R. C. Mount House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some men are content to be one thing their whole lives. R.

C. Mount was not that kind of man. Born in 1826, died in 1897, and apparently busy every single year in between; he was a surveyor, a part-time Methodist preacher, and Wise County's first tax assessor-collector.

That's three jobs that don't obviously belong together, and yet somehow they all lived inside the same man. You get the feeling R. C.

Mount just couldn't stand to leave a thing undone. So in 1872, he looked at his large family (and it was a large family) and he decided they needed a proper house. Now, here's where it gets interesting.

He didn't order up lumber from a catalog. He and his sons loaded up wagons and hauled rock all the way from Palo Pinto County. You think about that the next time you complain about a trip to the hardware store.

All that hauling, all that labor, and by 1874 the original two-story section stood completed. A rock house, built by hand, by a man who surveyed land, preached the gospel on Sundays, and collected your taxes whether you liked it or not. Then, in 1890, a contractor by the name of H.

A. Saye out of Amarillo came in and enlarged the house. More remodeling followed in 1920.

The years kept moving, the house kept changing, and through all of it, the Mount family never let it go. They own it still. R.

C. Mount set out to house his family, and by every measure, it worked.

What the marker says

A surveyor, part-time Methodist preacher, and Wise County's first tax assessor-collector, R. C. Mount (1826-97) began this structure in 1872 to house his large family. Built of rock that Mount and his sons hauled by wagon from Palo Pinto County, the original 2-story section was completed in 1874. Contractor H. A. Saye of Amarillo enlarged the house in 1890, and further remodeling was done in 1920. The property is still owned by the Mount family.