Site of First Ward County Courthouse
Barstow, Ward County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A Three-story red sandstone courthouse with a domed cupola was constructed here in 1893, one year after Barstow was elected first Ward County seat. The first elected officials to serve in the courthouse were R. D. Gage, co. judge; S. D. McWhorter, co. & dist. clerk; W. M. Ware, sheriff & tax collector; John W. Phillips, co. attorney; S. H. Parker, tax assessor; J. B. Carson, surveyor; J. J. Walker, treas.; Pat Wheat, Comm. No. 1; W. C. Carson, Comm. No. 2; Pat Duracke, Comm. No. 3; and A. D. Irvin, Comm. No. 4. The landmark was razed soon after the county seat moved to Monahans in 1938. All that remains is a cornerstone.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A three-story red sandstone courthouse with a domed cupola was built here in 1893, a year after Barstow became the first seat of Ward County, and its first slate of elected officials took office within its walls. The county seat moved to Monahans in 1938, and the landmark was razed soon after — today only a cornerstone remains to mark where the seat of county government once stood.
Why it matters
The vanished courthouse recalls the rise and fall of a West Texas county seat, part of the larger story of shifting fortunes among the small towns that competed to anchor local government on the frontier.
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