Can your family trace its roots back to the people who helped found these United States?
If so, local historians would love to hear about it, not only to enhance DeWitt County’s local historical records but also to incorporate them into the living history demonstration they have planned as part of their own semiquincentennial celebrations planned July 3-4 here in Cuero.
Members of the De-Witt County Historical Commission invited the newspaper to their monthly planning meeting Thurs- day to discuss what they had in mind.
Just so you know, the group meets inside the beautifully refurbished Weber Annex Building located on the corner of Church and Gonzales streets in downtown Cuero, just down the hall from the DeWitt County AgriLife Extension Service offices.
And boy, do they have big plans for Independence Day this year.
What’s in store?
They call it the “Spirit of ’76: Roots of DeWitt County,” and it starts at 3:30 p.m. Friday, July 3, at the English-German Schoolhouse, part of the local Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum campus located at 302 Esplanade here in Cuero.
This is where they plan to share those great local stories, all while dressed as contemporaries of George Washington himself. Spoiler alert: We hear that at least one of them can trace her roots right back to the man himself.
Starting at 5 p.m., you can hear all about it — direct from the horse’s mouth, so to speak — as part of “Voices of the Revolution: George Washington,” a presentation put on by local reenactor Mark Collins, set for the Wofford Room, located on the second floor of the Chisholm Trail Museum.
Plus, they’ll have games and crafts for the kiddos, along with a one-of-a-kind look at what makes our history great, both here in Texas and across these United States.
And what would America be without some good old-fashioned ice cream and a slice of apple pie? Serving starts at 6 p.m., after Collins’ presentation is done.
Can’t make it on July 3? No worries. They plan to pack it all up and bring it back to life at the park clubhouse on July 4, where a host of other activities will also be taking place (see related story).
DeWitt County in 1776 I know what you’re thinking: DeWitt County has ties to the American Revolution? Couldn’t be.
Texas wasn’t even a place yet, not in 1776, and what is now DeWitt County may have been a happening local native encampment known for its fine hides, but not much else, right?
That’s where you might be surprised, local historians say.
You see, back in those days, this entire area from the Mississippi River to the shores of the Pacific was known as New Spain, and over near the mouth of the Mississippi (near the port city of New Orleans in modern-day Louisiana), lived the regional governor for this area, a well-known military man by the name of Bernardo de Gálvez.
Now Gálvez despised Britain’s heavy hand here in the New World almost as much as Washington did. In fact, he led some of the hardest hardfought campaigns against the Redcoats all over the South.
One thing about fighting men, though — well, any man really — is they like to eat. So, Gálvez, needing food for his troops, turned to the wilderness regions to the south and organized what many believe was likely the first real cattle drive on the continent, and it began right here, in what would one day become DeWitt County and the starting point of the Chisholm Trail.
So, while DeWitt County may not have a great showing on the fighting fields of the American Revolution, we very well likely helped feed a few of them who were.
Gálvez would later be hailed as a real American hero for his contributions to the war effort. In fact, we even named a town after him. Ever heard of a little place called Galveston?
What they need from you
The idea is simple in concept: If you’re a county resident who can trace your ancestry back to the American Revolution, they want to hear about it.
They’ve left printed forms at the Weber Annex lobby, Chisholm Trail Museum and a few other strategic locations around town where residents can list their families, their ties to the American revolutionaries of 1776 and provide folks a few lines to help explain the obvious: How on earth did those family members ever make their way here?
They’re asking that residents return their completed forms, along with any supporting documentation, to the DeWitt County Historical Commission, 115 N. Gonzales St. in Cuero, by Monday, June 29.
Doing so can add your family ties to the presentations on July 3-4, plus add your family heritage to DeWitt County’s growing historical archives.
Already have all that research stowed away on your hard drive someplace and don’t want to mess with a bunch of forms? Great! You can also email your submissions to dewitt-county- archives@dwcotx. org.
Just get them turned in by the June 29 deadline to give historical commission members time to add it to their presentations on July 3-4.
So, don’t miss your chance to be part of this special semiquincentennial event. Just this once, calling it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity isn’t just a bunch of fluff.
