The Gantt-Jones House
Burton, Washington County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of the homes in the early Union Hill settlement, this Greek Revival residence was built about 1860 for Dr. William Henry Gantt (d. 1867), a physician and scientist who later taught at Galveston Medical College. The second owner, 1865-1890, was Henry B. ("Jo-He") Jones, the inventor of a multi-purpose medicinal ointment. The family of Louis Prenzler lived here from 1908 to 1973. The structure was then purchased and restored by Mr. and Mrs. George L. Temple. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1976
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built around 1860 in the Union Hill settlement, this Greek Revival house was raised for Dr. William Henry Gantt, a physician and scientist who went on to teach at Galveston Medical College. Its second owner, Henry B. Jones, invented a popular medicinal ointment, and later families lived here for generations before the home was restored in the twentieth century.
Why it matters
The house preserves the refined Greek Revival architecture and the physician-inventor culture of antebellum rural Texas, a period when frontier settlements aspired to learning and gentility.
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Related people
- · William Henry Gantt
- · Henry B. Jones
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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This burial ground served McClellan's Settlement, a Washington County community named for storekeeper and gin operator William B. McClellan. A congregation formed at the McClellan Schoolhouse in 1876 and dedicated a chapel here — later Bethany Christian Church — with the cemetery's first burial, young George McCausland, in 1877. When the church moved to nearby Burton in 1913 it kept caring for the pioneer graveyard it left behind.
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