R. C. Mount House
Chico, Wise County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A surveyor, part-time Methodist preacher, and Wise County's first tax assessor-collector, R. C. Mount (1826-97) began this structure in 1872 to house his large family. Built of rock that Mount and his sons hauled by wagon from Palo Pinto County, the original 2-story section was completed in 1874. Contractor H. A. Saye of Amarillo enlarged the house in 1890, and further remodeling was done in 1920. The property is still owned by the Mount family.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
R. C. Mount — a surveyor, part-time Methodist preacher, and Wise County's first tax assessor-collector — began this sturdy stone house in 1872 for his large family. He and his sons hauled the rock by wagon from neighboring Palo Pinto County, finishing the original two-story section in 1874, with later enlargements in 1890 and 1920. The property has remained in the Mount family ever since.
Why it matters
It embodies the do-it-yourself endurance of frontier Texas settlers who literally hauled their homes into being on the edge of settlement.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the years after the Civil War, Wise County, northwest of Fort Worth, was still on the edge of settled Texas. Families were arriving to farm and ranch, county government was being organized, and life could be hard and uncertain. Much of the region was open land, and building anything lasting took determination.
The 1870s were a time of change on the Texas frontier. Towns were starting, counties were building their institutions, and the conflicts that had long made the region dangerous were coming to an end. People who arrived in these years were betting on a future that was not yet guaranteed.
In a place like this, one person often held many roles. The same man might survey land, preach on Sundays and serve in local office, because a young community had more work than people to do it. The builder of this house was one of those men.
People & events
R. C. Mount lived from 1826 to 1897, and his life was full. He was a surveyor, drawing the lines that turned open country into owned land. He was a part-time Methodist preacher, one of those who carried religion into frontier communities. And he was Wise County's first tax assessor-collector, which made him part of the county government from its beginning.
Mount also had a large family, and in 1872 he began building them a home. He did not order lumber and hire a crew. He and his sons hauled rock by wagon from neighboring Palo Pinto County, a long, heavy, patient job, and put up a two-story stone house. The original section was finished in 1874.
The house grew with the family. In 1890 contractor H. A. Saye of Amarillo enlarged it, and in 1920 it was remodeled again. And remarkably, the property has stayed in the Mount family, passed down through the generations who followed the man who built it.
Its place in the American story
The Mount House captures a basic chapter of American expansion: families building permanent lives on land that had only recently been frontier. Across the West, stone and timber homes like this one marked the point where settlement stopped being temporary and became home.
Mount's many jobs also show how local government took root. The United States was not just settled by farmers and ranchers but organized by surveyors, clerks and assessors who made property and taxes possible. In a real sense, he helped turn Wise County into a working county.
Finally, a house that has stayed in one family for so long is rare in a mobile country. It is a reminder that alongside the familiar story of Americans always moving on, there is another story of families who put down deep roots and stayed.
If you visit
When you look at this house, think about the rock. Every stone in the original section was hauled by wagon from Palo Pinto County by a father and his sons. It's a good thing to point out to kids: before trucks and highways, building a house like this took months of hard work.
Remember that this is still family property, not a museum. Enjoy it from public ground and give the owners the respect you would want for your own home.
Chico sits in the rolling country of North Texas, within reach of the Fort Worth area, which makes it an easy detour for a road trip into frontier history. Pair it with other stops in Wise County to get a feel for how this edge of settlement grew, one stone and one family at a time.
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
- · R. C. Mount
- · H. A. Saye
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Robert Calvin Mount
Chico, TX
Robert Calvin Mount came from Tennessee to Texas in 1855 and helped organize the brand-new Wise County, winning election as its first tax assessor-collector in 1856. During the Civil War he served as a first lieutenant in Blythe's militia, and in 1874 he built a fort-like rock house near Chico as protection on a still-dangerous frontier. He is remembered as one of the county's founding pioneers.
Brown Hotel
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Colonel J.T. Brown founded Chico in 1876 and a dozen years later built this hotel, a fixture of the young North Texas town. In a striking scene, Governor Charles A. Culberson stood on the hotel porch to pardon Brown for his role in a deadly 1895 fight. Banker R. Lee Morris held the property for most of the twentieth century, from 1908 to 1965.
Siddons-Barnes Log Cabin
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Believed to have been raised in the early 1870s, this small oak-log cabin served area Methodists as their first place of worship and doubled as a schoolhouse on the Wise County frontier. Dr. J. A. Siddons and his wife bought it in 1883 and built rooms around it, and the Barnes family took it over in 1918. Stripped back to its original half-notched logs and moved to this site in 1987, the 256-square-foot cabin survives as a relic of pioneer beginnings.
The Methodist Church in Chico
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This Methodist congregation was founded in May 1872, when pioneer Robert Calvin Mount, his wife, and three others gathered to worship in a log schoolhouse under the Reverend S.S. Cobb. Mount donated the land for its first church site. Over its first hundred years the congregation grew through five successive buildings on five different sites.