Shafer Saddlery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Shafer Saddlery, standing in Williamson County, Texas. Now before we get to John H. Shafer and his limestone walls, let me tell you what was on this very spot before he ever picked up a chisel.

Back in 1848, there was a cabin here. Just a cabin. And that cabin, humble as it sounds, was pulling double duty as the first county courthouse in Williamson County.

The frontier didn't wait on grand architecture. Justice got conducted wherever there was a roof and four walls. Then came 1870, and John H.

Shafer had something more permanent in mind. He erected this saddlery out of hand-cut limestone. Every stone shaped by hand, stacked up into a building meant to last.

And it did last. He put living quarters upstairs, because a working man on the Texas frontier didn't always have the luxury of separating where he worked from where he slept. Now here's where the story gets interesting.

By 1872, the Shafer Saddlery started attractin' a different kind of occupant. Attorneys moved in. Then a newspaper.

Then many other tenants over the years, each one leaving their own chapter inside those hand-cut limestone walls. A cabin that held a county's first courts. A saddlery that became something different with every new tenant.

That building has been a lot of things to a lot of people, and the limestone John H. Shafer cut by hand has held all of it, every bit of it, without complaint.

What the marker says

On site of cabin used (1848) as first county courthouse. This frontier saddlery, erected 1870 of hand-cut limestone by John H. Shafer, had living quarters upstairs. Since 1872 occupants have been attorneys, a newspaper, and many other tenants. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1971