DUANE
Get the App
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Mason County has its share of stories carved right into the stone, and this one begins with a man who'd already lived several lives before he ever set foot in town. Henry Holmes, born in 1836, came to Mason after serving in the United States Army.
That alone would be enough for most folks. But Henry wasn't most folks. He took up the law, served as county attorney, served as justice of the peace, and somewhere in there found time to serve as personal secretary to Governor Lawrence Sullivan Ross.
The man collected public service the way some people collect regrets. Around 1883, he had a sandstone building constructed right there in Mason for his office. Sandstone.
Solid, quiet, built to last. And it did. Now, enter Charles Bierschwale, a Mason County native, born in 1862.
Charles had carved out his own career in land survey and sales, which in Texas was no small thing. Land was the whole conversation. By 1888, Holmes and Bierschwale were business partners, and that sandstone building became home to their law and land office, two men, two trades, one sturdy building.
Henry Holmes died in 1895. Charles Bierschwale lived until 1945. And that building, that quiet sandstone structure Holmes had put up around 1883, stayed in the Bierschwale family all the way until 1994.
More than a century of one family, one building, one piece of Mason County ground. Some things in Texas, if you build them right, just refuse to let go.
What the marker says
Attorney Henry Holmes (1836-1895) moved to Mason after serving in the U.S. Army and continued his public service as county attorney, justice of the peace and personal secretary to Gov. Lawrence Sullivan Ross. About 1883 he had this sandstone building constructed for his office. Holmes and Mason County native Charles Bierschwale (1862-1945), whose career was in land survey and sales, became business partners by 1888, and this structure housed their law and land office. The vernacular commercial building remained in the Bierschwale family until 1994. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2000