Early Cuero History

Cuero is named for "Cuero Creek." Cuero is Spanish for "rawhide." The Spanish called it Arroyo del Cuero or Creek of the Rawhide. This was a reference to cattle that would get stuck in the mud along the creek bank. 

As early as 1832, Mr. Charles Morgan, Esq. of New York City established a steamship service in Texas connecting Galveston with New Orleans and the ports of the Atlantic Coast. The service prospered out of Matagorda Bay in an area finally called Indianola. This port became the principal one for entries to San Antonio and the forts of the Western Frontier. Over time, business grew considerably and Morgan started to achieve a monopoly of ports of entry to San Antonio and western forts. After the Civil War, competitors started to spring up and Morgan announced a rail road would be built from Indianola to San Antonio to Western Texas all the way continuing to California. 

Two years later, on February 8, 1872, Col. Gustav Scheicher, a surveyor, laid out the route for the railroad purchased from the J.O. Wheeler Estate in Victoria. The purchase price was $10,000 in gold. Two days later, Col. Scheicher executed a deed acknowledging the acquired lands were acquired by his trust and Col. Terrell, Mr. French and Governor Stockdale. The association was named “Cuero Land and Immigration Company”. A year later, the Legislature granted Morgan sixteen sections of land for each mile of railroad laid between Cuero and Victoria. Morgan in turn, also promised a road to be built between Cuero and San Antonio. The Immigration Company conveyed that a 100 tract piece of land would be subdivided and called “Morgan town”. This plot would become the first residential development in Cuero and its thoroughfare was Morgan Avenue.