DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Howard-Dickinson House in Rusk County. Now settle in, because this one starts with mud and ends with history baked right into the walls. Literally.
The year is 1855, and two brothers — David P. Howard and Jas. Logan Howard — have come a long way from Richmond, Virginia to put down roots in Rusk County.
And when those two decided to put down roots, they meant it in the most permanent way they could manage. They built the first brick home in the entire county. Now, you might ask how a couple of settlers in mid-nineteenth-century East Texas came up with enough brick to raise a proper house.
Well, they didn't wait on anybody to ship it in. The Howard brothers made their own bricks — starting with a mud mill right there on the premises, and later graduating to a patented machine and kiln, also on the premises. These were men who, if they needed something built, figured out how to build the thing that builds the thing.
And those Howard bricks didn't just go into their own home. That same brick, that same craftsmanship, went into the old courthouse on the Square — and into most of the city's major construction through the later eighteen hundreds. You want to know what Rusk was built on?
You're lookin' at it. The house itself is something to behold. The structure is iron-reinforced.
It has hand-wrought woodwork inside, and it holds the oldest plastered walls in the city. This wasn't a rough-hewn frontier shelter. This was a home built with intention, built to last.
Now here's where the story picks up a certain tall-tale quality all on its own — because among the frequent visitors to this house in its early years was none other than Texas statesman Sam Houston. And he wasn't just passin' through to admire the plastered walls. Houston was a cousin of Martha Ann Howard — Mrs.
Dave Howard — which made this place something of a family stopping point for one of the most consequential figures in Texas history. Sam Houston, sitting in that iron-reinforced house, built from bricks the Howard brothers made with their own patented kiln. You couldn't script that.
The house changed hands in 1905, when it was bought by Mrs. M. C.
Dickinson, the daughter of Dr. Alfred Graham, a pioneer physician of Rusk County. The Dickinsons left their own mark on the place too — they added a frame wing at the rear of the original structure.
So what stands today is layers of Texas history stacked one on top of another: Howard brick at the core, Dickinson additions at the back, and somewhere in the walls, the echo of a statesman's footsteps. First brick home in Rusk County. Built by two brothers who came from Virginia with enough grit to invent their own supply chain — and enough skill to build a city around it.
What the marker says
First brick home in county. Built 1855 by brothers, David P. and Jas. Logan Howard, settlers from Richmond, Va. The Howards made bricks with mud mill and later with a patented machine and kiln on the premises. (Howard bricks and carpentry went into the old courthouse on Square-- and most of the city's major construction in later 1800s.) Structure is iron-reinforced; has hand-wrought woodwork and oldest plastered walls in city. A frequent visitor in early years to this house was Texas statesman Sam Houston, a cousin of Martha Ann (Mrs. Dave) Howard. The home was bought 1905 by Mrs. M. C. Dickinson, the daughter of Dr. Alfred Graham, a pioneer physician of Rusk County. To the original house, the Dickinsons added frame wing at the rear.