Robert Calvin Mount

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight from the record. Robert Calvin Mount was born in Tennessee, and somewhere along the way he got the itch that a lot of folks got, that pull toward Texas. He answered it in 1855.

One year. That's all the time it took before Wise County looked around and said, this is our man. In 1856, Robert Calvin Mount was elected the very first assessor-collector of taxes in Wise County.

First one. The job had never existed before, and he was the one they handed it to. That tells you something about how a man carries himself when he shows up somewhere new.

Then the Civil War came, as it came for everyone, and Mount served as a First Lieutenant in Bythe's Militia. He came through it. And when the dust of that long, bitter conflict finally settled, he did not sit still.

He kept building. In 1874, near Chico, he put up a home. Not just any home.

A fort-like rock home. Think on that a moment. The man built his house like a fort, out of rock, out in Wise County.

That kind of construction does not come from a man who expects things to be easy. It comes from a man who has seen enough of the world to know you build for what might come. The marker calls him an outstanding pioneer of Wise County, and standing at the beginning of the assessor's roll, standing in the militia, standing behind walls of rock near Chico, Robert Calvin Mount made sure that was no small thing to say.

What the marker says

Born in Tennessee. Came to Texas 1855, and was elected first assessor-collector of taxes, Wise County 1856. A First Lieutenant, Bythe's Militia in Civil War. Built fort-like rock home near Chico, 1874. An outstanding pioneer of Wise County.