Election Oak
Clifton, Bosque County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of three polling places in first election held after Bosque County was organized in 1854. Of 21 votes cast on that occasion (August 7, 1854) in county, 17 were polled under this tree. J. K. Helton was election judge. Officials elected were: L. H. Scrutchfield, judge; P. Bryant, sheriff; Jasper N. Mabray, clerk; Isaac Gary, assessor-collector; Archibald Kell, treasurer. In later years, Bosque County Old Settlers Association used this site for reunions, by the courtesy of Tom M. Pool, owner of the land. Site was known locally as Pool Park. (1970)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When newly organized Bosque County held its first election in August 1854, most of the ballots — 17 of the 21 cast in the whole county — were polled beneath this oak tree. Neighbors gathered here to choose their first judge, sheriff, clerk, and other officials, an intimate picture of democracy on a thinly settled frontier. In later years the spot, known as Pool Park, hosted the reunions of the county's Old Settlers Association.
Why it matters
The Election Oak captures how self-government took root in frontier Texas, one small gathering of settlers casting votes under a tree.
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Related events
- · First Bosque County election, 1854
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Gary Cemetery
Clifton, TX
South Carolinians William and Rutha Gary brought their family west and settled here by 1852, when the land still belonged to McLennan County. When Bosque County was formed in 1854, William Gary became one of its first five commissioners, and several Garys voted in its first election. The couple's graves, William's in 1855 and Rutha's in 1868, became the seed of a small family and community cemetery that filled slowly until the last burial in 1932.
Joseph Olson Family Log Cabin
Clifton, TX
The Joseph Olson family sailed from Norway in 1858 and settled among fellow Norwegian immigrants in Bosque County's Norse community. In 1866 Olson raised a log cabin on his small farm, where the family lived until a stone house replaced it in 1872. The cabin stayed in the family for generations and was moved and reconstructed on this site in 1985 to honor the area's Norwegian heritage.
Scrutchfield Cemetery
Clifton, TX
Set on two acres of an 1846 land survey, this cemetery was deeded to Bosque County for public burials by Lowry Hampton Scrutchfield in 1883. Family tradition holds that an infant, Minnie Henderson, was the first laid to rest here, though the oldest legible stone marks a six-month-old child from 1885. Scrutchfield, his wife, and his mother lie among more than fifty marked and unmarked graves of the county's early settlers.
Lowry Hampton Scrutchfield
Valley Mills, TX
Born in Nacogdoches in 1824, Lowry Hampton Scrutchfield came to the Brazos country as a boy and learned surveying from the frontier figure George B. Erath, who also introduced him to local Indian tribes. In 1849 he helped survey Waco Village, then settled on the Pool land and emerged as the leading organizer of the pioneers who founded Bosque County. In 1854 his neighbors elected him the new county's first chief justice.