killed after a few months on the frontier. Locality takes its historic name from the Tonkawa nation, known in its own language as "The most human of people". In 1855 the Tonkawa were placed in this valley on reservation provided by an act of the Texas Legislature; but in 1859 the tribe was removed to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). After the Civil War ended in 1865 and especially after the Indian reserve was opened to settlers in 1873, pioneers established livestock farms here. Their children went to school in log cabin with dirt floor and homemade split log benches. Schoolmistress Addie McNabb accepted as salary a gray plow pony and a small amount of cash. In 1877 Baptists organized a church with the Rev. G. W. Black as pastor; also in 1877 Methodists founded Monk's Chapel, with Rev. B. H. Johnson as pastor. The first building strictly for church use was erected 1909. School consolidation (1922) enlarged community and (1948) saw local children transported into Graham. Community life is centered in the churches. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Post Office Museum and Art Center — 4.4 mi
  Graham's 1936 Art Moderne post office, with a New Deal mural by Alexandre Hogue inside, now the free museum of Young County in the town where the Texas cattle raisers first organized.
• Fort Belknap — 9.2 mi
  The 1851 northern anchor of the first Texas frontier forts, on the Brazos below Newcastle, a Butterfield stop and the post beside the Brazos Reservation until its people were driven out in 1859.

More markers nearby

• Brazos Indian Reservation School — 3.9 mi
• Brazos River Indian Reservation — 4.1 mi
• Morrison Funeral Home — 4.3 mi
• First National Bank in Graham — 4.4 mi