Jones-Tyson House
New Boston, Bowie County, Texas
Marker Inscription
North Carolina styling and garden plantings were brought to Bowie County when Jas. W. and Laura Williams Jones built this home in 1883. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When James W. and Laura Williams Jones built this home in 1883, they brought a piece of the Upper South with them — North Carolina architectural styling and garden plantings transplanted to the pinewoods of Bowie County. The house reflects the migration of settlers who carried regional tastes and traditions westward into Texas after the Civil War.
Why it matters
Modest houses like this record the cultural transfer that shaped Texas, as families reseeded their old-home customs on new ground.
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Related people
- · James W. Jones
- · Laura Williams Jones
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Bowie County
New Boston, TX
Carved from Red River County land in December 1840 and organized the next year, Bowie County honors James Bowie, the Long Expedition veteran who died defending the Alamo. The country had been home to agricultural Indians before 1800 and was charted for Anglo-American settlement in 1819, back when it was still frontier of the fledgling Texas Republic. Its county seat wandered among DeKalb, Old Boston, Texarkana, and Boston as railroads and farming, lumber, and manufacturing took hold.
Dan LaFayette McDuffie
New Boston, TX
Dan LaFayette McDuffie came from a line of lawmen and pinned on his first badge at eighteen, learning the trade from an uncle who was Texarkana's police chief. Over three decades he served as county officer, railroad special agent, and Texas Ranger, winning fame in a 1923 amnesty that brought in 82 liquor stills. In 1931 he was cut down by gunfire in a kidnapping case — the last Ranger killed on duty during East Texas's lawless oil-boom years.
Old Boston
Old Boston, TX
Boston began while this land was still part of Mexico, a store and mail stop serving the plantations along the Red River, and took its name from W. J. Boston, its first storekeeper. A battalion formed here to fight in the Texas Revolution, and in 1841 the town became the first seat of Bowie County, its square lined with stores and a two-story brick courthouse, and home to three private schools and even two future Texas governors. When the railroad bypassed it in 1877 and the county seat moved away, the once-thriving town faded into "Old" Boston.
Site of the Texas Home of Richard Ellis
New Boston, TX
Virginia-born jurist Richard Ellis practiced law and served on the bench in Alabama before coming to Texas in 1825. In March 1836 he presided as president of the Convention that declared Texas independent from Mexico, then served in the Congress of the new Republic. He lived out his years at this Bowie County home, dying here in 1846.