Cayuga, Texas

Cayuga was so named in 1894 by the first postmaster, William Alonzo Davenport, after his native Cayuga, New York. The community began to grow in the 1880s, gathering people and resources from the earlier communities: Gilmore's Community, Wild Cat Bluff and Bethel, all settled in the 1840s.

Wild Cat Bluff was located 5 miles northwest of Cayuga, where Wildcat Creek enters the Trinity River, and served as a ferry crossing and a shipping point for area farmers. Wild Cat Bluff thrived while the river served as a main form of tranportation but declined after the arrival of the railroads to the county in 1870. Some of the residents moved to the new community developing to the east.[2]

Bethel is located about 4 miles southeast of Cayuga, with Gilmore's Community roughly between them. The earliest settlement in the area began in the 1840s on land owned by Charles Gilmore (1796-1880). His house served as the first polling place, the first school, and first religious meeting place. He later donated land for the chapel and cemetery of Gilmore's Chapel Methodist Church (now called Gilmore's Chapel Cemetery). In 1852, he became the first postmaster of Bethel.[3][4]

In 1854, the Judson Baptist Church began at an arbour near Gilmore's home. There they built the first Judson church building and cemetery (now called Old Judson Cemetery or just "lost cemetery"). Judson Church moved to its second location near Cayuga in the 1880s (location of Judson Cemetery), and to its current location in Cayuga on land donated by H. S. Clay in 1911. The Joppa Holiness Church served Cayuga from 1899 to 1907, and the Freeman Baptist Church held regular services 1910 to 1934.[5][6]

Cayuga remained a small farming community until 1934 when the Tidewater Oil Company discovered oil in a new field named J.N. Edens No. 1 and caused Cayuga to become an oil boomtown overnight. By 1936, it had over 1,000 residents and 15 businesses. It began to go away after World War II, and the community's population plunged to 200 by 1952. It plunged again to 56 residents by 1974, and only two businesses were located in the community. The community was revived when the Richland-Chambers Creek Reservoir was discovered in nearby Freestone and Navarro counties and when four state prisons were established in the area. Large lignite reserves were discovered in the area not long after. Approximately 700 people lived in Cayuga in 1988, and there were several businesses, which included offices of two major petroleum companies in the area. The population plunged to a paltry 56 in 1990, and grew to 200 in 2000.[5]

Cayuga has a post office with the ZIP code 75832.[7]

Cayuga sits along the junction of U.S. Highway 287 and Farm to Market Road 59, 5 mi (8.0 km) east of the Trinity River in northwestern Anderson County.[5]

The first school in the area started at the home of Charles Gilmore, and was taught by George W. Tuggle, who also served as chief justice of Anderson County. He and his wife, Elizabeth Tuggle, gave a half acre of their land near Tuggle Springs in the Bethel area for the first schoolhouse on May 7, 1860. It remained until moved to the Cayuga-Blackfoot road in the 1880s. It was moved to an unknown location just off Farm to Market Road 59 in 1922, following an argument. In 1974, the school closed and students attended school in Bethel.[5] Today the community is served by the Cayuga Independent School District.