Howell W. Runnels Home

Duane's take

The way I heard it told, the marker says it plain, so let me give you my telling of what the Texas Historical Commission saw fit to put on record about the Howell W. Runnels Home up in Bowie County. Built about 1874, this place went up with an open hall running through the middle and wide verandas wrapping around it.

Now before that house ever existed, the man whose name it carries had already lived a whole chapter of Texas history. Howell W. Runnels came to the Texas Republic in 1842.

Think about that. The Republic. Not yet a state, not yet a settled thing, just a young and restless country trying to figure out what it was going to be.

And this man showed up and planted himself in it. By 1857 he was sitting in the Legislature, and he stayed there through 1859. But here is where the story takes a turn worth slowing down for.

While Howell was serving in the Legislature, his wife, the former Martha C. B. Adams, was doing something that put her name in a different kind of record entirely.

Her brother-in-law, Governor Hardin R. Runnels, held the office from 1857 to 1859, and Martha, she acted as first lady of Texas for the whole of that term. The Governor's own sister-in-law stepping into that role, bringing her own bearing and presence to represent the household of Texas at its highest level.

So when you look at that house, those wide verandas, that open hall built about 1874, you are looking at the home of a man who came before Texas was even a state, and the home of a woman who stood at the center of Texas government when it counted.

What the marker says

Built about 1874 with open hall, wide verandas. Owner came to Texas Republic in 1842. Was in Legislature 1857-59. His wife, former Martha C. B. Adams, acted as first lady of Texas during term of brother-in-law, Governor Hardin R. Runnels, 1857-59. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1964