DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Fitzgerald Home out in Grayson County. Now, some houses just sit on the land. And then some houses carry a whole story inside their walls — and the Fitzgerald Home near Bells, Texas, is very much the latter kind.
It starts with a man named Geo. S. Fitzgerald, who in 1857 packed up his family and made the long move from Virginia all the way down to Texas.
He landed on eight hundred acres — eight hundred — and set about turning raw land into something worth handing down. Here's what I love about how this unfolds. Fitzgerald didn't just go shopping for lumber.
In 1859, he walked out onto his own farm and cut the building timber himself. His own trees, from his own land. He knew exactly what he was going to build.
He just didn't get to build it yet. Because the war came. Fitzgerald went off to serve in the Confederate army, and those hand-cut timbers waited.
You have to wonder about a man leaving seasoned oak stacked on a farm, family holding on, the whole future of a house deferred. But when he returned, he got to work. In 1866, he erected the house — and what a house it was.
Pegged oak logs, framed together without a single nail to hold the bones of it. The main rooms came in at twenty by twenty feet, solid and generous, joined by a twelve-foot hall running between them. Two stairs climbing to the upper story.
This wasn't a man building the minimum. This was a man building a statement. And Grayson County took notice.
Fitzgerald grew prosperous, grew esteemed, and from 1880 to 1884 he served as a Grayson County Commissioner. The same hands that cut timber on that farm eventually helped govern the county around it. Eight hundred acres, timber he cut himself, a house that waited through a war to be born — and walls of pegged oak that are still standing to tell the tale.
What the marker says
Built on 800-acre farm near Bells by Geo. S. Fitzgerald, who moved with family from Virginia to Texas in 1857. He cut building timber on his farm in 1859. On return from Confederate army he erected this house in 1866. He was prosperous and esteemed, serving as a Grayson County Commissioner from 1880 to 1884. House was framed of pegged oak logs. Main rooms are 20 by 20 feet, joined by 12-foot hall. Two stairs lead to upper story. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1969