Col. James A. Stinson Home
Quitman, Wood County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Constructed in 1869 of virgin pine and oak by James A. Stinson, a widower who came to Texas in 1868 from Georgia after having served as a colonel in the Confederate Army. He brought with him his daughter Sallie. He bought extensive timber and farm lands in the eastern area of Wood County; operated a large sawmill which sent lumber throughout the state. Was also known as an early-day scientific farmer. Mrs. Nathan Jones, a widow with one daughter, Mary, became the second wife of Col. Stinson. The had two daughters, Lily and Cliffie, and one son, James F. In the parlor of the house, on April 22, 1874, Sallie Stinson married James Stephen Hogg, who later became the first native-born governor of the state. Col. Stinson was a southern aristocrat, a progressive thinker and a great scholar of government. He probably had great influence on James S. Hogg's ideas on good government. Was a leader in the county and state Grange, an organization which strove to protect rural interests. He was also instrumental in getting enacted into law the bill creating experimental farm, Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College. Stinson's home was always open to young and old. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Col. James A. Stinson came to Texas from Georgia in 1868, a widowed Confederate veteran who built this pine-and-oak home the next year and made himself a force in Wood County — running a large sawmill, championing scientific farming, and leading the Grange movement to protect rural interests. In his parlor in 1874, his daughter Sallie married James Stephen Hogg, who would become the first native-born governor of Texas, and Stinson's ideas on good government are said to have shaped the young reformer.
Why it matters
The house links a New South planter's Grange-era agrarian politics to the making of Governor Jim Hogg, one of Texas's most consequential progressive reformers.
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Related people
- · James A. Stinson
- · Sallie Stinson
- · James Stephen Hogg
Themes & tags
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