DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells this one, and I'm just the voice it found out here on the road. Pull over a minute — Houston County's got a courthouse story that takes some tellin'. On June 12, 1837, President Sam Houston put his name to the order creating Houston County — the very first newly created county in the Republic of Texas.
Not just first in line that day. First. Period.
Andrew W. Gossett, born in 1812 and gone by 1890, donated the land that included the square you might be standing near right now. He and his father Elijah — both of them veterans of the Battle of San Jacinto, mind you — named the county for Sam Houston himself, and named the county seat for David Crockett, a former Tennessee friend.
So right from the beginning, this ground was carrying some serious Texas weight. Now here's where the story gets interesting, and stays interesting, and keeps on being interesting in a way that ought to make any county clerk a little nervous. By 1838 the first courthouse was already in use right at this location.
It was a log structure. And not just a courthouse — it served as a fortress during Indian attacks. So the first seat of justice in Houston County doubled as a fort.
That's a courthouse earning its keep. But nothing here stayed standing for long. A brick building replaced that first log courthouse in 1851.
It burned in 1865 — and the marker doesn't forget to mention that the origin of that fire was mysterious. So now you've got a smoldering brick ruin and county business that needed to go somewhere. It went to the L.E.
Downes building on the southwest corner of the square, where things held together until a two-story frame structure was finished in 1869. And then — and I want you to hear this clearly — a jail addition to that building burned in 1871 while it was still under construction. It burned before they even finished building it.
The third courthouse and its jail burned in 1882. That is three fires, friends. Three.
On the same county square. The fourth courthouse was completed at this site in 1883. They must have built it with a certain grim determination.
It stood until 1938, when it was razed — not burned this time, just deliberately taken down. While that fourth courthouse had been going up, county business moved into the Crockett Hotel. History doesn't record whether the hotel was nervous about the arrangement.
In 1975, the third-floor jail of what had become the fifth Houston County courthouse was moved to a separate building, and the courthouse itself was remodeled. Five courthouses on one square. Log fortress, mysterious fire, a jail that burned mid-construction, a third that burned outright, a fourth that finally had to be razed by human hands rather than flame — and then, at last, a fifth that they had the good sense to remodel rather than tempt fate.
Houston County got its start as the first new county in the Republic. It just took five tries to give it a courthouse that stuck.
What the marker says
On June 12, 1837, President Sam Houston authorized the formation of Houston County, the first newly created county in the Republic of Texas. Andrew W. Gossett (1812-1890) donated land, which included this square, for the townsite. He and his father, Elijah, both veterans of the Battle of San Jacinto, named the county for Sam Houston, and the county seat for David Crockett, a former Tennessee friend. The first county courthouse, a log structure which served as a fortress during Indian attacks, was in use at this location by 1838. A brick building, which replaced the first courthouse in 1851, was destroyed by a fire of mysterious origin in 1865. County business was conducted in the L.E. Downes building on the southwest corner of the square until a two-story frame structure was finished in 1869. A jail addition burned in 1871 while it was under construction. The third courthouse and jail burned in 1882. The fourth courthouse, completed at this site in 1883, was razed in 1938. While this three-story structure was under construction, county business was conducted in the Crockett Hotel. In 1975 the third-floor jail was moved to a separate building and the fifth Houston County courthouse was remodeled. (1979)