James K. Polk Record

Duane's take

Here's what the official marker has to say, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, the name James K. Polk Record might sound like somebody who couldn't quite make up their mind, part president, part courthouse, but this man carved out a story entirely his own right here in Dallas County.

Born October the 29th, 1834, and gone by January the 16th, 1872, he didn't have a long run, but he made every year count. He went to Tennessee and came out the other side a lawyer, which in those days was about as close to a superpower as most men could hope for. By 1860 he was the District Attorney for Dallas; top lawman in the county, keeper of order in a place that had plenty of use for one.

Then the Civil War arrived and rearranged everything, the way it had a habit of doing. Record left that office and went to serve in the Confederate Army. Whatever he saw, whatever that cost him, the marker doesn't say.

What it does say is that he came back. He returned to Dallas after the conflict, and rather than fade into the background, he stepped right back into the thick of things. In 1866 he became a state Senator, and if that wasn't enough, that same year he served as a delegate to the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1866.

Think about that for a moment. A man helping to write the rules Texas would live by. After all that, he settled into practicing law right here in Dallas, and he kept himself busy as an active member of both the Masons and the Odd Fellows.

Two organizations, one man, not a moment wasted. James K. Polk Record lived fast, worked hard, and left Dallas a little more organized than he found it.

What the marker says

(Oct. 29, 1834 - Jan. 16, 1872) Educated in Tennessee as a lawyer, J. K. P. Record became the District Attorney for Dallas in 1860. He left that office to serve in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, but returned here after the conflict. In 1866 he became a state Senator and served as a delegate to the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1866. He later practiced law in Dallas and was an active member of the Masons and the Odd Fellows organizations.