Finch Family Home
Longview, Gregg County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Early Victorian cottage built 1898 by John Finch on site of family's log cabin. Descendents active in community life. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
John Finch raised this modest Early Victorian cottage in 1898 on the very ground where his family's log cabin had stood, marking a household's passage from frontier shelter to settled comfort. His descendants remained active in the life of Longview. The state recognized the home as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1967.
Why it matters
Built atop the family's first cabin site, the cottage quietly traces one East Texas family's rise across a single generation of settlement.
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Related people
- · John Finch
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Earpville
Longview, TX
Earpville was settled in the late 1840s by James Earp and his relatives from Alabama, growing along a stagecoach line into a hub with a post office, stage stop, Methodist church, and stores that served the region's farmers. When part of Earp's homesite was sold to the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1870, the new town of Longview rose beside the tracks and Earpville faded away. Its disappearance is a classic case of the railroad choosing a town's fate.
O. H. Methvin
Longview, TX
Georgia-born O. H. Methvin came to Texas around 1848 with his wife Margaret and his father, settling on land in what was then Upshur County. In 1870 he gave 100 acres to the Southern Pacific Railroad, an act that founded the city of Longview; three years later it became the seat of the newly organized Gregg County. Methvin's land gift turned a railroad stop into a county town.
Dalton Gang's Last Raid
Longview, TX
On May 23, 1894, outlaw Bill Dalton led his gang into Longview and presented a note demanding money at the First National Bank, triggering a furious gunfight as Sheriff Jack Howard, City Marshal Mat Muckleroy, and armed citizens fought back. Three local men and one outlaw were killed, and the gang fled into Oklahoma with two bank officers briefly held hostage. Forged $20 notes later led lawmen to the surviving raiders.
O. H. Methvin, Sr., Founder of Longview
Longview, TX
O. H. Methvin (1815–1882) came to Texas from Georgia around 1848 and bought some 1,200 acres of East Texas, including a cornfield on this site. In 1870 he deeded 100 acres to the Southern Pacific Railroad, and the town that grew along the line was named Longview for the sweeping view surveyors admired from nearby Rock Hill. When Gregg County formed in 1873, Longview became its county seat, a city born from one landowner's gift to the railroad.