The family of Henry Applewhite (1630-1704), who sailed from England to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1656, remained in Virginia for several generations. His descendant Thomas Applewhite was born in North Carolina in 1791, served as a sergeant in the War of 1812, and in 1842 married his second wife, Elizabeth Oglesby (1820-1898). Accompanied by eight slaves, the Applewhites moved to this area of Texas in 1853, purchased 214 acres of farmland here in 1854, and by 1860 owned nine slaves, some of whom had taken the Applewhite name. According to local oral tradition, their homestead may at one time also have served as a brief stop for stagecoaches traveling an alternate route of the Chihuahua Road from Indianola to San Antonio. Thomas, who died in 1864, and Elizabeth Applewhite are buried in La Vernia in Concrete Cemetery. A number of Applewhite families, descendants of African Americans who established homes here during the 1860s, remained in the area for many generations. Thomas and Elizabeth Applewhite's original stone house was mostly destroyed during highway construction in the 1950s.