Tarver Abstract Company

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Tarver Abstract Company in Liberty County. Now, some stories are about battles, some are about outlaws, and some, well, some are about the quiet, steady kind of work that holds a place together. This one is the third kind.

Thomas Carey Tarver was born in Tennessee in 1846, and he came to Texas as a young boy. He served in the Confederate States Army, and after that chapter closed, he made his way to Houston in 1875. There he worked a messenger job for Wells Fargo and a clerk position for the Houston and Central Texas Railway.

A man trying things out, building up a sense of how commerce moves. Then in 1903, Tarver made his defining move. He purchased a ten-year-old abstract business from a pair of men named B.F.

Cameron and W.J. Swilley, right there in Liberty, Texas. The outfit had been called the Cameron and Swilley Abstract Company.

Tarver changed the name to the T.C. Tarver Abstract Company, and just like that, a new chapter opened. Now, an abstract of title is not the flashiest product a man can sell.

It is, at its core, a record proving who owns what piece of ground. But in a place like Liberty County, where land means everything, that kind of certainty is worth more than you might think sitting here on a paved road in the modern age. The company started out doing abstracts and, over the years, transitioned to title insurance policies, a regulated product issued by licensed title insurance companies.

The business first operated out of the courthouse itself. Then in 1919 it moved to the local masonic building, where it stayed until 1950. After that, it moved several times over the next forty years, finally settling at its current location in 1992, eventually becoming one of the anchors of the downtown business district.

Thomas Carey Tarver died in 1925, and ownership of the company has changed hands through the years since. But here is the thing that catches you if you stop and think about it. The name has endured.

The service has endured. For well over one hundred years, through courthouse offices and masonic halls and addresses that changed more than once, the Tarver Abstract Company has kept doing the same essential work: giving the people of Liberty County a solid, legal answer to the oldest question a landowner ever asks. Is this really mine?

In a place built on Texas soil, that question never goes out of style.

What the marker says

For well over one hundred years, the Tarver Abstract Company has provided real property title information to the citizens of Liberty County. Thomas Carey Tarver (1846-1925), a native of Tennessee, moved to Texas as a young boy. He served in the Confederate States Army before moving to Houston in 1875 where he worked in a number of different businesses, including a messenger for Wells Fargo and a clerk for the Houston & Central Texas Railway. In 1903, Tarver purchased a ten-year-old abstract business from B.F. Cameron and W.J. Swilley in Liberty and changed the name from Cameron and Swilley Abstract Company to T.C. Tarver Abstract Company. The company originally provided abstracts of title and over the years transitioned to title insurance policies, a regulated product issued by licensed title insurance companies. Abstract and title companies are an essential element of the local economy by providing stability in land ownership. The business operated out of the courthouse until 1919 when it moved to the local masonic building until 1950. For the next forty years, the business moved several times, finally settling at this location in 1992 and developing into one of the anchors of the downtown business district. Although ownership of the company has changed through the years, Tarver Abstract Company continues to provide an important service and remains a large contributor in the development of liberty county.