DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Colonel James A. Stinson Home in Wood County. Now, some houses are just houses.
Four walls, a roof, a place to hang your hat. But every now and then you come across a house that seems to have absorbed the history happening inside it — and the Stinson home on this ground is exactly that kind of place. It was constructed in 1869, built of virgin pine and oak, the kind of timber that doesn't grow like that anymore.
The man who built it was James A. Stinson — Colonel James A. Stinson, if you want to give him his proper due.
He had served as a colonel in the Confederate Army, and when the war was done he was a widower, and he made his decision. He gathered up his daughter Sallie, left Georgia behind, and came to Texas in 1868. He didn't come small.
Stinson bought extensive timber and farm lands in the eastern area of Wood County. He operated a large sawmill that sent lumber throughout the state. And on top of all that, he was known as an early-day scientific farmer — a man who looked at the land and thought about what it could become, not just what it was.
A progressive thinker, they called him. A great scholar of government. A southern aristocrat who kept his mind moving forward.
And the house? The house was always open. Young and old alike — the door swung wide.
He remarried in time. His second wife was Mrs. Nathan Jones, a widow herself, who brought her daughter Mary into the household.
Together, Colonel Stinson and his new wife had two daughters, Lily and Cliffie, and one son, James F. So that house, built of virgin pine and oak, was filling up fast with a blended family and the particular energy that comes with it. Now here's where you want to pay attention, because this is the moment this house steps out of Wood County and into the history books of the whole state of Texas.
April 22, 1874. In the parlor of this very home, Sallie Stinson — the Colonel's daughter, the girl he'd brought with him from Georgia — married a young man named James Stephen Hogg. Let that name sit with you for a second.
James Stephen Hogg. Who later became the first native-born governor of the state of Texas. The marker tells us the Colonel probably had great influence on James S.
Hogg's ideas on good government, and when you think about what kind of man Stinson was — a scholar of government, a progressive thinker, a leader in the county and state Grange, an organization that strove to protect rural interests — well, that word "probably" is doing some light lifting. This was a man who cared deeply about how power was used and who it served. And it wasn't just talk.
Colonel Stinson was instrumental in getting enacted into law the bill creating the experimental farm at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College. The man translated his ideas into action. So you've got a house built in 1869 of virgin pine and oak, out here in Wood County.
A colonel who came from Georgia with his daughter and built something lasting. A parlor where a governor's marriage began. A life spent thinking hard about good government and making sure the rural folks had someone in their corner.
Stinson's home was always open to young and old — and it turns out, at least one of those young men who came through changed the course of Texas history. Not bad for a house made of timber the Colonel himself put to work.
What the marker says
Constructed in 1869 of virgin pine and oak by James A. Stinson, a widower who came to Texas in 1868 from Georgia after having served as a colonel in the Confederate Army. He brought with him his daughter Sallie. He bought extensive timber and farm lands in the eastern area of Wood County; operated a large sawmill which sent lumber throughout the state. Was also known as an early-day scientific farmer. Mrs. Nathan Jones, a widow with one daughter, Mary, became the second wife of Col. Stinson. The had two daughters, Lily and Cliffie, and one son, James F. In the parlor of the house, on April 22, 1874, Sallie Stinson married James Stephen Hogg, who later became the first native-born governor of the state. Col. Stinson was a southern aristocrat, a progressive thinker and a great scholar of government. He probably had great influence on James S. Hogg's ideas on good government. Was a leader in the county and state Grange, an organization which strove to protect rural interests. He was also instrumental in getting enacted into law the bill creating experimental farm, Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College. Stinson's home was always open to young and old. (1968)