DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker for the Kendall County Courthouse is the story I'm about to tell you, and it is a good one. Now, most counties wear through a courthouse or two over the years — outgrow one, burn down another, build something grander when the money comes in. Kendall County?
They got it right the first time. One courthouse, and one courthouse only, standin to this day as the first and only the county has ever known. They raised it between 1869 and 1870, which sounds fast until you remember the county itself had only been organized seven years before that.
Seven years of county business conducted without a proper courthouse — you can imagine the arrangements were improvised at best. When the building finally went up, it attracted some genuinely remarkable men into its orbit. Take the first county judge, Joseph Graham.
A man appointed to serve as U.S. Consul to Argentina. That is not a career trajectory you see every day coming out of a Texas county courthouse, but there it is.
Then there was the first sheriff, Captain John Sansom — and that title, Captain, is not decorative. The man was a member of the U.S. Army, a Texas Ranger, and an Indian fighter.
You got the sense that Kendall County was not hiring timid people for its early offices. The second county judge, S. B.
Patton, came in with his own resume: a former Alabama legislator. So the bench had seen a diplomat and a statesman before the building was even broken in. And the cases that moved through those courtrooms?
The early records pull no punches: horse theft, cattle rustling, illegal sale of liquor, assault. The full frontier menu, right there in the docket. The building took an addition in 1909, got itself a remodeling in 1954, and kept right on going.
First courthouse. Only courthouse. Still standing.
In Kendall County, they apparently had the good sense to build it once and build it right.
What the marker says
First and only courthouse in county. Erected 1869-1870, seven years after county organization. Many locally prominent men were associated with the structure. The first county judge, Joseph Graham, was appointed U.S. Consul to Argentina. The first sheriff, Capt. John Sansom, was a member of the U.S. Army, a Texas Ranger and Indian fighter. S. B. Patton, former Alabama legislator, was elected second county judge. Early records reveal cases for horse theft, cattle rustling, illegal sale of liquor, assault. An addition was built in 1909, and structure was remodeled, 1954. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark -- 1970