DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Old Livery Stable in Marion County. Now settle in, because this little piece of ground has seen more history than most folks give it credit for. We're talkin' about a spot that sits near Trammel's Trace — a road charted all the way back in 1813, back when Texas wasn't even Texas yet.
Thousands of settlers rolled, walked, and rode their way down that trace, migrating into this land, and this site right here was part of the world they were building. By 1868, the property was owned by a man named D. B.
Culberson — and that name is worth holding onto. Culberson went on to become a congressman, and if that weren't enough, he stepped into one of the most sensational legal dramas East Texas ever produced: the Diamond Bessie murder trial, where he served as a lawyer for the defense. History has a way of attaching itself to certain men.
Culberson's two-story building on this very site became the original home of the Chesterfield Club — East Texas' elite social group, they called it. From the 1870s all the way through the 1930s, the kind of people who ran things around here gathered under that roof. Then the present structure went up, built around 1900, and it took on a different kind of purpose — horses and buggies, available for public hire, right up until the automobile age rolled in and changed everything.
One patch of ground. Trammel's Trace out front, a congressman's name in the deed, a famous murder trial in the biography, and the sound of hooves giving way to engines. That's the thing about old ground — it doesn't forget a single thing that happened on it.
What the marker says
Near Trammel's Trace, a road charted 1813, used by thousands of settlers migrating to Texas. Site was owned 1868 by D. B. Culberson, later a congressman and a lawyer for defense in the Diamond Bessie murder trial. Culberson's 2-story building here was original site for the Chesterfield Club, East Texas' elite social group, 1870s-1930s. Present structure, built about 1900, housed horses and buggies for public hire until auto age. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1968