Cass County Courthouse

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same. Now, Cass County got itself organized in 1846, and back then the courthouse wasn't even in Cass County as you'd know it today. It sat over in Jefferson, which is now part of Marion County, a county that got carved right out of Cass back in 1860.

So the county seat picked up and moved. Linden got that honor in 1852, and they put up a frame courthouse here the very next year, 1853. Nothing fancy, but it was theirs.

Then in 1860, somebody looked at that frame building and said, we can do better. They started laying brick. A proper brick structure, the kind meant to last.

Only trouble was, they didn't finish it. The Civil War came along, and that courthouse sat incomplete until the war ended in 1865. When all was said and done, the final cost came to nine thousand, eight hundred and seventy-seven dollars.

Not a penny more. They enlarged the building in 1900, and then again in 1917, which tells you the county kept on growing. Then 1933 brought a fire.

And here's where the story takes a turn most buildings don't survive to tell. Instead of giving up on the old brick courthouse, Cass County added a third floor right on top of it. The building that started in 1860, survived a war, survived decades of hard use, and survived a fire, is now valued at one million dollars.

And those walls have seen some serious careers take shape within them. Wright Patman did some of his early work here before he became a United States Congressman in the twentieth century. Ralph Hicks Harvey did the same before he rose to the Texas Supreme Court as a Justice.

Some buildings just have a way of producing people who go on to matter. This courthouse is one of them.

What the marker says

When county was organized, 1846, courthouse was in Jefferson (now in Marion County, created from Cass in 1860). Linden was made county seat, 1852; a frame courthouse was built here, 1853. This brick structure, begun in 1860, was not completed until after the Civil War ended in 1865. It cost $9,877.00. It was enlarged in 1900 and 1917. After a fire in 1933, third floor was added. Courthouse now is valued at $1,000,000.00. Site of early work of 20th century U. S. Congressman Wright Patman and Texas Supreme Court Justice Ralph Hicks Harvey. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967