HAMILTON COUNTY
Zechariah
4:6
"Not by might,
nor by
power,
but by my
Spirit,
saith the
LORD of Hosts"
~ ~ ~
Galations 6:14
But God forbid
that I should glory, save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the
world is crucified unto me, and I unto the
world.
Hamilton,
the county seat of Hamilton County,
is the oldest town in the county. The legislation which created Hamilton
County also specified that the site of the county seat must be located
within five miles of the center of the county. The Legislature named the
county for General James Hamilton, a former governor of South Carolina who
died before the county was created.
Actually our Hamilton County, located in
Central Texas, is the second county named Hamilton in Texas; however, it
is the only Hamilton County to be organized. Both counties were named to
honor Gen. James Hamilton for his financial support of the Republic of
Texas. The first Hamilton County was created February 2, 1842, by the
Sixth Congress of the Republic of Texas. The Sixth Congress passed an act
to divide Montgomery and Houston Counties in southeast Texas so that two
additional counties would be created for "judicial and other
purposes." When the Texas Supreme Court convened for its Spring,
1842, session, the court ruled that the action taken by the Texas Congress
was unconstitutional.
Sixteen years later on January 22, 1858,
what is now Hamilton County was sliced from Comanche, Bosque, and Lampasas
Counties by the Seventh Legislature of the State of Texas. The county was
organized August 2, 1858, and when the county seat of Hamilton was
surveyed, the Ezekiel "Zeke" Manning family was the only family
living at the site selected for the town. The Mannings from Perry County,
MO, had arrived in 1855 in an ox cart and initially camped at the site now
occupied by St. Mary’s Episcopal
Church. Mr. Manning built a "tavern"(store) on the southwest
corner of the square (now the at the intersection of HWY 281 and HWY 36.)
Of course, the square had not been laid off, and there was a big chaparral
thicket where the courthouse now stands. Mr. Manning helped organize the
county of which he was the first sheriff being appointed by Governor Sam
Houston. Also appointed were
Chief Justice (County Judge)-- James Monroe Rice
County Commissioner-- Henry C. Standefer, and
County Clerk- -Isaac Skelton Standefer.
The first elected county
officials on August 2, 1858, were:
Chief Justice (County Judge)- -James Monroe Rice
Sheriff-- Ezekiel Manning
County Treasurer-- Jesse J. Griffith
Assessor and Collector-- R. B. Griffith
County Clerk- -Isaac Skelton Standefer.
County Commissioners- -Henry C. Standefer and Noah
Crisco
Most of the inhabitants of the new
county lived along the Leon River near
what is now known as the Evergreen
community and they wanted the county seat to be located at the site of the
future Rock House near the Leon River.
Fear of losing Priddy, Center
City, and the western part of the county
contributed to the acceptance of a more centrally located site.
Severe droughts in 1856 and in 1858 increased the
hardships and dangers faced by the first brave souls who ventured into the
future Hamilton County. As a frontier Hamilton County was a panorama of
rolling hills, verdant valleys, and plentiful prairies. Grass grew chest
high and streams ran deep and with ample force to power mills--flour,
grist, and lumber, and later cotton gins. The earliest settlers of this
portion of the Old Milam District chose to make their homes under mighty
oaks and pecan trees on the banks of waterways traversing the land. The North
Bosque River wandered through northern Hamilton County. The Leon
River and the Cowhouse
Creek meandered through the middle of the county from west to east
while on the south was the Lampasas River.
Two Pecan Creeks
and Honey Creek were also forceful
streams--and not mere trickles of water.
The soon-to-be Hamilton County was a battlefield for
two decades for Indians attempting to retain their land and for pioneers
intent on acquiring inexpensive virgin land. While beauty abounded
Hamilton was isolated from civilization. Galveston was the nearest port
from which merchants could acquire goods and supplies which had to be
transported via ox-drawn wagons and carts. Survival was the key factor in
existence while education and religion were pushed into the background.
Waco was at least a week away on a trail blazed by James Monroe Rice who
marked the "road" by dragging logs behind his wagons as he
brought his family to this area. Not until the Texas
Central Railroad reached Hico on
November 11, 1880, was there a dependable and predictable connection with
the remainder of the world. Thus early comers to Hamilton County had to be
self-sufficient growing, producing, and making all of their foodstuffs,
apparel, household furnishings, and farm equipment. Transportation within
the county was slow. A trip for a loaded wagon from Hamilton to Hico could
take two to four days depending on the weather and muddy trails.
In 1855 Henry C. Standefer and James Monroe Rice
opened the first general store near the
location of Hamilton City Hall--intersection of South Bell and East Main
Streets. James Monroe Rice died while purchasing supplies for their store
on a business trip to Galveston in 1872. Thus the first Chief Justice of
Hamilton County was buried in Galveston, because there was no way to
return his body to Hamilton.
John Jefferson Durham, came to Coryell County, TX, in
1857 where he met and married Elizabeth Ann McCutcheon. J. J. Durham
brought his bride to Hamilton, where he taught the first
school--a private school--in Hamilton in 1859, before enlisting in the
Confederate Army. Returning to Hamilton after the war, Durham purchased
1,500 acres on the Leon River from the Juan de la Garza Survey for
seventy-five cents an acre on May 19, 1868. His purchase included the land
on which the Leon River School in which Miss
Ann Whitney had been murdered by the Indians in July, 1867. Mr. Durham
built a toll bridge across the Leon River, and in 1873 he built a large
two-story limestone house on his ranch. In 1885 he built a similar
limestone house in Hamilton. Mr. Durham continued to acquire property, so
that when he installed a barbed wire fence around his holdings (after
1885), the fence extended seven miles from the town of Hamilton to the
Leon River. Mr. Durham built two stone buildings in Hamilton used for
stores, and then a third limestone house for his second wife, Docia May
Price (Frost) Durham, whom he married after the death of Elizabeth Ann
Durham. Mr. Durham was the father of seventeen children and the
step-father of two. One of his daughters was Anna Belle Durham Abernethy
(Mrs. Arvord M.), mother of Alice Ann Abernethy Poteet.
Hamilton County was hardly organized before the Civil
War occurred. As Federal forces were withdrawn, Indian attacks increased.
Men from Hico were exempt from Civil War
service since they were needed at home to protect the settlement at the
edge of the frontier. Following the Civil War all post offices in the
state were closed and there was no mail service until the end of the Reconstruction
Period.
By 1871 residents on the Leon
River were pressing for the county seat to be moved to the Leon River.
On January 31, 1871, a petition was sent to the state legislature on
behalf of both the county and the town of Hamilton to leave the county
seat where it was. If the county seat were moved, it would have been ten
miles from the center of the county instead of four miles north of the
county’s midpoint.
Hamilton County was beginning to emerge from the
throes of the Civil War by 1873. Thoughts and efforts turned to
establishing churches and schools. The schools built throughout the
county, were used on Sundays for worship by the various congregations
within the community. Preachers "by the boatload" were
commissioned by Baptist churches in the southeastern states to proclaim
the Gospel on the frontier. The commissioning came sans financial support
and backing.
On December 9, 1874, the
Hampton Post Office closed and the Hamilton
Post Office opened with Thomas D. Neel as postmaster. Hampton Post
Office, the first post office in Hamilton County, provided mail service to
Hamilton from its opening in 1859 until it was closed from 1866 until 1871
during the Reconstruction Period. Postal service did not exist in the
South following the Civil War.
In 1881 the residents of Hamilton County learned that
the State Legislature was considering forming a new county from the
counties of Hamilton, Lampasas, Comanche, and Brown. Both the
Commissioners Court and the citizens of the county sent petitions opposing
the loss of any Hamilton County land to a new county. Despite the protests
Mills County was organized March 15, 1887, from the above named counties.
However, before Mills County was formed, the citizens of the southern
portion of Hamilton County became disgruntled with their being so far from
the county seat. After the courthouse
burned February 2, 1886, these citizens petitioned for an election to
consider relocating the county seat to "Pegtown,"
a proposed town eight miles south of Hamilton near Shive.
To preserve Hamilton as the county seat, the Commissioners Court
negotiated with the residents along the southern border of the county to
move the Hamilton County line northward seven miles from Sims
Creek south of Center City to McGirk.
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