Old Rock House
Mobeetie, Wheeler County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First substantial home in Wheeler County, built across creek from Hidetown, buffalo hunters' post, about 1875 for first sheriff Henry Fleming. Rock quarried nearby. Ell of four 14 foot square rooms. Was considered a mansion. Served the county until a courthouse could be built. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1964
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built around 1875 for Wheeler County's first sheriff, Henry Fleming, from rock quarried nearby, this four-room house stood across the creek from Hidetown, a rough buffalo hunters' post. Considered a mansion in its raw surroundings, it even doubled as the seat of county business until a proper courthouse could be built.
Why it matters
The Old Rock House is a rare permanent structure from the buffalo-hunting frontier, marking the moment a lawless hide camp began to become an organized county.
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Related people
- · Henry Fleming
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Mobeetie Cemetery
Mobeetie, TX
Said to be the first established cemetery in the Texas Panhandle, Mobeetie Cemetery was born of necessity beside a town that grew from an 1875 buffalo hunters' camp and army post. Tornadoes and time have erased many markers, but the oldest surviving stone dates to 1882. Among its graves lie outlaws, accused horse thieves, victims of an 1898 cyclone, and the famed Texas Ranger Captain G. W. Arrington.
Old Wheeler County Jail, 1886
Mobeetie, TX
Built in 1886 at Mobeetie, this was the first jail in the Texas Panhandle, a stone fortress that served as the central holding place for the region's outlaws. It cost $18,500—including $1,200 for a state-required hangman's device—and was raised from stone quarried on the farm of Emanuel Dubbs, the county's first judge. It was named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1965.
Temple Lea Houston
Mobeetie, TX
A son of Texas hero Sam Houston, Temple Lea Houston became a brilliant courtroom attorney and served this Panhandle county in the state senate in the 1880s. Known for his eloquence, he delivered the dedicatory address for the new Texas Capitol in 1888. He practiced in the old courthouse near this spot and made his home nearby with his wife and three sons.
Fort Elliott Flagpole
Mobeetie, TX
When Fort Elliott was established in 1875 to secure the Texas Panhandle, teamster-merchant J. J. Long was hired to supply its flagpole. He cut two great cedar trees in the breaks near Antelope Hills, thirty miles away, hauled them by wagon, and fashioned this fifty-foot pole. After the fort closed in 1890 Long bought the pole for his store, and it later stood at the Mobeetie school for two decades before being raised again here in 1949.