DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Bridges House in Jasper County. Now, some stories start with a man and some start with a tree — and this one, friend, has got both, and you're going to want to hear the whole thing. Ruffin C.
Turner came down from North Carolina, and somewhere between 1838 and 1840 he set about building himself a house. Not just any house — he built it with lumber that was pit-sawn and hand-planed. Every plank, every beam, worked by hand.
You think about what that means for a moment. No mill down the road, no hardware store. Just the work, and the wood, and the will to see it through.
The design was frontier, the way frontier men understood shelter — practical, with a hall enclosed, which tells you Turner was thinking about more than just four walls and a roof. He was thinking about living. And somehow, through everything that followed — all the years and weather and change that Texas can throw at a structure — the original glass survived.
Still sitting in the fanlight and the entry panels, looking out at the world just like it did when Turner first set it in place. Now. Here's where the story takes a turn.
You step out into the yard of the Bridges House, and standing there — just standing there, patient as only a very old tree can be — is the largest red cedar tree in the United States. The largest. In the country.
Growing right there in the yard of a hand-built frontier house in Jasper County, Texas. Ruffin C. Turner came from North Carolina looking to build something that would last.
Looks like the yard had the same idea.
What the marker says
Built 1838-40 by a settler from North Carolina, Ruffin C. Turner. Lumber throughout was pit-sawn, hand-planed. Frontier design, with hall enclosed. Original glass in fanlight and entry panels. Largest red cedar tree in U. S. stands in the yard. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1966