YANCEY, TEXAS. Yancey, formerly known as Tehuacana and also known as Moss, is on Farm Road 462 fourteen miles south of Hondo in south central Medina County. It was named for Yancey Kilgore and Yancey Strait, sons of the owners of the townsite lands. A post office was established in 1897 with Benjamin F. Moss as postmaster. Yancey had a country store and a cotton gin. The Community School, Styles School, and Tehuacana School operated in the area; they were consolidated into one large central school in 1912. By 1914 Yancey had 350 inhabitants, two general stores, a drug store, a cotton gin, and a blacksmith shop and was known for the quality of its peaches, plums, and its famous "Yancey watermelons." Most of the residents were German American. In 1924 people in Yancey were entirely dependent upon the soil for a living. Principle products that year were cattle, hogs, goats, corn, cotton, honey, broomcorn, and sorghum grains. A small gas field operated locally for a short period. The town was grouped about a store, a post office, two churches, and a school that became the first in Medina County to offer vocational agriculture and home economics. The community declined from a population of 275 and five businesses in 1962 to a population of 202, a post office, and one business in 1989. The population through 2000 was still 202.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Castro Colonies Heritage Association, The History of Medina County, Texas (Dallas: National Share Graphics, 1983). Houston B. Eggen, History of Public Education in Medina County, Texas, 1848-1928 (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1950). John J. Germann and Myron Janzen, Texas Post Offices by County (1986). Hondo Times, June 25, 1914.

Ruben E. Ochoa