McClure-McReynolds-Fowler Home
Palestine, Anderson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built in 1849 by Judge Alexander E. McClure (1815 - 1870), who came from Tennessee to Texas in 1840 and lived for a number of years at Old Fort Houston. Judge McClure was the first district clerk in Anderson County, co-owner of the "Trinity Advocate," and one of the most prominent lawyers in East Texas. The house was purchased from the McClures in 1884 by Zachariah Aycock McReynolds (1846 - 1928), who immigrated to Texas in 1875 from Adairsville, Georgia. He was a Confederate veteran who had fought in the sieges at Vicksburg and Atlanta in the Civil War, 1861-1865. About 1890 the house was remodeled using the old timber, including well preserved hand-hewn sills. From 1880 to 1908, Z. A. McReynolds held the offices of district clerk, county clerk, county judge, tax collector, and postmaster. In 1934 Colonel Godfrey Rees Fowler (1876 - 1958) and his wife Ella Sue (McReynolds) returned to Palestine to retire to her old family home. Colonel Fowler was a grandson of Judge John H. Reagan (first Texas Railroad Commission chairman). Fowler had fought in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine insurrection, the Nicaraguan uprising, and World War I. The McClures and McReynoldses have been the only property owners since 1848. (1970)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Judge Alexander E. McClure, a Tennessee lawyer who came to Texas in 1840, built this Palestine home in 1849 and served as Anderson County's first district clerk. In 1884 it passed to Confederate veteran Z. A. McReynolds, who had survived the sieges of Vicksburg and Atlanta and went on to hold nearly every county office. It later sheltered his daughter and her husband, Colonel Godfrey Fowler, a soldier of the Spanish-American War, the Philippines, Nicaragua, and World War I.
Why it matters
Through three generations of one East Texas household, the house connects the frontier bar, the Confederacy, and America's turn-of-the-century wars of empire.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Judge Alexander E. McClure came from Tennessee to Texas in 1840, when Texas was an independent republic. East Texas was still frontier country. Settlers clustered near forts and river crossings, and courts, newspapers, and county offices were only beginning to take shape.
By 1849, when McClure built this house, Texas had joined the United States and Palestine was becoming the seat of Anderson County. Lawyers, clerks, and newspaper editors were the people who turned a frontier settlement into a working county.
The house then lasted through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the arrival of modern America. Its later owners carried it into the era of the Spanish-American War and World War I, so one Palestine home spans almost a full century of Texas history.
People & events
Judge McClure lived for several years at Old Fort Houston, an early settlement point near what became Palestine. He became Anderson County's first district clerk and co-owned a newspaper, the Trinity Advocate. He also earned a reputation as one of the leading lawyers in East Texas.
In 1884 the McClures sold the house to Zachariah Aycock McReynolds. He had come to Texas in 1875 from Adairsville, Georgia. As a Confederate soldier he had lived through the sieges at Vicksburg and Atlanta, two of the war's hardest campaigns. In Palestine he became a fixture in public life. Between 1880 and 1908 he served at different times as district clerk, county clerk, county judge, tax collector, and postmaster. Around 1890 he remodeled the house but reused its old timber, including the hand-hewn sills.
In 1934 his daughter, Ella Sue, came home to retire with her husband, Colonel Godfrey Rees Fowler. Fowler was a grandson of Judge John H. Reagan, the first chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission. He had served in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine insurrection, the Nicaraguan uprising, and World War I. Few houses in Texas have sheltered so much military history under one roof.
Its place in the American story
This one home follows a remarkable stretch of American history. It begins with the frontier lawyers who built county government in the Republic of Texas and early statehood. It continues with a Confederate soldier who fought at Vicksburg, the siege that gave the Union control of the Mississippi River.
Colonel Fowler's career shows the country's next chapter. Starting in 1898, the United States fought overseas and took on a new role in the Caribbean, Central America, and the Pacific. Later came World War I. A soldier from a Texas family could find himself fighting a world away from home.
The family connection to John H. Reagan adds another thread. Reagan was one of the best-known Texans of his time, and as the first chairman of the Railroad Commission he helped set the pattern for how the state would regulate its industries.
If you visit
This is a private historic home, so enjoy it from the sidewalk. Notice how the house has carried the original 1849 frame and the 1890 remodeling together. The hand-hewn sills the marker mentions are a reminder that the oldest parts of a house are often the ones you can't see.
Palestine is one of the older towns in East Texas and has plenty of historic homes and markers. A slow drive or walk through its older neighborhoods gives you a feel for how the town grew over a century and a half.
If you're following East Texas history, Palestine pairs well with nearby sites tied to the Fort Houston era and to John H. Reagan. Use the marker map to plan a loop through Anderson County.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Alexander E. McClure
- · Zachariah Aycock McReynolds
- · Godfrey Rees Fowler
- · John H. Reagan
Related events
- · Siege of Vicksburg
- · Battle of Atlanta
- · Spanish-American War
- · World War I
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Palestine Salt Works C. S. A.
Palestine, TX
During the Civil War salt was a strategic necessity—for preserving meat and feeding armies—and this works labored to supply the Confederacy at a fixed price, though desperate private buyers often paid far more. Enslaved workers pumped brine from a line of wells through hollowed-gum-log pipelines to great iron kettles, where it was slowly boiled down into salt.
John H. Reagan
Palestine, TX
Born in Tennessee in 1818, John Henninger Reagan rose through Texas public life as a judge and congressman before resigning his seat in 1861 to serve as postmaster general of the Confederacy. Captured and imprisoned after the war, he returned to farm near Palestine and re-entered national politics, where he led the fight for the 1887 Interstate Commerce Act that first brought railroad monopolies under federal regulation. He capped his career as the first chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission.
John H. Reagan
Palestine, TX
Born in Tennessee in 1818, John Henninger Reagan came to Texas, fought in the Cherokee War, and built a career in law and politics that carried him to the U.S. Congress by 1857. When war came he resigned over states' rights and served as postmaster general of the Confederacy, was captured and imprisoned, then returned to Texas and rebuilt his life. His greatest legacy came afterward: as congressman and senator he led the fight that produced the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, then became the first chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, pioneering government regulation of the railroads.
Anderson County in the Civil War
Palestine, TX
Settled largely by families from the Deep South, Anderson County voted overwhelmingly—870 to 15—for secession in 1861, even as Governor Sam Houston pleaded against it on the steps of Palestine's Osceola Hotel. More than 1,100 local men filled a dozen Confederate companies, over 300 dying on battlefields from New Mexico to Pennsylvania. On the home front, factories and salt works supplied the war effort while a hotel served as a makeshift hospital; among the county's leaders was John H. Reagan, the Confederacy's postmaster general.