DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Reverend Thomas Wadlington Cotten, right there in Runnels County. Now, some men move to a place and wait for things to get built before they settle in. Thomas W.
Cotten was not that kind of man. He was a native of Illinois, an elder in the Primitive Baptist Church, and in 1877 he packed up and moved out here from Grayson County. No church waiting for him.
No county courthouse. No much of anything, really. Just the land and whatever a man of conviction could build on it.
He got to work fast. In 1878, he helped organize Runnels County's very first church, the Colorado Baptist Church, and he served as its first pastor. One year in the county, and he'd already given it something it would carry forward for generations.
Then 1880 came around, and Runnels County was officially organized as a county. And here is where the story gets genuinely interesting, because a brand-new county needs a courthouse, and a courthouse takes time to build. So what did they use in the meantime?
The Reverend Cotten's stone house. His own home became the temporary seat of county government. The man didn't just serve the spiritual life of this place, he literally sheltered its civic life under his own roof.
He married Mrs. Catharine Shaw, born Catharine McComb, who had previously been Mrs. Hobson.
She was born in 1816 and passed in 1886. Together they had nine children, and six of those nine reached adulthood. Nine children, a county's first church, a house that doubled as a courthouse.
The Reverend Thomas Wadlington Cotten didn't wait for Runnels County to become something. He showed up in 1877 and helped make it one.
What the marker says
A native of Illinois and elder in the Primitive Baptist Church, the Rev. Thomas W. Cotten moved here from Grayson County in 1877. He helped organize Runnels County's first church, the Colorado Baptist Church, in 1878 and served as first pastor. When Runnels County was organized in 1880, his stone house was the temporary courthouse. He married Mrs. Catharine Shaw (McComb) Hobson (1816-86). Six of their nine children reached adulthood.