DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do my best by it. So pull up a chair — or in this case, just keep drivin' — because this one's got layers. The Dunn-Ransom Home, Navarro County, Texas.
A frame house with a wraparound porch, fish scale shingling, and stained glass. Five generations of one family under its roof. But let's go back to where it starts.
A young man named Ewing Eric Dunn, born in Kentucky in 1835, came to Texas in 1850. Now that's a journey worth imagining — even if the marker doesn't spell out exactly what that road looked like. What we do know is what he did once he got here.
By 1854, Dunn was serving as Navarro County's deputy sheriff, a post he held through 1858. Then came the Civil War, and Dunn joined the Confederate army. When the war was over, he came back to Navarro County, and in 1866 — just one year after the war's end — he built the first portion of what would become this house.
A frame house. Modest, perhaps, in that first form. Something to stand on, something solid.
Then, in 1876, Navarro County made Ewing Eric Dunn its sheriff, and he held that office all the way through 1884. This was a man who spent a good long stretch of his life keeping law in this county. He lived until 1917.
After Dunn, the house passed to a man named S. M. Ransom — a grocer by trade.
And here's where the place starts to get its personality. In 1890, Ransom enlarged the residence. He added that wraparound porch — the kind that says come sit a while.
He put on fish scale shingling. He brought in stained glass. That's not just renovation, friends, that's a man making a statement.
And the Ransom family? They didn't just pass through. Five generations called this place home.
A deputy sheriff builds a frame house. A grocer makes it beautiful. Five generations make it a legacy.
The Dunn-Ransom Home, still standin' in Navarro County, still holdin' all of that.
What the marker says
A native of Kentucky, Ewing Eric Dunn (1835-1917) came to Texas in 1850. He served as Navarro County deputy sheriff, 1854-1858, and joined the Confederate army during the Civil War. In 1866 he built the first portion of this frame house. Dunn was county sheriff from 1876 to 1884. S. M. Ransom, a grocer, enlarged the residence in 1890 and added the wraparound porch, fish scale shingling, and stained glass. Five generations of the Ransom family lived here. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1981