Cuero

Cuero is at the convergence of U.S. highways 183, 77A, and 87, in central DeWitt County. It is the largest city in the county and the county seat. The first post office in DeWitt County was established in May 1846 in Daniel Boone Friar's store, four miles north of the present site; it was also called Cuero (later Old Cuero). Cuero is named after Cuero Creek, which the Spanish had called Arroyo del Cuero, or Creek of the Rawhide, in reference to the Indians' practice of killing wild cattle that got stuck in the mud of the creekbed. When the Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific Railway was extended from Indianola to San Antonio, the Cuero site was chosen as a midway stopping point in the construction of the line. Although the tracks were not completed to Cuero until January 1873, construction of business establishments and homes was begun as early as November 1872. Among the first residents were Benjamin McCulloch and Gustav Schleicher. Schleicher, who surveyed the railroad, platted the new town for his Cuero Land and Immigration Company, and Robert J. Kleberg surveyed the site in January 1873.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.