A Road Trip to Tehuacana

Tehuacana in Limestone County, Texas is little more than a ghost town today, but at the time Texas was naming a capital, Major John Boyd had proposed it as a site for the capital. He lobbied extensively and Tehuacana only lost to Austin by a slim majority.



Our road trip to Tehuacana was inspired by the discovery of a deed for land in Limestone County on Tewockony (later Tehuacana) Creek to my ggg grandfather J. J. Wingo during the period of the Republic of Texas. He had settled in Kentucky's Jackson Purchase around 1830 and no one had any idea that he had ever ventured to Texas. The reason for his return to Kentucky is unknown but within a short time he had sold the land and returned to Graves County, Kentucky where he lived the remainder of his life. The knowledge of his Texas adventure caused a few of his descendants to set off for Tehuacana on a November day a few years ago. As with all genealogical road trips, a stop at the local cemetery was a must.

Hon. John Boyd

Born in Nashville, Tenn.
Aug. 7, 1796

Died
in Tehuacana, Tex.
May 4, 1873

John Boyd was a member of the first and second congresses of the Republic of Texas. He was instumental in persuading the Cumberland Presbyterian Church to make Tehuacana the site of Trinity University.

Carrie L.
Died
Dec. 11, 1872
Aged
5 Ys, 10M, 17D

Minnie M.
Died
Feb. 6, 1874
Aged
1 Yr, 3M, 12D

Children of
W.P. & M.C. Gillespie

Rev. R.D. King

Son of
Rev. Samuel King

One of the Founders of the
Cumberland Presbyterian Church

Born
Jan. 18, 1801

Died
Apr. 21, 1882

The building where Trinity University was located before it was moved to Waxahachie in 1902 and was later occupied by Westminster College now stands vacant in Tehuacana along with numerous other buildings from more prosperous days. My cousins insist that they had an encounter with an other worldly presence while taking the pictures below of the abandoned building and were completely shaken by it. Area residents later told of the local legend that the building is haunted.