Foard County Courthouse
Crowell, Foard County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This is the second courthouse to serve Foard County since its creation in 1891. By 1909, the first courthouse proved too small for the needs of the county, and voters passed a bond election for the purpose of building a new one. The Commissioners Court selected Elmer G. Withers as architect, R. H. Stuckey as superintendent, and G. W. Brillhart of Abilene as contractor. Completed in 1910, the Classical Revival courthouse featured a statue of Lady Justice atop a domed cupola and prominent porticoes with paired Corinthian columns on each side. Tornado damage in 1942 resulted in the loss of these features, but the courthouse was repaired and still retains the basic configuration of its original design. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2001
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
By 1909 Foard County, created in 1891, had outgrown its first courthouse, and voters approved bonds for a grander one. Completed in 1910, the Classical Revival building rose with paired Corinthian porticoes and a statue of Lady Justice atop a domed cupola. A 1942 tornado tore away the statue and cupola, but the repaired courthouse still holds its original form.
Why it matters
County courthouses were the proud civic centerpieces of newly organized Texas counties, and Foard County's shows both that ambition and the toll the plains weather took on it.
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Related people
- · Elmer G. Withers
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Officials of Foard County
Crowell, TX
In April 1891 a legislative committee gathered in old Margaret to organize Foard County, dividing it into four precincts and holding an election that filled every office from judge and sheriff to the animal-and-hide inspector. The roll of first officials preserved here is a snapshot of self-government arriving on the West Texas plains. Such organizing meetings were the moment a stretch of open country became a functioning county.
Pease River Battlefield
Crowell, TX
At the Battle of Pease River in 1860, Texas Rangers under Captain L. S. Ross attacked a Comanche encampment and took a woman they recognized as Cynthia Ann Parker, seized as a nine-year-old in the 1836 raid on Fort Parker. By then she had lived a quarter-century among the Comanche as Naduah, wife of Chief Peta Nocona and mother of the future leader Quanah Parker. Returned to her Anglo relatives with her infant daughter, she never adjusted, tried repeatedly to escape, and died in 1864.
First Christian Church
Crowell, TX
Organized in 1906, the First Christian Church was among the earliest congregations in the young Foard County town of Crowell, its first officers a roster of the community's founding families. The building site was donated by a local settler and chosen by three members of the fledgling congregation. The original church building served continuously for 61 years, anchoring the town's religious life.
Foard County
Crowell, TX
Foard County was assembled in 1891 from pieces of four neighboring counties as settlement thickened across northwest Texas. It honors Robert L. Foard (1831–1898), a Confederate officer and prominent Columbus lawyer. The county seat of Crowell grew after a railroad reached it in 1908, tying this ranching country into the wider Texas economy.