Dougherty Community Homeplace
Emory, Rains County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Robert Newberry Dougherty, son of Dougherty community founder James W. Dougherty, assumed management of his father's farm in the 1860s and by 1870 was sole owner of the family land. At this site in 1880-81 he erected a one-room house to which later additions were made. The Dougherty family has maintained the home since its construction and has often opened it for community gatherings. Over the years, the homeplace has been the site of weddings, music festivals, and family reunions, and at one time served as headquarters for the Dougherty Rural Telephone Co.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Robert Newberry Dougherty, son of the community's founder, took over the family farm in the 1860s and became sole owner of the land by 1870. He built a one-room house here in 1880–81, adding on over time as the homeplace became a gathering spot for the surrounding rural community. It has hosted weddings, music festivals, and reunions, and once served as headquarters for the local rural telephone company.
Why it matters
The homeplace embodies the enduring role of the family farm as the social and civic heart of rural America, holding a scattered community together across generations.
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Related people
- · Robert Newberry Dougherty
- · James W. Dougherty
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Dougherty Community Cemetery
Emory, TX
James W. Dougherty and his wife Isabella came to Texas from Kentucky in the late 1840s, joining Charles Fenton Mercer's colony and buying 640 acres here in 1851, where Dougherty farmed and worked as a tanner. In 1877 their son Robert donated an acre for a community burial ground, later enlarged by gifts of land in 1935 and 1964. The cemetery grew from one pioneer family's stake in the frontier.
Ambrose Fitzgerald
Emory, TX
A Missourian by birth, Ambrose Fitzgerald settled in 1846 on land then part of Nacogdoches County, and as new counties were carved from it he became the first clerk for both Van Zandt and Wood counties. After serving in the Civil War he returned to hold nearly every clerical office in newly formed Rains County. A Baptist preacher as well as a public servant, he baptized James S. Hogg, who would go on to become governor of Texas.
Emory Rains
Emory, TX
Emory Rains was a Texas pioneer whose public life spanned three governments: he served as an alcalde under Mexican rule, helped mediate the violent Regulator–Moderator feud of the 1840s, and sat as a senator in the Congress of the Republic of Texas, where he helped pass an early Homestead Act. He was a delegate to the 1845 convention that brought Texas into the Union and later worked in the legislature to create the county that bears his name. Its seat, Emory, honors him as well.
Rains County
Emory, TX
Carved from four neighboring counties, Rains County was created in June 1870 and organized that December, part of the rapid subdivision of Texas as settlement spread across the state. It was named for Emory Rains (1800–1878), a veteran legislator who served in both the Congress of the Republic of Texas and the later state legislature. The county seat, Emory, also bears his name.