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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