Robertson County Courthouse

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Robertson County Courthouse. Now, some buildings just sit there. This one has a story that starts long before the first stone was ever laid.

Robertson County had already been through three courthouses by the time anyone drew up plans for this one. Three. And the county seat itself had moved, not once, not twice, but five times before it finally settled down in 1879 at a town called Morgan, right there on the International and Great Northern Railroad.

Seemed like a fine name. There was just one problem. Texas already had a post office named Morgan.

So the town needed a new name, and the one they landed on reached all the way back to the very first county seat, which had been named for a pioneer by the name of Will Franklin. The town became Franklin. Plans for a courthouse got underway that same year, 1879, and by 1881 construction was started, with F.

E. Ruffini serving as architect. The building that rose from all that planning and all that history was a white limestone courthouse, the fourth to serve Robertson County, completed in 1882 at a cost of thirty thousand dollars.

It has been remodeled since then, but it's still standing. Four courthouses, five county seats, one name carried forward from a pioneer who probably never imagined a town would wear it this long. That's Robertson County for you.

What the marker says

Erected in 1882 at a cost of $30,000, this white limestone building is the fourth to serve as Robertson County Courthouse. In 1879 the county seat had been moved for the fifth time, to Morgan, on the International & Great Northern Railroad. But because Texas already had a post office named Morgan, the town was renamed Franklin for the first county seat, which was named for pioneer Will Franklin. Plans for a courthouse were begun that year; and in 1881 the construction was started, under F. E. Ruffini, architect. Since then the building has been remodeled.