Lampasas County Jail
Lampasas, Lampasas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
County jail, built 1883 of native stone with Romanesque trim. Later stuccoed. Supports of interior scaffold remain. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1965
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Raised in 1883 of native stone with Romanesque trim, this county jail was a substantial statement of law and permanence in still-young Lampasas County. Later stuccoed over, it still holds the supports of its interior scaffold. It was recognized as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1965.
Why it matters
Sturdy stone jails like this one marked the arrival of formal government and civic order across the Texas frontier in the decades after the Civil War.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Horrell-Higgins Feud
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Four years after the saloon shootout, Lampasas County exploded into one of the most notorious blood feuds in Texas history. Beginning with cattleman Pink Higgins's 1877 killing of Merritt Horrell over accusations of rustling, the feud raged for six violent months of ambushes and street battles until the Texas Rangers forced a written truce. The reconciliation held on paper, but the feud's true end came in 1878 when a vigilante mob killed Tom and Mart Horrell in their jail cell.
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Lampasas County
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Lampasas County was organized in 1856, formed from Travis and Bell counties as Anglo settlement pushed up the Texas rivers in the years before the Civil War. Its name derives from Lampazos, the Spanish name for the local river, said to refer to the cockle-burs that grew thickly along its banks. First settled around 1850, the county grew steadily and gained its first railroad in 1882, with the town of Lampasas as its seat.
Hanna Springs
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These sulphur springs, first developed by John Hanna of a prominent local family, drew hundreds who came to camp and take the healing waters in early Lampasas. As the resort's fame grew, the Central Texas Town Company formed in 1884 to promote the park and built a convention hall. There, the 1892 State Democratic Convention backed Grover Cleveland for president and nominated James Hogg for governor — both of whom won — before the hall became an opera house and the resort faded after 1900.