Cedar Creek

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. In 2000, however, the population was reported as 200.