Toliver-Cone House
Columbus, Colorado County, Texas
Marker Inscription
James A. Toliver (1844-1911), native Texan, Civil War veteran, and local and political civic leader, is said to have built this house about 1870 with finest pine and cypress form his lumber yard. It was purchased in 1916 by Sallie Cone (1872-1966). Prominent features of the residence include its two-story wrap-around porch and decorative jig-sawn woodwork on the columns and railings. After Mrs.Cone's death, the home remained in the family until 1974. rthl - 1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Native Texan and Civil War veteran James A. Toliver, a civic and political leader in Columbus, is said to have built this house around 1870 using the finest pine and cypress from his own lumber yard. Its two-story wrap-around porch and jig-sawn woodwork mark it as a showpiece of the era; Sallie Cone bought it in 1916, and it stayed in her family until 1974.
Why it matters
The home reflects the Reconstruction-era rebuilding of Texas towns by returning veterans who turned to commerce and civic life to shape their communities.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · James A. Toliver
- · Sallie Cone
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ben Marshall Baker
Columbus, TX
Ben Marshall Baker and his brothers founded the "Colorado Citizen" newspaper in 1857, and all three joined the Confederate Army when the Civil War came — one brother, Hicks, was killed in the fighting. Ben returned to publish the paper from 1873 until his death in 1907, making this house the center of the town's press. His widow Virginia lived on here until 1916.
Stein-Girndt House
Columbus, TX
Merchant Edward Stein and his wife Angalla built this Columbus home in 1897, hiring the local Wirtz family of builders who raised several of the town's houses. After Edward's death the home passed to relatives, the Girndts, who kept the place as a working household — H.H. tending bees and dabbling in animal folk medicine, Annie running cows, chickens, and a milk route. The family held it into the 1970s, and it still wears its original Queen Anne finery of spindlework and fishscale shingles.
Home of Texas Attorney General George McCormick
Columbus, TX
This modest "Early Texas" cottage, built in 1868 of cypress and pine fastened with square nails, stayed in the McCormick family for a century. Its builder, George McCormick, came to Texas from Virginia in 1858 and served in the Confederate Army before turning to law and public life. He helped draft the Texas Constitution of 1876, served as state attorney general from 1878 to 1880, and later sat for years as a district judge.
Simpson-Williamson House
Columbus, TX
Friench Simpson came to Colorado County as a young Virginian in the 1860s and rose to become a farmer, banker, Columbus mayor, state senator, and published poet — a portrait of Gilded Age ambition in a small Texas town. In 1882 he built this ornate house, its Italianate and Eastlake milled woodwork and roof cresting advertising the prosperity of the era. After 1916 it passed to physician Dr. C. A. Williamson, whose family kept it until 1968.