Clinton

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight. Back in 1846, De Witt County was created, named for the empresario himself, Green De Witt. Now the county needed a seat of government, and the first answer was Cameron.

But Cameron didn't hold that honor long. By 1848, the county seat moved to a pioneer town called Clinton, named for De Witt's son. So the father got the county, and the son got the town.

That's the marker's own poetry, right there. Then, in the way of early Texas politics, things got complicated. County government drifted back to Cameron for a spell.

But Clinton wasn't done. It came roaring back as county seat in 1850 and held that title for a good long while. Courthouse operations ran out of a log cabin and then two frame buildings, which tells you something about the determination of the people who kept showin' up to conduct business in them.

Clinton held on until 1876, when Cuero was named the seat of government, and just like that, the town's moment had passed. Communities can fade fast once the official business moves on. Today, out at the site where Clinton once stood as a center of pioneer life, what remains is a cemetery and a well.

That's it. Two quiet things that outlasted everything else. The well that quenched the thirst of prominent area pioneers, and the cemetery that holds them now.

The marker calls Clinton a once-thriving community, and those two remnants are left to prove it. Sometimes a well and a row of headstones say more than any courthouse ever could.

What the marker says

Created in 1846, De Witt County was named for Empresario Green De Witt. The county seat, originally at Cameron, was moved in 1848 to the pioneer town of Clinton, named for De Witt's son. County government returned briefly to Cameron, but Clinton again served as the county seat from 1850 until 1876, when Cuero was named the seat of government. Courthouse here included a log cabin and two frame buildings. A cemetery and well remain at the site of Clinton, evidence of the once-thriving community that was the home of many prominent area pioneers. (1967)