County Seat War
Wills Point, Van Zandt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Due to a surveyor's error, the county seat of Van Zandt County was located on private property in 1850. An election was called 27 years later because of discontent with the site. On May 28, 1877, County Judge Cadwell Walton Raines ordered court records moved to Wills Point from Canton. Many citizens objected, and about 200 armed men from around Canton marched on Wills Point. Governor R. B. Hubbard assigned militia troops to maintain order and fighting was averted. The records were returned in October 1878 and the county seat ultimately remained in Canton. (1997)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A surveyor's error in 1850 placed Van Zandt County's seat on private land, and by 1877 discontent boiled over into a full-blown "county seat war." When Judge Cadwell Walton Raines ordered the records moved from Canton to Wills Point, some 200 armed men marched in protest, and Governor R. B. Hubbard had to send militia to keep the peace. Bloodshed was averted, the records went back to Canton in 1878, and the seat stayed there for good.
Why it matters
County-seat fights like this one, sometimes armed and bitter, reveal how fiercely frontier Texans prized the local prestige and commerce that came with hosting the courthouse.
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Related people
- · Cadwell Walton Raines
- · R. B. Hubbard
Related events
- · Van Zandt County Seat War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
William A. Wills
Wills Point, TX
Tennessee native William A. Wills moved his family to Texas in 1847 and settled along the Dallas–Shreveport Road, where the Wills home became a welcome stop for travelers. He served the young county as tax assessor-collector, road overseer, and commissioner, and by 1855 court records were already calling the area around his property 'Wills Point.' When the town was laid out along the Texas and Pacific Railroad in 1873, it took his name for good.
Dallas-Shreveport Road
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White Rose Cemetery
Wills Point, TX
Wills Point grew up in the early 1870s along the Texas and Pacific Railroad, taking its name from William Wills, who kept a log-cabin trading post on the old Dallas–Shreveport Road. The cemetery began with Wills's own burial on family land in 1864; his widow, Mary Ann, later platted eight acres in a grid and sold lots for community graves. Organized as the White Rose Cemetery Association in 1874 and formally chartered under that name in 1909, the grounds grew to some 45 acres holding roughly 31,500 burials — pioneer settlers, their descendants, and veterans from the Civil War through Vietnam.
McKain Family Home
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Thomas J. McKain came to Texas from Florida in 1870 and, four years later, built this house for his bride Mattie Cornelia Bagby — the first couple married in the young town of Wills Point. The lumber traveled by ox-wagon all the way from Longview. A merchant who promoted immigration to Texas, McKain served repeatedly as mayor along with stints as alderman and school trustee, helping shape the community in its formative decades.