The following History of Cedar Creek, Texas is taken from The New Handbook
of Texas published by The Texas State Historical Association
in 1996.
CEDAR CREEK, TEXAS (Bastrop County). Cedar Creek
is beside the creek for which it is named eleven miles west of Bastrop in west
central Bastrop County. The area was settled as early as 1832, when Addison
Litton was granted a league of blackland prairie on both sides of the creek. He
and his wife, Mary Owen Litton, soon established their home there. They were
joined by other pioneers, such as Jesse Billingsley and John Day Morgan, who
built the first log cabin on the townsite. In January 1842 a Methodist minister
preached to a full house at the Owens home on Cedar Creek, and the religious and
social life of the community soon revolved around Methodist meetings. A local
post office opened in 1852 with Elisha Billingsley as postmaster. A Presbyterian
church was organized in 1855. Violence occurred in the small community during
the Reconstruction era when a black justice of the peace and constable were
elected. One man's refusal to allow Constable Ike Wilson to serve papers on him
led to a shootout in which two black men and two white men were killed. By 1884
Cedar Creek had a population of 600 and served as a shipping point for cotton
and country produce. The community's school, the Central Texas Normal Academy,
closed its first annual session in June of that year, having enrolled 101
pupils. By 1896 the community's population had dropped to 250. In 1914 Cedar
Creek had 225 residents, four general stores, a gin, a tailor, a doctor, and a
cattle dealer. Oil drilling came to the area by 1913, and in 1928 a pool was
discovered on the Yost farm four miles east of the community. Though not a major
pool, the Yost oilfield was producing commercial quantities in the mid-1940s.
The population reached 300 during these years but gradually declined afterward.
In 1984 the community had six businesses and 145 people. At that time an annual
homecoming picnic was being held the fourth Sunday of each May. In 1990 the
population was still reported as 145.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bastrop Historical Society, In the Shadow of the Lost Pines:
A History of Bastrop County and Its People (Bastrop, Texas: Bastrop Advertiser,
1955). William Henry Korges, Bastrop County, Texas: Historical and Educational
Development (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1933). Bill Moore, Bastrop
County, 1691-1900 (Wichita Falls: Nortex, 1977).
Paula Mitchell Marks
