Charting Cherokee

There is a lot of history in Texas involving Native Americans, but it doesn’t

White Church

pop up on historical markers nor is it referenced in information written about the towns we visited. So just for your information, Texas has had at least fourteen Indian Tribes living in the state at one time or another. The Apaches were in far West Texas, the Kiowas in the eastern part of the pan-handle, the Comanches in Central Texas, the Wichitas in North Texas, the Tawakoni and Kitsai tribes in East Texas, the Caddo and Tonkawa tribes in far East Texas, the Bidalis in the southeast part of the state, the Karankawa along the northern Gulf Coast, the Coahuiteco and Carrizo tribes along the southern Gulf Coast and across to the southern part of the Rio Grande, and the Jumano and Eastern Pueblos along the Rio Grande in West Texas. Their culture and traditions have been marginalized by the coming of the Anglos.



The tiny town of Cherokee has always been just that: a tiny town. Named for a nearby creek, it came into existence when P.P. "Pop" Woodard

Old house

settled in the area. Subsistence farming and ranching drew a few more settlers along the way leading to the establishment of a post office in 1858. About 20 years later, David Seth Hanna laid out the permanent town site, with James Samuel Hart opening a general store a year later. Cherokee became a processing and marketing center for the active farming and ranching economy, supporting a hotel, churches, as well as various craft and professional services. By the middle of the 1890s there was a large enough population to support several businesses and to draw the attention of folks who wanted to bring higher education to the Texas Hill Country.

In 1894, Francis Marion Behrns created the Cherokee Academy which

Downtown Cherokee

became, two years later, the West Texas Normal and Business College, becoming in 1911, the Cherokee Junior College. Ten years later the building that housed the Junior College was sold to the Cherokee School System to serve as the town’s first high school. As it moved into the 21^st century, Cherokee has seen is population decrease a bit with the town becoming a bedroom community to Llano and even Austin. The primary business act ivies are ranching and seasonal hunting.

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