You are here

Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains and West » East Texas » Huntsville to Livingston » Chester Vicinity (Tyler County) » Peach Tree Village (“Ta-Ku-La”)

Peach Tree Village (“Ta-Ku-La”)

-A A +A
1809. FM 2097, 2 miles north of Chester

Peach Tree Village (“Ta-Ku-La”) is the most prominent site of the Alabama Indians, who arrived in the area in the late eighteenth century along with the Coushatta tribe. Several regional trails crossed here, making the village an important trade location. The Alabama’s claim to land in and around the village was contested in 1834 when Mexican land grants were awarded to Anglo-American settlers. The Alabama gradually left the area, settling about fifteen miles west in Polk County in what became the only reservation in Texas. The village’s Anglo-American population and businesses, along with the buildings, eventually moved to Chester when the railroad platted the town.

Several historic structures remain on this site. The John Henry Kirby Museum occupies a 1905 reconstruction of Kirby’s parents’ homestead. Kirby, a lumberman, oilman, and railroad builder, constructed the red brick chapel in 1912, now used as the Village Hall, as a memorial to his parents. The Peter Cauble house, built in 1835, is the oldest house in Tyler County. Twenty-two acres of the Peach Tree site are occupied by Camp Ta-Ku-La, a nondenominational recreational facility.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
×

Data

Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Peach Tree Village (“Ta-Ku-La”)", [Chester, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-02-HL15.

Print Source

Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains, and West, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2019, 31-31.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,