Adams-Shaw House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just along for the ride. Somewhere in Brown County, there's a sandstone house that has been standin since about 1876, and if you know where to look, you can still find a cattle brand carved right into the front step. That detail alone ought to tell you something about the man who had it built.

His name was George H. Adams, born in 1842 and died in 1920, a rancher and a former Texas Ranger. He didn't just put his name on a deed.

He put his brand in the stone itself. Now that is a man who intended to be remembered. To build the place, Adams brought in a stonemason named William Frederick Morton, born 1851 and died 1926, an English-born craftsman who knew exactly what he was doing.

Morton quarried the sandstone right out of nearby Willis Creek and laid it up into something that has outlasted nearly everyone in this story. Good stone, good hands, and apparently a good eye for picking materials close to home. The house stood, solid and quiet, for more than three decades after Adams had it built.

Then, in 1908, it changed hands. Laura and Colin McKeever Shaw purchased the structure. Colin Shaw was born in 1850 and died in 1944.

Laura Shaw died in 1944 as well. They lived their lives inside those Willis Creek walls. And when they were gone, the house didn't sit idle.

After 1945, their son Neil K. Shaw, born 1901 and died 1969, and his wife Maud Dabney Shaw, took on the work of restorin and enlargin the old place. Four families across the better part of a century, and through all of it, that carved cattle brand sittin right there on the front step, quiet as you please, like George H.

Adams never quite left.

What the marker says

This house was erected about 1876 for George H. Adams (1842-1920), a rancher and former Texas Ranger, whose cattle brand was carved into the front step. English-born stonemason William Frederick Morton (1851-1926) built it of sandstone quarried in nearby Willis Creek. The structure was purchased in 1908 by Laura (d. 1944) and Colin McKeever Shaw (1850-1944). It was restored and enlarged after 1945 by their son, Neil K. Shaw (1901-1969), and his wife, Maud Dabney Shaw. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1975