DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Campbell Honeymoon Home in Gregg County. Now, folks, sometimes the most ordinary-lookin' little place holds the biggest story — and this small frame cottage is proof of that. You'd walk right past it if you didn't know.
But knowing changes everything. Thomas Mitchell Campbell was born in 1856 in Rusk, and by the time he landed in Longview he was working in the Gregg County clerk's office — learning the machinery of law, filing the paperwork of other people's lives. Then came 1878, and that year carried a double weight: he became a lawyer, and he married Fannie Bruner.
Two doors opening at once. This little cottage, this modest frame house, is where they started. Their first home together.
You can almost picture it — new marriage, new career, a young man with Rusk behind him and whatever came next still ahead. What came next turned out to be considerable. Campbell moved into railroad work, rising to executive rank before Texas politics came calling.
He served two terms as Governor of Texas, from 1907 to 1911. The man who once clerked in a county office eventually held the highest office in the state. And this little house?
It was moved here from its original location across Second Street in 1982 — carried over, set down, preserved. The honeymoon home of a future governor, still standing. Some cottages just refuse to disappear.
What the marker says
Thomas Mitchell Campbell (1856-1923), a native of Rusk, worked in the Gregg County clerk's office in Longview before becoming a lawyer in 1878, the same year he married Fannie Bruner. This small frame cottage served as their first home. Campbell was later a railroad executive before serving two terms as Governor of Texas, 1907-1911. The Campbell's former home was moved here from its original location (across Second Street) in 1982. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965