First Post Office

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, you might glance across the street, south of where you're standing, and see nothing that looks particularly historic. But that empty space has a story, and it goes back to the earliest days of Junction, Texas.

When this town was just finding its footing, somebody had to handle the mail. And that somebody was Mrs. Harriet Kountz, appointed Junction's first postmaster in 1876.

Now, she didn't have a grand government building to work out of. No sir. She kept the mail right there in her home.

Picture that: you ride into town, knock on a door, and the postmaster answers. That's how it worked. For a while, anyway.

Then 1879 rolls around, and Mrs. Kountz's husband, Dr. Ezekiel Kountz, decides Junction deserves something more permanent.

So he builds a post office, a drugstore, and a general mercantile house, all on the square. Now here's a detail worth savoring; the lumber for that building was hauled all the way from Austin. Every plank of it.

Somebody made that trip so Junction could have a proper place to do business. Mrs. Kountz moved the post office in and kept right on serving until 1881.

But the building wasn't done earning its keep. Dr. Kountz, who also happened to be the first county clerk of Kimble County, used that same store as a county office until the courthouse was built nearby.

One building doing the work of a whole county government. It stood there on the square through the years, quietly holding Junction together, until 1911, when the old store was dismantled. Not burned, not lost to a flood, just taken apart, piece by piece, the way useful things sometimes go when the world moves on.

That spot across the street holds all of that now. You'd never know it to look at it.

What the marker says

Across the street, south, was the first building erected to house the Junction post office. Junction's first postmaster, Mrs. Harriet Kountz, appointed 1876, at first kept the mail in her home. In 1879, her husband, Dr. Ezekiel Kountz, built a post office, drugstore, and general mercantile house on the square. Lumber was hauled from Austin. Mrs. Kountz moved the office here and served until 1881. Dr. Kountz, first county clerk of Kimble County, used store as county office until courthouse was built nearby. Old store was dismantled 1911. (1966)