DUANE
Duane's take
The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of the Square House in Carson County. Now, most houses out on the Texas Panhandle got built from whatever was close at hand. But the Niedringhaus brothers, all the way out of St.
Louis, weren't about to let geography have the last word. They wanted lumber — real lumber — and they were going to get it, no matter what it took. So they sent it by ox-cart, hauled all the way from Dodge City, mile by stubborn mile across open country, until they had enough to raise something worth raising.
What they built, right here in Carson County in the mid-1880s, was this square house. Home base for their N Bar N Ranch. Simple in shape, serious in purpose.
Then comes 1887, and the Southern Kansas Railway is pushing its line down from Kiowa, Kansas, toward Panhandle City. While that work was underway, a railroad official moved right into that pioneer cottage. Just made himself at home in it.
And why not? It was the sturdiest thing standing. After the railroad men moved on, the square house kept drawing people of consequence.
James Christopher Paul — pioneer banker and treasurer of the Southern Kansas Railway Company — called it home. So did J. L.
Harrison, a man who wore both the rancher's boots and the judge's bench. James B. Wilks, an innkeeper, lived there.
And Sheriff Oscar L. Thorp added a lawman's chapter to the walls. Distinguished company, for a house that started out as a lumber order hauled by oxen across the Kansas plains.
By 1965, the oldest house in town was purchased and restored as the Carson County Museum. All those layers of life — railroad surveyors, bankers, judges, sheriffs — preserved inside four square walls that were never supposed to amount to more than a ranch house. Some things just refuse to be ordinary.
What the marker says
The Niedringhaus brothers of St. Louis sent lumber by ox-cart from Dodge City and built this square house on their "N Bar N" Ranch here in Carson County in the mid-1880s. In 1887 a railroad official occupied the pioneer cottage while the Southern Kansas Railway was being extended from Kiowa, Kansas, to Panhandle City. This was later the home of some distinguished settlers: pioneer banker and treasurer of Southern Kansas Railway Company, James Christopher Paul; rancher-judge J. L. Harrison; innkeeper James B. Wilks; and Sheriff Oscar L. Thorp. The oldest house in town, it was purchased in 1965 and restored as the Carson County Museum. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1966