DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Sherman County Courthouse — and friend, this one's got more drama than you might expect from a building that's just been sitting there on the plains. The Texas Legislature created Sherman County in 1876, naming it for Texas Revolutionary soldier Sidney Sherman. For a good while after that, the county was attached to Oldham County for judicial purposes — it just didn't have enough people to stand on its own.
That changed in 1889, when the population had grown sufficient to organize, and Sherman County got its first county seat: Coldwater, a community the Loomis family had founded near the geographic center of the county. A fine central location, sensible as a compass rose. By 1890, a one-story stone courthouse had been built at Coldwater, and that little town was coming up in the world.
Post office, county jail, hotel, mercantile store, newspaper — the whole going concern. Coldwater was doing just fine, thank you very much. And then came 1901.
Stratford — sitting in the northwest part of the county on the newly constructed Rock Island Railroad — won a controversial election to move the county seat away from Coldwater. Now, the marker calls it controversial, and here's why: the officials moved the county records during the night. Moved them in the dark, quietly, and then held a special session of Commissioners Court to lock in the rights to the county seat before anyone could mount much of a fuss.
The county seat had relocated, and Coldwater woke up to find itself no longer the center of things. After the controversy faded — and these things do fade, eventually — a two-story frame courthouse with a cupola was built at the new site in Stratford. Things settled down.
The cupola caught the West Texas sky. Life went on. Until April 1922, when fire destroyed the frame courthouse.
Now Sherman County had to make some decisions, and fast. In June of that same year, citizens voted on two important issues. First, there was the question of whether to move the county seat again — this time from Stratford to Texhoma, also on the Rock Island, up along the Oklahoma border.
Stratford held on, prevailing by a vote of 370 to 209. Some towns just refuse to let go of what they've won. A week later, the second vote: $62,500 in bonds for a new courthouse.
That passed too, 322 to 81. The county meant business. The Commissioners Court chose the Amarillo firm of Parker and Rittenberry as architects and J.
W. Mordecai as contractor. While construction was underway, the Commissioners Court met in the Christian Church — county government carrying on in a pew, which has a certain poetry to it.
By the summer of 1923, the new courthouse was complete. What they built was a two-story concrete courthouse with a raised basement, classical revival styling, symmetrical facades, Ionic columns, running bond brick on the exterior, and cast stone detailing. It doesn't look like a building that came out of chaos and fire and midnight record-hauling.
It looks like order. Like permanence. Like a county that finally decided it had moved enough.
And there it stands in Stratford to this day — solid as the argument that put it there.
What the marker says
The Texas Legislature created Sherman County in 1876, naming it for Texas Revolutionary soldier Sidney Sherman. The county was attached to Oldham County for judicial purposes until 1889, when there was sufficient population to organize. The first county seat was at Coldwater, a community founded near the geographic center of the county by the Loomis family. In 1890, a one-story stone courthouse was built. Coldwater soon boasted a post office, the county jail, a hotel, mercantile store and newspaper. In 1901, Stratford, located in the northwest part of the county on the newly constructed Rock Island Railroad, won a controversial election to move the county seat from Coldwater. Officials moved the county records during the night and held a special session of Commissioners Court to secure the rights to the county seat. After the controversy faded, a two-story frame courthouse with cupola was built at this site. Fire destroyed the frame courthouse in April 1922. In June, Sherman County citizens voted on two important issues. First, an election was held on whether to move the county seat from Stratford to Texhoma, also on the rock island along the Oklahoma border. Stratford prevailed by a vote of 370 to 209. A week later, $62,500 in bonds for a new courthouse was approved by a vote of 322 to 81. The commissioners court chose the Amarillo firm of Parker & Rittenberry as architects and J. W. Mordecai as contractor. Commissioners Court met in the Christian Church until construction was complete in summer 1923. The two-story concrete courthouse with raised basement displays classical revival styling in its symmetrical facades and ionic columns. The exterior is running bond brick with cast stone detailing. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2008