Erath County Courthouse (Texas No. 35)

Erath County Courthouse, Stephenville, Texas

Veterans Memorial on the grounds of the Erath County Courthouse

The Erath County Courthouse in Stephenville, Texas, was built in 1892, renovated in 1988 and again in 2002.  It was the third courthouse for the Central Texas county.  Designed by noted architect J. Riely Gordon, the structure is constructed of white limestone from the nearby Leon River and red sandstone from Pecos County.  The interior is built of East Texas pine. The tower extends 95 feet in the air.

Erath County and Stephenville facts:

Erath County has a population of 38,000; the county seat of Stephenville has 17,000 residents.  Stephenville is the birthplace of Ben Hogan, one of the country's most notable professional golfers, and Milton Brown who is known as the Father of Western Swing.  Its current most famous resident is the singer/songwriter Jewel Kilcher, simply known throughout the world as Jewel.  Stephenville is 70 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

Caption This - Week 3

What do you think this little bluebird, fresh out of his bath, is squawking about?   Give me your best caption and come back next Saturday to read all the comments from other funloving bloggers.

Last week's captions were hilarious!  I loved them and I had problems picking my favorites.  After a lot of eeny-meenie-miney-mo, here's the top 5 list:

1.  "Needs salt" - Randy of Santa Fe Daily Photo
2.  "Mom says I've got to chew 100 times BEFORE I swallow.  It's gonna be a looOOOoong day" - TexWisGirl of  The Run *A*Round Ranch Report
3.  "Hmph!  Crab grass AGAIN!" - Marie of A Colorful World
4.  "Have you any Grey Poupon?" - Madge of The View From Right Here
5.  "Sure could use some shrimp and grits with this!" - Kate of Visual St. Paul

Texas Gothic

I've been absent this week because I'm drowning in work.  I can't seem to get caught up.  It just keeps coming and coming.  I'm thankful that my work drought may be over but come on, people, I need to get back to my blogger friends!  I took the afternoon off - not to go out with my camera, mind you, but to get much needed provisions.  On my return home I noticed this longhorn bull appeared to be fighting with a donkey at a ranch I pass by frequently.  I've never seen livestock in this spot so maybe they were just allowed in a different area for grazing now that the grass is greening up.  Well, I just had to get a picture of that donkey fighting with a longhorn.  I had a feeling it would come up on the losing end.  By the time I got pulled over and parked and out of my truck, they were peacefully grazing together.  I guess they were just having some playful sparring.   I wouldn't want to be wrangling with those horns!  As I took a couple shots I was reminded of the Grant Woods American Gothic painting.  I've seen many parodies of the farmer and his wife but never longhorns in that role.

I'll be back tomorrow with another Caption This but will probably then return to my cave to get more work done!

Caption This - Week 2

Welcome to Week 2 of Caption This where I ask you, my blogger friends, to write a caption for today's photo.  This one should evoke some great humor.  You have all week, but be sure to come back next week to see my top picks for favorite caption.

Accolades for last week's captions go to:

1.  "I'm getting my uppers replaced today" - Birdman of pORTcITYdAILYpHOTO
2.  "And then did you know what she said" - Kate of Visual St. Paul
3.  "I'd walk a mile for a camel" - Judy of  Prescott Area Daily Photo (Judy's post this morning featured a photo from 1923 of a tobacco salesman whose car had a sign on it bearing that same slogan.)

Thanks to all of you who participated and I hope you each have a caption to add to this silly giraffe photo.

Keep Waxahachie Clean

Waxahachie, Texas, is a dog friendly town!

A Shopper's Delight

There is a little town 40 miles southwest of Ft. Worth which has kept its economy alive by catering to shoppers.  Granbury is only a town of about 8,000 but practically every square inch of it is thriving as a shopper's mecca when so many other small towns in Texas are just slowly dying as they lose their industry and their retail business.  I can think of several towns that could learn some lessons from Granbury.  When I first drove into town I thought there was some kind of festival going on.  I couldn't find a place to park anywhere near the courthouse square - and that's why I was there, to photograph the courthouse.  I finally stopped and asked a young lady who was serving as a hostess at a patio-style restaurant what was all the action about.  She seemed genuinely surprised at my question and said it was like that every day.  After I looked around I could see what was happening.  I fell in love with all the unique boutiques and would love to go back for a real shopping trip someday.  And there were cute signs all over the place!

Giraffe House - Daingerfield, Texas

These little 1940s bungalows of varying shades of brown rock with light colored mortar always remind me of the markings on giraffes.  This one appears to have been recently overhauled with a new roof, new windows and new mortar.  There was a very nice two-car detached garage behind the house that is barely visible through the arch on the right side of the photo.

First United Methodist Church - Corsicana, Tx

Caption This

Okay, Blogger Friends, it's time to put on your caption cap and contribute your best caption for this photo.  In fact, I think I'd like to make Caption This a weekly staple of this blog.  So from now on (but probably not forever) Saturday evenings will be Kaptioning with Kathy.  You have all week to be creative and next Saturday I'll give a recap of the previous week's photo and captions and give you a new one to work on.  So kick back and relax and drag out your humor and return next Saturday to see how your caption stood up with others.

They Went That-A-Way

Redneck Country

Ratcliff, Texas

Deep in the Piney Woods

Day Trip Stop 4: Jefferson - Texas Courthouse No. 34 and More

From Linden I went south a short 20 miles to Jefferson, one of Texas' most charming little communities.  Jefferson has made a name for itself and has kept its history alive by catering to the tourist industry, but yet it's still a sleepy little down deep in the piney woods of East Texas so it never gets too crowded.  It's full of restored Victorian homes which act as B&Bs, shops tastefully converted which entice visitors to come in and it's full of lots of history too.  I had been there once before but this time I decided I'd visit Oakwood Cemetery.  I was actually looking for a rather famous grave of a woman who had been murdered in Jefferson in the 1800s but I was so fascinated with the multitude of large statuary that I quickly forgot that poor doomed woman.  I didn't count them but I would guess there are between 15 and 20 large statues as memorials, several of them angels, and who can resist an angel.

Among the moist poignant is the Schluter family plot with angels adorning the graves of Annie Laurie and her  son Little F.A.  There is a family of older Schluters buried alongside Annie Laurie, her husband W.T., and Little F.A.,  I am surmising it is the mother, father and several siblings of W.T., all of whom died as infants or children.  The elder Schluter was Frederick Augustus who died in 1882 and there are graves of four of his children who all died between the years 1959 and 1865 and that of his wife Ann who died in 1864 at the age of 42.

Annie Laurie 

Wife of W.P. Schluter,

Died May 14th, 1897.

Thy Life was Beauty, Truth,

Goodness and Love.

Little F.A.

Son of

W.P. & A.L. Schluter

Born Jan 14, 1884

Died Aug. 21, 1892

He shall carry the

lambs in his bosom

And now on the happier subjects.

The old Texaco gas station as you enter the historic district of Jefferson.

The General Store is a good place for reminiscing and having a cherry Coke or an old-fashioned malt.

Jefferson also has a beautiful Carnegie Library which is still used as a library today.

Unfortunately the Marion County Courthouse in Jefferson is in desperate need of repairs.  There are actually bricks which are crumbling from the front of the building.  It was built in 1912 in the Texas Renaissance style, and it is so blah that that's the only thing the Texas courthouse website that I go to for info even has to say about it!  Its Confederate soldier memorial is even rather dinky compared to most others I've seen.  What happened here, Jefferson?  You have one of the most picturesque little towns in the state and you haven't made an effort to lobby the Texas Historical Commission for some of those millions of dollars they hand out to restore historic courthouses?  Perhaps you have but there's just no mention of it anywhere.

Marion County, Texas:  Population 10,500

Jefferson:  Population 2,000; 165 miles east of Dallas, 15 miles west of the Louisiana border

Since 2000 Jefferson has hosted the Pulpwood Queens Book Club Girlfriend Weekend's annual conference which attracts authors from all around the country.

It is also considered by some to be the most haunted small town in Texas and ghost tours are popular events. 

Thanks for coming along my road trip.  I'm hoping to have another one in the near future.

Day Trip Stop 3: Cass County Courthouse (Texas No. 15) Revisited

Once I left Daingerfield I knew I wanted to go to Linden, another little town just 22 miles due west, because the last time I was there the Cass County Courthouse was in the process of being remodeled, and I just recently learned that the new renovations were substantially complete.  If you'd like to see the building and read a brief history of it, that photograph can be found here.  Just note that Cass County Courthouse is the second photo in that posting.  Well, here is the finished product:

Isn't she a beauty!  I'm sorry they took down the three but I'm sure once the landscaping is applied it will be outstanding.  This is one that had to be saved.  It is oldest continually operating courthouse in the state of Texas, having been constructed in 1861 during the Civil War.  A $4.4 million grant from the Texas Historical Commission made this interior/exterior renovation possible.

This little gem, in its 152-year existence, has been partially destroyed by a tornado, partially destroyed by  fire, and due to the many remodelings it has undergone the underlying structure of the building has been changed so much that it was architecturally impossible to restore it to the same design when first constructed.

As I was leaving Linden I happened to look in my rear-view mirror and this was the scene I saw.  I had to pull over and take one more shot of this picturesque little town.

It's a bit bleak-looking in the winter with no leaves on the trees and the power lines crisscrossing like cat's cradle but I think it has a special charm.  Like so many small Texas towns that serve as their county seat, the courthouse is an imposing structure and can generally be spotted as one of the first buildings you see upon arrival.

Linden has a population of 2,250 and Cass County has 30,000 residents.  Linden is 155 miles east of Dallas and 17 miles west of the Louisiana border.

Tomorrow:  A quick stop in Jefferson before heading home.

Day Trip Stop 2: Daingerfield (Texas Courthouse No. 33)

Stop 2 on my day trip was in Daingerfield, a tiny little town 40 miles north of Longview.  There was a lot to see in a small amount of space in this County seat of Morris County, Texas.  The entire county only has 12,500 people with Daingerfield, the largest city, accounting for 2,500 of them.  It has a picturesque, historic downtown area, but I was a little disappointed to see decorations still up six weeks after Christmas.

This imposing Victorian mansion was built in 1899 and has been a family-owned funeral home since 1949.

Wouldn't you love to climb up inside this turret?  Well, maybe not.  I'm sure it's dark and dusty with maybe a few critters hanging out.  As you can tell, the day was not an ideal one for light.  Believe it or not, these photos are NOT black and white!

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was built in about 1880, although the congregation was initially established in 1849.

The Morris Theater is still showing movies in the downtown area and they're pretty much first-run films.  The marquee shows Jack Reacher and the latest Texas Chainsaw flick,with coming attractions posters advertising Lincoln and Flight.  Did you see that price?  A buck 50 for any seat in the house!  Now that's a bargain.

But the real reason for going to Daingerfield was - you guessed it - in search of an historic courthouse, so may I introduce you to No. 33 in my series of the most beautiful courthouses in Texas.

This is the Morris County Courthouse which was built in 1882 and which, sadly, no longer serves as the county courthouse.  I don't know what happened in 1973 to cause the county government to build a new courthouse, whether the populace had outgrown this one or if it had become in such a state of disrepair that the officials felt in was not worth salvaging.  Luckily in approximately 2001 the property was purchased by a prominent law firm and they have lovingly restored this little beauty.  They have a very modern building next door which appears to house most of the activities of the firm, which, by the way, also has a branch in Dallas, but I could see furnishings and burning lights through the windows of the older building.  The grounds were meticulously manicured and even though it was winter and the trees are denuded, bright pansies graced the beds around the structure.

The courthouse was built right across the street from the railroad tracks which run through downtown Daingerfield.  I'm sure in the days when court was held here a brief recess probably had to be taken while the train blew its whistle as it made its way through town.

And what is the current courthouse like you say?  Well, hold on to your socks.  Whoever decided to toss the above and choose the below should have their head examined.

This may not be the ugliest courthouse in Texas, but it must be up there high on the list.  Thank goodness for the law firm who stepped up and saved a lovely piece of history.

Tomorrow's stop:  Linden and a revisit to the oldest courthouse in Texas.

An East Texas Day Trip (Texas Courthouse No. 32)

One day last week I had an early-morning appointment to get the truck serviced in Longview, about 60 miles north of where I live.  Since I'd been working hard all month I decided to take the rest of the day and take a little day trip through the area, to visit some new places and to revisit a couple of familiar places.  So for the next few days come along with me on this daylong trip and see some of the sights I saw.

THE GODDESS OF GREGG COUNTY

I already knew that the Gregg County Courthouse in Longview didn't qualify as one of the most beautiful historic courthouses of Texas but I had recently learned that there was a beautiful statue of a goddess on the courthouse lawn so my first stop was just a couple miles from the auto dealership to check it out.

The goddess is shown inscribing a Confederate memorial with the names of war heroes.  Like most courthouse lawns throughout the state, there is generally a Veterans memorial of some type and very frequently a tribute to the thousands of young men who served the Confederacy during the Civil War.

And now for a little perspective on the size of this monument.

The Gregg County Courthouse, built in 1932 is described as an Art Deco style.  If you ask me, it looks like a bunch of Legos.  It's just a big box that's been added on to a gazillion times and if not for the goddess out front, it wouldn't have even deserved a stop.

Gregg County's population was listed as almost 122,000 as of the latest census, with Longview, the county seat, accounting for a little more than 80,000 of that number.  The county was named after John Gregg, a Confederate general who was killed in action.  Longview has hosted the Great Texas Balloon Race, a hot-air balloon festival, annually since 1978.

Tomorrow's stop:  Daingerfield