Yoakum Demographics

Yoakum is on the Lavaca-DeWitt county line. It was built on a league of land granted to John May by the government of Coahuila and Texas in 1835 and was used as a gathering place for cattle to be driven up the Chisholm Trail.

Yoakum did not grow until the construction of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway in 1887. At this time a townsite was laid out and named after Benjamin F. Yoakum, vice president and general manager of the line.

J.P. Jamieson built a store in 1887, and a post office opened that year. Railroad shops were located in Yoakum in 1888, and hundreds of people from surrounding towns found employment as its large roundhouse.

Land Area & Population 2005 Estimated Population 3,569 47.6% Male 52.4% Female Texas State Data Center Land Area: 4.6 square miles Ancestries: German 16.2%, Czech 10.7%, Irish 9/8% United States 4.0%, English 2.9%, Italian 1.1% Strongest FM Radio Stations KYKM 92.5 FM KTXM 99.9 FM KTXN 98.7 FM KIKX 107.9 FM	Nearest Cities Victoria, Tx Pop 50,000+ 34.5 mi Austin, Tx Pop 200,000+ 81.1 mi San Antonio, Tx Pop 1,000,000 94.5 mi Houston, Tx Pop 1,953,631 122 mi Shiner, Tx Pop 2,019 9.8 mi Cuero, Tx 16.9 mi Hallettsville, Tx Pop 2,497 17.8 mi Moulton, Tx Pop 930 19.6 mi Gonzales, Tx 25.5 mi Flatonia, Tx 27.5 mi Waelder, Tx 29.7 mi Schulenberg, Tx 31.6 mi	Average Climate Annual Average Temp: 70% July Average High: 96% January Average Low: 43% Annual Average Precipitation: 36.48" Average Snowfall: 0.20" Elevation: 322 ft Yoakum area historical *tornado* activity is slightly below Texas state average. It is 40% greater than the overall U.S. average.
TV Broadcast Stations around Yoakum KAVU-TV CHANNEL 25 Victoria, Tx KVCT CHANNEL 19 Victoria, Tx

Yoakum is on the Lavaca-DeWitt county line. It was built on a league of land granted to John May by the government of Coahuila and Texas in 1835 and was used as a gathering place for cattle to be driven up the Chisholm Trail. Yoakum did not grow until the construction of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway in 1887. At this time a townsite was laid out and named after Benjamin F. Yoakum, vice president and general manager of the line. J.P. Jamieson built a store in 1887, and a post office opened that year. Railroad shops were located in Yoakum in 1888, and hundreds of people from surrounding towns found employment as its large roundhouse.	The town was incorporated on May 13, 1989, with L.W. Thomas as mayor. By 1896 Yoakum had a cotton mill, three cotton gins, a compress, several churches, a bank, an ice factory, specialty and general stores two weekly newspapers and one daily, a school system with 700 pupils, and a population of 3,000. By 1914 the number of residents had reached 7,500. In 1919 Carl Wellhausen took over a small tanning company, the first of several in the city. The firm, known as Tex-Tan, a manufacture of saddles, bridles, harnesses, belts, billfolds, and novelties, later became part of the Tandy Corporation. By 1940 other local industries included a creamery and a mattress factory.	The first commercial tomatoes in the Yoakum area were grown in 1926. By the 1940's, fifteen packing sheds in Yoakum shipped tomatoes north, and the town was sometimes called the tomato capital of south central Texas. In 1970 Yoakum had 170 businesses, including a leather-goods shop, a meat-packing plant, a food processing plant, a metal workshop, a cannery and two banks. In 1990 the population was 5,611.