Alexander Harwood

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Alexander Harwood. Born 1820, died 1885, and in between, he packed in enough civic life to make most men tired just hearin' about it.

He came to Dallas in 1844, rolling in from Tennessee at a time when Dallas was barely a notion on the map. And he stuck. That right there tells you something about the man.

When a place is rough around the edges and a fellow plants his feet anyway, you're looking at somebody who sees what a thing can become, not just what it is. He married Isabella Daniel Harwood, and then in 1851, he lost her. Grief like that has a way of quieting a man down, or hardening him, or both.

But Harwood kept going. In 1855 he married Sarah Peak, and life moved forward the way it tends to do out here, one hard season at a time. Now here's where the story gets interesting, and it stays interesting for a long time.

Between 1850 and 1880, Dallas County elected Alexander Harwood county clerk not once, not twice, but six times. Six. That is not luck.

That is a community deciding, again and again, that this is their man. While all of that was unfolding, he was also serving as senior warden of the Tannehill Masonic Lodge, the kind of quiet, steady institutional work that holds a community together from the inside out. And when the Confederacy called, Harwood answered, serving as assistant to Postmaster General John H.

Reagan. Then came 1866, and Dallas County sent him to the State Constitutional Convention to help figure out what Texas was going to be on the other side of the war. One man, one county, and a whole lot of history resting on his shoulders.

Alexander Harwood, 1820 to 1885. Dallas came to him as a rough start and a long promise, and he made good on both.

What the marker says

(1820-1885) Came to Dallas in 1844 from Tennessee. After the death of his first wife Isabella Daniel Harwood in 1851, he married Sarah Peak in 1855. Harwood was elected county clerk six times between 1850 and 1880. He was senior warden of the Tannehill Masonic Lodge and served the Confederacy as assistant to Postmaster General John H. Reagan. Harwood represented Dallas County at the 1866 State Constitutional Convention. (1996)