James and Missouri Hurry House
Richards, Grimes County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Alabama native James Monroe Hurry (1857-1941) and his wife Missouri Valunia Woodcock, a native of Georgia, built this house with the assistance of several of their neighbors about 1904 to support their growing family. Typical of early 20th century vernacular architecture, the Hurry House retains a high level of integrity and features bungalow detailing and a full porch in its L-plan design. The house remained in the Hurry family until 1962. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1992
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Alabama-born James Monroe Hurry and his Georgia-born wife Missouri built this house around 1904 with the help of several neighbors, a common act of rural mutual aid, to shelter their growing family. Its L-plan design, full porch, and bungalow touches are typical of early-20th-century Texas vernacular building. The home stayed in the Hurry family until 1962.
Why it matters
Modest, neighbor-built farmhouses like this preserve the everyday world of rural working families, the foundation of Texas's agrarian society.
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Related people
- · James Monroe Hurry
- · Missouri Valunia Woodcock Hurry
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Grimes County, C.S.A.
Anderson, TX
Densely settled and richly agricultural, Grimes County threw itself behind the Confederacy, voting for secession 907 to 9 and sending nine companies to the army. Its ordnance works at Anderson turned out cannon, cannonballs, firearms, swords, and gunpowder, and a military telegraph line crossed the county on its way from Houston to Marshall. In a darker episode, five men accused of treason were held in the Anderson jail in 1864 under the suspension of habeas corpus before being deported to Mexico.
Michael Moore Kennard
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Born in Tennessee, Michael Moore Kennard brought his family to Texas in 1830 as part of Robertson's Colony, likely pausing along the way to raise a crop. He received a large land grant in what is now Grimes County and earned still more land for his service in the Texas Revolution. His trading firm, Fanthorp, Womack & Kennard, was the county's first mercantile business.
Site of a Munition Factory
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On this spot from 1861 to 1865 stood a Confederate munitions factory, turning out cannon, cannonballs, guns, pistols, swords, sabers, bayonets, and gunpowder for the Southern war effort. Marked by the State of Texas in 1936, it recalls the improvised industrial base the Confederacy raised far from the front lines.
Magnolia
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