DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some houses are just houses — four walls, a roof, a place to hang your hat. But some houses carry the weight of history in their very foundation, and friends, this one in Navarro County has got more than its fair share.
We're talking about the Judge E. J. Simkins House, and the man who built it was no ordinary figure.
Eldred James Simkins — born 1838, died 1902 — came from South Carolina, and before he ever set foot in Texas, he'd already lived through something most men only read about. He served four years in the Confederate army. Four years.
And if that weren't enough to carry around, consider this: his brother, William S. Simkins, was credited with firing the first shot of the Civil War at Fort Sumter. April 12, 1861.
The first shot. The Simkins family had a way of being right in the middle of things. Now, Eldred James — E.
J., as folks came to know him — he made his way to Navarro County in 1871, and he didn't come to rest. He established a law practice, put down roots, and in 1873 he built the first rooms of this very home. A man laying the groundwork, literally and otherwise.
And what came next was a career that just kept building, same as that house. He became a regent of the University of Texas, serving from 1881 to 1893. He served as a state senator from 1887 to 1892.
Then in 1893, he took a seat as a justice on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, holding that post until 1895. But here's the thing about E. J.
Simkins that separates the merely accomplished from the truly consequential — he helped draft the law creating the Texas Railroad Commission. In a state where railroads once held the kind of power that could make or break a town, that's no small thing to have your hand in. And if that still weren't enough, the man wrote a noted volume on jurisprudence.
A soldier. A lawyer. A senator.
A regent. A justice. A man who helped shape the law of the land and then wrote about the law itself.
Those first rooms he built in 1873 were just the beginning, and the marker standing outside today is proof that Navarro County hasn't forgotten.
What the marker says
Eldred James Simkins (1838-1902) then of South Carolina, served 4 years in the Confederate army. A brother, William S. Simkins was credited with firing the first shot of the Civil War at Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861. E. J. Simkins moved here in 1871, established a law practice, and built the first rooms of this home in 1873. He was a regent of the University of Texas, 1881-93; served as a state senator, 1887-92; and as a justice on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, 1893-95. Simkins helped draft the law creating the Texas Railroad Commission and wrote a noted volume on jurisprudence.