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Shelby County Courthouse

2008-08-28T20:38:57Z

Texas County Courthouse Project #43: Shelby County (Center, Texas) Shelby County is one of nine counties in the United States named for Isaac Shelby, the first governor of Kentucky and an American Revolution soldier. He fought in several battles including the Battle of Kings Mountain, where as a Colonel he led the “Overmountain Men” along side future first governor of Tennessee, Colonel John Sevier. Originally known as the Tenehaw Municipality in the Mexican government, Shelby County was formed by the first Congress of the Republic of Texas. Nashville, which was the largest town in the Tenehaw Municipality, changed its name to Shelbyville and became the county seat. In the late 1830’s a feud erupted in Shelby County and Harrison County known as the Regulator-Moderator War. Land disputes and cattle rustling were the cause and murders, hangings, corrupt sheriffs, intimidated courtrooms, ambushes and retaliations were the result. The feud lasted almost a decade before President Sam Houston sent a militia to into East Texas to bring peace to the area. Ironically, members of both the Regulators and Moderators were fighting side by side in the Mexican War just a few years later. An election was held in January of 1866 and Center was voted by the county residents as the new county seat. Officials in Shelbyville disputed the results and nothing was done for eight months. Finally in August of that year residents from Center snuck into Shelbyville and stole the court records and brought them back to Center. Center is named for…well, the fact that it’s in the center of Shelby County of coarse. The Shelby County courthouse was built by Ireland born J. J. E. Gibson in 1885. He chose to design the structure like the castles of his homeland and is now the only surviving Irish castle style courthouse in the United States. After over a century of service the courthouse was retired in 1992 and officials moved to a new building down the street (below). The old 1885 courthouse was restored and reopened in 2000 as a museum.

San Augustine County Courthouse

2008-08-26T21:06:36Z

Texas County Courthouse Project #42: San Augustine County (San Augustine, Texas) Four hundred and sixty years ago, the Spanish explorer Luis de Moscoso Alvarado and his Moscoso expedition crossed the future county of San Augustine. They were the first Europeans to enter into the area that had been inhabited by the Ayish tribe of the Hasinai Indians for centuries. In 1691, Domingo Terán de los Ríos blazed a path through the forest creating the Royal Road, better known as El Camino Real. The Nuestra Señora de los Dolores de los Ais Mission was built here in 1717 but abandoned due to the constant threat of a French invasion from the east. With the French no longer a threat, the community of Ayish Bayou began attracting settlers in the late 1700’s. By the 1830’s the community was thriving and for the Convention of 1833 they sent one of their residents to represent them, a man named Sam Houston. In 1834 the land around Ayish Bayou was purchased for a new town and San Augustine was born. Both the county seat and the county (formed in 1836 after the Texas Revolution) was named for Saint Augustine of Hippo. Saint Augustine was born on November 13, 354 in Algeria and was influential in the development of Western Christianity. The first governor of Texas, James Pinckney Henderson was a citizen of San Augustine and practiced law there in the 1840’s. He has a statue in his honor in front of the courthouse. They call San Augustine the cradle of Texas and for my family it’s a fitting title. My Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather, Jackson Fitzgerald, moved his family to San Augustine County in the late 1830’s. He was a citizen of the Republic of Texas and a veteran of the War of 1812. He is buried in San Augustine County next to my Great-Great-Great-Great Grandmother Sarah Fitzgerald. The San Augustine Courthouse is a straight forward 1927 Classical Revival style structure. The Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program awarded the county $3,727,131 in February of 2008 for the restoration of the building. After walking inside it looks like they’ve already started clearing out.

The Agony of Defeat

2008-08-23T01:15:42Z

Noah's hopes for victory are dashed in the Tunnel Race.

The "Mom-Calling" Race

2008-08-21T21:13:47Z

All of the toddlers lined up and raced to their Mommies. Noah was the Michael Phelps of the 'Mom-Calling' Races.

And They're Off!

2008-08-20T22:14:59Z

The Egg Race Finals from the Back Yard Olympics.

Opening Ceremony

2008-08-19T22:32:37Z

A break from courthouses for photos from the 2nd Backyard Olympiad in Atascocita, Texas! First up...the Opening Ceremony. Each family enters the arena proudly displaying their family flag. And nothing was fake!

Sabine County Courthouse

2008-08-18T22:37:09Z

Texas County Courthouse Project #41: Sabine County (Hemphill, Texas) Sabine County was created on December 14, 1837 and named for the Sabine River that forms the eastern sate line between Texas and Louisiana. Both the Spanish and French claimed the land along the Sabine as theirs, but it was the Spanish name for the river that lasted. Named Río de Sabinas by Domingo Ramón in 1716, the name comes from the Spanish word Sabinas which refers to the cypress trees that grow along the river. The original county seat was located in Milam, but when it was proven that it was not the geographical center of the county (off by a little over six miles), it was moved to a newly surveyed town named Hemphill. Hemphill is named for John Hemphill, a Republic of Texas Supreme Court Justice, he participated in both the Council House Fight in San Antonio and the Somerville Expedition. He was elected to replace Sam Houston in the United States Senate until he was expelled at the start of the Civil War. During the war he served in the Provisional Confederate Congress in Montgomery, Alabama. The Sabine County courthouse was built in 1906, complete with a dome and clock tower. Just three years later the dome and tower were destroyed in a fire and were never replaced. Next to the courthouse is a 1903 jail that was used for eighty years and now serves as a museum. We toured the museum and my son Jake found an old chair that was just calling his name.

Newton County Courthouse

2008-08-17T13:50:02Z

Texas County Courthouse Project #40: Newton County (Newton, Texas) When does fiction become fact? It seems as though when it comes to history the edges of legend and truth can sometimes bleed and sometimes, as apparently the case of Sgt. John Newton, it can blend so completely that what is and isn’t reality can become lost to time. The Texas counties of Jasper (named for Sgt. William Jasper) and Newton (named for Sgt. John Newton) are adjacent to one another, Jasper to the west, Newton to the east. In the states of Georgia, Indiana, Missouri and Mississippi you will also find a Newton County right next to a county named Jasper. The county seat of Iowa’s Jasper County is a town named Newton, the county seat of Illinois’ Jasper County is another town named Newton, and the county seat of Arkansas’ Newton County is, all together now…Jasper. Jasper and Newton seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly. With so many counties and towns named after them, not to mention hundreds of children in the early 1800's named Jasper Newton, this dynamic duo must have been great heroes of the American Revolution, and according to the book The Life of Gen. Francis Marion by Parson Weems, it seems they were. As the book recounts, in August of 1779 the two Sergeants Jasper and Newton, under the command of Francis Marion, observed American prisoners being marched to Savannah for a likely execution. One of the men held prisoner was accompanied by his grieving wife and child. Moved, Jasper and Newton hid, unarmed, in the bushes until the British guards laid down their weapons at a watering hole. The two men attacked, wrestled the ten British soldiers to the ground, took their weapons and freed the prisoners. Afterward, the woman they had observed thanked them for freeing her husband. As Weems wrote, “Directing her eyes to Jasper and Newton . . . she ran and fell on her knees before them . . . crying out vehemently, 'Dear angels! dear angels! God bless you! God Almighty bless you for ever!'” Before the Weems book William Jasper was known for his bravery by those who knew him, especially for saving an American flag that had fallen during battle and how he was killed in Savannah after raising his regiments banner during a siege on the city, but no one would have been able to recall John Newton, even those who knew Jasper personally. After the book, however, both became household names and counties, cities and babies were named after the two (usually together) all over the country. Jasper County in Texas was formed in 1836 and Newton County was carved out of the eastern half of Jasper in 1846. Even Marion County, Texas was named for the book’s main subject, General Francis Marion. So why did no one remember John Newton before the book? It might be important to point out that Parson Weems’ most famous work was The Life of Washington, published in 1800. In it Weems tells the famous story of the young George Washington cutting down his father’s cherry tree. It was nice, but none of it was true. To this day many people still regard the cherry tree story as fact…which brings us back to Sgt. John Newton. Weems took the diary of Peter Horry, a friend who served under Francis Marion, and turned it into a novel, adding conversations and events that did not happen to make it more dramatic. It’s doubtful Weems actually intended to deceive his audience but the result is a history, recounted on historical markers in Jasper and Newton counties all over the United States, that is based on a mixture of fact and fiction and retold as fact. William Jasper and Francis Marion were both real people. Jasper did save an American flag in battle and was shot and killed while raising the colors of his regiment in another. No contemporary account exists of him saving the American prisoners, but there are historians that believe that it is essentially a true story. As for John Newton? Depending where you look he was either William Jasper’s partner in rescuing the prisoners as told by Weems (complete with dates of his birth and death), a real soldier chosen by Weems and partly fictionalized to help embellish his story or, which seems to be most likely, pure fiction. So, when does fiction become fact? Probably when it’s written on a historical marker and placed in a county named for a man that never actually existed. The Newton County courthouse was built in 1902 and stood for almost a century as one of the state’s most impressive. On August 4, 2000 the building’s ancient wiring caused a fire that eventually consumed the entire structure. Even as they watched the bell tower fall, the people of Newton vowed to rebuild their courthouse. It took the financially strapped county six years to finally break ground, but reconstruction is under way. Originally scheduled for completion in April 2008, it looks like they still have a long way to go.

Jasper County Courthouse

2008-08-15T22:14:39Z

Texas County Courthouse Project #39: Jasper County (Jasper, Texas) Established during the Convention of 1836, Jasper County is named for American Revolutionary hero, William Jasper. Jasper and John Newton (more on him tomorrow) ambushed ten British soldiers, liberating their American prisoners on their way to Savannah in 1779. Jasper was killed while carrying the colors of the 2nd South Carolina Continental Regiment during the assault on British controlled Savannah later that year. Both Jasper and Newton have several counties and towns named after them throughout the country, usually adjacent just as they are in Texas. Jasper was split in two on April 22, 1846, creating Newton to the east and their unusual elongated shapes. One of Jasper’s most famous residents was Stephen Williams, a veteran of the American Revolution and the War of 1812. He volunteered for duty in the Texas Revolution in 1835. At the age of seventy-five, he joined four of his grandsons for the siege on San Antonio. He was buried at his home in Jasper in 1839 before being moved to the State Cemetery in Austin. The Jasper courthouse was built in 1889, although its appearance was altered in 1931 with the addition of wings on both sides. That same year the county covered over the red brick with stucco. The clock tower was removed in the 50’s, but thankfully, reconstructed in 1992.

Waller County Courthouse

2008-08-14T22:28:23Z

Texas County Courthouse Project #38: Waller County (Hempstead, Texas) When a terminal was planned for the future Houston and Texas Central Railway a company was founded to sell lots for a new town. Dr. Richard Rodgers Peebles and James W. McDade founded Hempstead in 1857. Dr. Peebles named the new town in honor of his brother-in-law and benefactor from Ohio, Dr. Giles Samual Booth Hempstead. Had it not been for Hempstead, Peebles would never had been able to pay for medical school and it was his way of paying tribute to the man. It’s doubtful, however, that Dr. Hempstead ever visited the town named for him. During the Civil War, Dr. Peebles voiced his disproval and was imprisoned by Confederate troops for disloyalty. After the end of the war Union troops, lead by George Armstrong Custer, marched into Hempstead and camped nearby. Hempstead became a county seat when Waller County was created in 1873. Waller County is named for Edwin Waller, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and the first mayor of Austin. He held several other political offices during his career and was the only signer of the Declaration of Independence to also sign the ordinance of secession in 1861. He was also the first president of the Texas Veterans Association. Under the category of “what were they thinking?!” the courthouse in Waller County was built in 1955, and to be honest it really isn’t that bad until you realize what they tore down to build it: (photo from texasescapes.com)