Inventory of the County Archives of Texas: Number 62, De Witt County (Cuero) Page: 13

13 :Historical
Sketch
During the war, once the early excitement had died away, De Witt
C unty faced the common problems of the day, and went about solving them
in much the same manner her sister counties followed. On September 13,
1861, the commissioners court appropriated 4150 for clothing and supplies
for the Davis Guards, and appointed a committee to solicit clothes and
supplies for the Confederate Army. A war tax was levied; and, in 1862,
the number of "arms in DeWitt Co. fit for use in the service and number
of persons left capable to bear arms, etc." was reported to the court.50
Sugar and coffee soon became scarce,'and many substitutes were evolved.
Cotton was carded, spun, and woven, and garments were made of the resulting
cloth. Hair ropes were made t) serve the purpose of grass ropes, and
palmetto leaf hats became quite the vogue.51 In 1864, the citizens protested
against the use of the courthouse for military or hospital purposes,
probably because they wished t ) have nothing interfere with their
Y * ~ custom of using the courthouse building as a place for public worship on
Sundays 52
With the end of the wrar came the provisional government of the state,
under A. J. Hamilton. This transition was noted in.De Witt County as
follows:
Be it remembered that on Friday the 1st day of Sept. 1865, the
Hon. Co. Court of DeWitt Co., under the Provisional Government
of the State of Texas, (the officers thereof having been
appointed and commissioned by His excellency A . J. -amilton,
Prov. Gov. Said State) met at the Court House in the town of
Clinton, Texas., and was opened in the form of law. Officers
Present: Hon. J. IM. Baker, Chief Justice, J. F. Shannon and
C. Cardwell, Go. Comm. Thos. C. Smith, Clerk and Jacob A.
Miller, Sheriff.53
^ The county apparently knew very few of the problems of Reconstruction.
Immediately after the war was over Jayhawkers committed a series
of robberies, but local committees of safety soon suppressed these ac*
tivitics;54 and the county gradually took up the same quiet existence it
had lost with the opening of the war. In 1868 a gristmill and cotton gin
were opened for business in LMyersville, and in 1869 a public ferry was
established at Clinton.55 By 1871 the county was again bildd. ag to' tho
extension of a railroad from Victoria to Cuero,56 and the line was extended
early in 1873.57 On April 23, Cuero became an incorporated
town.58 In the same year, Rudolph Kleberg established the first news--.
....
50. Com. Ct. .in., B, 572, 609.
51. Cuero Record, Dec. 31, 1935.
52. Corn. Ct. Min., C, 94.
53. Ibid., 120.
54. Cuero Record, Dec. 31, 1935.
55. Ibid.
56. Camorn. Ct. Min., C, 307.
57 . Cuer Rcord, Dec. 31, 1935.
58. TrA.A, Apr. 23, 1873, Gammelt, Laws, VII, 996.