DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells the story, and here's my telling of it — so listen close. November 13, 1846. You want to talk about a firm with roots?
On that single day, a young man named William Pitt Ballinger walked out of the first judicial district court of the state of Texas holding something nobody had ever held before — the first law license issued by the state of Texas. And what did he do with it? He founded a law firm.
That same day. November 13, 1846. Now that firm — that particular firm — is still going.
Oldest continuous law firm in Texas. Let that settle in a moment. William Pitt Ballinger, born 1825, died 1888, was no ordinary man behind a desk.
He was a veteran of the Mexican War before he ever argued a case, and he went on to become a distinguished Texas statesman. The kind of man who, when history needs a footnote, keeps showing up in it. His first partners went by the name Jones, Butler and Ballinger — John M.
Jones and Jonas Butler rounding out that original three. You can imagine the handshakes, the shared ambition, the ink barely dry on that first-ever state law license sitting right there on the table between them. But here's the part that'll really get you.
That firm didn't just survive — it ran in the blood. Thomas J. Ballinger, William's son, came into the line.
Then his grandson, Ballinger Mills, Sr. Then his great-grandson, Ballinger Mills, Jr. Four generations of the same family, threading themselves through the same firm that started on one remarkable November day in 1846.
Most things in Texas are big. This one is old. And in Texas, sometimes old is the biggest thing of all.
What the marker says
Oldest continuous law firm in Texas. Founded Nov. 13, 1846, by William Pitt Ballinger (1825-1888), who on that day received first law license issued by state of Texas, through first judicial district court. A veteran of the Mexican war, he later was a distinguished Texas statesman. Ballinger's first partners -- in Jones, Butler & Ballinger -- were John M. Jones and Jonas Butler. Ballinger relatives who have formed line of descendancy in the firm include a son, Thomas J. Ballinger, grandson Ballinger Mills, Sr., and great-grandson Ballinger Mills, Jr. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967