Trinity County Seats
Groveton, Trinity County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Trinity County was formally organized by an act of the Texas legislature on February 11, 1850. Soon after, county residents chose between two sites for the establishment of a county seat, which was named Sumpter (5 miles east). Government offices were located in the residence of Solomon Adams until a courthouse was built. Now a ghost town, Sumpter served as the Trinity County seat until 1872, when the courthouse was destroyed by fire. the town of Trinity (20 miles southwest) was named the new county seat by legislative act. In 1874, however, local voters chose to relocate the seat of government at Pennington (12 miles northwest). A courthouse fire there in 1876, coupled with the theft of district court records in 1880, led county residents to consider a new site for the government offices. As the result of an election on October 7, 1882, the sawmill and railroad town of Groveton became the fourth seat of Trinity County. Official records were moved here 13 days later. The courthouse square was donated by the Trinity & Sabine Timber Co. The history of the Trinity County seats reflects a proud heritage based on early struggles and hopes of the area's pioneer heritage.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After Trinity County was organized in 1850, its seat of government wandered restlessly for three decades—from Sumpter, now a ghost town, to Trinity, to Pennington, and finally to Groveton in 1882. Courthouse fires, a theft of district-court records, and shifting population repeatedly forced new elections and moves. The sawmill-and-railroad town of Groveton at last secured the county records, donated square and all, becoming the fourth and final seat.
Why it matters
The county's migrating courthouse captures the instability and civic rivalries of frontier East Texas, where fire, distance, and ambition shaped where power settled.
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Related people
- · Solomon Adams
Related events
- · Organization of Trinity County (1850)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of the Town of Sumpter
Trinity County, TX
Sumpter was the first county seat of Trinity County, established on land granted in 1850 and formally laid out in November 1855. Incorporated in 1862, the young town served as the county's seat of government until fire destroyed its courthouse and records in 1872. The following year the county seat moved to Trinity, and Sumpter faded from the map. The State of Texas marked the vanished town's site in 1936.
Site of the Town of Sumpter
Groveton, TX
Sumpter was the first county seat of Trinity County, laid out on November 20, 1855, on land granted in 1850 and made the seat of government in 1854. Incorporated in 1862, the town lost its courthouse and public records to fire in 1872. The next year the county seat was moved to Trinity, and Sumpter dwindled away. Little but the marker now recalls the once-important town.
Boontown Cemetery
Trinity County, TX
Founded around the time of the Civil War by Whitney Alston Boone, the Boontown community established this burial ground in the 1880s on land granted to Edward Thomas "Buck" Smith. Boone himself lies among the interred, alongside pioneers and veterans of the nation's wars, with the earliest marked graves dating to 1887. A local paper mill deeded an additional acre in 1963, and descendants still maintain the site. Today the cemetery is the last physical trace of the vanished Boontown settlement.
Thornton Church Community
Groveton, TX
In 1858 James D. Thornton brought his family by wagon train from Mississippi to join friends and relatives already settled in Trinity County. The farming community they built centered on the Thornton Church and School, raised on land Thornton donated. Farming sustained the settlement until its population began to fade after World War II, and many of its pioneers rest in the church cemetery.