DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just along for the ride. Now, Denton's got a lot of stories buried in its soil, but this corner right here — this particular patch of ground — it's got one worth slowing down for. It starts with a man named Charles Christian Lacy, born in 1816, who looked at Kentucky one day, looked at his wife Sarah — née Brown — and said, Texas.
That's where we're going. The two of them made the move in 1854, and Charles didn't waste any time making himself useful. The very next year, 1855, he platted the Denton townsite itself.
Laid it out. Drew the lines. And then, as if that wasn't enough for one man's legacy, he put up what is thought to have been the city's first hotel, right here on this site.
That hotel stood from 1858 all the way to 1882, which out here in those years was a good long run for anything made of ambition and timber. Now here's where the story gets that particular Texas flavor. At some point before the wider world came to know his name for considerably less wholesome reasons, a young man named Sam Bass worked at this very hotel — briefly, as a livery stable boy.
A livery stable boy. Tending horses, probably keeping his head down, not yet the bandit that fame and legend would make of him. The Lacy Hotel couldn't have known what it was harboring.
But history has a way of circling back to a spot and saying — yeah, something happened here. Something worth remembering.
What the marker says
Charles Christian Lacy (1816 - 70) moved with wife Sarah (Brown) from Kentucky to Texas, 1854; platted Denton townsite, 1855; had what is thought to have been city's first hotel, existent 1858-82, at this site. Before he gained fame as bandit, Sam Bass worked here briefly as a livery stable boy.