Friar-Cardwell Stage Stand

Friar-Cardwell Stage Stand. Site of. In 1839 or 1840 at the junction of the La Grange - La Bahia and Victoria - Gonzales Roads (.5 miles east), Daniel Boone Friar (1800-58) built a home and store that served as a social, political, transportation, and trade center for early De Witt County. In 1841 the two-story frame structure became an overnight stop on stagecoach lines between San Antonio and coastal towns. It was designed as a temporary courthouse for the short-lived judicial county of De Witt in 1842. When the county was actually organized in 1846, the court met at Friar's place for several months. It was also the county's first post office, established on May 22, 1846, and named Cuero, with Friar as postmaster. , In 1849 Friar sold the building to Crockett Cardwell (1812-91), who continued to operate it as a stage stand, store, post office, and community meeting place. The county's first Masonic lodge, Cameron Lodge No. 76, A. F. and A. M., was organized in an upstairs room in Nov. 1850 and met there until Jan. 1853. When the Gulf, Western Texas, and Pacific Railroad located the town of Cuero four miles south of the Cardwell stand in 1873, the post office was moved to that site. As the town along the railroad grew, other activities at the old stage stand ended. It was torn down in 1916.