DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's the word on this one, and here's how I tell it. Now, most towns get their start from something sensible — a river crossing, a railroad depot, a good piece of flat land. But Hughes Springs, out in Cass County, got its start from something altogether more stubborn and more wonderful than sensible.
It started with two brothers, Reece and Robert Hughes, who came out of Alabama in 1839 looking for pirate gold. Pirate gold. Deep in East Texas.
You have to admire the ambition. They didn't find any pirate gold, of course — or if they did, the marker's not telling — but what they did find were springs. And not just any springs.
These were chalybeate springs, pronounced ka-LIB-e-ate, iron salts dissolved right into the water, seeping up out of the ground like the earth itself had something to offer in place of the treasure those brothers were hunting. Now, Reece Hughes, born in 1811, turned out to be a man who knew what to do with a good piece of ground. He was a wealthy planter, and he had a builder's eye.
By 1847, he laid out the first town of Hughes Springs right there at those iron-salt springs. And that wasn't the last of his building, either — he went on to put up an iron foundry too. Reece Hughes lived until 1893, long enough to see what that 1839 detour from pirate gold had grown into.
Some searches end exactly where they're supposed to, just not where you thought you were going.
What the marker says
(Pronounced "KA LIB E ATE) Discovered in 1839 by brothers Reece and Robert Hughes (from Alabama) while looking for pirate gold. springs derive name from iron salts in water. In 1847 Reece Hughes (1811-1893), wealthy planter who later built iron foundry, started the first town of Hughes Springs here.