DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do my best to do it justice. Now pull up a chair, because Eastland County has been scrapping for its identity since before most Texas counties even knew what they wanted to be. The Texas Legislature created it back in 1858, but the land was so sparsely settled that nobody got around to organizing the thing until 1873.
When they finally did, they set up the first county seat eight miles to the northeast, at a place called Merriman. Merriman. Fine name, fine town — just not the final answer.
Two men named Charles Connellee and Jack Daugherty had other ideas. They platted a new town near the center of the county and called it Eastland. And in 1875, the people voted — sixty-seven to sixty — to move the county seat right there.
Seven votes. Seven votes is all that stood between Eastland becoming the heart of the county or a footnote on somebody's old map. The commissioners made do with a stone building across from the town square, and Eastland got to work becoming something.
Then October of 1880 rolls around, and the Texas and Pacific Railway comes through, and you could practically hear the town exhale with relief. Growth followed like it always does when the railroad shows up. But just when Eastland was feeling comfortable, the Texas Central Railway went and created a brand new town called Cisco.
And Cisco — well, Cisco was ambitious. In August of 1881, Eastland had to fight off a county seat election. It survived.
Barely, maybe, but it survived. Then 1896 brings fire, the great equalizer. The courthouse built in 1883 burned down, and wouldn't you know it, Cisco smelled blood and forced another county seat election.
This time Cisco actually got a majority of the votes. A majority. But Texas law required two-thirds, and Cisco fell short.
Eastland exhaled again. And in 1898, they built a new three-story courthouse and jail — a proper statement in stone and mortar that said: we are not going anywhere. Now time marches on, and oil and natural gas start booming through the 1910s and 1920s, and suddenly Eastland County has money it didn't used to have.
Voters approved three hundred thousand dollars in bonds for a courthouse worthy of the moment. They hired a Dallas architectural firm — Otto H. Lang and Frank O.
Witchell — and those men delivered something grand. By December of 1928, the new building opened its doors. Art Deco, they call the style, and it earns every syllable of that name.
Stepped massing, prominent wings, a central tower rising up like it owns the sky. Brick cladding, ornate decorative terra cotta trim, carved eagles, shields, medallions, pilasters, tripartite arched entryways, stylized decorative banding. This wasn't a courthouse built to survive challenges.
This was a courthouse built to end them. But here's the thing about Eastland that no architectural firm could have designed, no bond election could have planned. The building became famous — genuinely, widely famous — not for its eagles or its Art Deco tower, but for what was supposedly sealed inside the cornerstone of the prior courthouse.
A horned toad. A celebrated horned toad they called Old Rip, reputedly liberated from that cornerstone when the old building came down. The Eastland County Courthouse, all that grandeur, all that hard-won history, and the thing people remember most is a little horned toad said to have been sleeping in the wall.
Eastland County fought seven different battles just to keep its courthouse where it stands. And in the end, what made it famous was the tenant nobody planned for.
What the marker says
The Texas Legislature created Eastland County in 1858, but sparse settlement delayed organization until 1873, when Merriman (8 mi. NE) became the first county seat. Charles Connellee and Jack Daugherty platted the new town of Eastland near the center of the county, and by a vote of 67 to 60 the county seat moved here in 1875. The commissioners met in a stone building across from the town square. The Texas & Pacific Railway arrived in October 1880 and spurred growth, but when the Texas Central Railway created the new town of Cisco, Eastland had to survive a county seat election in August 1881. An 1896 fire destroyed the 1883 courthouse, and Cisco again forced a county seat election, receiving a majority of votes but not the required two-thirds margin. In 1898, the county completed a new three-story courthouse and jail in Eastland.Following oil and natural gas booms in the 1910s and 1920s, voters approved $300,000 in bonds for a new buiding designed by the Dallas architectural firm of Otto H. Lang and Frank O. Witchell. The grand new building opened by December 1928 with space for county, district and appellate courts and offices. The Art Deco style courthouse exhibits stepped massing in its design, with prominent wings accenting a central tower. The building is clad in brick with ornate decorative terra cotta trim and ornamentation. Details include carved eagles, shields and medallions, pilasters, tripartite arched entryways, and stylized decorative banding. The Eastland County Courthouse gained widespread fame as the final resting place for "Old Rip," a celebrated horned toad reputedly liberated from the cornerstone of the prior courthouse.Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-2007