Jasper County Courthouse

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Jasper County Courthouse. Now settle in, because this square has seen some things. Jasper County was one of the original twenty-three counties created when the Republic of Texas was established in 1836, right on the heels of the Texas Revolution.

That's about as old as Texas gets, and this ground has been the beating heart of the county almost from the very start. A pioneer named John Bevil had established a settlement here around 1824, and that settlement became the seat of government. Then in 1835, it was renamed Jasper, in honor of William Jasper, a hero of the American Revolutionary War.

So before Texas was even Texas, this place had already planted its flag. Now, the first courthouse to stand on this very site was a two-room log structure. Two rooms.

For an entire county's worth of justice and governance. And wouldn't you know it, that building was destroyed by fire in 1849. Gone.

So they built again, and this time they built bigger. A two-story building was completed around 1854, which was a considerable step up from two rooms and a prayer. But the story doesn't stop there.

The present courthouse, the one standing right here, was constructed of locally made red brick and completed in 1889. Local brick. There's a kind of stubbornness in that detail that feels very Texas.

Then one year later, a tower went up, carrying a four-sided clock and a bell. You could see it, and you could hear it. By 1931, wings had been added onto the east and west sides of the structure, and then the entire courthouse was covered with stucco, changing the look of the whole square.

A new office building went up in 1940, erected by the Works Progress Administration. And then in 1957, during a remodeling project, that clock tower, the one that had watched over Jasper for decades, was removed. Some things get built up, some things get taken away.

That's the rhythm of a place that keeps on living. Today the Courthouse Square, with its official buildings and landscaped grounds, continues to be a focal point of Jasper County activities. Nearly two centuries of settlement, fire, rebuilding, and change, all centered right here on this square.

What the marker says

Jasper County was one of the original twenty-three counties created when the Republic of Texas was established in 1836 following the Texas Revolution. Bevil settlement, established by pioneer John Bevil about 1824, became the seat of government and was renamed Jasper in 1835 in honor of American Revolutionary War hero William Jasper. The first county courthouse on this site, a two-room log structure, was destroyed by fire in 1849. It was replaced by a two-story building, completed about 1854. The present courthouse, constructed of locally made red brick, was completed in 1889. One year later a tower with a four-sided clock and bell was added. Additional wings were built onto the east and west sides of the structure in 1931, and the entire courthouse was covered with stucco. An adjacent office building was erected by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1940, and the courthouse clock tower was removed in a 1957 remodeling project. The Courthouse Square, with its official buildings and landscaped grounds, continues to be a focal point of Jasper County activities.