Site of Buchanan

Duane's take

Here's how that marker tells it, in my own words. Now, Johnson County has had more than one seat of government, and the story of how it settled on the right one took a good while to work out. First there was Wardville, just west of Nolan River at U.S. 67.

Then came Buchanan. And friend, Buchanan had every intention of being the place. It was founded in December of 1856 on a sixty-acre townsite donated by a man named John P.

Bailey. They named it for the president-elect of the United States; that's the kind of optimism that says we are planting something permanent here. By 1858 they had themselves a jail, the first one the county had ever seen, and an office for the district clerk.

Things were taking shape. But here's where the story turns, and it always turns somewhere. Buchanan had a problem it couldn't talk its way out of: no reliable water supply.

You can name a town after a president-elect, you can build a jail, you can file paperwork in an official district clerk's office, but if the water isn't there, the people won't stay. And they didn't. Then came a resurvey of the county lines, and that resurvey made plain what the water situation had been whispering all along; the county needed a new site.

In 1867, Camp Henderson was chosen. And on July 4th of that same year, Camp Henderson was renamed Cleburne. A fitting day to start fresh.

Old Buchanan, Johnson County's second seat of government, didn't leave much behind. The cemetery is the only remaining trace of that townsite a quarter mile to the southwest. Sixty acres, a jail, a courthouse office, and a whole lot of plans; and in the end, the land kept the names of the dead better than it kept the town of the living.

What the marker says

(1/4 mile southwest) Johnson County's second seat of government. (Wardville, just west of Nolan River, at U.S. 67, was first). Buchanan, named for president-elect of the United States, was founded in December 1856 on 60-acre townsite donated by John P. Bailey. A jail (first for the county) and office for the district clerk were built 1858. But lack of a reliable water supply hindered town's growth. Later resurvey of county lines showed necessity for a new site. In 1867, Camp Henderson (renamed Cleburne, July 4, 1867) was chosen. Cemetery is only remaining trace of Old Buchanan townsite. (1972)