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.