|
Texas
| Architecture
| Courthouses
Dignity, Decorum
and Justice
Mark Texas' Courthouse Histories,
Except for the Fights, Arsons, Thefts, etc
by Bill Morgan
|
(Bill Morgan
recalls the more interesting stories, characters, incidents, trips,
facts, trivia and what-not he picked up during his on-going odyssey
among the courthouses of Texas, the state that has twice as many landmark
courthouses as its nearest challenger and that is not a Texas brag,
just a Texas fact.)
Editor's Note: Bill Morgan, retired Texas newspaperman, famed
courthouse artist and courthouse aficianado has probably spent more
hours studying the exterior of courthouses than most judges have spent
studying the crown moulding or lighting fixtures of their courtrooms.
|
 |
There's
nowhere better to get a feel of Texas' heritage than the nearest courthouse,
whether it's in the middle of Houston
(pop. 1,603,524), Mentone
(pop. 50 estimated) or any of the state's other 252 county seats.
The county courthouse is often magnificent, the county history is
often scandalous.
First, the magnificent. Simple arithmetic proves that Texas has more
old courthouses than any other state. The state's 254
counties are home to more than 210 standing current or former
courthouses that date from 1861 to the late 1930s. Georgia has the
second-most counties in the USA with 159. So Texas has 5l more antebellum
to pre-World War II courthouses than the No. 2 state has total courthouses.
That's the end of that argument.
Proving the scandalous part might require a few more details. After
chasing around Texas courthouses since the late 1980s, I have the
details. A sampling of examples:
How about the dog that ate all the evidence at a theft trial, while
the participants duked it out in a fist fight? Or the bull that butted
down a courthouse? Want to know the names of the horses whose votes
carried more than one election? Incidentally, the horses' names were
spelled correctly, while at least ten, maybe as many as 14, Texas
county and county seat names are misspelled? Have you heard about
the town that won a county-seat election because it allowed pigs to
roam its streets?
Time out for another Texas brag - the Texas Legislature created more
counties (54) in one day (August 21,1876) than there are in 19 other
entire states. Did you know that wars were fought over where courthouses
would be built? Or that arson was an effective way to move a county
seat from one town to another - just burn 'er down and set up shop
down the road? And a few less-than-scholarly Texans thought a courthouse-leveling
fire would eliminate indictments, get rid of incriminating cattle
brands or make other nagging felonies and misdemeanors go away.
The list goes on, so let's dispense with the roll call and get into
a few particulars. A disclaimer: these tales only scratch the surface.
There are enough to fill a book - I know because I filled a book I
called Old Friends: Great Texas Courthouses with these
and dozens of other equally improbable tales of a state coming of
age.
Page 2
Animal Rites - All right, who ate the pig's ears?
One Man, One Vote (Maybe Two)
Anybody Got a Match?
What's in a Name?
The Artists in Brick, Stone and Mortar
Texas
grew up riding horses and herding cattle, so it's not surprising that
farm and ranch critters played a big role in the building of the ornate
courthouses of the late 1800s ... Page
2 › |
©
Bill Morgan
June
9, 2005
More Texas Courthouses |
Recommended
Book
Old Friends: Great Texas Courthouses |
|
|
|
HOME
