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Angelina
County is named after an Indian girl who
became an enthusiastic convert of the Franciscan missionaries. A bronze
statue across from the Museum of East Texas honors her.
Angelina County
Courthouses
Jonesville
was the second of Angelina
County’s four county seats, sandwiched between Marion
and Angelina (aka Homer).
It served in this capacity from 1854-1858.
Jonesville
never grew and in it’s short reign as county seat and they never got
around to building a courthouse. County offices were rented.
Homer became the
Angelina County Seat in 1858 after defeating Jonesville
in a contested election. Homer’s
name was changed to Angelina at this time, but the name didn’t gain
favor and it was officially changed back to Homer
in 1862.
Marion, Texas
(being the first Angelina
County seat) had retained the county’s first (log) courthouse.
Since Jonesville
never built one, the courthouse was dismantled and moved to Homer
where it was used until it was replaced by a two-story frame building
in 1873.
Homer became the
county’s most important town – with only Lufkin
as a near rival. The tables were turned in the early 1880s when the
Houston, East and West Texas Railroad bypassed Homer
in favor of the more direct path through Lufkin.
It retained the courthouse and a population in the 300s through the
rest of the 1880s. In late 1891, Homer’s
courthouse burned. The more prosperous city of Lufkin
became county seat the following year.
How a town was
born by Bob Bowman
The Galveston Daily News of June 7, 1907, carried an article titled,
“Some Interesting Notes Concerning That Section of East Texas Which
is Today Attracting So Much Attention.” Writing about Angelina County,
the unknown author described the county as “full of romantic incidents,
to say nothing of tragedy and material of a more substantive nature.”...
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"The uninspiring
1955 Angelina County courthouse in Lufkin."
- Terry
Jeanson, December, 2007 photo |
The Present
Angelina County Courthouse - Lufkin
Date
- 1955
Architect - Wilbur Kent
Style - Modern
Material - Brick, limestone and steel
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The 1955 Angelina
County Courthouse
Postcard courtesy www.rootsweb.com/ %7Etxpstcrd/ |
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The
demolished Angelina County courthouse as it appears in a downtown
Lufkin mural by Lance Hunter
TE Photo, 2002 |
Remembering
a Courthouse by Bob Bowman
"[I]n the l950s, many Texas counties threw aside history, tradition
and elegance and replaced some of our finest courthouses with modern
buildings -- many of them with little character or appeal. That happened
in my home town of Lufkin.
The Angelina County Commissioners Court decided that its fifty-year
old courthouse, resplendent with a dome and a clock, was inadequate
to meet the county's needs. Following a bond election to fund a new
courthouse, the county demolished the old courthouse without ceremony
in 1953." ... more
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"The cornerstone
from the 1902-03 Angelina County courthouse embedded in a wall on
the first floor of the current courthouse."
- Terry
Jeanson, December, 2007 photo |
"The 1902-03
Angelina County courthouse designed by architect James Riely Gordon.
This painting, by artist Audrey Medford, is hanging in the county
clerk's office in the current courthouse."
- Terry
Jeanson, December, 2007 |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
us. |
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