Site of Third County Courthouse
Graham, Young County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Young County was organized in 1856 with Belknap designated as county seat. After retreat of frontier troops during Civil War, county records were moved to Jacksboro 1865 during renewed Indian trouble. County was reorganized 1874 with Graham, county seat. Courthouse (of which only archway remains) was built 1884. Native sandstone for the two-story structure was quarried east of Graham by Irish workers. N. J. Rosenquist, a native of Sweden and builder of Texas courthouses, was chief stonemason. Building had two halls in form of Greek cross--a plan that followed points of the compass. (Archway belonged to east hall.) Officials at the time of construction were: County Judge, R. F.Arnold; Treasurer, J. W. Wadley; County Clerk, C. O. Joline; Tax Assessor, J. G. Hill; County Attorney, J. A. Woolfolk; Sheriff, W. T. Bunger; County Commissioners, W. C. Blakey, J. J. Hughes, J. . Mercer and H. D. Williams. Courthouse was razed in 1932 after completion of present structure. A. A. Morrison, fire marshal, led efforts to preserve historic archway during street improvements in 1936. During its existence, this Courthouse witnessed and preserved the records of many historic events of Young County.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Young County's early history swung with the fortunes of the frontier: organized in 1856 at Belknap, it saw its records flee to Jacksboro amid renewed Indian conflict during the Civil War before being reorganized around Graham in 1874. In 1884 workers quarried native sandstone east of town to raise a two-story courthouse laid out as a Greek cross, built by Swedish-born mason N. J. Rosenquist. Razed in 1932, the building survives only in a single preserved archway rescued during 1936 street work.
Why it matters
The lone surviving arch stands for the hard, interrupted work of building stable county government on a frontier repeatedly disrupted by conflict.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · N. J. Rosenquist
- · R. F. Arnold
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Tonk Valley Community
Graham, TX
This West Texas valley carries the name of the Tonkawa nation, who called themselves "the most human of people" and were settled here on a state-authorized reservation in 1855 before being removed to Indian Territory in 1859. After the Civil War and the opening of the old reserve to settlers in 1873, pioneer families built livestock farms, a dirt-floored log schoolhouse, and rival Baptist and Methodist congregations. A schoolmistress once took a gray plow pony as part of her pay, and by the mid-20th century consolidation folded the little community's schools into nearby Graham.
Gooseneck Cemetery
Graham, TX
Named for a bend in the Brazos River, Gooseneck Cemetery grew from land donated by Kentucky native George Washington Fore and his son John Silas Fore, on ground that had once been part of the Brazos River Indian Preserve. The Fores also gave land for a school and a church that became Bunger Baptist. Burials date from just after the Civil War, and those interred include a Virginia-born War of 1812 veteran, James James, said to have died at age 114.
Britt Johnson
Graham, TX
Britt Johnson, a formerly enslaved African American frontiersman, worked as a cowboy and scout near Fort Belknap when the Elm Creek Raid of October 1864 killed his son and carried his wife and children into captivity. He tracked his family and, by daring and stealth, recovered them from Indian Territory. In 1871 Kiowa warriors attacked his camp near this spot; the more than one hundred spent shells around his body testified to the fierce fight he and two companions waged before they were killed.
Major Robert Simpson Neighbors
Young County, TX
Virginia-born Robert Simpson Neighbors served in the Army of the Republic of Texas in 1836 and was captured during the Mexican general Adrian Woll's 1842 raid before becoming a United States Indian agent in 1845. In that role he worked among the Comanche and other Texas tribes during a turbulent era of frontier contact, and he was killed in 1859. The State of Texas erected this marker to him in 1936, the centennial of Texas independence.