DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the site of Lafayette, right here in Lamar County. Now, before Paris was Paris — before any town in Lamar County could claim the title — there was Lafayette. The first county seat.
Gone now, but not forgotten, because the marker doesn't let you forget. It started with land. John Watson donated forty acres, and on those forty acres, a man named John Lovejoy built a clapboard courthouse.
Just boards and nails and ambition, out here on the Texas frontier. But that modest little building was the seat of justice for all of Lamar County, and folks meant business. Starting in June of 1841, court was held at Lafayette.
John A. Rutherford served as chief justice. John R.
Craddock kept the records as county clerk. For two years that courthouse stood at the center of things — June 1841 to June 1843 — with those two men holding the machinery of county government together. And then, as frontier towns sometimes do, Lafayette faded.
The county seat moved on. The clapboard courthouse that John Lovejoy built on John Watson's forty acres passed into memory. The State of Texas erected this marker in 1936 — nearly a century after that last court session — so that you, pulling off the road in Lamar County, would know exactly where it all began.
What the marker says
Site of Lafayette -- First county seat of Lamar County - A clapboard courthouse was built by John Lovejoy on 40 acres donated by John Watson - Here court was held June, 1841, to June, 1843 - John A. Rutherford, chief justice; John R. Craddock, county clerk -- Erected by the State of Texas 1936