Old Federal Building
Jefferson, Marion County, Texas
Marker Inscription
1869. First Federal Court and Custom House. Also housed county court and its records. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When this building rose in Jefferson in 1869, the town was a booming inland riverport on Big Cypress Bayou, its wharves linking Texas cotton to the wider world by steamboat. As the first federal court and custom house in the region, it processed the trade and legal business of a frontier port at the height of its prosperity, and it also sheltered the county court and its records.
Why it matters
It marks the moment federal authority and organized commerce took root in Reconstruction-era East Texas, in a river town whose fortunes rose and fell with the steamboat trade.
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Related events
- · Reconstruction
Themes & tags
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