Old Hess Building
Jacksboro, Jack County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built in 1898 by Crummel Oric Hess (1853-1945). Native sandstone. Contained the Hess furniture and undertaking business 43 years. Hess came to Jacksboro in 1882. Married Miss Lizzie Longmire in 1885. Was one of first licensed embalmers in state. Prominent civic leader. Served on city commission in early years. Helped organize Jacksboro National Bank; had first long distance telephone in this area. Organized first cemetery association here. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1967 Incising on base: Presented by Mrs. J. F. Boyd in memory of her father.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1898 of native sandstone, the Old Hess Building housed C. O. Hess's furniture and undertaking business for more than four decades. Hess, who arrived in Jacksboro in 1882, was among the state's first licensed embalmers and a busy civic organizer—helping found the Jacksboro National Bank, the local cemetery association, and bringing the area's first long-distance telephone. The structure stands as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, presented in memory of a founding daughter's father.
Why it matters
It preserves the everyday commercial fabric of a turn-of-the-century Texas town, where a single merchant-undertaker could anchor banking, communications, and community life on one sandstone corner.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The Old Hess Building went up in 1898 in Jacksboro, the seat of Jack County in North Texas. This was a town with the frontier fresh in its memory. Nearby Fort Richardson had been an active army post through the 1870s, part of the line of forts that defined the edge of settlement, and Jacksboro had grown up in its orbit.
By the turn of the century, though, the raw frontier was giving way to something steadier. This was the Gilded Age settling into the Progressive era, a time when Texas towns were trading tents and log structures for solid buildings of stone, and when a merchant's ambition was measured in banks, telephones, and civic organizations.
A building of native sandstone, raised in 1898, was a statement of confidence. It said that Jacksboro intended to endure, and that the man who built it meant to be part of its permanent fabric rather than a passing tradesman.
People & events
The building carries the name of Crummel Oric Hess, who lived from 1853 to 1945 and built it in 1898 of native sandstone. Hess had come to Jacksboro in 1882 and married Miss Lizzie Longmire in 1885, and for forty-three years his furniture and undertaking business operated within these walls.
That pairing of trades can surprise modern visitors, but it was entirely ordinary in that age. The same craftsman who built and sold fine wooden furniture was the natural person to build coffins, and from there the step to undertaking was a short one. Hess became one of the first licensed embalmers in the state, part of a broader professionalizing of a trade that had once been handled entirely at home.
Hess was far more than a shopkeeper. The marker records him as a prominent civic leader who served on the city commission in the town's early years, helped organize the Jacksboro National Bank, and brought in the first long-distance telephone in the area. He also organized the first cemetery association here, a fitting undertaking for a man in his line of work. The building's base carries a further note: it was presented by Mrs. J. F. Boyd in memory of her father.
Its place in the American story
The Old Hess Building tells a story that played out on countless Main Streets across turn-of-the-century America. In the small town, a single enterprising merchant often wore many hats, and the same person who sold you a chair might sit on the city commission, help charter the bank, and string the first long-distance telephone line.
That concentration of roles is how young towns bootstrapped themselves into modern communities. Banking brought capital, the telephone shrank distance, and civic organizations knit neighbors into a governed whole. Hess's career touches each of those threads, which is why a modest commercial building can stand for so much.
The furniture-and-undertaking trade also marks a national transition. The rise of the licensed embalmer, of which Hess was an early example in his state, reflects the broader movement of death care out of the family parlor and into a professional trade, a quiet but real change in how Americans lived and mourned. On one sandstone corner, the everyday commerce of an era is preserved.
If you visit
Come to Jacksboro and find this sturdy building of native sandstone, honored as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark. The stone is the first thing to appreciate: locally sourced, squared, and set to last, exactly the kind of construction a confident young town chose when it wanted a building to outlive its builder. It has.
Look for the incised note on the base recording that the building was presented in memory of a father by his daughter. It is a small, personal touch, and it tells you the structure was cherished as a piece of family and community memory, not merely as real estate.
As you stand here, picture the double life this corner once led, a showroom of furniture on one hand and the solemn work of undertaking on the other, with the town's first long-distance telephone perhaps ringing somewhere inside. Jacksboro rewards the unhurried traveler who enjoys reading a whole town's history off a single building, and the Old Hess Building is one of its finest pages.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
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Themes & tags
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