Booker Home

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. You're looking at the Booker Home in Somervell County, and this place has layers, friend. Let's peel them back.

William G. McCamant came to Texas around 1856, and whatever he had in mind when he arrived, he ended up planting roots deep. Deep enough that he worked for the very creation of Somervell County, and when that county came into being, he was appointed one of its first commissioners.

That's not a small thing. That's a man who helped bring a county into existence and then helped run it. In the early 1870s, McCamant built this house, and he did not build it timidly.

He quarried limestone from nearby, and he stacked those walls eighteen inches thick. Eighteen inches. You knock on that wall, it doesn't knock back.

It just waits you out. Those chimneys, one on each end, are exactly the kind you'd find on frontier homes of the 1870s. Practical, sturdy, built to push back against a hard country.

Now, McCamant's chapter eventually gave way to the next one. In 1896, the house was sold to George L. Booker, a Civil War veteran.

And here's where the story settles in for a good long while. Booker served as county surveyor for thirty-six years. Thirty-six years of knowing every line, every corner, every boundary in Somervell County, and he came home each time to those eighteen-inch walls.

The house that McCamant built to last, Booker made his own. Two men, one limestone house, and a story that started before Somervell County even had a name.

What the marker says

This home was built in the early 1870s by William G. McCamant, who came to Texas about 1856. McCamant, who had worked for the creation of Somervell County, was appointed one of the county's first commissioners. The house was sold to Civil War veteran George L. Booker in 1896, during his 36-year tenure as county surveyor. The house features 18-inch thick walls made of limestone that was quarried nearby. The chimneys on other end are typical of 1870s frontier homes. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1963