Cooks Point

Cooks (Cookes) Point, on State Highway 21 eight miles east of Caldwell in Burleson County, is one of the oldest communities in the county. It was named for Silas L. Cooke, a surveyor who lived in the area during the days of the Republic of Texas. The community began as a crossroads settlement at the point where the old Colonial Road from Washington-on-the-Brazos and Independence to Tenoxtitlan and Nashville crossed the Old San Antonio Road. The first recorded trading post in the area was that of Gabriel Jackson, who built a two-story log house nearby and operated a store on the first floor. He dealt with settlers, the first of whom in the area were of Anglo-American descent, and also with local Indians. In 1854 Judge A. S. Broaddus led a wagon train, stretching over a mile long, of eighty Whites and 120 Blacks from Virginia to Cookes Point. After the Civil War German and Czech settlers began moving into the area, and by 1884 the developing community had a population of about 100. The first church organized in the area was Methodist. Judge Broaddus and his party established a Baptist church in 1881; the Germans established a German Methodist church; and the Czechs later established a Brethren church. In 1990 the community had two churches, the Cooks Point United Methodist Church and the Unity of the Brethren. The first public school was built about 1880 and was operated by the Cooks Point Independent School District until 1973, when it merged with the Caldwell district. The original community was built on either side of the Old San Antonio Road. There was a general store, a gin, and a post office that was established in 1874 and discontinued in 1913. The Houston and Texas Central Railway arrived in the community in 1913. When State Highway 21 was built, the general store was moved south to face the new highway; the store still operated in 1990, when the community reported a population of about sixty and continued as a hub for cattle ranches and dairy, cotton, grain, and hay farms. The population remained the same in 2000. Cooks Point lies along the Austin Chalk Formation, and many oil wells have been drilled around the community.