File:Frank Connell family, Tekoa, Washington, circa 1885 - DPLA - 7e281d7513c2729407cfbf1eb8e77148.jpg

Connell family photo and text describing the early settlers who homesteaded in the Tekoa area and gave Tekoa its name. Text is as follows: "F. P. Connell was Tekoa's first settler, who established a trading post with the Indians in 1875. Two years later, George, David and Nate Huggman took up a homestead site on Hangman Creek and by 1883 a progressive community had been gathered and a name "Fork of the Creek" was applied. Also in 1883 Daniel Truax and his brother established a new saw mill on the West bank of the creek near "Fork of the Creek". In 1884 John McDonald, railroad land agent, began buying railroad right-of-way for the planned railroad. Mrs. Truax, standing on the porch of her house on the West bank of the creek looking at the large number of itinerant miners and other tents, suggested to her husband that they accept the counsel of Amos in the Holy Bible and call the small community "Tekoa", meaning "city of tents", which was then adopted. The tents were rapidly replaced by frame buildings and the town became incorporated on march 30, 1889 on a court order acted upon by Judge William J. Langford."