Majors Home

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'm just the voice passing it along. In Mitchell County, there stands a brick house with a story layered like the Texas soil itself. Now, brick houses were not exactly common out here in 1883, and that fact alone ought to stop you for a second.

This was one of the first brick houses in the area, and the people who built it were no ordinary settlers. Mr. and Mrs. J.P.

Hodgson put it up that year, and if the name Hodgson doesn't ring a bell, maybe the family connection will. Mrs. Hodgson was the daughter of General Tom Green, a Texas hero, and J.P.

Hodgson was his son-in-law. So right from the start, this house carried some weight. Some history in its very mortar.

Then the home passed to Winfield Scott, a millionaire rancher. That's the kind of title that sounds made up until you see the house a man like that chose to live in. After Scott, the place belonged to W.T.

Scott, a promoter for the Texas and Pacific Railroad. The T. and P. was stitching this part of Texas together, and here was one of its promoters, living in one of its finest homes. Then came 1902, and the Majors family took ownership.

Not for a season, not for a decade. The marker says the Majors family has owned it since 1902, and that word since carries everything you need to know. Some houses just find the right family and hold on.

This is one of them.

What the marker says

One of first brick houses here. Built 1883 by Mr. and Mrs. J.P. Hodgson, son-in-law and daughter of Gen. Tom Green, Texas hero. Later the home of Winfield Scott, millionaire rancher, and W.T. Scott, a promoter, T. & P. Railroad. Owned since 1902 by Dr. Majors' Family. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966,