Todd-Terhune Residence

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and here's how I'm going to tell it to you. Somewhere in Marion County, there stands a house that has seen more chapters than most novels, and it started before the Civil War even had a chance to get going. C.

S. Sabine built this Greek revival house in 1856 or 1857, and he built it right, with a large central hallway that gives the whole place a kind of unhurried dignity. The kind of hallway that says: whoever lives here has time to think.

Then, in 1858, the residence was sold to District Judge William S. Todd. Now, Judge Todd was born in 1808, and he was a man of consequence in this part of Texas.

Consequence enough that when the Secession Convention came around in 1861, he was there. Whatever was decided in that hall, William S. Todd was in the room.

He died in 1864, and the house moved on the way houses do, passing through time until the next family arrived. That family was the Terhunes. From 1869 all the way to 1912, the house belonged to Dr.

Archibald A. Terhune and his people. Dr.

Terhune, born in 1825, was a popular local physician, the kind of doctor a community holds onto, and he made the house work for him. He added a small room on the east side of the house, just for his office. You can imagine the steady stream of neighbors coming around that east side, hat in hand.

Dr. Terhune died in 1891, but the family stayed on. And then there was his wife, Mary Frances, born a Ware in 1831, gone in 1904, and noted, the marker tells us, as a gardener.

Not just a gardener. A noted gardener. In a town, in a county, in a state full of people who grew things, Mary Frances Terhune was the one people remembered.

So when you look at this old Greek revival house today, with its wide central hallway and that little east-side room, you're looking at the work of at least four lives: the builder, the judge, the doctor, and the woman who made something grow.

What the marker says

In 1856 or 1857 C. S. Sabine built this Greek revival house with its large central hallway. In 1858 the residence was sold to District Judge William S. Todd (1808-1864), who attended the Secession convention of 1861. The dwelling was occupied from 1869 to 1912 by the family of Dr. Archibald A. Terhune (1825-1891), popular local physician. He added a small room on the east side of the house for his office. His wife Mary Frances (Ware) (1831-1904) was a noted gardener. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1978