Site of the Union Hotel/Bracken House/Acme Hotel
Rusk, Cherokee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first hotel to occupy this site was the Union Hotel, a wood frame building erected in 1849. Renamed Bracken House for a subsequent owner, it continued to serve the city until 1889. Civil War General Joseph L. Hogg, father of future Governor James Stephen Hogg, gave a rousing patriotic speech from the front steps in 1861, and infamous outlaw John Welsey Hardin was held for two weeks in the hotel by the local sheriff in 1872. Architect Theodore Miller razed the wooden structure and built the 65-room brick Acme Hotel in its place in 1889. It was destroyed by fire in 1905.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
From 1849 a succession of hotels stood on this Rusk site, beginning with the wood-frame Union Hotel, later renamed Bracken House. Its front steps saw Confederate General Joseph L. Hogg—father of future governor James Stephen Hogg—deliver a fiery patriotic speech in 1861, and the notorious outlaw John Wesley Hardin was jailed here for two weeks in 1872. In 1889 the old building gave way to the 65-room brick Acme Hotel, which burned in 1905.
Why it matters
A single hotel corner gathers Civil War oratory, frontier outlawry, and Texas political dynasty, showing how much local history could concentrate in one gathering place.
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Related people
- · Joseph L. Hogg
- · James Stephen Hogg
- · John Wesley Hardin
Themes & tags
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