DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. We're talking about the Judge J. B.
Williamson House, out in Harrison County, and friend, this one's got layers going back before Texas was even a state. Before it was a state — before it was anything but a republic trying to hold itself together. The land this house sits on was headright surveyed in 1838, which puts us right in the thick of that scrappy young Republic of Texas.
And somebody looked at that surveyed ground and said: we're going to build something here. What they built first were squared log cabins — and here's the part that'll catch you — those cabins are still in there, tucked inside the walls of the house standing today. The original house formed itself around a twelve-foot hall, log walls holding secrets the plaster would later cover over.
Then came the refinement. The structure you see now is a Greek revival crosshall design, and by tradition, that's the work of Augustus Phelps — a noted architect of the Republic. Not just any builder.
A man whose name carried weight in that era. Now. If the house itself isn't enough to hold your attention, the marker's got one more card to play, and it's a name you know.
By tradition, Sam Houston often stopped at this very place on his way to Marshall — to pay court, the marker says, to a Miss Anna Raguet. Sam Houston. Stopping here.
Whether the walls remember that or not, you can decide for yourself. The house stood through the ante-bellum years, through everything that followed, and then between 1963 and 1965, Mr. and Mrs. Dick Hoskins Gregg set about restoring it — bringing it back to something the original builders might have recognized.
Some houses just refuse to disappear, and this one, out on that 1838 headright in Harrison County, appears to be one of them.
What the marker says
Ante-bellum plantation. Built in Republic of Texas, on headright surveyed 1838. Squared log cabins (still within walls) and 12-foot hall formed original house. Greek revival crosshall structure is attributed to Augustus Phelps, noted architect of the Republic. By tradition, Sam Houston often stopped here on way to Marshall to pay court to Miss Anna Raguet. 1963-65 restoration by Mr. and Mrs. Dick Hoskins Gregg. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1964