Colorado County Courthouse
Columbus, Colorado County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This classic revival building--erected in 1890-1891 in form of a Greek cross--is now one of 28 oldest existing courthouses in Texas' 254 counties. Contractors Martin, Byrne & Johnson built the structure of brick and Belton stone. Local Masonic Lodge laid cornerstone. In 1909 a tornado severely damaged building. Large bell in cupola-clock tower fell 120 feet and was completely buried in the earth. $15-a-month job of clock-winder was subsequently canceled. During repairs, present copper dome was added. In 1939 entire building was remodeled. RTHL - 1969
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1890–1891 in the shape of a Greek cross, the Colorado County Courthouse rose in brick and Belton stone with its cornerstone laid by the local Masonic lodge — a proud statement of a county coming into its own. A 1909 tornado nearly undid it, hurling the cupola's great bell 120 feet to bury itself in the ground and ending the clock-winder's fifteen-dollar-a-month job. In the repairs the building gained its distinctive copper dome, and it survives today as one of Texas's oldest working courthouses.
Why it matters
The county courthouse was the architectural and civic centerpiece of Texas towns, and the survivors among them are living monuments to nineteenth-century local government.
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Related events
- · 1909 Columbus tornado
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Colorado County, City of Columbus
Columbus, TX
Columbus traces its roots to 1823, when Stephen F. Austin eyed the site — shown on his 1835 map as Montezuma — for his colony's capital. The provisional government created the municipality of Colorado in January 1836 and ordered the town laid out as its seat; that spring the county was born and the town soon incorporated. As a railroad terminal from 1869 to 1873 it thrived as a trading hub, and its marker honors generations of pioneers, defenders of Gonzales, San Jacinto veterans, Confederate officers, and citizens of distinction who called the county home.
William Menefee
Columbus, TX
Born in Tennessee around 1796 and a veteran of the War of 1812, William L. Menefee brought his large family to Texas in 1830 and threw himself into the colony's turbulent politics. He served in the conventions of 1832 and 1833 and the provisional government, and on March 2, 1836, he was among the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Under the Republic he became Colorado County's first judge, sat in Congress, and helped choose the site of the state capital before decades more of public service.
The Rangers of Austin's Colony
Columbus, TX
By 1822 Stephen F. Austin had drawn some 150 families to his colony on the Colorado and Brazos rivers, where fear of Indian raids was constant. After the Mexican governor Trespalacios organized local defense, colonists in 1823 raised a small company under Moses Morrison, and Austin pledged ten more men at his own expense to serve as "Rangers." Though the Texas Rangers were not formally organized until 1835, these earliest ranging companies became the model for the force that followed.
Tumlinson Family
Columbus, TX
John and Elizabeth Tumlinson brought their seven children to Texas as members of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred, settling on the Colorado River. John was elected the district's first alcalde and, in May 1823, helped organize the first official Texas Ranger company to defend settlers — only to be killed in an Indian attack two months later. His descendants carried the family legacy forward, with more than a dozen serving as Rangers and frontier lawmen across the following century.