Yellow Prairie (Chriesman)

Burleson County, TX

Status: Located

Year Established: Unknown

Council of Governments: BVCOG

Public History: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/chriesman-tx
“Chriesman is on the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway just west of State Highway 36 seven miles northwest of Caldwell in northwestern Burleson County. In the 1830s Alexander Thomson, Jr., brought a group of colonists to the site. They named the settlement Yellow Prairie for the high yellow grass that covered the surrounding prairie. The community became a station on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe when it built through the area in 1880. Yellow Prairie had a post office from 1880 to 1884. In 1885 the post office and community were renamed Chriesman for Horatio Chriesman, a pioneer in the region who spent the last years of his life in the area. The railroad station in the community continued to be known as Yellow Prairie through the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1890 Chriesman had an estimated population of 100, a school, a steam gristmill and cotton gin, and Methodist and Presbyterian churches. In 1904 a cucumber salting station was established in the community by the Price-Booker Manufacturing Company of San Antonio. In 1914 Chriesman had an estimated 175 inhabitants, telephone service, a bank, four general stores, and a cotton gin. The community’s population declined from 200 in 1925 to 100 in 1930 and to fifty in 1950. The cucumber plant closed by 1930, when the community had eight businesses. The population was estimated at thirty inhabitants from 1972 through 2000. In 1988 the community had two churches, a number of scattered dwellings, and the Chriesman cemetery on a hill to the east of town.”

Community History: I have confirmed via historical Texas History books that Chriesman, Texas was previously called Yellow Prairie, Texas before Horatio Chriesman settled there. The African America Group has indicated that Yellow Prairie was a Freedmans Community. … Maternal grandfather Carey Turner was born about 18531855 in Chriesman, Texas. My mother told me that he had half-siblings with the last name Clay. I did find a Clay family in the 1870 Census and it appears my grandfather’s name was Clay also. Then I found my grandfather in the 1880 Census and his last name is Turner along with two brothers Joe and Henry. Joe’s and Henry’s last names were Clay on that same 1870 Census.

I cannot trace his brothers Joe and Henry after the 1880 Census. Nor the mother Mary (Clay) Turner. I am assuming that my family migrated to Texas from possibly Tennessee with Sterling Robertson Group. But when I looked at a 1897 map of Burleson County (showing the original settlers) I do not see a Clay or Turner family. So I am having a difficult time determining who the slave owner was. I do remember reading about a man with the last name Clay that was a big planatation owner and had several plantations through-out Burleson and Brazos counties.

Cemetery: Chriesman Cemetery