DUANE
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Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the voice carrying it down the road. Now, Bell County has seen its share of stories, but this one has got some layers to it. We're talking about one piece of limestone standing at the intersection of two very different kinds of history.
So settle in. The home of Captain A. J.
Harris. Built in 1866, right there in Bell County, out of limestone quarried from nearby. And here's a detail that'll stick with you: the mortar holding those stones together contains horsehair.
Horsehair. Mixed right into the walls. That house was built to last, and it did.
Now Captain A. J. Harris himself was a man who wore several hats, and wore them all at once, it seems.
State Senator. Confederate veteran. Lawyer.
And teacher at Salado College. A man with a hand in the law, in the classroom, in the legislature, in the war. That's a full life by any measure.
But here's where the story takes a turn nobody could have predicted when those limestone blocks were set into place. Because within those walls, in that horsehair-mortar house, a boy was born. Harris' grandson.
His name was Walton Harris Walker. And Walton Harris Walker grew up to become a famous general in World War II. Think about that.
The same building that held a Confederate veteran and a state senator became the birthplace of a World War II general. The stones didn't change. The horsehair mortar held.
But the world those walls witnessed, from one generation to the next, shifted about as dramatically as history can shift. That house in Bell County carried all of it.
What the marker says
State Senator, Confederate veteran, lawyer, teacher at Salado College. Birthplace of Harris' grandson, famous World War II General, Walton Harris Walker. Home was built in 1866 of limestone quarried nearby. Mortar contains horsehair. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1966