Historic Hood County

HISTORIC HOOD COUNTY 

An Illustrated History 

A publication of Preserve Granbury

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HISTORIC HOOD COUNTY 


by Mary Estelle Gott Saltarelli 

Edited by Dee Gormley 

Photographs Collected by Diane Lock 

Published for Preserve Granbury 

Historical Publishing Network 

A division of Lammert Incorporated 

San Antonio, Texas

CONTENTS 

3 GRANBURY TOWN, A POEM 

4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

5 INTRODUCTION 

5 PRESERVE GRANBURY 2009 BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

6 CHAPTER I Prehistory, Natural History, Native Residents, and Early Explorers 

10 CHAPTER II Early Anglo-American Settlement 

18 CHAPTER III Establishment of Hood County and Granbury, the County Seat 

27 CHAPTER IV Post-Railroad Boom 

34 CHAPTER V Early Twentieth Century Progress 

45 CHAPTER VI Drought, Depression, and War 

53 CHAPTER VII Dreams and Plans 

64 CHAPTER VIII Revitalization, Rebirth, and Rapid Growth 

73 NOTES 

76 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

79 INDEX 

83 SHARING THE HERITAGE 

124 SPONSORS 

125 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

First Edition 

The written narrative history, endnotes, and bibliography copyright © 2009 by Mary Estelle Gott Saltarelli. 

The entire book, as printed, copyright © 2009 by Historical Publishing Network. 

All rights reserved. No part of the narrative history portion of this book, including the endnotes and bibliography, may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, 

including photocopying, without permission in writing from the author. All inquiries should be addressed to: Mary Estelle Gott Saltarelli, 410 Heritage Trail, Granbury, TX 76048. No part of 

the section of the book titled “Sharing the Heritage” may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from 

the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to: Historical Publishing Network, 11535 Galm Rd., Ste 101, San Antonio, Texas 78254. Phone (800) 749-9790. 

ISBN: 9781935377085 

Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 2009935098 

Historic Hood County: An Illustrated History 

author: Mary Estelle Gott Saltarelli 

editor: Dee Gormley 

photography research: Diane Lock 

cover photography: Glen Davis 

Historical Publishing Network 

president: Ron Lammert 

project manager: Curtis Courtney 

administration: Donna M. Mata, Melissa G. Quinn, Evelyn Hart 

book sales: Dee Steidle 

production: Colin Hart, Glenda Tarazon Krouse, Charles A. Newton, III, 

Joshua Johnston, Craig Mitchell 

PRINTED IN CHINA 

2 ✦ HISTORIC HOOD COUNTY

GRANBURY TOWN 

By Vera Estes 

1974 

Courtesy Mary Lou Watkins Collection 

What gives a town a soul, a heart? 

Try pride, love, a lot of caring to start. 

Mix experience, compassion and work all around. 

That’s what makes our Granbury town. 

The past brings memories of days gone by. 

Beauty, still making, holds the eye. 

From buggies creaking, horses neighing – 

It’s an old town people are saying. 

Folks come from far and near, 

To see all the things we hold dear. 

The old clock on the courthouse square 

Ticks the heartbeat, the pulse with time to spare. 

To stand in awe and listen to peace, 

A quiet town where gratitude has increased. 

Reminisce for awhile, through pages of time, 

Treasures of past that are yours and mine. 

Drummers going to the Nutt Hotel, 

A night’s lodging, their talk cast a spell. 

Days of overalls, poke bonnets galore, 

Cotton gins humming, keeping the score. 

The hammer on the anvil, at the blacksmith shop, 

The shoe cobbler’s half-soles, and the bare-foot crop. 

Smell of newspaper ink, of leather, and sweat, 

Old doc saying “sulfur and molasses,” your best bet. 

A hundred pounds of flour, and a pretty print dress, 

The mail order catalogue, and Paw a new vest. 

Planting time, harvest time, through rain and drought, 

Somehow oldtimers work things out. 

The old opera house and high button shoes, 

Laughter, jelly beans and things to amuse. 

Lanterns swinging in a soft night breeze, 

Fiddlers’ contest and the domino squeeze. 

The drug store hustle, the spittoon sound, 

That was all part of old Granbury town. 

Sunday morn breaks bright and clear. 

Church bells ring, the Lord speaks here. 

Not for a day but always near. 

Thankful, joyfully we take our pews, 

To hear the tale of God’s news. 

Hold onto ties that make our town great, 

Given by others, that was their fate. 

A touch of new to hold up the soul, 

Our pride, our home is not really old. 

Take time to ponder. 

Our hopes do abound. 

That’s what makes 

Our Granbury town. 

Granbury Town ✦ 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

The directors of Preserve Granbury and the author thank the 

following groups and individuals for their assistance and input 

in creating Historic Hood County, Texas: 

Inge Foundation 

Charles and Dominique Inge 

Jon and Becky Brumley 

Jon McConal 

Hood County Genealogical Society 

and its detailed historical web site 

Kay Lee 

Jake Caraway 

All those who donated their personal photographs 

Maurie Bowers and Joan White, Insta-Print Plus Copies 

Courts Cleveland, Jr. 

John Cleveland 

The Hood County Library staff and former director Jeanell Morris 

Warren White 

Burton Burks, Jr. 

Through years of researching Hood County history, the author has 

had the help and encouragement of several longtime residents she 

would especially like to acknowledge. Although they are no longer 

with us in life, their spirit and love of their home community remain 

part of Hood County. 

Mary Kate Durham 

Mary Lou Watkins 

Marie Williams 

Albert Porter 

Milton Kennon 

Tollie Williams 

E. G. “Pig” Williams 

Jeannine Macon 

Norma Crawford 

Ernestine Shugart 

Gloria Whitley 

Jane Smith 

Earlene Gilliam 

Mildred Thormann 

J. C. Cunningham 

Bill Keith 

Cody Martin 

Jim Johnson 

Jennifer Miller 

Jane Craddock 

Larry Stewart and Ann Stewart Surley 

The First National Bank of Granbury 

John Henry Luton 

❖ 

The interior of B. M. Estes law office at the corner of East Bridge and North Houston. 

COURTESY OF JAKE CARAWAY. 

Diane Lock 

Jo Ann Massey 


INTRODUCTION 

The Texas Grand Prairie meets the Western Cross Timbers in 

North Central Texas where Hood County’s 436 square miles 

nestle against the banks of the Brazos River. Nomadic 

Comanches once used Comanche Peak, a 1,129-foot mesa and 

the area’s most salient natural landmark, as a sacred meeting 

place and lookout point. Located 35 miles southwest of Fort 

Worth on the eastern edge of the Texas plains, Granbury is the 

seat of Hood County. The history of Hood County is closely 

intertwined with that of neighboring Somervell County. From 

its formation in 1866 until 1875, Hood County included most 

of the 188 square miles to its south that now make up 

Somervell County. 

Throughout its colorful history, Hood County’s character has 

been shaped and developed by natural forces and man-made 

ventures. The area’s lush prehistory and abundant natural history 

created an attractive home for diverse tribes of Native Americans. 

Anglo settlers brought a period of wild lawlessness followed by a 

post-railroad economic boom. As Americans moved to cities as 

part of an industrial society, Hood County suffered a gradual loss 

of economic vitality. Then preservation and heritage tourism 

brought the community revitalization and rebirth. Hood County’s 

special sense of place grew from these distinct historical and 

cultural contexts. Each one of these historic periods created 

cultural resources and vernacular architecture that should be 

preserved to keep Hood County’s unique sense of place. 

Determined to preserve this distinct local character, several 

long-time preservation practitioners joined together to form 

Preserve Granbury, a non-profit 501c3 organization whose 

mission is to preserve, enhance, and promote the unique 

architectural, cultural and natural resources of our community. 

Preserve Granbury vows to protect Hood County’s special sense 

of place through hands-on preservation, education and public 

policy advocacy. 

As part of Preserve Granbury’s preservation and education 

mission, members offer this updated history of Granbury and 

Hood County. Enjoy this journey through time as it attempts to 

convey the captivating stories of this scenic piece of North 

Central Texas. 

PRESERVE GRANBURY 2009 BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

Claudia Southern, President 

Diane Lock, First Vice President 

Dianne Rawls Davis, Second Vice President 

Carla Bandera, Secretary 

Ron Bleeker, Treasurer 

Glenda Pirkle, Founding Treasurer 

Mary G. Saltarelli, Consulting Executive Director 

Dan Addison 

❖ 

Yeats-Duke House, built from 1858 through the 1930s. First built as a log cabin, it 

evolved into a central-hall house with a shed addition. The log cabin is intact, and the 

entire house is being restored by the City of Granbury. 

COURTESY OF MARY DOWNS. 

Dee Gormley 

Janice Horak 

Cindy Peters 

Laurel Pirkle 

Linda Powell Preston 

Introduction ✦ 5

CHAPTER I 

P REHISTORY, NATURAL 

H ISTORY, 

N ATIVE R ESIDENTS, AND E ARLY E XPLORERS 

The Indian and the wild game upon which he fed, basked on the banks of her limpid streams, 

rested from the summer suns beneath gloriously spreading Live Oaks, fed on the Mesquite beans 

and the nutritious native grasses, and sought shelter from the winter storms beneath the boulders of limestone, 

which tower up in massive cliffs to precipitate heights, lending shade to the picturesque landscape…. 

—Thomas T. Ewell, Hood County History, 1895 

❖ 

Unidentified member of the Cleveland 

or Randle families in a buggy drawn 

by “Old Colonel,” Chevis Cleveland’s 

favorite horse, atop Comanche Peak. 

COURTESY OF COURTS CLEVELAND, JR. 

As the sea advanced and retreated overland from the south 110 million to 115 million years ago, 

the jutting white-walled mesas of the Brazos and Paluxy River Valleys were forged. Giant sauropods 

and meat-eating theropods lumbered through the mucky marshes of the prehistoric marine 

environment, leaving behind their footprints and sometimes their bones. Ancient trees fell and were 

washed downstream, where they were buried in sandy mud. 

These prehistoric natural processes formed layers of rock that geologists identify with formation 

names. Hood County is mostly located within a marine geologic region known as the Glen Rose 

formation, which contains distinctive limestone outcroppings. Part of the county, northwest of 

Granbury, is included in the Twin Mountains formation, which was terrestrial. 

Geologists also classify the earth’s past using a time scale of eras and periods beginning with the 

Precambrian era and the origin of earth more than 3,800 million years ago. Prehistoric processes created 

the Glen Rose formation during the early Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era 110 million to 115 million 

years ago. During the Cretaceous period, the Hood County area was alternately underwater or coastal plain. 

When the region was a coastal plain, fresh rivers washed wood downstream from the Twin Mountains 

formation area. As sandy sediment or the rising sea quickly buried it, the deposited timber began to 

harden, forming the petrified wood found in the region today. The Cretaceous period also featured the 

greatest diversity of dinosaurs, but by the end of the period sixty-five million years ago, they were extinct. 

Fossil hunters and professionals still discover finds from the Cretaceous period in Hood County. Scholars 

from Southern Methodist University excavated plant fossils and the bones of at least three sauropod dinosaurs 

in Hood County in 2000. They discovered a petrified log that was approximately 9 feet long and 83 inches in 

diameter, which indicates it was a large tree reaching possible heights of up to 76 feet. 1 

The earliest human residents of Texas are known to archeologists as Paleo-Americans or Old 

Americans. The Llano complex of Old Americans hunted on the Staked Plains of Texas twelve thousand 

years ago. This complex gave way to the Folsom culture on the Southern High Plains—people who hunted 

bison with Folsom points, which were two-inch, leaf-shaped projectile points. 


American Indians, whose roots are Asian, 

succeeded Old Americans in Texas. By the start of 

recorded history, the Caddos of East Texas had 

developed the most advanced culture in the state, 

which included farming and building structures 

atop earthen mounds. The Caddos cultivated crops 

including corn, beans, squash, sunflower seed, and 

tobacco. This abundance of food allowed for 

thriving and stable villages, where Caddos inhabited 

domed and thatched houses decorated with colorful 

handcrafted rugs, baskets, and pottery. 

Caddoans shaped their bows from wood of 

Osage orange and occasionally hunted buffalo on 

the plains west of Fort Worth. Native bluestem 

grasses—silver blue in the spring and rusty red in 

the fall—still wave over the rolling prairies of the 

Hood County area. Years ago, these grasses attracted 

thundering herds of American bison, or buffalo. 

The fertile prairies and plains of North Central 

Texas were also home to pronghorn antelope, deer, 

wolves, coyotes, and many other animals. 

This abundance of game attracted bands of 

Tonkawa Indians, who lived along the Brazos River 

Valley. Tonkawas called themselves “the most 

human of men,” and they lived by hunting, fishing, 

and gathering nuts and berries. Diseases brought 

to Texas by Spanish colonists decimated the 

Tonkawas, and their various small tribes united 

together around the beginning of the nineteenth 

century. By then, Tonkawas had become more like 

other Plains Indians, who depended upon buffalo 

for food, clothing, and shelter. They lived in 

buffalo-hide teepees, tattooed their bodies, and 

wore buckskin and moccasins. Tonkawas were not 

particularly aggressive or warlike, and their timid 

nature led to their early disappearance from the 

North Texas plains. W. C. Nunn wrote of the 

Tonkawas in his book, Story of a Texas County, 

about nearby Somervell County and Glen Rose: 

Scarcely anything is left except a memory of 

these people who once hunted the wildlife and 

drank the waters of Somervell. Legend has it that the 

present site of Glen Rose was a favorite gathering 

place for the Tonkawa and other Indians, too, as they 

knew of the healing qualities of the sulphur springs. 2 

The Hood County area was also home to Eastern 

Apaches, most notably the Lipans. According to 

Thomas T. Ewell in his 1895 Hood County History, 

the local town of Lipan “was named for the Lipan 

Indians, who are said to have at one time used this 

section as a hunting ground.” 3 

Apaches invaded the Southwest from the eastern 

Rocky Mountains and Great Plains, separating into 

an eastern tribe that entered Texas and a western 

tribe that was later led by Geronimo and Cochise 

in New Mexico and Arizona. During the sixteenth 

and seventeenth centuries, the Eastern Apaches were 

among the predominant people of the Southern Plains. 

Eastern Apaches lived in small villages or 

rancherías from spring until harvest, and then set 

out on winter buffalo hunts. With the introduction 

of horses to the Southern Plains, Eastern Apaches 

in Texas minimized their gardening and increased 

their hunting of buffalo. After men hunted and 

killed the buffalo, women of the tribe, who 

followed behind closely, did the remainder of the 

work. Squaws cut open dead buffalo with flint 

knives, harvesting livers and other raw delicacies, 

which they ate immediately. Then they removed 

the hides and roasted the buffalo carcasses. 

By the end of the seventeenth century, all Texas 

Indians were familiar with horses. First brought to 

America by Spanish explorers and soldiers, horses 

spread across the plains, reaching as far north as 

Canada by 1750. “When the Indians of the southern 

plains acquired horses, it touched off a series 

of revolutionary changes in native cultures somewhat 

like those initiated by the automobile and 

electricity in our own,” wrote W. W. Newcombe in 

his book, The Indians of Texas. 4 

About 1700, Wichita tribes invaded Texas from 

the north. These tribes were known as Taovayas, 

Tawakonis, Wacos, and Kichais. Wichitas settled in 

villages, and by 1772, the southernmost tribes settled 

on the Brazos River near Waco. They built houses 

of cedar posts and willow poles with grass spread 

over the exteriors. “These people were cultivating 

quite extensive fields of corn (maize), pumpkins, 

melons, beans and squashes; so, with these aids, and 

an abundant supply of buffalo meat, they may be 

said to be living very well,” Newcombe wrote. 5 

Many Texans believe that Comanches are the 

state’s true native Indians, but, in fact, they arrived 

late to the Southern Plains. They are descended 

from Northern Shoshones, who were located in the 

Great Basin region of the West. Access to horses 

transformed Comanche culture. “From a scrounging, 

poor, militarily weak rabble, they became in less 

than a century a mounted, well-equipped, and 

powerful people,” Newcombe wrote. 6 Chapter I ✦ 7

By 1705, Comanches arrived in New Mexico 

and, by the middle of the century, they dominated 

the Southern Plains, including Texas. Their aggressive 

onslaught affected Lipan Apaches, Tonkawas, 

and Spanish colonials, as well as Anglo settlers. 

“They came like a thunderbolt,” wrote T. R. 

Fehrenbach in his book, Lone Star. “The hardriding 

Comanches had seized a vast new kingdom: 

all the high plains and central plateaus of Texas.” 7 

Both the Wichitas and Kiowas brokered peace 

agreements with the Comanches, which allowed 

these tribes to continue living and hunting in Texas. 

Like Comanches, Kiowas arrived late to the 

Southern Plains, driven from the Black Hills of South 

Dakota by Sioux and Cheyennes during the late 

1700s. By 1790, the Kiowas and Kiowa-Apaches 

achieved a lasting peace with the Comanches that 

enabled them to share hunting grounds and jointly 

raid common enemies. Because of their intriguing 

ceremonial culture, Kiowas are often considered to 

be the quintessential southern Plains Indians. 

Kiowa spiritual tradition fascinated members of 

the U.S. Army, when, in 1871, Chief Sitting Bear 

attempted to escape from captors. The chief, who 

was also known as Satank, jumped up, brandished 

his knife, and began to chant the Texas Kiowa death 

song: “I live, but I will not live forever. Mysterious 

moon, you only remain, Powerful sun, you alone 

remain, Wonderful earth, you remain forever.” 8 

Comanche Peak, a limestone mesa with an elevation 

of 1,229 feet, is Hood County’s most 

salient landmark. Lewis Tahmahkera, a member 

of the Comanche tribes, told local historian Vance 

J. Maloney that Comanches “Held this mountain 

to be sacred, and some worshiped it. After a successful 

raid, they would have dances and ceremonials 

there on top.” 9 

Comanches called the peak “Que-tah-to-yah” 

or “Rocky Butte,” and Tahmahkera said they 

looked out for enemies there and communicated 

with distant tribe members, using smoke and later 

mirrors that they received from Spanish traders. 

On March 21, 1844, Comanche Chief 

Mopechucope or “Old Owl” used both the Brazos 

River and Comanche Peak as geographic boundary 

markers for the eastern edge of his tribe’s 

territory. Old Owl said: “All I want now is a 

line run between our countries which I want 

to commence on Brazos River passing over the 

Comanche Peak from there direct to the mouth 

of the first large creek running from thence in a 

direct line to the Rio Grande; all above that line 

Comanche Country and ever has been I myself 

never have left it nor never intends to.” 10 

Although Old Owl’s contemporary, Chief 

Buffalo Hump, first claimed the same territory 

west of the Brazos River and Comanche Peak, he 

later called for a boundary line further to the east. 

Early Spanish and French explorers also used 

Comanche Peak as a location marker during their 

expeditions across the prairies of North Central 

Texas. Spaniards called it “Lomo Alto” or “High 

Peak,” and that name appeared on maps as early as 

the 1820s. In 1541, the Spanish explorer Luis de 

Moscoso de Alvarado took over leadership of 

Hernando DeSoto’s Mississippi River expedition. 

While attempting to return to Mexico, de Alvarado 

traveled along the upper Brazos River in the Hood 

County area. Early in the next century, between 

1611 and 1634, Spanish Catholic missionaries set 

out from New Spain to convert the Indians of 

North Central Texas. The priests traveled along the 

Brazos River for 150 miles visiting native tribes. 

During the late eighteenth century, two French 

explorers employed by Spain, De Mezieres and 

Pedro Vial, ventured through the Hood County 

area. De Mezieres worked to win Spanish allegiance 

from the Indians of North Texas and traded successfully 

with them in 1772. Vial set out to find the 

most direct route between San Antonio and Santa 

Fe in 1786. After he suffered an injury, Vial took a 

detour to a Tawakoni village near Waco where he 

recovered. He then traveled north along the upper 

Brazos through the Hood County area to an Indian 

village near Mineral Wells. In 1787, Spanish 

Corporal Hoza Mares also sought a practical trade 

route from San Antonio to Santa Fe, and his journey 

brought him to the vicinity of Granbury. 

In 1831, Stephen F. Austin received a large 

grant to settle eight hundred Mexicans and other 

families in an area of North Central Texas that 

included Hood County. But he never established 

settlements in the area. 

After the Texas War for Independence, Republic 

President Mirabeau Lamar dispatched a force of 320 

Texans from Austin to Santa Fe, in hopes of extending 

the Texas boundary into New Mexico. In July of 

1841, this Santa Fe Expedition crossed the Brazos 

River near present-day Granbury. One of the members 

of the expedition wrote, “and Comanche Peak 

rising high above other hills gave grandeur and sublimity 

to a scene which would have otherwise been 


far from monotonous.” 11 The expedition’s bedraggled 

and starving members eventually arrived in 

Santa Fe, where they were captured. They were 

marched to Mexico and imprisoned, and Santa 

Anna released most of them the next year. 

In order to encourage immigration to Texas 

from the United States, the Texas Congress passed 

a homesteading law in 1841. This law authorized 

the president to contract with land speculators 

like W. S. Peters to establish settlements in North 

Central Texas. The Republic granted 640 acres 

to married males and 320 acres to bachelors who 

would build cabins and farm at least fifteen acres 

in an area encompassing several counties of North 

Central Texas, including Hood County. In his 

book The West Texas Frontier, Joseph Carroll 

McConnell described it as “the very heart of one 

of the finest parts of Texas.” 12 The Peters Colony 

soon reorganized as the Texas Emigration and 

Land Company and succeeded in establishing settlements 

northeast of Hood County in Grayson, 

Collin, Denton, and Tarrant Counties. 

Land agent and colonizer Jacob DeCordova traveled 

throughout the Texas frontier and acquired 

large tracts of property to sell to settlers. His promotional 

lectures in New York, Philadelphia, and 

other cities were published and attracted Anglo 

pioneers to Texas. DeCordova compiled the Map of 

the State of Texas in 1849 and wrote two books: The 

Texas Immigrant and Traveler’s Guidebook in 1856 

and Texas, Her Resources and Her Public Men in 

1858. His map and books stimulated American 

settlement of the Texas frontier, including the area 

that is now Hood County. DeCordova Bend, where 

the Brazos River turns back to nearly meet itself in 

southeastern Hood County, is named for him. 

In early 1843, the Republic of Texas signed a 

treaty with several Native American tribes and 

passed a law calling for the establishment of posts 

for trading with Indians. The second site chosen 

for a trading post was to be near Comanche Peak. 

Along with land company settlements to the north, 

this call for the establishment of a trading post 

set the stage for permanent Anglo populations in 

Hood County. “These diversified conditions seem 

to favorably invite men who…find peace and 

happiness in pastural and agricultural pursuits,” 

Thomas T. Ewell wrote in Hood County History. 

“Nature seems to have laid out and planned as the 

most healthful and appropriate home of a race of 

men seeking a life of cultured happiness….” 13 

During the late 1840s, George B. Erath 

surveyed land along the Brazos River in the 

Hood and Somervell County areas. A trained 

European surveyor, Erath and his partner, 

George Green, hobbled a horse so that each of its 

steps were the length of a vara. 14 

“We kept a section of the country west of the 

Brazos surveyed up for a hundred miles ahead of 

the forming settlements,” Erath wrote. Today, the 

county just to the south of Hood County is 

named in memory of Erath. 15 

On December 28, 1845, members of the U.S. 

Congress voted to admit Texas as a state in the 

Union. “The big news that Texas was no longer a 

Republic, but had now been admitted as a state of 

the United States, was proclaimed from the top of 

Comanche Peak on March 7, 1846, to the 

Comanche and other Indian tribes of the Plains,” 

local historian Maloney wrote. “Hundreds of 

Indians were assembled there, (and) heard the news 

as they sat in their buckskins, beads, paint and 

feathered finery, on top of this noted landmark.” 16 

The Indians gathered atop Comanche Peak 

because U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs 

Thomas Crawford had ordered Pierce M. 

Butler and M. G. Lewis to undertake a fourth 

mission to make peace with the “wild Indians 

of Texas.” The commissioners and their party 

experienced difficulty finding the meeting 

place Crawford described as a “peak.” When 

they finally discovered it, one member of their 

party wrote, “Comanche Peak has been found at 

last, but destitute of enchantment. Lo! It is a 

brushy hill.” 17 

Representatives of several Indian tribes attended 

the meetings on Comanche Peak, including 

Lipan Apaches, Comanches, Tonkawas, and 

Wichitas. There, some of them smoked the pipe of 

peace with U.S. commissioners. Butler described 

the Comanches as “extremely cautious” and wrote 

that they “evinced much concern about ‘white 

wagons’ that had been entering their country; 

and…hunters who had been blazing through….” 18 

The cautious Comanches did not have long to 

wait. White wagons would soon ford the Brazos 

River and boldly penetrate the eastern boundary 

of Chief Old Owl’s Comanche territory. Anglo 

pioneers no longer feared venturing west of the 

Brazos, which Ewell described as the “dead line” 

between Anglo settlements to the east and 

Comanche territory to the west. 

Chapter I ✦ 9

CHAPTER II 

E ARLY A NGLO-AMERICAN S ETTLEMENT 

The white man in his unremitting march toward the west had found a resting place here…. 


When nature loomed tremendous and people fought back with plows and axes, their actions were heroic. 

—Henry Glassie, Material Culture, 1999 

❖ 

Baptism in Acton, c. the 1870s, on 

Walnut Creek near the Masonic 

Lodge building. 

COURTESY OF JOHN CLEVELAND. 

Citizens of the Upland South, an area described mostly as encompassing Tennessee, Kentucky, 

Missouri and Arkansas, surged into Texas after its War for Independence from Mexico and 

annexation as a state in 1845. According to cultural geographer Terry G. Jordan, Tennessee was 

the leading state of citizenship of the settlers who arrived in North Central Texas from 1850 through 

1880, so much so that this area of Texas is now also considered part of the Upland South, or 

“Tennessee Extended.” 1 

Charles Barnard, an Indian trader who was born in Connecticut, preceded these hardy yeoman 

farmers in the area that is now Hood County. In 1849, Barnard and his brother, George, opened a 

trading post near Comanche Peak, a location selected earlier by the Republic of Texas. The Barnard 

brothers built their Comanche Peak Trading House in southeastern Hood County along the Brazos 

River. “This adventure entitled him to honors of being the first settler erecting the first house and 

opening the first store in Hood County,” wrote Joseph Carroll McConnell about Charles Barnard in 

his 1933 book West Texas Frontier. 2 


The Barnard brothers owned and operated 

other Indian trading posts, including the 

Barnard Trading House eight miles south of 

the present city of Waco on Tehuacana Creek. 

They were partners in Indian trade with John F. 

Torrey and his brothers, and Sam Houston 

was a stockholder in their company. In 1844, 

during Houston’s second term as president of 

the Republic, the Texas Congress ratified the 

Indian treaty calling for the establishment of 

trading posts. 

“This was business on a large scale with tons 

of merchandise moving monthly to Houston 

by caravans of wagons, the cargo destined 

for eastern cities,” wrote Raymond Elliott and 

Mildred Padon in their book Of a People 

and a Creek. From 1851 to 1853, George 

Barnard shipped 33,891 deerskins from his 

trading post on Tehuacana Creek, and his 

average monthly net profit on deerskins alone 

was one thousand dollars. 3 

Indian agents in Texas, who represented the 

U.S. government, saw Indian traders as 

troublesome. “One particularly bothersome 

trader, George Barnard, had a post high on the 

Brazos, from which he sold Indians liquor and 

firearms and stirred up trouble for all,” wrote 

T. R. Fehrenbach in Lone Star, a History of Texas 

and the Texans. 4 

Comanche Indians visited the Barnard 

Trading House on Tehuacana Creek in 1846. 

They brought with them a young Mexican 

woman named Juana Cavasos whom they had 

captured, and George Barnard traded $300 in 

horses and merchandise for her. Juana met 

Charles Barnard at the trading house, and 

S. W. F. Prewett wrote that it was “a case of love 

at first sight, and after a courtship which was 

said to have broken the record for shortness, he 

married her.” 5 

Charles Barnard brought his new young 

wife with him when he established Comanche 

Peak Trading House; their new home and 

business was located on the eastern edge of 

Comanche territory and along a north-south 

Caddo highway. An Indian village sprang up 

near the Barnard’s Comanche Peak Trading Post, 

where several tribes of Caddos lived. Tonkawas 

and various tribes of Wichita Indians also 

traded there. 

Other stalwart pioneers soon followed the 

Barnards, including David Crockett’s widow, 

❖ 

Above: Receipt from John Franklin 

Cleveland’s general merchandise store 

in Acton dated 1900. 


Below: John Franklin Cleveland’s 

general merchandise store in Acton in 

the year 1898, “Fun Night for 

the Boys.” 


Chapter II ✦ 11

❖ 

Right: Corner notching on log cabin 

built by Austin Yeats in 1858. 

PHOTO BY MARY SALTARELLI. 

Below: Limestone piers and massive 

sill log under Yeats log cabin. 

PHOTO BY PAUL PEDIGO. 


Elizabeth, and her sons, Robert Crockett and 

George Patton, who settled in the northeastern 

region of Hood County. They claimed David 

Crockett’s land bounty of 1,280 acres, which he 

was awarded by the Republic of Texas for 

“having served faithfully and honorably” during 

the Texas War for Independence. Rebecca 

Brumley, who now lives on a parcel of the 

Crocketts’ land that she and her husband, Jon, 

named “Crockett’s Bounty,” wrote about the 

challenges facing early settlers: 

They persevered through the thick woods 

of the cross timbers and rocky, unbroken soil; 

through sudden northers, tornadoes, hailstorms, 

and dry, searing summers; through cholera, ague 

fever, and smallpox. Life was tenuous and tough. 

But the land was also lush with promise: buffalo 

grass, big blue stem, side oats grama, meadow 

dropseed, purple prairie clover and sunflowers 

over the hills; elms, live oaks, and cottonwoods 

in the lowlands near streams; and antelope, 

buffalo, black bear, turkey and white tail deer on 

the open prairie. 6 

Rebecca Elvira Crockett Kimbrow, Elizabeth 

and David’s widowed daughter, soon joined her 

family in Hood County. The Crocketts built two 

log homes along Rucker Creek and began 

clearing and farming the land. In 1856, one 

of Elizabeth Crockett’s neighbors, Joel Henry 

Dyer, appealed to the Texas Senate and House 

of Representatives, requesting aid for David 

Crockett’s poverty-stricken wife: 

Yonder sets his widow, with cold rock for her 

floor, with her shivering little grand children, 

without a shutter to her door. This memorial 

I have drawn with lone object to soothe the 

pangs of a lacerated bosom, and heal wound of a 

bleeding heart, solitary and alone…. 7 

Elizabeth Crockett died in 1860, and is 

buried in Acton Cemetery. Acton was the 

earliest Anglo community established in the area 

that is now Hood County, and the region’s first 

post office, called Comanche Peak, opened there 

in 1856. Acton settlers constructed a church 

building in 1855 that was used by Baptists, 

Methodists, Presbyterians, and Reformed 

Christians. During the same year, pioneer Aaron 

Ferris opened a water-powered gristmill in 

Acton along Walnut Creek, where he planted 

tobacco and built a still. 

Pioneers ventured across the Brazos River or 

“dead line” into comanchería or Comanche 

territory during the early 1850s. Among the first 

in the Hood County area to settle on the west 

banks of the river was Thomas Lambert, who 

claimed the land where Granbury now stands. 

Amon Bond settled his family in an area on 

the west bank of the river known as Stockton. 

His colony, along with Lambert’s homestead, 

formed the nucleus of the settlement that later 

influenced the selection of Lambert’s land for 

the county seat. 

Along with Bond came his daughter, Frances, 

and her husband, Austin Yeats (also spelled as 

Yates). The descendant of an Irish immigrant, 

Yeats traveled from his home in Tennessee to 

Texas with his wife and her family. By 1858, the 

Yeats family had settled on the banks of a 

freshwater spring creek and built their singlepen 

log house. Yeats cut the post-oak logs from 

the land where the Granbury courthouse square 

is now located, and hauled them to the nearby 

location he had chosen for his home. He handhewed 

the logs and laid them horizontally to 

build a room measuring sixteen feet by sixteen 

feet, known as a “pen.” The Yeats cabin probably 

had a front door and no windows, and it still 

features the “V” notching typical of Upland 

South culture. Local oral history says the Yeats 

cabin had a “shooting hole” in the east wall for 

defense against Indian attacks. The shooting 

hole faced the creek because Native Americans 

often traversed along waterways. 

Early settlers west of the Brazos faced the 

Comanche, who cultural geographer Terry G. 

Jordan described as “perhaps the most 

formidable Indian warriors encountered on any 

American frontier.” Jordan also wrote that the 

pioneers who took North Central Texas from the 

Comanche “found a region of rolling plains and 

hills, of dense forests and open prairies, of 

promise and environmental hazard.” 8 

N. B. Self, a Hood County native living in 

Lipan, questioned why his family braved the 

harrowing travails of the Texas frontier. He said, 

“I can’t see what inducement there was for the 

early settlers to come here. All risked their lives. 

I was so young then it did not bother me much, 

Chapter II ✦ 13

ut I can’t see how it was that the Indians let me 

get by. I have stood in the door of our cabin 

and heard the Indians hollering so they could 

get together.” During an interview conducted by 

the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Project 

Administration in 1937, Self recalled his life as 

a youngster living in a cabin on the Hood 

County frontier: 

Mother and myself and my little brother, four 

years younger than I, stayed by ourselves many 

a night when father would be out on the cattle 

range. We lived in a little log house about sixteen 

feet square, with one door and no windows: 

there were small holes, one on each side. I have 

seen mother stand up at these holes nearly all 

night watching and expecting Indians. We had a 

watchdog, and the way the dog was barking 

would be the side mother would watch on. She 

was well armed with two pistols and a Sharp’s 

rifle, and she was a good shot. We had a fireplace 

in the house. When we were expecting an attack 

by the Indians we would cover the fire and blow 

out the lamp, and use little candles for light. 

We never opened the door until it was 

daylight enough for us to see all around the 

place, and see that there were not any Indians 

about. Mother was a brave woman. She seem not 

be afraid in the daylight. 9 

The earliest settlers of the Hood County area 

were both ranchers and farmers—many of them 

owned and operated what Thomas T. Ewell 

described as “stock ranches” in his Hood County 

History. Early Anglo settlers from the Upland 

South considered their stock as farm animals 

and herded them on foot through timbers and 

brakes. But during those early settlement years, 

the cattle culture of Mexico, with its open range 

and branding, was quickly spreading north. 

Fehrenbach wrote that ranching flourished on 

the Central Texas frontier because “The fringes 

of the Plains were fit only for cattle….” 10 

According to Ewell, stockmen in Hood 

County area settlements were branding their 

cattle by the late 1850s. Unbranded stock 

was considered public property, so a Texan 

could build his own herd with hard work 

and ingenuity. 

In his memoirs, early Somervell County 

frontiersman W. F. Barker wrote that for many 

years before and after 1859, Texas gave one 

hundred and sixty acres to each head of a family 

who owned no land if he occupied it and 

improved it for three successive years. 11 This 

policy attracted eager farmers and stockmen to 

the Texas frontier. W. C. Nunn, in his book, 

Somervell, Story of a Texas County, quoted an 

1860 pioneer who wrote, “a man could ride all 

day in any direction and never be out of sight of 

large herds of cattle, horses, and sheep, and 

sometimes deer and antelope would be quietly 

grazing with them.” 12 

The 1850s found the more peaceful Indians 

of North Central Texas in a destitute state. 

The Anglo settlers had uprooted Caddos, 

Tonakawas, and Wichitas from their farmland 

and driven the wild game they hunted 

westward. But these village-dwelling tribes did 

not want to venture out onto the Comanchedominated 

plains. Even the Penatekas, also 

known as “Honey-Eaters,” who were the 

southernmost Comanche tribe, were starving. 

By that time, the Tonkawas and Caddos were 

friendly and helpful to settlers. Recalling the 

plight of the Caddos, Mrs. J. D. Rylee (Sadie 

McDonald Rylee) of Granbury told the 1937 

Federal Writers Project: 

The Caddo Indians were friendly, and would 

help the white people with their work. They 

would take their pay in farm produce, but they 

wanted mostly milk, butter and eggs. They would 

come to our place and sit in a row with their cups 

to get sweet milk. My father would have one of 

the negroes take a large bucket of milk and pour 

each Indian a cupful of milk. They would say, ‘Me, 

good Indian. Me no hurty you.’ 13 

Unlike the more peaceful tribes, the 

Comanches and Kiowas were determined to 

hold their hunting grounds on the Southern 

Plains. They raided settlements, often catching 

farmers and ranchers out looking for their 

wandering stock on the unfenced frontier. In 

1849, at least 149 white men, women, and 

children were killed on the northwest Texas 

frontier. 14 In an effort to quell Indian attacks, the 

U.S. Army established several forts along the 

frontier between 1849 and 1855, including Fort 

Worth and Fort Belknap, which was located 

eighty miles northwest of Fort Worth. 


In 1854, the state of Texas set aside 70,000 

acres for the U.S. Government to establish two 

reservations for Indians on the frontier. Indian 

agent Robert S. Neighbors surveyed the first 

a few miles south of Fort Belknap. Known as 

the Brazos Indian Reservation, he opened it 

for Caddos, Wichitas, and Tonkawas. Another 

twenty miles southwest, along the Clear Fork of 

the Brazos, Neighbors established the second 

reservation for the Penateka Comanches. 

Neighbors worked hard to bring all of the 

Indians onto the reservations, despite the fear of 

the white settlers “who wanted the Indians 

exterminated or driven entirely away,” wrote 

Fehrenbach. 15 Neighbors gathered the hungry 

Caddos, Wichitas, and Tonkawas onto the 

Brazos Reservation, but only half of the 

Penateka Comanches settled on the Clear Fork 

Reservation; many of them chose instead to join 

the other Comanche tribes on the plains to the 

west. Neighbors struggled to feed the Indians on 

the reservations, but the peaceful tribes were 

still caught between the plains Comanches to 

the west, who distrusted them, and encroaching 

white settlers on the east, who feared 

and hated them. Tonkawas from the 

Brazos Indian Reservation served both 

the Texas Rangers and the U.S. Army as 

effective scouts during subsequent 

raids on Comanche encampments. 

During 1858, there were many 

Indian raids along the Brazos, and 

trails followed by settlers in pursuit 

often led them back to the Clear 

Fork Reservation. Two days after 

Christmas, frontiersmen shot to death 

seven Caddo Indians as they camped 

along the Brazos near the present-day 

town of Palo Pinto; three of the victims 

were squaws. The Indians, led by 

“Choctaw Tom,” had left the Brazos 

Indian Reservation with permission to 

hunt for a week. Peter Garland, who 

lived in what is now Hood County, 

organized and led the assault upon 

the Caddos as they slept. Thomas T. 

Ewell wrote that Garland and his 

men believed the Indians had shot 

at a settler and attacked some white 

women. Dr. W. W. McNeill, who also 

participated in the attack, told Texas 

Rangers that the frontiersmen were chasing 

horse thieves and had to defend themselves 

from attacking Indians, yet all of the Caddos 

were found still wrapped in their sleeping robes. 

Ewell described Garland as “an honored citizen 

of Hood County” who “seems always to have 

been a daring fighter and bitter foe of the 

Indians, inspired by a deep-seated hatred of 

the race.” 16 

These tenuous relations between the 

reservation Indians and white settlers led to the 

abandonment of the Brazos and Clear Fork 

Reservations. In 1859, the Indians were moved 

north to reservations in Indian Territory. 

When the U.S. Army moved the Caddos, 

Wichitas, and Tonkawas to reservations, Charles 

Barnard lost his profitable Indian trade. But 

by 1860, he was building a water-powered 

limestone gristmill along the Paluxy River. 

He hired Shelby Stanfield and his brother, Jake, 

for the masonry work and provided two of 

his own slaves to help build the mill, which 

still stands three stories tall and measures forty 

by sixty feet. Oxen from East Texas hauled the 

❖ 

The Greens at home in Thorp Spring. 

Left to right: A. P. Green, Fannie 

Green Whisenant, and Sallie Green. 


Chapter II ✦ 15

massive oak beams that support the mill’s upper 

floors. A small settlement, known as Barnard’s 

Mill, quickly flourished in the vicinity. 

Some of the Anglos who settled the North 

Central Texas frontier came from the Deep 

South and brought their slaves with them. 

Among them were Y. J. Rylee and his wife, 

Mary, who left Georgia with a wagon train and 

twelve slaves in 1856. They selected a spot on 

the east bank of the Brazos River for their 

homestead, and their slaves worked to build 

their first log house. However, unlike the Rylees, 

most pioneers in North Central Texas were 

farmers from the Upland South who owned 

no slaves. 

As secession sentiment brewed throughout 

the American South, white Texans reacted with 

fear and panic. Sam Houston lobbied against 

separation from the Union, but Texans voted to 

officially secede in February1861. In areas of 

the state like North Central Texas that were 

settled by Upland Southern pioneers, nearly 

half the votes were cast against secession. 17 Part 

of their reluctance to go to war with the Union 

was because few of them owned slaves. But they 

also knew their families would be exposed to 

more danger on the frontier if the U.S. 

Army withdrew. 

In spite of their trepidations, many pioneers 

left their families on the Texas frontier and 

joined the Confederate army. Among them was 

Austin Yeats, who left his wife, Frances, and 

their five children in Comanche territory in a 

one-room log cabin with a shooting hole. 

During the Civil War, Union forces captured 

Yates and imprisoned him in Illinois. He and his 

brother-in-law escaped by bribing a prison 

guard with a $10 gold piece. Together, they 

walked back to Texas at night, hiding in forests 

and sleeping during the day. 

During the Civil War, the Texas frontier was 

the only region in the country where a large 

population of white settlers lived within close 

range of mounted Plains Indians. When the 

Comanches and Kiowas realized they could raid 

settlements with no military retaliation, they 

became daring and fearless. Fehrenbach called 

these “the terrible years” on the Texas frontier, 

and he quoted Mildred P. Mayhall from the book 

Indian Wars of Texas regarding the Civil War 

years in North Central Texas: 

The Indians, unrestrained by the United 

States Army, held carnival across the plains— 

north to south and east to west—looting, 

pillaging, and marauding over a wide area…. 

Colonization receded; homes and fields were 

abandoned in north central Texas and settlers 

were withdrawn for over a hundred miles. 18 

Ewell called this reaction “a considerable 

retrograde movement” that brought the Hood 

County area new citizens who actually relocated 

from the west. But even the Hood County area, 

including what is now Somervell, Hood, Parker, 

Palo Pinto, Erath, and Comanche Counties, 

suffered more Indian raids beginning in the 

spring of 1861. Recognizing the vulnerability of 

pioneer settlements, the Texas legislature 

passed a frontier protection law empowering 

every western county to form companies of 

minutemen. These farmer militias had little 

effect on the emboldened Plains Indians. Many 

men signed up for frontier service to escape the 

dangers of the bigger war to the north, and 

youngsters who were not old enough for the 

military enlisted to protect their families. 

Frontiersman W. F. Barker described a Civil 

War period Indian foray upon his homestead 

near Barnard’s Mill: 

I had just come to my house from the patch 

where I had been getting some walnut bark for 

my wife to color with. Got the bark in the corner 

of the patch at the ford. No one at home but my 

wife, two small children and myself. My son had 

gone away a few minutes before the Indians came 

and carried with him both our saddle horses and 

all our firearms. I had just returned with my bark, 

set my axe by the door and stepped into the 

house when the dogs barked. My little six year old 

daughter who was out playing 15 or 20 steps 

from the house cried out, “Law, Papa, yonder 

come 100 men and lots of horses.” I can’t describe 

my feelings when I saw the gang of blood thirsty 

heathens at my door. When I first saw them the 

chief, as I supposed, had a red bandage around 

his head, with a long feather in front and was 

wrapped in a buffalo robe, was before them going 

down the road to my patch. There was with him 

three others, then followed the rest of the Indians 

following and driving the horses. They were all in 

the valley following the chief, the others were at 


the foot of the hill. Two of them attracted my 

attention in particular, they were coming full 

speed with bows and arrows in their hand toward 

the house, the little girl was between them and 

me, about 15 or 20 steps. I believed the Indians 

intended to take my child and carry her off. I ran 

to her and picked her up and put her in the 

house, got my axe and closed the door. My wife, 

knowing it was Indians, threw up her hands and 

was in the act of screaming out with fear. I saw it 

and knew if she did it would encourage the 

Indians for they would know we were defenseless 

and they would attack the house. Therefore I 

slapped her hand on her mouth and told her not 

to cheep. I expect I slapped harder than I ever 

had. I feared they would break in the door, so I 

stood at the door, axe in hand, expecting every 

minute to hear them at the door. As they did not 

come, we opened the north door and to our joy 

saw them going through the valley on the other 

side of the creek. We counted them as they passed 

there were 16 Indians and 32 horses loose. 19 

Indians raided at night when moonlight 

flooded the wide-open Texas plains. In the small 

settlement of Thorp Spring along the west 

bank of the Brazos River, five families gathered 

at Pleasant Thorp’s house for protection against 

Indian raids. Thorp had migrated to Texas 

through Tennessee, arriving in the 1830s. In 

1841, he rode with the Army of Texas as part of 

the Morehouse Expedition, which searched 

the Brazos River Valley for Indians. Thorp 

and his wife, Nancy Hicks Oldham McEwen, 

arrived in Hood County about 1855 and 

established the town of Thorp 

Spring. On moonlit nights during 

the Civil War, a young man guarded 

the women and children gathered 

at Thorp’s house. Thorp himself 

kept vigil over his own barn, 

while other men and boys guarded 

their homesteads. 

The end of the Civil War brought 

little relief to the Texas frontier, for 

the U.S. government pursued a 

peace policy with Plains Indians, 

hoping to bring them onto 

reservations and convert them to 

Christianity. Rupert N. Richardson 

wrote that pioneers abandoned the 

Texas plains west of a line from Gainesville 

to Fredericksburg, except for a courageous 

few who “forted up” in stockades. From the 

end of the Civil War until August 5, 1867, 

Indians killed at least 163 settlers, captured 43, 

and wounded 24. Richardson gave this 

description of the desolate Texas plains after the 

Civil War: 

Indian raids, severe during the war, continued 

with increased fury after the surrender of 

the Confederates. The frontier was scourged as 

never before in its history. In some places the 

line of settlements was driven back a hundred 

miles…. The worst raids were made on moonlit 

nights, and the soft summer moon became a 

harbinger of death. Charred rock chimneys 

stood guard like weird sentries, symbolizing the 

blasted hopes of pioneers and often marking 

their graves. 20 

Such was life on the Texas frontier in the late 

1860s when the state legislature created Hood 

County. Most of the county, including what 

would become Granbury, the county seat, 

was west of the line from Gainesville to 

Fredericksburg described by Richardson. But 

the hardy farmers and stockmen and their 

families persevered on the Texas frontier, and 

the Comanches and Kiowas were soon facing 

the end of their free-roaming lives upon the 

Southern Plains. They were losing their home 

to the Anglo Americans’ “unremitting march 

toward the west” as described by Thomas T. 

❖ 

Pleasant Thorp house in Thorp 

Spring. Left to Right: Grandmother 

Thorp, twins Victor and Virgil Thorp, 

Roy Thorp, and Ida Andrews. 

COURTESY OF DIANE LOCK. 

Ewell in Hood County History. 21 Chapter II ✦ 17

CHAPTER III 

E STABLISHMENT OF H OOD C OUNTY AND G RANBURY, 

THE C OUNTY S EAT 

The close of the civil war marked an epoch of changed conditions in life on the frontier…and from this 

period our territory began to attract the attention of unfortunate participants...who with the fall of the 

Confederacy found themselves in destitute circumstances, and life upon the western plains…promised to 

the disappointed young men, of the South especially…some relief in their despondency. 


❖ 

Old map of Downtown Granbury, drawn 

by C. F. Rodgers, an early local surveyor. 

COURTESY OF J. C. AND SYLVIA CAMPBELL 

AND THE CITY OF GRANBURY. 

After the Civil War ended, in 1866, the Texas legislature created Hood County, and named it 

for Confederate General John Bell Hood. The legislature also decreed that the new county’s 

seat would be named Granbury, for Confederate Brigadier General Hiram B. Granbury. The land for 

the new county came out of Johnson and Erath Counties, which are located just east and west of 

Hood County. 

Settlers elected Abe Landers as the first Hood County Judge. Landers came to Texas from Missouri 

during the 1850s with his family, which included his son-in-law, Jesse F. Nutt, and Jesse’s brother, 

Jacob. The Nutt brothers, who were both blind, became leading merchants in Granbury. Judge 


Landers conducted early county affairs in 

Stockton, where he had settled with his family. 

One afternoon, the judge adjourned the county’s 

first grand jury in the middle of a hearing and 

asked jurors to investigate trouble being caused 

on the streets of Stockton by a billy goat. Once 

jurors were out in the street, Judge Landers led 

them to the local saloon, where he bought them 

a round of drinks. 

The Nutt brothers and Thomas Lambert, who 

settled on the west side of the Brazos River 

about 1854, donated forty acres of land for the 

location of Granbury. This parcel, which 

eventually became the county seat, was located 

between a spring creek known as Lambert 

Branch and the Brazos River. The selection 

process for the location of the county seat was 

hotly contested; Thomas T. Ewell wrote that 

it was not only “animated, but in some measure 

became acrimonious, engendering bitter feelings 

between some good citizens.” Because the 

original bounds of Hood County included 

much of the 188 acres that is now Somervell 

County to the south, most residents at first 

favored a central location near Comanche Peak. 

Voters actually approved this central site in 

the first election, but because, as Ewell wrote, 

it was “unsatisfactory to those in power and 

influence,” Judge Landers adjourned the 

commissioners’ court meeting before the 

election results could be approved. Two more 

elections were held before the forty-acre site 

along the Brazos River was selected because of 

its proximity to water. 1 

In Texas, Anglo-American settlers typically 

designed a county seat as a central plaza 

containing the courthouse with businesses built 

around the plaza in a square. In the late 1860s, 

leaders platted, surveyed, and sold lots on 

the Granbury courthouse square. They laid it 

out in the “Selbyville” or “central” or “block” 

configuration, brought to Texas from Middle 

Tennessee, and named for a town there. It 

features streets entering only at the four corners 

of the square. Surveyor A. S. McCamant laid out 

the courthouse square, which he located very 

close to the river’s edge. County leaders built a 

small sixteen-foot by sixteen-foot log cabin in 

the center of the courthouse square as Hood 

County’s first courthouse. McCamant surveyed 

and platted the remainder of the forty-acre 

donation of land into twenty blocks, with each 

block containing two acres. He laid out streets 

in 40- to 50-foot widths. McCamant planned 

the new city in a classical gridiron pattern, like 

the majority of cities built in the United States in 

the nineteenth century. Leaders held the most 

extensive sale of lots in the new county seat in 

March 1871, and proceeds went toward a fund 

to build a jail and courthouse. 

The sixteen-foot-square room used for the 

first Hood County Courthouse and other log 

buildings reflected the diverse heritage of the 

Upland South that settlers brought with them. 

That heritage is evident today in material 

culture found throughout North Central Texas, 

including its folk architecture. The sixteen-footsquare 

room originated in England and is known 

as a “bay” or a “rod.” In Medieval England, a bay 

was wide enough to house four oxen side-byside. 

English colonists brought the tradition 

of this simple square room to the Maryland 

and Virginia Tidewater. In the Appalachian 

backcountry, Tidewater traditions mixed with 

Middle Atlantic and Pennsylvania culture, and 

settlers from the Upland South brought that 

mingled heritage to Texas. 

The sale of lots in the Hood County seat 

attracted new settlers, many traveling to North 

Central Texas to find their fortunes after the end 

of the war. E. A. Hannaford walked to Granbury 

from nearby Cleburne and waded across the 

Brazos River to attend the auction of lots. A 

Union veteran who was born in England and 

grew up in Ohio, Hannaford carried a pouch of 

gold. He used his gold to purchase several 

choice lots and soon opened a drug store on the 

courthouse square. The Rylees, who had settled 

on the east banks of the Brazos right across from 

the future town site of Granbury, began to ferry 

❖ 

Receipt from the Nutt Brothers store, 

located on the north side of the 

Courthouse Square in Granbury. 


Chapter III ✦ 19

❖ 

“Baldy Russell,” or Bill Mitchell, on 

the run in New Mexico, c. 1900. 


new settlers, visitors, and residents back-andforth 

across the river. They built a small ferry 

master’s cabin of logs, which still stands near its 

original location. In 1876, the Hood County 

Commissioners Court approved the following 

rates for the Rylee ferry: 

Man two horses and wagon $ .75 

Man and yoke oxen and wagon .75 

Man, four horses or oxen and wagon 1.00 

Man and one horse .25 

Footman .15 2 

Y. J. Rylee’s son-in-law, Abe Nutt, who was also 

Jesse’s and Jacob’s brother, ran a ferry north of the 

new courthouse square. From his farm east of the 

Brazos River, Nutt ferried travelers and residents 

across to Thorp Spring and the Stephenville-to- 

Fort Worth Road. Minutes of the Hood County 

Commissioners Court in 1877 show that Nutt 

charged the following rates for his ferry: 

Two horse wagon $ .50 

Each pair, horses, mule, or ox .50 

Man and horse .25 

Footman .10 3 

With the final selection of the Nutt and 

Lambert donation as the Hood County seat, 

residents of the southernmost communities 

found themselves up to twenty-five miles away 

with mere lanes for travel to the local center 

of government. In March 1875, the Texas 

legislature created Somervell County from 

southern Hood County and northern Bosque 

County. Citizens selected the Barnard’s Mill 

settlement as the county seat; the town’s name 

had been changed five years earlier to “Glen 

Rose” by the wife of the mill’s new owner, Major 

T. C. Jordan. 

Businesses began opening in Granbury, 

including a small sawmill operated by Holland 

and Anderson. They produced “rawhide lumber” 

for Granbury’s first buildings, hewing the wood 

from post oak, pecan, and cottonwood trees 

growing along the river banks. During the early 

1870s, Granbury had five saloons and adjacent 

ten-pin alleys, which were frequented by 

cowboys, who kept “the little town well painted 

a lively red,” wrote Ewell. This era of Granbury’s 

history featured a “lawless spirit,” according to 

Ewell, when crimes like cattle rustling and land 

fraud were common, along with shootings. 4 

A bloody family feud led to Hood County’s 

first and only execution, when Sheriff A. J. 

Wright hanged Nelson “Cooney” Mitchell 

during the mid-1870s in Granbury. The tale 

began when Cooney Mitchell discovered the 

Truitt family stranded in a broken-down 

covered wagon. The Mitchells, for whom the 

community of Mitchell Bend in southeast Hood 

County was named, took in the bedraggled 

Truitts. Eventually, a land quarrel erupted between 

the two families that led to a lawsuit and longrunning 

feud. One afternoon in March 1874, 

men from the Mitchell and Truitt families rode 

along Contrary Creek from Granbury to 

Mitchell Bend. They were returning home from 

the courthouse after the lawsuit trial, which was 

decided in favor of the Truitts. Gunfire broke 

out and two of the Truitt brothers died. 

After the shooting, Cooney’s son, Billy, 

disappeared, but the sheriff arrested Cooney 

and imprisoned him in the county’s first log 

cabin jail. One night, under the cover of darkness, 

Cooney’s teenage son, Jeff, crawled up a rocky 

bluff from the river and approached the jail, 

hoping to deliver poison to his father. Prison 

guards heard rustling, and shot Jeff to death. 

A great crowd of locals gathered to watch 

the spectacle of Cooney’s public hanging. 

Boys climbed trees to get a better look. Years 

later, John W. Davis told the Fort Worth 

Star-Telegram that a cry arose just before the 

hanging. Spectators shouted that Billy Mitchell 

and five hundred men were on their way to 

rescue Cooney—and the crowd scattered in 

every direction. 5 

As the noose was placed around his neck, 

Cooney called out to his boys to seek vengeance 

against James Truitt. Eleven years after Cooney’s 

execution, a bullet shattered the window of 

Truitt’s East Texas home and killed him as he sat 

in the parlor with his wife and children. In 

1907, authorities arrested Billy Mitchell in New 

Mexico, and they tried and convicted him for 

the murder of James Truitt. But Billy Mitchell 

escaped from Huntsville prison and was never 

recaptured. He died in New Mexico in 1928 at 

the age of seventy-eight. 

The prevailing lawless spirit of the Texas 

frontier attracted many mysterious men, 

including John St. Helen, who lived in Glen 

Rose and Granbury. In Glen Rose, St. Helen 

lived peacefully in a log cabin and ran a supply 

store near Barnard’s Mill. When the mill owner’s 


sister, Annie Jordan, became betrothed to a U.S. 

Marshall, St. Helen abruptly left Glen Rose. He 

settled in Granbury, where he tended bar for 

merchant A. P. Gordon. 

Local legend has it that John St. Helen 

was actually John Wilkes Booth, the man 

who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. 

According to written history, just after Booth 

shot President Lincoln, he leaped to the stage at 

Ford’s Theater and broke his left leg. Booth 

escaped that night, but was killed twelve days 

later in a tobacco barn near Port Royal, Virginia. 

In Hood and Somervell Counties, locals have 

believed for years that Booth wasn’t killed in 

Virginia. They contend that he actually escaped 

and lived in the area using the pseudonym 

John St. Helen. Old timers’ tales about him, 

handed down from generation to generation, 

are rich with details: St. Helen walked with a 

limp, favoring his left leg; he acted in plays, and 

could quote Shakespeare verbatim; and he 

drank too much every year on the anniversary of 

Lincoln’s assassination. In Granbury, St. Helen 

kept his identity secret until he became very ill. 

Then he made what he believed was a deathbed 

confession to F. J. Gordon and a Catholic priest 

from Dallas; St. Helen told them that he was 

actually John Wilkes Booth. At St. Helen’s home 

on East Bridge Street in Granbury, F. J. Gordon 

found a derringer wrapped in a newspaper 

account of the death of Lincoln. St. Helen told 

F. J. Gordon that it was the pistol he used to 

shoot the president. Today, long-time residents 

believe the gun remains with the Gordon family, 

locked in a safe deposit box in Austin. 

After his shocking confession, St. Helen 

didn’t die; he recovered and disappeared from 

Granbury. In 1903, a house painter in Enid, 

Oklahoma, named David George committed 

suicide. Before he died, George claimed to be 

both John Wilkes Booth and John St. Helen. 

Many Granbury residents have been interviewed 

regarding their ancestors’ memories of John 

St. Helen, and many newspapers, television 

shows, and books have investigated the tale of 

this mysterious dandy. But the tale of John 

St. Helen remains a legend; part of a long-time 

assassination conspiracy theory that has never 

been proven. 

While Anglo frontier lawlessness abounded, 

Native Americans in the area moved further 

west, away from advancing settlements. The last 

known Indian foray into Hood County occurred 

during the 1860s, while Granbury’s leaders were 

platting and surveying the new county seat. One 

evening at dusk, John Aston’s family discovered 

a party of Indians traveling down Squaw Creek 

in the southeastern section of the county. 

Settlers along the creek, led by “Uncle Billy” 

Powell, mustered and awaited the Indians’ 

return along the divide between Squaw and 

Robinson Creeks, where Native Americans often 

departed from the area. At dawn the next 

morning, a party of Indians galloped into the 

narrow strip of prairie with a large herd of stolen 

horses. The awaiting settlers immediately 

pursued the Indians and a running battle began. 

As word spread throughout the area, more 

settlers joined the Squaw Creek residents. The 

Indians tried to escape into the timber along 

Star Hollow, and the pursuing settlers shot their 

horses. Now afoot, the Indians hiked through a 

ravine that emptied into Robinson Creek. At the 

head of the ravine, they hid behind a dead 

cottonwood trunk under an overhanging bluff, 

where the thick roots of a tree also protected 

them. From this vantage point, the Indians held 

a commanding view. By now, seventy-five to 

eighty men were in hot pursuit of the Indians, 

and they debated their next course of action. 

While veterans of Indian attacks warned eager 

young men not to expose themselves to the view 

of the Indians, William Weir charged the brow 

of the hill, where an arrow struck him in the 

breast. Toward evening, a sudden storm brought 

a downpour of rain, which flooded the Indians’ 

hideout. Ewell wrote that it was “as if Heaven 

itself had decreed that the vengeance of the 

Indians had sufficiently preyed upon our 

frontier.” As the Indians exposed their heads to 

catch breaths of air, they received “the deadly 

contents of the white man’s gun, now delivered 

at short range,” wrote Ewell. The settlers killed 

the Indians one by one; they discovered later 

that one of the Indians was a squaw. 6 

On the southern plains just west of Hood 

County, hunters were busy exterminating the 

American bison during the early 1870s. General 

Phil Sheridan, who commanded the Military 

Department of the Southwest, and General 

William T. Sherman, who commanded the Army 

of the Missouri, both felt that the Indians could 

Chapter III ✦ 21

❖ 

Above: Chevis Cleveland, Sr., a 

champion roper, with an 

unidentified friend. 


Right: Huey Long of Cresson, who was 

a champion rodeo bull rider during 

the 1930s, known as the Prongua Kid. 


not be controlled so long as they could support 

themselves off the reservations. Sheridan called 

for the destruction of the buffalo, which 

he called “the Indians’ commissary.” Buffalo 

hunters spread out onto the plains from Fort 

Worth, which T. R. Fehrenbach described as “a 

burgeoning trading post near the final frontier.” 7 

During the summer of 1871, Kiowas under 

the command of Satanta, Big Tree, and Satank 

left their reservation in Indian Territory and 

attacked a wagon train near Jacksboro, about 

sixty-five miles northwest of Granbury. They 

killed the wagon master and five teamsters 

and roasted the sixth to death. Citizens of Jack 

County and Parker County, which is just north 

of Hood County, appealed to General Sherman, 

who told them he would “do everything within 

his power to reform the national military 

policy,” wrote Fehrenbach. This attack led to 

the death of Satank, who was also known as 

Sitting Bear, and the temporary imprisonment of 

Satanta and Big Tree. 8 

When the Indians who still roamed the 

Southern Plains saw the piles of bleached bones 

and rotting flesh where herds of buffalo once 

grazed, they panicked. Quahadi Comanches, 

Kiowas, Kiowa-Apaches, Southern Cheyennes, 

and Arapahoes joined together. Under the 

command of Quahadi chief Quanah Parker they 

vowed to destroy buffalo hunters in Texas. 

In June 1874, Quanah led five tribes on an 

attack of a buffalo hunters’ base camp called 

Adobe Walls in the Texas Panhandle. Hunters 

successfully defended the camp, and the 

discouraged Indians dissolved their alliance. But 

this attack led to a firm resolve to drive all 

Indians from Texas onto reservations. Colonel 

Ranald MacKenzie and six hundred soldiers 

surprised a Quahadi Comanche and Kiowa 

encampment in the Palo Duro Canyon in 

September 1874. When MacKenzie’s scouts 

peered over the canyon rim, they saw hundreds 

of horses and teepees strung along a stream 

for three miles. As MacKenzie and his soldiers 

attacked, the Indians were able to flee, but 

the army soldiers destroyed all of their food, 

supplies, homes, and horses. In February 1875, 

Chief Lone Wolf and the Kiowas surrendered at 


Fort Sill Reservation in Indian Territory. Quanah 

Parker was the last of the southern Plains 

Indians to surrender as he led his Comanches to 

Fort Sill in June 1875. 

After the Civil War, as the Indians were being 

driven west, the Texas cattle culture flourished. 

West of the natural farm boundary along the 

98th meridian, which runs through Hood 

County, Texas cowboys found a use for the 

arid, hardscrabble plains and “exploded not a 

business, but a new way of life, across the entire 

North American West,” wrote Fehrenbach. 

Daring cattlemen blazed trails north where 

cattle sold for a high price. The cowboy trails 

included the Goodnight–Loving Trail, established 

through San Angelo to New Mexico in 1866; 

the Chisholm Trail to Abilene, Kansas, which 

roughly paralleled the 98th meridian; and the 

Dodge City Trail, which opened up as pioneers 

ventured further west. When the southern Plains 

Indians surrendered to reservations, the cattle 

frontier quickly spread across the Texas plains. 9 

The rugged, wandering life of a Texas 

cowboy attracted Sam Smith, who grew up in 

Parker County along the Brazos River. After 

stints as a Texas Ranger and Confederate soldier, 

Smith used his skills to herd cattle and horses 

through the unsettled plains. In western Hood 

County, Smith lost an entire herd of horses 

to Indians who sneaked into his camp during 

the night. In 1870, Smith gave up the cowboy 

life and married Martha Luzany Dillahunty 

Hutcheson, a widow in Acton who owned seven 

hundred acres of farmland. 

Herds of one thousand to two thousand 

steers departed Hood County on regular cattle 

drives to Kansas, led by W. H. Kingsbury. 

Granbury’s first merchant, Kingsbury collected 

cattle from local ranchers and hired a trail “boss” 

and ten to fifteen cowboys for each cattle drive. 

Kingsbury’s wife sometimes accompanied him 

on the cattle drives because she wanted to visit 

big cities to the north. 

Many Texans learned the ropes of cowboy 

life as young boys. H. P. Walker moved to Hood 

County in 1871 at the age of four and grew 

up riding horses on his dad’s stock farm. 

Walker became a Texas cowboy when he was 

just thirteen by joining a trail drive of three 

thousand head of cattle from Wichita Falls 

to West Texas in 1883. Walker later worked 

a cattle drive from Fort Sumter, New Mexico, 

to Montana. 

In northwest Hood County during the 

1870s, P. D. Self’s father owned a stock ranch 

where he raised seven hundred “native horses” 

and cattle. Self was “busting broncs and riding 

yearlings” by the time he was twelve years old. 

He described trail drives of three hundred 

horses from his father’s ranch to Abilene, 

Kansas, which was the extent of the railroad at 

the time. 

The prevailing lawless spirit of the 1870s 

fomented land fraud and forgery of land titles. 

Hood County officials stored land records in the 

new Hood County Courthouse, which they built 

in 1871. Money used through the sale of lots 

in downtown Granbury financed the building 

of the new limestone courthouse, which 

replaced the first one-room log cabin county 

headquarters. Hood County’s Reconstruction- 

❖ 

Above: Acton Cotton Gin, c. 1908, 

which was located just north of today’s 

Acton Baptist Church. 


Below: The first bridge built across the 

Brazos River north of Waco was built 

in Granbury during the 1870s. 


Chapter III ✦ 23

❖ 

Reuben Hightower, son of Simon 

Hightower, who helped establish The 

Colony community. 

COURTESY OF CODY MARTIN. 

era police court spent $10,000 and hired 

J. W. Anderson to build the new two-story 

courthouse, which featured a large courtroom 

on the second floor and four rooms for offices 

on the ground floor. But desperate forgers sought 

to destroy the county’s official land records. In 

the middle of the night of March 5, 1875, cries 

of “Fire!” awoke citizens of Granbury. The new 

courthouse was ablaze, and all the county land 

deeds and records were destroyed. County 

officials immediately suspected arson. 

After the burning of the courthouse, Sam 

Milliken led a movement to relocate the Hood 

County seat to Thorp Spring. This caused great 

consternation among local businessmen who 

had just purchased lots and erected buildings 

around the courthouse square in Granbury. 

They joined together and hired the construction 

firm of Evans, Strain, and Haney to rebuild the 

courthouse at no cost to the county. Using the 

old foundation and some of the partially burned 

walls, workmen had the rebuilt courthouse 

ready for occupancy by November 1875. 

Heavy post-war immigration into Central 

Texas by farmers from the Upland South and a 

cycle of rainy seasons benefited the agrarian way 

of life that nestled around towns like Granbury. 

W. C. Walters, a farmer who settled along the 

Brazos River, cultivated the first cotton in Hood 

County during the Civil War. Much of Hood 

County’s open rangeland began to give way to 

small, enclosed farms during the mid-1870s, 

precipitated by the invention of barbed wire in 

Illinois in 1873. By 1876, there were five 

hundred fenced farms, four flour and gristmills, 

and nine cotton gins in Hood County. 10 

Horse-drawn or oxen-drawn wagons delivered 

farmers’ crops to markets and merchants’ goods 

from Dallas, but in order to reach Granbury, 

loaded wagons had to ford the Brazos River. In 

1878, businessmen on Granbury’s courthouse 

square formed a joint stock company, raised 

$25,000, and built the first wagon bridge 

across the Brazos River north of Waco. P. H. 

Thrash, the first mayor of Granbury, along with 

the Nutt brothers, E. A. Hannaford, and J. D. 

Baker, were the investors who funded what 

Ewell described as a “magnificent tubular arch 

bridge.” 11 Tolls charged to cross the one-way 

bridge were 25 cents for one horse and 50 cents 

for a team of horses or mules. 12 

Locals and travelers crossing the Brazos River 

Bridge paid their tolls to David Crockett’s son, 

Robert, who had moved his family to Granbury 

from their land in northeast Hood County so his 

children could attend school. Robert Crockett’s 

fellow citizens elected him Hood County 

Commissioner. His son, Ashley, went to work 

for the county seat’s first newspaper, The 

Granbury Vidette, in 1872. By 1883, Ashley 

Crockett owned the Vidette. 

Freed slaves in Hood County established a 

settlement between Granbury and Tolar known 

as The Colony. Led by former slave Simon 

Hightower and his wife, Hettie, they built a 

church and established a small cemetery. The 

earliest grave in The Colony Cemetery belongs 

to Mary Edwards, who died in 1876 at the age 

of twenty-one. Her headstone bears the 

inscription “Jesus Calls and I Must Go.” 

Hightower’s granddaughter, Amanda Allen, 

recalled a freedom song she learned growing up 

in The Colony: “You may be a poor man, but 

you’ll never be a slave. Shout—shout—for the 

battle cry of freedom.” 13 

Because most of the early Anglo American 

settlers in Hood County did not own slaves, 

African Americans have historically comprised a 

small minority of the community’s population. 

In 1870, Hood County’s population was 96 

percent Anglo American. 14 

In northwestern Hood County, just past the 

98th meridian, Irishman Thomas A. Burns laid 

out a town site in 1873 at the intersection of the 

roads connecting Weatherford to Stephenville 

and Granbury to Palo Pinto. Burns, who was 

assisted by John H. Traylor in his town-building 

endeavor, named his settlement Lipan after the 

Lipan Apaches who once hunted there. By 1875, 

Lipan had its own post office and general store. 

During the Civil War, settlers began teaching 

their children in short school terms in log cabins 

at Thorp Spring and the Lambert settlement, 

which would become Granbury. By 1871, there 

was a public school in Granbury, where A. P. 

Harbin was the teacher. That year, the school’s 

enrollment was so high that Harbin had to hire 

an assistant to teach girls. 

In 1873, the district conference of the 

Methodist church met in Acton, and leaders 

voted to locate a new district high school in 

Granbury. The school opened in a rock building 


on the southeast corner of the courthouse 

square in September of that year. The citizens of 

Granbury raised money to build a three-story 

limestone school building high on a hill north of 

the courthouse square. By 1875, the Methodist 

high school had flourished so quickly that it 

also became a chartered college, known as 

Granbury College. 

In Thorp Spring, Joseph A. Clark and his 

sons, Addison and Randolph, founded Add-Ran 

Male and Female College in 1873. The school 

opened in a building constructed by Pleasant 

Thorp and Sam Milliken, who hoped to lure 

educators to establish a college in Thorp Spring. 

Enrollment grew rapidly, and the college soon 

added several large buildings. Milliken, who 

was once a Kentucky steamboat captain, built a 

bathhouse near the town’s natural sulfur springs 

and began promoting Thorp Spring as a resort. 

Randolph Clark wrote a romantic description 

of Thorp Spring: 

It had been a camping place and council 

ground for the Comanches before the Whites 

took their hunting grounds. It was a place of 

rendezvous for frontier soldiers during the Civil 

War. Before the sanitarium and scientific surgery 

reached this country, worn out Confederate soldiers 

and others with chronic ailments camped 

at the spring, drank sulphur water, bathed in the 

creek, fished, ate wild meat and got well. 15 

During the early 1880s, some Granbury 

merchants began to replace their wooden 

structures with masonry buildings, constructed 

of native Hood County limestone, all quarried 

within five miles of the courthouse square. 

In 1882, dry goods merchant J. D. Baker and 

pharmacist E. A. Hannaford built two limestone 

commercial buildings featuring a distinctive 

continuously arched façade with a six-bay 

storefront. Hannaford was so proud of their 

arcaded Italianate-style buildings that he 

advertised his pharmacy’s location as the “Arch 

Block.” 16 The trustees of the Methodist 

Episcopal Church South built a small frame 

❖ 

Above The first Granbury College 

building, constructed during the 

1870s on “College Hill,” where 

Granbury Cemetery is located. 


Left: Granbury College students 

dressed in school uniform, c. the early 

1900s. Shown are (clockwise from top 

right): Maggie Berry, Daisy Cogdell, 

Mattie E. Nutt, and Sue Smith. 


Chapter III ✦ 25

❖ 

Right: First football team in Hood 

County at Add-Ran College, c. 1902. 

Jake Green is on the far left. 


Below: Members of Thorp Spring 

Christian College football team in 

front of the school building in Thorp 

Spring, 1915. Left to right: Issall 

Spiker, Pat Pointer, Roy Bircham, 

Chevis Cleveland, Preston Grissom, 

Houston Bircham, and Charlie Reed. 


church in Granbury on the southeast corner of Because farmers and merchants had to 

the courthouse square in 1883; it was the first transport their crops and goods overland in 

church building in the county seat. By 1876, horse-drawn wagons across Texas’ sprawling 

the Texas cattle frontier had reached the 100th distances, Hood County and Granbury leaders 

meridian, just west of Abilene. Hood County began working to bring a rail line to their 

and Granbury were thriving; from 1876 to 1880 community. The “iron horse” would soon roll 

the county’s population increased from about into Hood County, bringing with it vibrant 

5,000 to 6,125 residents. 17 growth and prosperity. 


CHAPTER IV 

P OST-RAILROAD 

B OOM 

A bank, a bridge, a railroad, and a new college are the all-absorbing enterprises just now. 

On with the boom and a good rain. 

—Granbury News, March 1887 

Good rains fell here yesterday and the corn and cotton crops are booming. 

—Granbury Graphic, May 1887 

The early 1880s brought a series of wet years along the 98th meridian in Texas, which produced 

increased prosperity in Hood County. Throughout the Texas plains, rural county seats became 

important trade centers with farms radiating around them. In a description that mirrors Granbury 

in the late nineteenth century, T. R. Fehrenbach wrote, “A typical Texas town contained a courthouse, 

several general stores, at least one drugstore and inevitably, a number of saloons….” 1 During the 

early 1880s, Hood County citizens envisioned a bright future. “Granbury wants a railroad and a 

bank before slipping further into the quagmire of internal improvement,” wrote the editor of The 

Granbury News. 2 

In 1884, John H. Traylor and Daniel Cogdell founded a private banking company, establishing 

Granbury’s first bank. Three years later, they chartered their private endeavor as The First National 

Bank of Granbury. Traylor and Cogdell built a limestone building on the west corner of the north side 

of the square. Their new bank featured a stucco Italianate facade, complete with an elaborate pressedtin 

cornice. In May 1887, the bank installed an eight-thousand-pound iron safe, which featured a 

time lock, to safeguard customers’ money. 

Increasing wealth brought with it a more refined culture. In 1886, an elaborate Italianate Opera 

House was built in the middle of the south side of Granbury’s courthouse square. Known as Kerr’s 

Opera House for its owner, Henry Kerr, the county’s new center of culture presented traveling 

vaudeville acts, minstrel shows, acrobats, magicians, sword-swallowing feats, and even works of 

❖ 

The interior of the Famous Dry Goods 

Store, located along the north side of 

the Hood County Courthouse Square. 

COURTESY OF THE MARY KATE 

DURHAM COLLECTION. 

Chapter IV ✦ 27

❖ 

Above: The second Granbury College 

building, constructed during the 

1880s, with Daniel Brothers Grocery 

wagon in left corner. 

COURTESY OF JANE CRADDOCK. 

Below: A train crossing the Brazos River 

in Granbury pictured on a 1909 postcard. 



Shakespeare. “In the new opera house, gas lights 

flickered across the gorgeous red plush...and 

gentlemen were asked to remove their spurs 

for fear of spoiling the décor,” wrote Carolyn 

Kemplin in The History of the Granbury Opera 

House, 1886-1911. 3 

The handwritten diary of a Shakespearean 

actor tells of traveling by hack from Walnut 

Springs to perform in Granbury at the end of 

October 1887. In 1892, the Granbury News 

reported that “Billy Kersands’ troupe of colored 

minstrels played to a full house at Kerr’s Hall,” 

although some townspeople “kicked against 

paying a dollar to see it.” 4 One of the most famous 

African-American minstrels of the period, Kersands 

was known for his dancing, jazz tunes, and ability 

to hide a billiard ball in one cheek while reciting 

a monologue. 

Polite sensibilities also led the county to build 

a new jail in 1885 just a half block north of 

the town square. The new native limestone jail 

featured a hanging tower and Pauley system of 

cast iron jail cells. The tower was built to accommodate 

indoor executions so the community 

could avoid the spectacle of 

another public outdoor hanging. 

But a gallows was never 

built in the jail tower, and no 

one was ever hanged there. 

In January 1887, a fire 

destroyed the interior of the 

Granbury College building. 

When the college incurred 

considerable debt constructing 

a new three-story building, citizens of 

Granbury raised funds to pay for the new 

college hall. The next year, Granbury College 

advertised its “commodious buildings,” along 

with “Discipline, mild and firm; …competent 

faculty in every department; good society; 

healthful location; daily stage (except Sunday) 

from Cleburne and Weatherford.” Semester 

tuition rates were $8 for primary students, 

$10 for intermediate, $12.50 for preparatory, 

and $17 for collegiate. Board in the college’s 

two-story frame dormitory was $2.50 to $3 per 

week, including lights and heat. Washing and 

ironing was $1 per month. 5 

At the end of January 1887, an editor from 

the Stephenville Empire in neighboring Erath 

County visited Granbury. He later described 

how builders hauled native limestone from 

quarries east of the Brazos River to the Hood 

County Courthouse Square and vicinity for use 

in construction. “The river is spanned by a 

kind of rude trestle work, with stringers on 

either side for the wheels of a hand car. Great 

stones are carried over on a hand car on this 

bridge,” he wrote. 6 

The prospect of bringing a railroad to Hood 

County brought great excitement to citizens of 

the community. In 1886, business leaders and 

merchants began raising money to entice a railroad 

to Granbury. Ashley Crockett, editor of the 

Granbury Graphic, posted an announcement in 

his paper that read, “A Railroad Meeting will be 

held at Hannaford’s drug to-night (Saturday) for 

the purpose of raising the subsidy for the Fort 

Worth and Rio Grande Railroad. Every citizen 

who can assist is requested and expected to be 

present…. Thirteen thousand dollars cash and 

depot grounds and the railroad is ours.” 7 

The merchants of Granbury joined together 

and paid the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad 

a $25,000 bonus to build a rail line to Granbury 

from Fort Worth. Newspaper publisher Ashley 

Crockett, David Crockett’s grandson, donated 

$600 to the railroad subsidy. 

The Granbury Graphic reported that the Fort 

Worth and Rio Grande Railroad had a “great iron 

bridge” built to span the Brazos River. The bridge 

was shipped to Galveston on a steamer, and 

then to Fort Worth via rail. In early June 1887, 

Granbury’s first train blew its whistle and rolled 

into town along new tracks laid north of the 


courthouse square. Hood County’s rail lines were 

built during the years when railroad track miles 

quadrupled in the United States and during the 

decade that saw railroad expansion throughout 

much of Texas. Between 1880 and 1890, 5,466 

miles of railroad track were laid in Texas. Most 

of this mileage was into undeveloped counties 

to the west, like Hood County, which did not 

already have railroad transportation. The thirtynine 

counties that received new railroad lines 

during the 1880s increased their population by 

200 percent. 

The arrival of the railroad had a tremendous 

impact on Granbury’s economic growth, just as it 

did in other cities and towns across the country, 

most especially in the West. Both Dallas and Fort 

Worth are examples of Western cities that grew 

rapidly in the late nineteenth century after the 

arrival of railroad transportation. In 1887, the 

Granbury Graphic reported that its hometown 

was, “on the boom and real estate on the rise. ‘All 

aboard for Granbury‘ will soon be cried from the 

Union Station. Granbury will probably be the 

terminus of the road for some time and will be a 

‘hummer’ and no mistake.” The paper also 

reported that property values increased at least 

300 percent after work started on the railroad. 8 

“When Granbury starts after anything in 

earnest she always gets it,” wrote editor Frank 

Gaston in The Granbury News in 1892. “The towline 

of enterprise fastened to the railroad, and it 

came. The College must be paid for or lost, and 

the money was raised.... The same indimitable 

[sic] spirit of enterprise has been manifested in 

many other ways too numerous to mention.” 9 

Granbury developed as the natural agricultural 

trading center for home markets and 

shipping center for larger markets in other 

cities. Cotton production thrived after the first 

local harvest in the early 1860s, and it became 

Hood County’s leading agricultural crop. In 

1898, the county’s yield was 7,413 bales, and by 

1912, the cotton yield was 17,875 

bales. Old photos show the Granbury 

courthouse square full of wagons 

piled high with bales of cotton on 

their way to the railroad depot for 

shipping. North of the railroad tracks 

in Granbury there were long wooden 

platforms where cotton bales were 

loaded into freight cars. In 1984, 

longtime resident Marie Williams recalled that 

in Granbury, “every vacant lot was covered with 

cotton waiting to be shipped.” 10 

Before the Fort Worth and Rio Grande 

Railroad arrived in Granbury, it crossed through 

Cresson, a small community located in the 

northeastern corner of Hood County. Thomas T. 

Ewell wrote that the arrival of the railroad made 

Cresson “a very important trade point.” 11 

The settlement was named for John Cresson, 

the captain of a wagon train who camped in 

the area before the Civil War. Long before the 

railroad arrived, there was a stagecoach stop 

in the Cresson area for coaches traveling 

from Jacksboro and Weatherford to Granbury, 

Cleburne, Waco, and Stephenville. In 1888, the 

Santa Fe Railroad built a rail line from 

Weatherford through Cresson to Cleburne. This 

rail line crossed the Fort Worth and Rio Grande 

line leading from Fort Worth to Granbury. With 

trains from two rail lines regularly steaming 

through Cresson, a post office opened there, 

and by 1890, Cresson boasted a population 

of thirty-five, a lumberyard, and three stores. 12 

Large cattle pens were built near the railroad 

tracks, and ranchers drove their cattle to 

Cresson, where they were loaded into rail cars. 

Within three years of reaching Granbury, the 

Fort Worth and Rio Grande extended its tracks 

❖ 

Above: West side of the Hood County 

Courthouse Square during the early 

1900s, showing local farmers bringing 

their crops to Granbury cotton gins. 

COURTESY OF LAUREL PIRKLE. 

Below: Loading picked cotton on the 

Martin family farm near Tolar. 


Chapter IV ✦ 29

❖ 

Above: Landers Hotel in downtown 

Tolar, which was located along the 

north side of U.S. Highway 377, 

c. 1900. 


Bottom, left: South side of the Hood 

County Courthouse Square during 

the 1890s. 


Bottom, right: W. T. Sellars, a 

Granbury merchant whose building 

on the north side of the Hood County 

Courthouse Square was built in 1891. 


to a small Hood County community seven miles 

west. At first, the railroad dubbed this flag stop 

“Squaw Creek Station.” The small village soon 

got its first post office, and Col. W. L. 

McGaughey suggested the name be changed to 

Tolar, after his friend Alf Tolar, who lived in 

Abilene. Within a decade, Tolar acquired a 

cotton gin, general store, and blacksmith shop, 

and became a trade center for surrounding 

farms and ranches. Two churches and an 

elementary school served the town’s 171 

residents. Ewell wrote that Tolar “is the center of 

a good educational and religious sentiment, 

which has brought into existence a Presbyterian 

church and good school.” 13 

With two other railroad shipping centers in 

Hood County, the Granbury Board of Trade 

met and made arrangements to waive tolls on 

the Brazos River Bridge for farmers bringing 

“cotton in bales or in the seed” across to Granbury. 

“Free Bridge!” proclaimed the Granbury News in 

September 1892. “Cotton Can Now Be Brought 

to Granbury Across the Bridge Free of Any 

Charge…Tell your neighbor he can haul 

his cotton to Granbury this year free of 

bridge tolls.” 14 

On Saturdays, cotton farmers and cattle 

ranchers from throughout the county boarded 

their buggies and rode to Granbury. On the 

courthouse square, they tied their horses to 

hitching posts or left them at one of the city’s 

wagon yards. Granbury acquired the charm of 

early eighteenth-century American walking 

cities as neighborhoods developed around the 

courthouse square in the grid pattern that was 

originally platted. In fact, Granbury continued 

to grow closely around the courthouse square 

until automobiles became commonplace in 

the early twentieth century. Like the business 

people of America’s early walking cities, most of 

the merchants who had shops in downtown 

Granbury built homes adjacent to the courthouse 

square and walked to work each day. 

Among them was Granbury’s pharmacist, E. A. 

Hannaford, who built a Greek Revival House in 

1881 along Lambert Street southwest of the 

town square. Hannaford surrounded his family’s 

home with a carriage house, barn, stable, well 

house, vegetable garden, rose garden, greenhouse 

and tennis court, which reflected his 

wealth and status. By the dawn of the twentyfirst 

century, Hannaford’s restored house was 


still standing, set back in the center of the block, 

surrounded by several other houses built after 

the late nineteenth century. 

In contrast to Anglo merchants, African- 

Americans in Granbury lived in small frame 

houses north of the courthouse square near the 

railroad tracks, but they were within easy walking 

distance of more affluent neighborhoods. 

Industrial businesses were all built within 

walking distance; Granbury’s earliest gristmill, 

now known as Shanley House, is located one 

block northwest of the courthouse square. In 

Granbury, as in other walking cities, rich and 

poor lived closely together and land was not 

zoned or specialized, so houses, businesses, 

industry, and the train station were all located 

together in the city center. 

Throughout the rural reaches of Hood 

County, small communities opened their own 

public schools, which served the children of 

farming and ranching families. During the 1882 

to 1883 school year, there were forty-six male 

teachers and four female teachers in Hood 

County, and their pay averaged $1,094 per year. 

In 1883, County Judge T. J. Duke approved a 

petition for the establishment of a countywide 

public school. By 1886, 281 pupils attended 

School District No. 1 of Hood County. 15 

Although there was now a county school 

district, there was no free public school building 

in the vicinity of Granbury. “The titles to the 

school buildings already erected in Granbury 

are vested in church denominations, and the 

buildings cannot be used, it seems, for public 

school purposes without paying high rents. 

A public free school building, which nearly all 

important towns and cities have, should obviate 

all difficulties,” wrote the editor of the Granbury 

Graphic in July 1886. 16 

Granbury residents began lobbying for a 

more active municipal government so that a 

public school system could be organized for 

their town. In 1889, citizens elected Dr. J. N. 

Doyle as mayor and he organized a municipal 

public school system. Soon after Granbury 

established its public school, state law required 

the appointment of a school board whose 

members reported to the city council. By the 

1890s, a large frame Victorian building was 

constructed six blocks west of the courthouse 

square on a full city block to house Granbury’s 

first public school. The steeple on this schoolhouse 

blew off in 1910 and was never replaced. 

In 1893, student enrollment at the college in 

Thorp Spring peaked at 445 students. 17 Four 

years earlier financial hardships prompted Joseph, 

Clark and his sons, Addison and Randolph, to 

deed ownership of the college to the Church of 

Christ. The school was renamed Add-Ran 

Christian University, and the Clarks remained on 

the staff. An important split in the Church of 

Christ affected Add-Ran Christian University in 

1894 when Addison and Randolph Clark introduced 

organ music at a school church service. 

Their father, Joseph, left the prayer meeting in 

protest, followed by other conservatives. At that 

time, throughout the south, anti-music conservatives 

remained in the Church of Christ and promusic 

progressives formed the Christian Church 

(Disciples of Christ). The following year, Add-Ran 

had its lowest student enrollment in sixteen years, 

and on Christmas Day, 1895, Addison Clark 

moved the college to Waco, where its name was 

changed to Texas Christian University. In 1910, 

after a devastating fire in Waco, Texas Christian 

University moved to Fort Worth, where it has 

grown and flourished. The small college that started 

in Thorp Spring now occupies 268 acres five 

miles from downtown Fort Worth and has a student 

enrollment of 8,865. 18 

From 1896 until 1928, several colleges and 

universities were located in Thorp Spring at the 

Add-Ran College campus. The first two, the Jarvis 

Institute and Add-Ran-Jarvis College, involved the 

leadership of the Clark brothers and J. J. Jarvis, a 

❖ 

Granbury public school building, 

c. 1909. The school was located on 

the block where the administration 

building now stands. 


Chapter IV ✦ 31

❖ 

Top: Hood County Courthouse, built 

in 1891, when it had a fence and stile. 


Middle: Cody Catlett Martin as a 

baby, c. 1899. 


Bottom: General. Hiram Granbury 

(Granberry) was reinterred from 

Franklin, Tennessee, to Granbury 

Cemetery in 1893. 

PHOTO BY GLEN DAVIS, LEGENDARY PORTRAITS. 

wealthy Hood County rancher. In 1910, members 

of the Church of Christ established Thorp Spring 

Christian College at the campus. 

During the late nineteenth century in Texas, 

churches “were the single most important cultural 

and social force behind the Texas frontier…” and 

“provided the frontier with its social cohesion; 

they were the only cultural and socializing 

agencies Anglo-Texas had,” wrote T. R. Fehrenbach 

in his book, Lone Star. Particularly influential 

throughout the state, and in Granbury, were the 

Methodist and Baptist churches, which “carried 

over the old Anglo-Celtic puritan ethic almost 

intact.” 19 Many of the small communities in Hood 

County had at least one church and by 1895, 

Granbury had four churches in the city: Methodist, 

Baptist, First Christian, and Presbyterian. 

In 1881, the Texas legislature ushered in the 

state’s “golden age” of designing and building 

lavish “temples of justice” by authorizing counties 

to issue bonds for courthouse construction. 20 By 

then, Hood County’s unpretentious courthouse, 

rebuilt after the fire in 1875, had cracked 

walls supported by iron cross ties. In 1889, 

commissioners called for the building of a new 

courthouse for Hood County “owing to the 

exposure of the Public Records and papers of this 

county.” Built in 1891, the new, elegant Second 

Empire-style Hood County Courthouse was 

constructed of hand-hewn native limestone 

blocks. Architect W. C. Dodson designed the 

three-story courthouse, which still features 

its central clock tower. County commissioners 

purchased the Seth Thomas clock in 1891 for 

fourteen hundred dollars. This clock has been 

hand-wound for more than a century, and it 

chimes the hour daily for residents and visitors 

alike in Granbury. 21 

Hundreds of visitors admired the county’s new 

courthouse on November 30, 1893, as they 

arrived in Granbury aboard special trains pulling 

extra coaches. They came to honor General 

Hiram B. Granbury, the town’s namesake, and 

take part in a procession from the courthouse 

square to College Hill Cemetery. General 

Granbury’s body was removed from Ashwood 

Church Cemetery south of Columbia, Tennessee, 

and transported via train to Granbury, where it 

was re-interred in the town cemetery that day. 

During the ceremony, John Y. Rankin, a former 

member of General Granbury’s staff said, 

“Certainly this man is worthy, and it is fitting that 

our town be named for him.” 22 

General Granbury, whose name is sometimes 

spelled Granberry, was born in Copiah County, 

Mississippi, on March 1, 1831. He settled in 

Waco, Texas, in the 1850s, where he served as 

chief justice of McLennan County from 1856 to 

1858. In 1861, after Texas seceded from the 

Union, Granbury organized and recruited the 

Waco Guards. General Granbury was killed 


❖ 

Top: The Harris and Estes Funeral 

Home and Furniture Store entry in 

Reunion Parade, c. late 1920s. 

Standing in center are three Civil War 

veterans. Show are (from left to right: 

Phoebe Estes, unidentified, R. S. 

Whitehead, Francis Peveler, Ben 

Estes, and Ben Phillip Estes. 


during the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, on 

November 30, 1864; he was one of six 

Confederate generals killed during the battle. 

General Granbury’s wife, Fannie Sims, died at 

the age of twenty-five in 1863, and her body has 

never been moved to Granbury Cemetery. 

In 1899, the residents of Hood County 

organized an annual picnic known as the “Old 

Soldiers and Settlers Reunion.” This communitywide 

celebration became a tradition that 

continued for many years. It originated as a 

reunion of ex-Confederate soldiers and old 

Hood County families and took place over a 

three-day period each summer at the Reunion 

Grounds. Located atop the hill north of the 

courthouse square near the cemetery, Granbury’s 

Reunion Grounds offers a panoramic view of the 

town nestled on the banks of the Brazos River, 

with Comanche Peak rising in the background. 

Old Confederate soldier Major J. A. Formwalt 

actively participated in the reunion each year. 

An early settler in the Stroud’s Creek area of 

Hood County, Formwalt served under General 

Granbury during the Battle of Franklin, 

Tennessee. Severely wounded during combat, 

Formwalt eventually recovered and returned to 

his home in Hood County. After Formwalt’s 

death in 1914 at the age of ninety-four, a white 

horse with a black band around its neck was led 

in the reunion parade in his memory. 

Hood County entered the twentieth century 

with two railroads, burgeoning cotton crops, a 

growing population, and a new courthouse. But 

Texas was two generations behind the American 

mainstream in terms of development and 

industrialization, with early nineteenth century 

agrarian values firmly entrenched. Industrial 

advances in the North, however, would soon 

affect Texas and Hood County, bringing more 

progress and rapid change. 

Middle: The A. P. Gordon Store’s entry 

in the first “Old Soldiers and Settlers 

Reunion Parade.” 



Bottom: Playing baseball in Acton, 

c. 1900. 


Chapter IV ✦ 33

CHAPTER V 

E ARLY T WENTIETH C ENTURY P ROGRESS 

GRANBURY INVITES THE PROSPECTORS 

Forty miles southwest of Fort Worth situated on a little plateau, gently sloping southward nestles 

Granbury with its broad majestic river, beautiful mountain scenery and lovely shade trees. 

The soil has great fertility, lasting quality and water holding power. 

—Granbury Graphic-Democrat, May 1917 

❖ 

West side of the Hood County 

Courthouse Square, c. 1922. 


Hood County’s economic center bustled with industry in 1905. Five cotton gins, a cottonseed oil 

mill, and a planing mill hummed with activity. Granbury also boasted its railroad line to Fort Worth, 

a new public school, and many new, native limestone structures on the courthouse square. By 1910, 

Hood County achieved a population high of 10,008 1 and Granbury had 2,250 residents. 2 

Craftsman and builder E. J. Holderness opened Granbury’s planing mill in 1905, where workers 

did planing, joining, turning, and all kinds of cabinetry and woodwork. The new planing mill 

allowed local merchants to exuberantly express their newfound prosperity through the construction 

of high-style houses. Two advances in technology, balloon framing and cast-iron stoves, also made 

larger asymmetrical houses possible. In 1905, Andy Aston and Jess Baker hired Holderness to build 

their Queen Ann Victorian houses one block apart just east of the courthouse square. Baker’s house 

on East Pearl Street features an imposing neoclassical entryway with a pediment and columns. These 

attributes were probably influenced by Baker’s trip to the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago 

in 1893, which was known for its formal, neoclassical buildings that spurred a renaissance of 

classical architecture throughout the country. 

In June 1905, the year Aston and Baker built their grand houses, the Granbury News lauded local 

growth and prosperity. In an article entitled “An Optimistic View,” editor Frank Gaston wrote, “In 

fact, the residence improvement now in progress and definitely planned is enough to keep our local 

workmen busy the remainder of the year and will aid greatly to the appearance of the town.” 3 Two 

years later, along West Bluff Street, in a neighborhood southwest of the courthouse square, dry goods 

merchant J. D. Brown built his family’s high-style Queen Anne Victorian house, which features a 

two-story wraparound porch with classical columns. The same year, banker D. C. Cogdell hired an 

architect to design a large Craftsman-style bungalow for his family that features coppered windows 

and rich interior woodwork. Cogdell’s house is still located along the east side of Thorp Spring Road 

just north of the railroad tracks. 


❖ 

Top: The Granbury Band. Standing 

(from left to right): Mr. McElree, 

Henry Kerr, Nell Garland, Sid 

Thrash. Seated (from left to right): 

Jess Baker, Dick Williams, 

B. W. Estes, and George Landers. 


By 1903, the railroad in Hood County became 

known as the Frisco when the parent company 

of the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway 

consolidated all of its Texas properties as the 

St. Louis, San Francisco and Texas Railway 

Company. Railroad men often became city 

builders themselves, and in fact, the Frisco 

worked to populate the area served by its 

Fort Worth and Rio Grande line in hopes 

of increasing their business. They had a 

“Division Immigration Agent” stationed in 

nearby Stephenville, who was to “look into this 

territory thoroughly with a view of developing 

and colonizing the same with good, energetic 

and thorough farmers….” 4 

In 1903, Hood County Commissioners began 

considering construction of a Brazos River 

bridge north of Granbury. Two locations were 

considered: Stockton and Fairview. The county 

commissioners favored Stockton, but the people 

of Fairview rallied together and lobbied for their 

crossing. In January 1903, the editor of the 

Granbury News wrote: “From Fairview—The 

people are elated at the prospect of having a 

bridge across the Brazos in the near future. This 

will not only help this community but make our 

county site a better business town.” 5 

Citizens of Fairview contributed one 

thousand dollars toward building a bridge 

at Fairview crossing. As county commissioners 

wavered, citizens of Fairview threatened, “if the 

river is up as usual the farmers here will have to 

take their cotton to Weatherford, on account of 

the road being better and the distance is not 

much greater than by the present bridge road.” 

Finally, commissioners relented and selected the 

Fairview location for the new bridge. 6 

The Brazos River suspension bridge was 

completed at Fairview in April 1904, and a 

“Bridge Picnic” was held in celebration. But high 

water washed away the bridge in 1908, and 

once again the people of Fairview had to ford 

the river to go to town. The next year, county 

Middle: Barber Shop on North 

Houston Street on west side of the 

Hood County Courthouse Square, c. 

1927. Pictured (from left to right): 

Reverend Bill Anderson, Clarence 

Anderson, E. G. “Pig” Williams, Grady 

Clark, unidentified, unidentified, 

Monroe Cruse, and unidentified. 


Bottom: The first bridge crossing the 

Brazos River at Fairview, where the 

State Highway 51 North bridge is 

now located. This photo was taken by 

R. G. “Dick” Kerr in the early 1900s. 



Chapter V ✦ 35

❖ 

Top, left: Cody Catlett Martin on his 

family farm near Tolar, c. 1908. 


Top, right: Sam Grissom and friends, 

Ralph Larnerd and Victor Ginn, on 

the Courthouse lawn in 1917. 



Bottom, left: Andy Aston at the bar at 

the Aston and Landers Saloon on the 

north side of the Hood County 

Courthouse Square, c. 1900. 


Bottom, right: In early Hood County 

days, court juries were paid with scrip 

instead of cash. The jurors could then 

exchange their scrip at local 

Granbury businesses. Often they 

would choose to spend their earnings 

at the A&L Saloon, owned by George 

Landers and Andy Aston. This is an 

actual scrip note dated 

March 30, 1889. 

COURTESY OF CODY MARTIN AND MILTON MEYER. 

commissioners awarded a $17,400 contract to 

the El Paso Bridge Company to build a steel 

truss bridge, 450 feet long, across the Fairview 

crossing. The bridge was completed in 1910. 7 

The number of farms in Hood County 

reached an all-time high of 1,786 by 1910, and 

ranching reached a peak with 22,500 head of 

cattle. 8 Two city blocks of cattle pens were built 

north of the railroad tracks in Granbury so stock 

could be loaded onto trains to be shipped 

to Fort Worth. Shorthorn cattle raised in 

Hood County won second in show at the 1902 

International Fat Stock Show in Chicago. The 

editor of the Granbury News wrote, “This should 

be an object lesson to every cattle raiser, 

proving that as good stock can be raised in 

Hood as elsewhere….” 9 

Texans were caught up in national moral 

reform movements in the late nineteenth and 

early twentieth century, reflected particularly in 

their emotional feelings toward the issue of 

prohibition. Between 1895 and 1913, thirtyone 

states had enacted laws enabling local 

governments to prohibit alcohol, including 

Texas. By 1911, Texas had 167 dry counties, 

including Hood County. North Texas was 

mostly dry and South Texas mostly wet; larger 

cities and towns favored drinking, and rural 

areas favored prohibition. 10 

By 1887 in Granbury, prohibitionists were 

gathering regularly, and in May that year, 

they held “…an enthusiastic meeting at the 

Methodist church,” according to the Granbury 

Graphic. 11 A “Temperance Meeting” was held at 

the church in early June, where participants 

heard an address by Addison Clark and sang a 

prohibition song entitled Tramp, Tramp. 12 Antiprohibitionists 

were meeting in Granbury 

too, but they gathered more secretly in private 

households. Local legend has it that Carrie 

Nation visited Granbury, wielding her infamous 

axe through the many saloons on the 

courthouse square. In fact, most of Granbury’s 

residents met her at the railroad depot in March 

1905, and she delivered an address at Granbury 


College that night. The editor of the Granbury 

News wrote, “The curiosity of most people was 

satisfied by a sight of the notorious woman.” 13 

Like most of protestant rural America and the 

citizens of Central Texas, the majority of Hood 

County residents supported prohibition. Andy 

Aston and George W. Landers sold every drop of 

liquor in their saloon on the north side of the 

courthouse square the night before prohibition 

took effect in Granbury in 1902, taking in more 

than one hundred dollars. A “shooting scrape” 

outside the saloon the year before between 

colorful Hood County Sheriff Tom Mullins and 

Nat Tracy, brother of infamous desperado Bird 

Tracy, helped prompt local prohibition. 14 In 

1919, during a special election, and in “a burst 

of wartime feeling,” Texans voted out liquor 

statewide, just after the legislature ratified the 

national eighteenth amendment. 15 

During the same special election in 1919, 

Texas residents also voted on a woman suffrage 

amendment. Granbury merchant Jess Baker 

was a leading advocate of enfranchising women, 

and he became known as the “legislative father 

of equal suffrage in Texas.” 16 Baker started 

out his career in Granbury as a tinner who 

manufactured cups and repaired leaky coffee 

pots. He became a hardware, wagon, and 

implement merchant with four businesses on the 

courthouse square, vice president of The First 

National Bank of Granbury, and vice president of 

both the Granbury Quarry Company and Hood 

County Milling Company. Baker served in the 

Texas House for five terms—in the thirtieth 

through thirty-second sessions from 1907 

through 1913, and again in the thirty-fourth and 

thirty-fifth sessions from 1915 through 1919. 

In 1907, Baker proposed the first woman 

suffrage resolution in the Texas House in the 

twentieth century. During debate on the house 

floor in 1917, Baker gave a speech presenting 

a history of his efforts to pass a suffrage 

amendment. “Remember that the women are 

one-half of the human race, and, therefore, are 

entitled by inherent right to all the privileges 

accorded to men,” Baker said. “We are only 

asking you to submit an amendment of the 

Constitution to the qualified voters of the entire 

State, which shall take our women…and lift 

them to a higher plane, where their intelligence 

and patriotism may have full play.” 17 

With Governor William P. Hobby’s support, 

an amendment giving women the right to vote 

was part of the special election in May of 1919. 18 

Voters were asked to give women the right to 

vote and deny non-citizens the right to vote. 

Because women couldn’t vote, but non-citizens 

still could, the proposed amendment was 

defeated by twenty-five thousand votes. 

Baker worked to support both the suffrage 

and prohibition amendments. He was appointed 

chairman of local prohibition forces, and 

the Granbury News reported that Baker, “plans 

to work in harmony with the ladies who will 

be working for the suffrage amendment, and 

hopes to see both carry by a good majority 

in this county….” 19 His campaign was 

successful, for Hood County voters approved 

both the woman suffrage amendment and the 

prohibition amendment. 20 

❖ 

Top: Lobbying for Prohibition in 

Granbury, c. 1918. Pictured are (from 

left to right): Ima Curl, Mattie 

Landers, Ruby Curl, Effie Bowers, 

Dess Curl, Nell Bowers, Bascom 

Jones, and Jim McCauley. 


Middle: Lavelle and Greta Randle at 

the dedication ceremony for the 

Elizabeth Crockett Monument in 

Acton Cemetery in 1913. 


Below: Mrs. Earl Duckworth Kelley 

and Ashley Crockett at the dedication 

of Elizabeth Crockett’s memorial 

statue, May 30, 1913. 



Chapter V ✦ 37

❖ 

Right: Granbury High School students 

in 1913. First row, left to right: Earl 

Jones, Fred Roberson, Chevis 

Cleveland, H. Bush Morgan, and 

Preston Grissom. Second row: 

Gertrude Rothell, Gussie Carpenter, 

Lucy Thrash, Corinne Williams, 

Emma Morris, Milburn Nutt, Henry 

Davis, and Marshall Glenn. Third 

row: Lucyle Ryburn, Mag Joe Kerr, 

Lottie Morris, and Zeb Mitchell. 

Fourth row: Gertrude Sammons, 

Murel Keith, Minnie Grissom, Lillian 

Perkins, and Freida Hiner. Fifth row: 

Lorine Hightower, Bessie Brady, 

Mollie Wilson, and Annette Hiner. 


Just two months later, the Texas legislature 

convened in special session and ratified the 

proposed nineteenth amendment to the U.S. 

Constitution, giving women the right to vote. 

Texas was the ninth state in the Union and the 

first state in the former Confederacy to approve 

the amendment. 

Representative Baker and Senator Pierce B. 

Ward honored Texas’ pioneer women when they 

secured two thousand dollars of state funding 

to erect a monument to the memory of Elizabeth 

Crockett, David’s widow, who was buried in 

Acton Cemetery in 1860. Senator Ward 

designed the monument, and an Italian artist 

Right: Superintendent R. P. Jarrett with 

the graduating seniors of 1913. From 

left to right, Superintendent Jarrett is 

fourth in the first row, Henry Davis is 

sixth in the first row, and Chevis 

Cleveland is fourth in the second row. 



sculpted it. The statue depicts Elizabeth Crockett 

standing and shading her eyes with her hand as 

she gazes “westward watching for the return of 

David,” wrote a reporter for The Dallas Morning 

News. When designing the statue, the reporter 

wrote, Senator Ward thought of Elizabeth 

Crockett’s “toil, her courage and her sacrifice to 

our great State. He thought how that many, 

many others have walked the same path and 

were lying somewhere, forgotten, perhaps, and 

in graves unkept and unmarked. He thought 

what a beautiful tribute could be paid to the 

mothers and wives of the pioneer period 

by planning a monument here….” Thousands of 

spectators attended the dedication ceremonies 

for the Italian marble sculpture of Elizabeth 

Crockett in Acton Cemetery on May 30, 1913. 21 

During the same year, citizens of Hood 

County were raising money to erect a memorial 

to General Hiram B. Granbury. A play presented 

at the Opera House to raise funds for the monument 

was greeted by a “large and appreciative 

audience,” wrote the editor of the Granbury 

Graphic-Democrat. “The amateur actors deserve 

special mention for their efforts, we venture it 

was the most successful home talent play ever 

given in our city. The receipts were a little more 

than $50 and go to a cause that the people of 

Granbury are all in sympathy with.” 22 

In July 1913, the Texas legislature appropriated 

a thousand dollars for the statue of 

General Granbury. The United Daughters of 

the Confederacy paid Youngblood Monument 

Company of Waxahachie thirteen hundred and 

fifty dollars for a granite sculpture of General 

Granbury that was imported from Italy. The 

statue rests upon a limestone base and was 

erected in 1916 on the northwest corner of the 

courthouse lawn. 23 

Ongoing prosperity and unabashed town 

boosterism brought 376 students to the Granbury 

Independent School District in 1913. There were 

ninety-one high school students with Granbury’s 

largest graduating class ever—fifteen seniors. 

❖ 

Buster Brown and Tige come to 

Granbury, drawing a crowd of 

spectators in about 1916. 


Chapter V ✦ 39

❖ 

Assembling Model T’s at the Hudson 

and Keith Ford House on West Pearl 

Street, one-half block west of the 

Courthouse Square in Granbury, 

c. the early 1900s. 



While addressing the graduating class and their 

families, School Superintendent R. P. Jarrett 

told them “the children of Granbury deserve a 

modern school building.” 24 

In 1917 and again in 1923, voters in the City 

of Granbury approved twenty-five thousand 

dollars of school bonds to construct a masonry 

school building “on the block of land upon 

which the present old school building has been 

situated for several years.” The bonds of 1917 were 

cancelled, but the city issued the 1923 bonds 

the next year, and turned over the money to the 

treasurer of the Granbury Independent School 

District, making the local public school system 

independent of city government. 25 The Hood 

County communities of Tolar, Lipan, and Cresson 

also developed independent school districts. 

African-American children in Granbury 

attended a separate public school, which was 

located north of the railroad tracks along the 

east side of Keith Street. In 1913, the Granbury 

Graphic-Democrat ran a small article about the 

“Commencement Exercises of the Colored 

Public School, Friday and Saturday, May 23-24, 

1913. An old fashioned Chicken Pie will be 

served each night. Admission ten cents.” 26 

In Hood County, as in the rest of the South, 

racial segregation was the norm. Granbury’s 

railroad depot, which was built in 1914 and 

restored in the mid-1980s, had a separate 

waiting room door in the back. Under layers of 

old paint, a hand-lettered sign on the door was 

discovered that read “Colored Waiting Room.” 

At Granbury’s indoor theater, black moviegoers 

traditionally sat in the balcony. 

Smallpox broke out in Granbury in 1912. A 

local newspaper and the public health officer, 

who was a Granbury physician, worked hard to 

quell rampant fear of the disease. But the disease 

spread, and in all, twenty-nine residents came 

down with smallpox, and two residents died. 

“There has never been any danger to any person 

coming here on business; because the cases have 

been isolated and guarded. Some people have 

been scared and others have indulged in wild 

reports about the situation, but there has not 

been any danger of an epidemic any time,” 

wrote the newspaper editor two months after 

the outbreak was first reported. 27 

After the smallpox outbreak, Granbury, like 

larger American cities, remained concerned about 

public health and sanitary conditions. In April 

1914, the sanitary committee reported to the city 

council that the “sanitary condition of the town 

is in bad condition. There was some discussion 

on this subject but no action was taken.” 28 

Like the rest of the country, the early 1900s 

were a remarkable transition period for 

transportation in Hood County, where the 

reliable horse was replaced by the Model T. 

Granbury’s first auto arrived in 1907, purchased 

by bank president D. C. Cogdell’s son, Earl. By 

the early 1920s, Granbury had its first auto 

dealership, which sold Fords; it was located just 

a half-block west of the courthouse square. In 

1929, a Victorian building on the south corner 

of the east side of the courthouse square was cut 

in half to create a drive-through for Granbury’s 

first service station. A photo of the west side of 

the courthouse square taken during the 1920s 

shows a crowd gathered around Crites Dry 

Goods store, where Buster Brown and his dog, 

Tige, are on the building’s awning, 

demonstrating their shoes. Dominant in the 

photo are several horse-drawn buggies, which 

were still the main mode of transportation for 

most residents. But, in Granbury, as in the rest 

of Texas, autos made the vast reaches of the state 

closer, and soon, everyone wanted one. “Just as 

every poor farmer had owned a horse, every 

poor tenant living in a tarpaper shack in Texas 

owned some kind of car….,” T. R. Fehrenbach 

wrote in Lone Star. 29 By 1929, there was one 

automobile for every 4.3 Texans. 30 

With Hood County residents cruising around 

the community in new cars, good roads became 

a high priority. Granbury’s first streets, platted 

as 40 to 50 feet wide, were dirt roads. Later, 

they were a mixture of sand and gravel, 

remembered local historian, Mary Kate Durham, 


“so they were weatherproof.” City council 

minutes from the early 1900s show much work 

on the city’s streets. Council members paid fifteen 

dollars per month to have the courthouse square 

sprinkled with water twice a day to keep down 

dust. The main street to the railroad depot was 

graded and then sprinkled with oil. Residents of 

Doyle Street, two blocks south of the courthouse 

square, paid twenty-five dollars each to have their 

road graded and graveled in 1910. 31 

“There can be but one solution of the road 

problem and that is raise the money and build 

good roads or sit still and keep the bad roads. 

Good roads will not make naturally hence why 

delay the matter,” wrote the editor of the 

Granbury Graphic-Democrat. 32 Two weeks later, 

the same newspaper, in an article entitled “Street 

Improvements,” wrote that several major streets 

downtown were being graded and graveled. 33 

The same month, the newspaper also wrote that 

the city would replace the old wooden bridge 

crossing Lambert Branch with a new concrete 

bridge on the main road running north from the 

courthouse square to the railroad station. 34 

In a state where rural towns and big cities 

were often miles apart, autos opened up a whole 

new world for drivers. When State Highway 

No. 10 between Granbury and Fort Worth was 

completed after 1924, it made convenient 

transportation to a large city possible whenever 

a driver wanted to hit the road. In 1925, the 

Texas Almanac indicated that Hood County had 

thirty miles of paved roads and thirty miles of 

gravel roads. 35 

Progress in Texas during the early twentieth 

century meant having electric lights, water 

works, telephone service, and an ice factory. As 

the new year of 1902 dawned, the editor of the 

Granbury News wrote, “No other town the size 

of Granbury with which we are acquainted is 

without electric lights, and most of them have 

water works. Granbury can have these things by 

a pull together.” 36 

From the time of its settlement until the early 

twentieth century, most of Granbury’s families 

had their own outdoor privies, and some of 

them had their own water wells. In an early 

form of sewage disposal service, Granbury’s 

council empowered the City Marshal to hire a 

“City Scavenger,” who cleaned all water closets 

and privies within the city, “whenever and as 

often as such water closets and privies may 

need cleaning.” Customers paid the scavenger, 

“not to exceed the sum of 25 cents from each 

water closet or privy so cleaned.” 37 

Telephone service arrived in Granbury 

between 1898 and 1905, and a “Telephone 

Exchange” building was located on the west 

side of the courthouse square. In 1908, The 

Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company 

published a Local and Long Distance Telephone 

Directory for the city, which featured sixteen pages 

of number listings. The directory included tips 

for the new service, like how to properly hang 

❖ 

Looking south down Houston Street on the 

Hood County Courthouse Square during 

the early twentieth century. 


Chapter V ✦ 41

❖ 

Early Industry in Granbury— 

Granbury Milling Co., the city’s 

cottonseed oil mill was owned by 

Daniel C. Cogdell and was located 

northwest of the Courthouse Square. 



up the phone and how to make yourself heard 

“by speaking clearly and not too rapidly.” 38 

In 1905, the city contracted with the Frisco 

Ice and Light Company to install waterworks 

for Granbury. Plans called for a “six inch main 

around the public square, furnish eight fire 

plugs.... The company is also to furnish a 

public drinking fountain for people and stock,” 

according to the Granbury News.” 39 

When the Frisco Ice and Light Company 

completed Granbury’s new waterworks system, 

six-inch piping ran from the plant, which 

was near the railroad station, south to the 

courthouse square and around the square, as 

promised. “It is with pride and pleasure we 

announce that Granbury will soon have as good 

a water works plant as any town of its size in the 

country…feel assured that the enterprise will be 

managed with a view to the upbuilding of the 

town,” boasted the editor of the Granbury News. 40 

Beginning about 1909, the city and the 

Frisco Ice and Light Company, and its successor, 

the Granbury Water, Ice, Light and Power 

Company, had a rocky relationship regarding 

the quality and consistency of fire protection 

and lighting services provided to city residents. 

As part of the contract between the Ice and Light 

Company and the city, the company agreed 

to furnish fresh water for a public horsewatering 

trough on the northeast corner of the 

courthouse lawn. Years later, Mary Kate Durham 

still recalled the trough’s water quality: “Father 

said to never let my pony drink there or she’d 

drop dead.” 

In 1905, Granbury Milling Company was 

furnishing “electricity for village lighting,” 

which probably meant the city’s first public 

streetlights. Photos taken of wagons and 

carriages on the town square show utility poles 

and some electric or telephone lines, indicating 

these services were present before automobiles. 

After the Frisco Ice and Light Plant was 

constructed, the city continually negotiated 

with the private companies who owned the 

plant regarding the quality and quantity of 

public lighting and electrical power supply. In 

1912, the company agreed to keep electricity 

available all night. 

In 1917, the city signed an annual contract 

with the Granbury Water, Ice, Light and Power 

Company for thirty-eight electric lights for the 

purpose of lighting the streets and public 

square. Lights were to go on before dark until 

11 p.m. and then on again from 4 a.m. until 

daylight with a one-hundred-candlepower light 

at each of the four corners of the square. The 

company agreed to maintain forty pounds of 

steam all night, have a competent attendant on 

duty at their plant at all times, fill the mains 

with water at 11 p.m. before closing down, keep 

the fire whistle in good condition, instruct each 

attendant on duty how to operate the fire 

whistle so it would be recognized, furnish a 

fifteen-hour water service each day to private 

patrons: 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., 

and furnish water for the stock drinking 

fountain on the square. 41 

These arrangements proved unsatisfactory 

after several years, and in 1923, the city built its 

own light plant and water works. 42 This city 

light plant, built of native limestone with a 

corrugated tin roof, still stands north and east of 

the courthouse square, near the railroad tracks. 

Its three Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines, which 

date from 1923 and 1930, are intact. During its 

first four years of operation, the light plant 

generated revenues of more than forty-nine 

thousand dollars, and profits were used for city 

street maintenance. 

In 1917, when the United States entered 

World War I, Texans were overwhelmingly 

supportive. Almost 200,000 Texans served 

in the military between 1917 and 1919, and 

more than 5,000 Texans died during the 

“Great War.” 43 

In Hood County, 170 men served during 

World War I. 44 They came from communities 

throughout the county, including Acton, Lipan, 


Tolar, Fairview, Long Creek, Strouds Creek, and 

Fall Creek. Marie Williams remembered sending 

them off to war: “In 1918, during World War I, 

boys from Granbury would go down to the 

depot to catch a train together to report for 

military service. They let us out of school and 

we all went down to the depot to say goodbye to 

them. When one of the boys would come back 

from the war, they’d let us out of school to go 

down to the depot and greet him.” 45 Hood 

County’s World War I veterans included Sheriff 

Oran Baker and County Judge Henry Davis. 

Walter A. Baker was the first Hood County 

soldier to die in World War I on July 31, 1918, 

at the age of nineteen, and he is buried in 

Granbury Cemetery. 46 

In 1987, Burton Burks, Jr. recalled that his 

grandfather, A. T. Warren, sold horses to the 

United States military during World War I. 

“Mother tells me that he had the best team 

of horses in the community,” Burks said. “He 

prided himself on his horse team that he used 

for farming. When World War I came along, 

they came through the country buying big 

horses to pull their artillery in France, and I 

don’t know how many horses he sold the army.” 47 

During the early twentieth century, most of 

the Texas cotton crop was exported to Europe. 

As World War I affected European markets, 

cotton and cattle prices fell drastically, and it was 

enough to cause many Texas farmers and 

ranchers to lose their property. This continued a 

developing trend away from family-owned farms 

in Texas. With each drought or price drop in 

cotton, more families lost their property. In 1860, 

practically all Texas farmers owned their land. 

By 1910, only 47 percent owned their farms; the 

rest were sharecroppers or tenant farmers. 48 

Farmer A. T. Warren, who once owned four 

hundred acres of prime farmland in Fairview, 

retired in 1919 at the age of fifty and leased his 

land. “I remember when the men who leased my 

grandfather’s land would bring every third 

wagon of corn and throw it in my grandfather’s 

bin,” Burks remembered. “They would bring 

him every third wagon of corn and every fourth 

bale of cotton. They’d take their cotton to the 

gin, and he’d get one-fourth of the money.” 49 

The Texas economy rebounded at the end of 

the war, and author Seth McKay wrote that in 

1919, “Texans were enjoying a period of perfect 

weather for gathering a large cotton crop and 

the price of middling cotton on the Galveston 

market was 44 cents a pound.” 50 

After the war, watermelons became an 

important crop in Hood County. More than 

200 boxcars full of watermelons were shipped 

out of the county in 1924. Many residents 

remembered farmers driving horse-drawn 

wagons full of ripe melons through the city to 

the depot. 51 

When Lucas No. 1 well at Spindletop gushed 

with oil in 1901, it propelled the Texas economy 

into an increasing industrial period. Great 

excitement rippled through North Central Texas 

between 1902 and 1917 when speculators 

discovered oil in Brownwood, Petrolia, Wichita 

Falls, Ranger, and Burkburnett. 52 In 1918, 

the Big Jack Oil Company brought teams of 

horses to aid with exploration near Bluff Dale 

in adjacent Erath County. 53 By 1928, Texas 

surpassed all other states in oil production. 54 

The same year, the Samson Oil Company leased 

approximately ten thousand acres west of 

Comanche Peak. In the Granbury News, Samson 

urged local citizens to “endeavor to cooperate 

and encourage the oil company in every 

possible way to develop the oil resources of 

your county.” 55 But, in spite of local anticipation, 

“black gold” wasn’t discovered in large 

quantities in Hood County. 

By the 1920s, Texas was part of the 

established, prosperous American economy, 

which featured the West and South shipping 

raw material like cotton and oil to the north 

by train, where Northern industries turned 

these resources into finished products. In Texas, 

harvests were generally good during the decade, 

helping to make up for declining prices. 

Manufacturing advances resulted in new 

products that made life easier during the 

❖ 

The old Granbury “Light Plant.” The 

plant was built in the early twentieth 

century and continued to provide 

power for Granbury until the 1950s. 

Today, the old diesel engines have been 

restored and are occasionally run 

during special events. 


Chapter V ✦ 43

❖ 

Gathering for a parade along the 

west side of the Hood County 

Courthouse Square during the early 

twentieth century. 

COURTESY OF LAUREL PIRKLE 

“Roaring ’20s,” bringing more leisure time than 

ever before. In Hood County, residents filled 

that time at an exciting new entertainment venue. 

In 1919, the Granbury City Council approved 

a request by a citizen to erect a blank wall on 

a city lot, “for picture show.” A year later, an 

indoor movie theater called The Princess 

opened on the west side of the courthouse 

square with two shows every evening except 

Sunday and two shows Saturday afternoon. 56 

More leisure time meant more time to shop, 

creating an unprecedented consumer culture in 

America. In 1920, the merchants on the courthouse 

square once again joined together to raise 

money, this time to build a ladies’ restroom in the 

basement of the courthouse, “for the ladies who 

come here to trade.” The ladies’ restroom was 

planned to be “cool and pleasant in the summer, 

and warm in the winter. It will have sewerage 

connections and modern sanitary conveniences, 

while it will be well and tastefully furnished, 

with a telephone for their convenience.” 57 

The Progressive movement and Arts and 

Crafts influences of simplicity and closeness to 

nature inspired John Kristensen to organize a 

practical, self-sufficient Utopian community for 

Scandinavian families during the 1920s along 

the DeCordova Bend of the Brazos River. Settlers 

in Kristenstad built their own houses and grew 

their own food. They established a chair factory 

and sold their straight-back chairs and rocking 

chairs with cowhide seats for $1.50 each in 

fourteen states. Four years after it was established, 

Kristenstad was home to twenty-five families 

with a population of 146 residents, all of Danish 

or Scandinavian descent. Residents of the 

colony ran their own lime kiln, gristmill, and 

sawmill. A monthly magazine, The Southern 

Dairyman, was published in Kristenstad and had 

a circulation of twenty-five thousand. Eventually, 

dissension began to arise in Kristensen’s Utopia, 

exacerbated by a fire and economic depression. 

John Kristensen died in July 1937, and his 

dreams of a Utopian community along the Brazos 

River died with him. Shortly after his death, the 

colony of Kristenstad became a cattle ranch. 58 

The beginning of the twentieth century 

brought industrial progress and revolutionary 

change to the lives of Hood County’s families. 

The decades ahead would continue these 

trends. Conquering the Texas wilderness and 

cultivating the family farm gave way to living in 

town, driving to work, and experiencing the 

countryside during a Sunday drive. But the next 

two decades presented more immediate 

challenges to Americans, Texans, and the 

residents of Hood County: drought, depression, 

and another world war. 


CHAPTER VI 

D ROUGHT, DEPRESSION, AND 

W AR 

LOOKING FORWARD 

In the main we are having good harvests and the prices being received bring encouragement 

to one and all alike. The prospect of this being our most profitable year during 

at least the last half dozen years affords sufficient grounds for rejoicing. 

—First National Bank of Granbury, Granbury News, October 1935 

A cheery smile and eyes of blue, 

A happy heart so kind and true, 

As sunshine on a rainy day, 

We’ll remember you that way. 

To you, America’s son, today, 

Our last tribute we must pay. 

Our last respect—it all is due, 

We must bid farewell to you. 

—Jan Mitchell of Granbury, in memory of eighteen-year-old Seaman First Class Roy E. Thomason 

The cycle of change brought on by industrialization sped up during the 1920s in Hood County, 

while the exuberant prosperity residents enjoyed since the arrival of the railroad began to taper. From 

its height of a little more than 10,000 in 1910, the county’s population fell to 8,759 in 1920, and 

dropped again to 6,779 by 1930. The biggest harbinger of lifestyle transformation was the loss of 

family farms in Hood County, which significantly dropped from 1,786 in 1910 to 1,234 in 1920. 1 

Local cotton farming experienced further setbacks when the boll weevil began to attack crops in the 

early 1920s. “In 1919, I had a good cotton crop, but then the boll weevil hit here and ate up the cotton. 

The beginning of the boll weevil here was in 1921,” remembered Albert Porter of Granbury in 1984. 2 

Farming became physically easier and speedier with mechanization, and Texas farmers responded 

with gusto. The country’s first gasoline-powered tractors were sold in 1902, but tractor sales boomed 

when International Harvestor and Ford drastically reduced prices in 1922. The next year, International 

Harvestor tested a general-purpose tractor known as the Farmall in Texas, which they began selling 

throughout the country two years later. From 1925 to 1930, during the great “plow-up,” gasoline 

tractors aided farmers in cultivating Southern Plains, including those in Texas, which exacerbated 

drought conditions leading to the Dust Bowl of the late 1930s. 3 

❖ 

Stewart family reunion in Fall Creek, 

c. the 1930s. Alexander Stewart 

settled between Acton and Godley 

from Tennessee before 1835. 

COURTESY OF LARRY STEWART AND 

ANN STEWART SURLEY. 

Chapter VI ✦ 45

❖ 

Right: Willie Edgar Martin working 

on his farm near Tolar, c. 1930s. 


Bottom, left: Josephine Cogdell in 

front of the Cogdell family home on 

Thorp Spring Road in Granbury, 

c. 1919. 


Bottom, center: Daniel C. Cogdell, 

founder and first president of The 

First National Bank of Granbury and 

owner of Granbury's cottonseed 

oil mill. 

COURTESY OF THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK 

OF GRANBURY. 

Bottom, right: Interior of City 

National Bank, which was located in 

the J. D. Baker Building on the north 

corner of the west side of the 

Granbury Town Square. The First 

National Bank of Granbury acquired 

City National during the 1920s. 


During the 1920s, Hood County growers 

began producing noteworthy pecan crops. “No 

other industry has such unlimited possibilities in 

Hood County as pecan culture and the development 

of this industry should be of interest to 

every man and woman in the county,” wrote the 

editor of the Granbury News in April 1924. A year 

later, the Texas Almanac reported that three 

million young pecan sprouts growing wild in 

Hood County could be “budded and grafted to 

improved varieties of pecans.” 4 By 1928, thirtyseven 

train carloads of pecans were shipped 

from Hood County. 5 

The overall loss of population and family 

farms in Hood County had an economic trickledown 

effect on businesses in Granbury. City 

National Bank, which was located on the north 

corner of the east side of the courthouse square, 

closed in 1928, and First National Bank of 

Granbury assumed all of its accounts. 6 

First National’s affluent president, Dan 

Cogdell, along with members of his growing 

family, built several houses in Granbury. At 

the largest family estate on Thorp Spring Road, 

Cogdell employed several African-American 

servants, including a groom known as “Big Jim.” 

An imposing cowboy of six feet, Jim could ride, 

rope, and shoot. During the mid-1920s, Cogdell 

sent Jim to retrieve a horse from a man who 

rented family property. While trying to collect 

the horse, Jim encountered resistance from the 

renter. As Jim persevered, the renter shot him in 

the back. Jim died, and county officials put the 

Anglo renter on trial for murder 

“The day the case came up, all the poor 

whites in the county came to town carrying 

weapons and corn liquor and made a holiday of 

the farcical trial,” wrote Cogdell’s youngest 

daughter, Josephine, in her diary. “The defendant 

was acquitted in five minutes by a jury of 

the same class. I asked my father why he did not 

testify. He knew that Jim was of good character 

and that the renter was a confirmed Negro hater. 

He replied that it would be bad for his business 

for him to take a Negro’s side.” 7 

Cogdell, who was also president of Granbury’s 

cottonseed oil mill, did take the side of his 

black servant, Aniky. When Aniky’s husband 

was accused of shooting another black man, 

Cogdell helped “get him off.” Josephine Cogdell 

wrote that her father considered Aniky’s 

husband to be “a good mill hand,” and she 

added: “Mama is very angry with Papa…. She 

says he helps the Negroes more than he does 

his own family.” Years later, Cogdell family 

descendants would remember that Dan Cogdell 

enjoyed the company of a black mistress in 

Granbury for more than forty years. 8 

During the “Roaring ’20s,” Josephine Cogdell 

moved to New York City, where she met and 


married George Schuyler, an African-American 

journalist. They lived together in Harlem during 

its cultural renaissance. The Schuyler’s daughter, 

Philippa, became a young musical prodigy 

known as the “little Harlem genius,” but she 

had little contact with her family in Granbury. 

“The race barrier is America’s last frontier, and it 

requires all the courage and determination of a 

pioneer to enter into an interracial marriage,” 

Josephine Cogdell wrote years later. 

When the stock market collapsed in 1929, 

the effects were not immediately felt in rural 

Texas because residents were not invested in 

financial and industrial markets of bigger 

Northern cities. What Texans did feel were the 

effects of devastating drought and dust storms 

caused by the great “plow-up” of the previous 

five years. During the Dust Bowl drought of the 

1930s, farmers of Hood County again began 

losing their land, and Fehrenbach wrote that 

“more Texans remembered the disastrous 

drought and dust storms of the 1930s than the 

Depression itself….” 9 

In a 1934 article entitled “Drought in Texas 

Burns All Crops,” a New York Times reporter 

described the despair of farmers: “Bewildered 

Texas ranchers and farmers face the possibility 

of standing almost empty-handed at the end 

of the harvesting season with more than 

18,000,000 hungry cattle, sheep and angora 

goats to feed this fall and winter.” 10 

Thousands of Texans migrated west looking 

for work on California farms. “The finest people 

in this world live in Texas but I just can’t seem 

to accomplish nothin’ there. Two years drought, 

then a crop, then two years drought and so on. I 

got two brothers still trying to make it back there 

and there they’re sitting,” said one former Abilene 

farmer from his car in California as he migrated 

from crop to crop in 1936. 11 

In Hood County, ninety-four families lost 

their farms between 1930 and 1935. 12 Bank 

president Dan Cogdell, who was eighty-four in 

1933, sold his thirteen-thousand-acre Cogdell 

Ranch, located twelve miles northwest of 

Granbury, to John R. Black of Dallas. Two years 

later, Cogdell resigned as president of First 

National Bank of Granbury, but was elected as 

chairman of the bank’s board of directors. 

“The depression years were terrible, terrible,” 

Marie Williams said in 1984, remembering her 

dry goods business on the north side of the 

Granbury town square. “From 1937 to 1944, we 

took in scrip—IOU’s signed by the government—from 

the teachers so they could buy 

clothes. If we knew the teacher, we often cashed 

their scrip because they needed cash.” 13 

The desperation caused by drought and 

depression led to an increase in crime and 

violence. In 1932, Texans re-elected former 

Governor Ma Ferguson. Motivated by political 

partisanship, Governor Ferguson immediately 

fired forty-four Texas Rangers. The legislature 

limited the force to thirty-two men and slashed 

pay and budgets. The governor began to award 

special Ranger commissions to political pals. In 

The Handbook of Texas, Ben H. Procter called the 

results “catastrophic,” and wrote, “Soon few states 

could claim a more vicious assortment of gangsters 

or provide a safer sanctuary for the criminal 

element. For instance, residents in the Dallas- 

Fort Worth area alone included George ‘Machine- 

Gun’ Kelly, Raymond Hamilton, and ‘mad-dog 

killers’ Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.” 14 

Desperate for cash, outlaws robbed Continental 

State Bank in Tolar in December 1935 and locked 

some of the bank’s customers in the vault during 

the holdup. The economic realities of the era, coupled 

with the holdup, led to the liquidation of 

Continental State Bank. In the small Hood County 

community of Hill City, struggling farmer and 

outlaw Bird Tracy and his brother-in-law, Max 

Cash, held up a filling station and grocery store in 

May 1935. They were looking for cash at the end 

of a busy day that featured Hill City’s church 

❖ 

Minnie Randle and her daughter, Mary 

Kate, in 1925 at their home in the 

Waples community in Hood County. 



Chapter VI ✦ 47

❖ 

Top: Dairy goats ready to be shipped 

by Keith Randle at the Granbury 

Depot. According to his 

granddaughter, Kay Lee, Randle was 

the second-largest dairy goat breeder 

in the United States during the 1940s. 



Above: Historic house still located at 

the south end of Baker Street in 

Granbury, where Willie Edgar Martin 

and his family lived during the 1920s 

and 1930s. Martin would shoot 

wolves from his backyard to protect 

his sheep. 


Right: William Cody Martin, Sr., 

on his bicycle, c. the 1930s. 


festival. During the robbery, they shot and killed 

nineteen-year-old Thomas Holmes. The Dallas 

Morning News described Tracy, who was six feet 

seven and one-half inches tall, as a “towering Hood 

County farmer.” 15 

According to an enduring local tale, infamous 

depression-era Texas outlaws Bonnie Parker and 

Clyde Barrow visited Granbury during the early 

1930s. While in town, Bonnie and Clyde ate 

breakfast in Donnard Parker’s café located in the 

service station on the southeast corner of the 

courthouse square in Granbury. Open twenty-four 

hours a day, the service station and café were “one 

of the busiest corners in town,” remembered Mary 

Kate Durham. “Cattle were shipped through here 

in trucks from San Angelo and West Texas to the 

Fort Worth Stockyards,” Durham said. “The truck 

drivers would stop at the café and station to 

eat and buy gas…. It was like an early truck and 

travelers’ stop…an oasis or beacon in the night.” 16 

Durham’s father, Keith Randle, decided to 

diversify to make a living for his family during the 

depression. He established a dairy and planted a 

vegetable garden and fruit orchard. The Randles 

also raised goats and collie dogs that they 

shipped all over the country by train. In 1930, 

when she was six years old, Durham began delivering 

milk with her father in a Chevrolet coupe. 

Riding on the running board, Durham dropped 

off milk for people on their front porch. When 

she first started delivering milk, Durham’s father 

charged three cents for a pint bottle and five cents 

for a quart. The Randles had to build confidence 

in customers who believed their former milkman 

usually stopped at the river and added water to 

his milk bottles. 17 

The Great Depression was “a special nightmare 

for city officials,” wrote Carl Abbott in his 

book, Urban America in the Modern Age, 1920 to 

the Present. In the city of Granbury, as throughout 

the country, “exploding demands collided with 

shrinking resources.” 18 

Many of Granbury’s residents were unable to 

pay their property taxes, prompting the city to 

print a warning in the Granbury News in 1935: 

“The city has remitted all penalty and interest on 

taxes if paid on or before March 15, 1935. This is 

quite a saving to you and if paid will save us 

all some embarrassment. The bond holders of 

Granbury are insisting on collection of the taxes.” 19 

As the economy worsened throughout the 

depression, families in Hood County’s towns 

began to lose their homes. The once-affluent 

widow and children of early Granbury dry 

goods merchant J. D. Brown could not afford to 

pay their county or city property taxes during 

the depression. In 1935, the Hood County 

sheriff seized the Brown’s high-style Queen Anne 

Victorian house on West Bluff Street and auctioned 

off their family home on the courthouse 

steps to a local physician for $600. 


As late as the mid-1930s, photographs show 

dirt streets on the Hood County Courthouse 

Square and in many of Granbury’s neighborhoods. 

On Oct. 26, 1931, the city council passed an ordinance 

allowing the state highway department to 

govern State Highway No. 10 or Pearl Street 

through the city of Granbury. By1932, Granbury at 

last had six miles of paved road, which was probably 

state-improved Pearl Street. Finally, in 1935, 

the city council made plans to pave the town 

square as well as Houston and Crockett Streets 

from the railroad depot south to the square. 20 

Just to get in and out of Granbury, drivers on 

State Highway No. 10 had to wait in lines to cross 

the one-way bridge built across the Brazos River in 

1878. In 1931, the state highway department contracted 

with L. H. Lacy Company of Dallas to build 

a new bridge across the river along Highway No. 10 

for $115,290. The next year, state and local leaders 

and residents of Granbury celebrated the opening of 

the new bridge, which the Dallas Morning News 

called “one of the major bridges of the State.” The 

new bridge was one thousand feet long. It featured 

three steel truss spans, each 120 feet in length; two 

I-beam spans; and sixteen concrete deck girder 

spans. The celebration on June 7, 1932, kicked off 

with a parade at 10:30 a.m., and the Fort Worth Star- 

Telegram reported that “thousands thronged the 

streets.” Amon Carter of Fort Worth served as master 

of ceremonies for the program, which featured 

Gov. Ross Sterling. State Representative Pierce B. 

Ward dedicated the new bridge to the memory of 

Robert Patton Crockett, David Crockett’s son, who 

served as Hood County commissioner and worked 

as toll taker on the 1878 bridge for several years. 21 

In 1930, the Granbury Chamber of Commerce 

approached the city and submitted plans for council’s 

consideration of a new city hall and fire station, 

and the council reacted very favorably. The city 

bought the lot next door to their fire station on 

South Houston Street, and council approved building 

a new city hall and fire hall, with the cost not to 

exceed $5,000. The “fully motorized” fire station 

featured an electric siren and housed two Ford 

Model ‘T’ fire trucks. One truck was a triple-combination 

water pumper, and the other featured a 

twenty-four-foot extension ladder. 

By 1932, Granbury’s volunteer fire department 

had one chief, one assistant chief, and twentythree 

men. A city ordinance prohibited wooden 

shingle roofs within Granbury’s fire limits only. 

The city’s water system consisted of two deep 

wells, a concrete reservoir with a capacity of 

106,000 gallons and an elevated water tank with 

a capacity of seventy-five thousand gallons. 22 

With the election of Franklin Roosevelt as 

president in 1932, Texans gained several positions 

of influence within the Democratic New Deal 

Administration. John Nance Garner of Uvalde was 

vice president for Roosevelt’s first two terms, and 

Jesse H. Jones of Houston served as chairman of 

the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, administrator 

of the Federal Loan Agency, and Secretary 

of Commerce. By 1933, Texans served as chairmen 

for powerful committees in the House of 

Representatives, including Sam Rayburn for interstate 

and foreign commerce, James P. Buchanan 

for appropriations, Hatton W. Sumners for judiciary, 

and Marvin Jones for agriculture. 

With these powerful men representing Texas 

in Washington, D.C., New Deal programs soon 

brought relief and improvements to Hood 

County. Foremost among these was Granbury’s 

first sanitary sewer system. This project was 

financed under the National Recovery Act, 

which enabled the city to issue sewer revenue 

bonds of $35,000 and water revenue bonds of 

$5,000. In 1933, Granbury contracted with 

Municipal Engineering Company of Dallas to 

design and construct a sanitary sewer system 

and water improvements. 23 

❖ 

The First Granbury City Hall and 

Fire Station (in right foreground) as 

seen from the top of the courthouse in 

1937. Note the bend in the Brazos 

River in the background. 



Chapter VI ✦ 49

❖ 

Above: The Mecca Café, owned by Sam 

Hambright, was located in the old red 

bank building on the southwest corner 

of the Hood County Courthouse Square. 

The café seated just ten customers. Left 

to right in this photo taken in 1935: 

Cecil Johnson, Margaret Hambright, 

and Wanda Davis. 



Below: Granbury Elementary School 

play, c.the 1930s. 


Hood County’s rural areas also benefited from 

infrastructure improvements during the New 

Deal era. In Lipan, a crowd of three thousand 

Hood County residents celebrated the small city’s 

first electric power at a “Lamp-Blowing Jubilee” 

on Friday, November 13, 1936. Texas Power and 

Light Company had just completed a thirty-twomile-long 

electric power line from Mineral Wells 

through Nettie Flats, Brazos, and Lipan, which 

served 160 farms and rural homes. In an article 

entitled “Hood County Rural Folk Junk Oil- 

Burners for Electric Power, Light,” the Dallas 

Morning News reported that Lipan-area residents 

brought two hundred “of every type of keroseneburning 

illuminator” and entered them in a 

contest where prizes were awarded for the 

“most ancient” lamps. During the jubilee, W. H. 

Thompson, vice-president of Texas Power and 

Light Company, told farmers that in the two 

previous years, his company had erected two 

thousand miles of electric lines serving eight 

thousand rural patrons. 24 

During the New Deal, the Texas Brazos 

Improvement District began working with 

federal agencies to fund the construction of a 

dam along the Brazos River at the DeCordova 

Bend in Hood County. In 1938, the cost of a 

dam at DeCordova Bend was estimated at threeand-a-half 

million dollars. This Brazos River 

Reclamation and Conservation Project would 

create a water reservoir for Hood County that 

eventually became Lake Granbury. 25 

Texans found a reason to celebrate in 1936 as 

they commemorated the centennial of their 

independence from Mexico. As part of the 

celebration, the Texas Highway Department 

worked with the Work Projects Administration, 

a New Deal program, to erect 900 monuments 

and historical markers throughout the state. 

Each county received at least one marker 

documenting local history; Hood County has 

two located on the south side of the courthouse 

lawn in Granbury. During the centennial, the 

state also erected two other historical markers in 

Hood County. One marked the site of Elizabeth 

Crockett’s log cabin in northeastern Hood 

County; it remains located on a private ranch off 

Farm Road 167 between U.S. Highway 377 and 

Farm Road 51. The other marked the location of 

Add-Ran College, and it remains in Thorp 

Spring, located just south of Farm Road 4. 

According to Mary Kate Durham, Elizabeth 

Crockett’s log cabin in Hood County was sold, 

dismantled, and taken to Dallas, where it was 

reassembled for display during the Texas 

Centennial Celebration. Mrs. Durham also 

remembered singing as a member of the Texas 

Schoolchildren’s Chorus at the Cotton Bowl as 

part of the centennial festivities in Dallas. “We 

took a train from Granbury to Dallas and met 

hundreds of other children at the Cotton Bowl— 

it was full of children singing Texas songs for the 

Centennial,” Mrs. Durham recalled. 26 

By the 1930s and 1940s, Hood County’s 

young people were leaving home for greater 

economic opportunities in bigger cities like 

Dallas and Fort Worth. Texas was beginning 

to develop larger urban industrial centers that 

offered new alternatives to the children of 

hungry cotton farmers and cattle ranchers. 

Most rural Texans who moved went to big 

cities, but many abandoned their farms for homes 

in small towns and county seats. While rural counties 

lost overall residents, many of their towns 

grew. And so was the case in Granbury, where the 

population rose. In 1940, Granbury had fortyeight 

businesses and a population of 1,166. By 


1950, sixty-five businesses were in operation and 

population had increased to 1,679. 27 

The small town of Lipan grew from three 

hundred residents and eighteen businesses in 

1936 to three hundred fifty residents and 

twenty-one businesses in 1940. 28 

Residents of cities and towns throughout 

Texas developed innovative industries and businesses 

in their efforts to earn a living. During the 

1930s, merchants in Tolar constructed buildings 

of petrified wood dug up by farmers’ tractors. 

This trend began during the 1920s in nearby 

Glen Rose, where entrepreneurs hoped the fossilized 

building material would bring tourists to 

their “Paradise of Geology.” By 1940, Tolar was 

home base for a novel business where petrified 

wood was excavated and exported as a unique 

building material. 

Granbury’s cottonseed oil mill was still operating 

in 1940, but new industries were also developing 

in the city. In 1940, Mattie Landers Mangold, a 

Hood County native, began manufacturing stick 

horses in Granbury and selling them to stores in 

Fort Worth and Dallas. The Mangold Toy Company 

began in her family’s home on Travis Street in 

Granbury and eventually occupied a building on 

the north side of the town square. At the height 

of production, other family members worked at 

the stick-horse factory, including Mrs. Mangold’s 

husband, R. P., and their son and son-in-law. 

The Mangolds hired local women, who stitched 

together the horse heads for two dollars an hour. At 

one time, six hundred thousand stick horses were 

shipped from Granbury each year to stores all over 

North and South America, Australia, and Puerto 

Rico, and the Mangold’s factory employed up to 

sixty local residents who worked in two shifts. 

Forced to diversify as cotton production in 

Hood County slowed, farmers developed new 

cash crops during the 1930s and 1940s. Peanuts 

and pecans became the county’s leading farm 

exports. In 1942, sixteen thousand acres of 

peanuts were harvested in Hood County. Farmers 

were paid more than $260,000 dollars for four 

thousand tons of peanuts. A writer for the Hood 

County Tablet described “mountains of sacked 

peanuts stacked in Tolar waiting for freight 

cars…. Many peanut growers suggest that the 

name of Tolar be changed to Peanutville.” 29 

By 1941, the average pecan crop in Hood 

County was more than three million pounds a year. 

The Hood County Tablet declared that Granbury was 

one of the best pecan markets in Texas. “Probably 

no other section of the country grows better 

quality native pecans as well as improved varieties,” 

wrote a Tablet reporter. “Which fact is widely 

recognized by the big shellers of the North and 

East who are always ready to pay a premium for 

Hood County pecans.” 30 

The Dallas Morning News hailed John R. 

Black’s large ranch in northwest Hood County as 

a forerunner of soil conservation during the late 

1930s. Black’s efforts included planned terracing 

and pasture contouring to conserve soil and 

moisture. Black and his partner, C. M. Largent, 

Jr., constantly shifted their herds of Hereford 

cattle from one pasture to another to conserve 

grasses. Black’s ranch “has been forged out of the 

combining of a historic Texas Hereford herd with 

a historic Texas ranch where the cross-timbers 

country begins in a setting of luxuriant grasses in 

a well watered rolling hill country,” wrote a 

Morning News reporter. 31 

Texans responded enthusiastically to defend their 

country after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor 

on December 7, 1941. They stood in long lines at 

recruiting stations to enlist in the military. During the 

war, Texans made up five percent of the nation’s population, 

yet seven percent of the men and women 

serving in the armed forces were from Texas. 32 

“We’re behind you a hundred percent, and we 

want you to know it. The boys around Hood 

County here have been joining up pretty fast, I 

can tell you,” Bob Barker of Granbury told 

President Roosevelt in an interview with a fieldworker 

from the Archive of American Folk Song. 

The archive conducted “Dear Mr. President” 

interviews in early 1942 to collect reactions of 

ordinary Americans to the bombing of Pearl 

Harbor and the subsequent declaration of war. 

Barker went on to tell the president that when 

the Japanese “attacked us at Pearl Harbor, and 

when we declared war on them, we want you to 

know that the U.S. declared war and that Hood 

County declared war.” 33 

The Hood County Genealogical Society maintains 

a list of approximately 600 Hood County 

World War II veterans. Some of them were born and 

reared in Hood County, and many moved to the 

area later in their lives. Brigadier General Claudius 

Miller Easley, who was born in Thorp Spring in 

1891, died leading the 96th Infantry Division in 

❖ 

The Mangold Stick Horse 

Factory showroom. 


Chapter VI ✦ 51

❖ 

Above: Troop train in Granbury 

in 1944. 



Below: Courts Cleveland, Jr., in 

uniform with his sister, Charlotte, 

c. 1943. They are standing in front of 

the Estes-Green House on West 

Pearl Street. 


battle on Okinawa Island on June 19, 1945. 

Kenneth Hendricks, David Crockett’s great-great 

grandson, graduated from Granbury High School in 

1942. Hendricks was drafted into the army in 1944 

while attending college, and he served as lieutenant 

colonel in a field artillery unit in the 5th Army. 

Seaman First Class Roy Ernest Thomason was 

born in Granbury and died at the age of eighteen 

while manning his post as a gunner aboard 

the U.S.S. Savannah. On September 11, 1943, a 

German bomb exploded aboard the Savannah, 

killing Seaman Thomason as he and his ship’s 

crew supported a troop-landing mission at 

Salerno, Italy. Army Air Force Second Lieutenant 

Windell D. Neely of Tolar was reported as 

missing in action on June 11, 1943, at the age of 

twenty-seven. His body was never recovered 

and his tombstone in Tolar Cemetery says he is 

“Buried at Sea.” 34 

While their husbands and sons fought overseas, 

Hood County’s families joined together to 

support U.S. defense programs. Jake Green, who 

became First National Bank’s president in 1936, 

volunteered his services as county chairman of the 

war bond drives. “Mr. Green is extremely anxious 

for every man, woman, and child to do their part 

in reaching the county quota,” wrote a reporter for 

the Hood County Tablet in 1942. “Defense Savings 

Bonds and stamps...give all of us a way to take a 

direct part in building the defense of our country…. 

Buying Defense stamps and bonds gives an 

opportunity to buy a share in America.” 35 

In his “Dear Mr. President” interview, Bob 

Barker said: “There’s mostly ranchers and 

farmers around here, Mr. President. We don’t 

amount to much, but we’re real Americans, and 

we’re real Texans…. We have been buying 

bonds down here, till the world looks level, 

I tell you…every man I know here in Granbury 

and Hood County, for that matter, is doing it. 

There’s these cowboys out here from the ranches, 

we’ve got a few ranches around here. I see 

them come into Granbury nearly every Saturday 

afternoon. And especially on payday and they 

are always going over to the post office and I see 

them coming out of there with bonds in their 

hands….Every man around here is doing all 

they can to support this war effort by buying 

defense stamps and bonds.” 36 

For local farmers and ranchers, supporting 

the war also meant increasing production as part 

of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s national 

Food for Victory campaign. During the war both 

of Hood County’s newspapers ran regular columns 

with news of Hood County citizens in the Armed 

Forces. Granbury News titled its updates “Fightin’ 

Men From Hood County,” and the Hood County 

Tablet printed “News of Hood County Boys 

in Armed Forces.” 

The population of Texas made its historic 

change from predominantly rural to 60 percent 

urban during the 1940s. 37 This major shift in 

population and lifestyle in Texas was caused by 

several factors: mechanization of farming, 

decline in cotton acreage, development of big 

industries, and expansion of oil and gas production. 

In nearby Fort Worth, Consolidated 

Aircraft opened a manufacturing plant where 

workers built three thousand B-24 Liberator 

bombers within two years. The plant attracted 

residents to Fort Worth as well as commuting 

workers from Hood County. 38 

Like most towns and cities, Granbury and 

its economy began to bounce back during the 

war. Bill Keith remembered a U.S. Navy Seabees 

platoon stationed on the Brazos River near 

Granbury, where members trained to build 

bridges. Keith said Seabee attendance at his 

family’s downtown theater, The Palace, was a 

terrific boon for business. In 1942, at an annual 

meeting of stockholders, First National Bank’s 

directors announced that the bank had just 

ended one of its most successful years ever. 

After the war ended, two sewing factories 

opened in Granbury. Together, these two manufacturing 

companies employed one hundred local 

women. Norman Lumber Company was founded 

in Granbury after the war, and the city’s residents 

began building minimal traditional houses in 

neighborhoods surrounding the town square. 

By 1950, the effects of the depression and the 

development of booming urban industrial 

centers in Texas caused rural Hood County’s 

population to drop to 5,287, almost half of what 

it had been in 1910. The number of farms 

dropped down to 830, from a high of 1,786 in 

1910. Ranching was on the upswing, however, 

with 25,000 head of cattle in the county, up 

from 11,000 in 1920. 39 But another drought was 

on the horizon above the Texas prairies and 

plains, one that still reigns as the state’s “drought 

of record.” 


CHAPTER VII 

D REAMS AND P LANS 

In 1960, Granbury was a sleepy little county seat at the edge of West Texas, 

its cotton crops long dried up, its sons and daughters gone away to college 

and jobs, and its town square and fine old houses falling into disrepair. 

The city was the thing then, and the big high-speed freeways 

had passed Granbury by completely. 

—Mavis Bryant, “Back to a New Life: Granbury’s Town Square,” 

Texas Historical Commission Reference Series Number 1, c. 1980 

❖ 

An aerial view of Granbury nestled 

along the Brazos River, c. 1950s. 


People from the cities might well move out here into the beautifully wooded areas 

around the shorelines of what can be one of Texas’ most attractive lakes. 

—Walter Humphrey, Brazos River Authority spokesman, 

to members of the Granbury Chamber of Commerce, 1961 

Chapter VII ✦ 53

❖ 

Herschel Biggs, who was Granbury’s 

entire police force during the 1950s. 



In the years following World War II, a 

national euphoria and economic boom brought 

hope to American families. After 15 years of 

traumatic experiences like depression and war, 

an optimism and a persistent belief in a 

bright, shining future prevailed over most of 

the country. In a society where sacrifice and 

rationing were practiced for years, American 

citizens now immersed themselves in post-war 

abundance. Delighted to be reunited with their 

loved ones, American couples started new 

families, creating with the baby boom of the 

1950s. The American dream became getting a 

steady job, having a family and owning a home 

and an automobile. Economic pursuits were 

what motivated Americans after the war, not 

political or social concerns. 

Prosperity grew in Texas during the post-war 

period, despite the “drought of record,” which 

hit the state during the late 1940s and early 

1950s. With the change to a mostly urban 

population, the middle class in Texas made 

more money. Author T. R. Fehrenbach wrote 

that the urbanization of Texas started late but 

happened faster than in other states. Small 

cities and towns grew first, and “Then, suddenly, 

the new metropoli [sic] started to suck the 

countryside dry,” Fehrenbach wrote. 1 

The record drought from the late 1940s to 

1957, which novelist Elmer Kelton called The 

Time It Never Rained, also significantly depleted 

rural population in Texas. All but ten of the 

state’s 254 counties were declared disaster 

areas by the end of 1956. Ranchers resorted 

to burning needles off of prickly pear cactus so 

their cattle could eat and drink. Jon McConal, 

who lived on a ranch and farm in Somervell 

County, recalled that when he was a teenager he 

went to bed each night listening to a tiny radio. 

“I was hoping that the nightly forecast would 

hold out some hope for rain,” McConal said. 

People living in dry, rural counties lost 

their farms and ranches, and fled to towns 

and cities to live. Local historian and Granbury 


esident Mary Kate Durham said, “It was 

horrible. Trucks from ranches carrying sheep, 

cattle, and goats to market drove by so often…all 

the little communities folded up after the 

drought, and that’s when they quit trying to 

raise crops around here so much and went more 

into ranching.” 2 

During the drought, the number of small 

farms continued to decrease, while the size of 

farms and ranches increased. Small family 

farms were giving way to large, consolidated 

agricultural operations. Old-fashioned small 

sharecroppers began to disappear. According to 

Fehrenbach, ranching receded east of the old 

natural farm boundary along the 98th meridian, 

which runs through northwest Hood County. 

“Big ranches were coming back,” he wrote. 3 

These statewide trends were reflected in 

Hood County, where the decreasing number of 

small family farms affected business throughout 

the community. By 1956, there remained one 

electric cotton gin in Granbury, down from the 

five gins operating in the city in the early 1900s. 

As in the rest of the state, farms and ranches 

in Hood County were also growing larger. 

During the late 1940s, O. P. Leonard of 

Fort Worth began creating what would 

become the largest pecan orchard in 

Texas when he planted improved 

varieties of pecan trees within the 

DeCordova Bend of the Brazos River in 


In spite of the extreme drought, X. A. 

and Dude Meyers of Hood County sold 

3,100 bushels of peanuts for the record 

price of $3.93 per bushel in 1952. A 

great emphasis was put on soil and water 

conservation during the 1950s, and X. A. 

and Dude Meyers were conservation 

farmers. The West Texas Chamber of 

Commerce held a meeting in Granbury in 

1952, where the “close relation of 

conservation farming to the business life 

of a community was stressed….” Speakers 

at the meeting included Henry Zweifel, 

who was president of First National Bank 

of Granbury. Zweifel owned a large farm 

in the Abbey Bend area of Hood County 

and was noted for his promotion of soil 

and water conservation as well as his 

political savvy. 4 

From 1921 to 1927, Zweifel served as United 

States District Attorney for the Northern District 

of Texas, where he began honing his political 

skills. During his tenure as district attorney, 

Zweifel successfully prosecuted Dr. Frederick A. 

Cook for mail fraud arising from oil operations. 

The trial attracted national attention because 

Dr. Cook claimed to have discovered the North 

Pole before Admiral Robert Peary. During the 

1930s, Zweifel represented A. P. Barrett, a Fort 

Worth pioneer in civil aviation. Utilizing his 

political skills, Zweifel persuaded the U.S. 

Congress to pass an airmail subsidy law, which 

enabled Barrett’s company to prosper and grow 

into what is now American Airlines. 

Zweifel rose to political prominence both 

statewide and nationally during the middle of 

the twentieth century as a leading member of 

the Republican party. Yet he came from Hood 

County, where residents had voted Democratic 

in every presidential election since 1880. 5 

Like Hood County, Texas was traditionally 

Democratic, but the state’s Republican party 

began to grow and become more active during 

❖ 

Henry Zweifel, president of The First 

National Bank of Granbury, who also 

served as United States District 

Attorney for the Northern District of 

Texas. Zweifel was a leader in the 

Texas Republican Party and 

at the 1952 national 

Republican Convention. 

COURTESY OF JOHN HENRY LUTON. 

Chapter VII ✦ 55

❖ 

A parade on West Pearl Street in 

Granbury in 1957. 


the 1950s. Disgruntled conservative Democrats 

were joining forces with the state’s Republicans, 

enlarging the party. After working as a committed 

Republican for forty-five years, Zweifel served as 

chair of the Texas party. In 1950, his fellow 

Texas Republicans elected him their national 

committeeman. During his acceptance speech in 

Austin, Zweifel said: “I shall go from this room 

full of determination to do everything in my 

power to make the Republican party a strong 

minority party and to work day and night to 

make Texas a two-party state.” 6 

At the Republican National Convention in 

1952, Zweifel led a failed attempt to have Ohio 

Senator Robert A. Taft nominated as the 

Republican candidate for president. When 

national Republicans instead selected Dwight D. 

Eisenhower as their candidate at the convention, 

Zweifel retired from national politics and returned 

home to Granbury. Years later, the New York Times 

called him the “Leader of the Taft Backers.” 7 

During the 1950s, Jim Wright, one of the 

region’s favorite Democratic sons, began his rise 

to Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Wright, the former mayor and chamber of 

commerce president in nearby Weatherford, 

was elected to Congress in 1954. Two years 

earlier, Wright delivered a speech entitled “What 

Makes a Town” to local business people at 

the Granbury Chamber of Commerce annual 

banquet. When Wright went to Washington D.C., 

B. Craig Raupe of Granbury went with him 

and served as his chief of staff. In 1960, Raupe 

went to work for the U.S. State Department as a 

foreign service officer. 

Public service also called 

to newspaper publisher 

A. B. Crawford, who was 

elected to the Texas Senate 

in 1945 representing the 

Hood County area as a 

Democrat. His wife, Norma, 

grew up in Granbury and 

graduated from Granbury 

High School. The Crawfords 

had purchased the Hood 

County Tablet from Ashley 

Crockett, David Crockett’s 

grandson, and the Granbury 

News from the family of 

Frank Gaston, the late 

editor. After selling the Tablet to them, Ashley 

Crockett went to work for the Crawfords and 

their new local paper, the Hood County News- 

Tablet. When A. B. Crawford went to Austin to 

serve in the Senate, Crockett went with him and 

accepted an honorary appointment as assistant 

senate sergeant-at-arms. In the state capitol, at 

the age of eighty-eight, Crockett basked in the 

glory of his grandfather’s place in history as hero 

of the Alamo. In one of his letters back home, 

Crockett proudly boasted that he had a dinner 

date with a lady friend. Using the pronoun we 

to describe himself, Crockett wrote, “We have 

made many new friends here among the fair sex, 

but whose names we never remember for there 

are too many of them and only one of we.” After 

his honorary term in Austin, Crockett returned 

to Granbury and died at home on May 31, 

1954, at the age of ninety-six. Ashley Crockett is 

buried in Granbury Cemetery. 8 

Hood County remained home to a fourth 

generation of Crocketts as Ashley Crockett’s 

daughter, Gladys Crockett Hendricks, continued 

to live in her family’s small home in Granbury. 

Gladys Hendricks became a licensed vocational 

nurse during World War II, and then worked in 

Hood County’s first hospital in Granbury. The 

hospital, known as Granbury General, opened 

in the mid-1940s on Houston Street one block 

south of the Granbury Town Square. Dr. L. G. 

Ballard privately built and financed Granbury 

General, which featured three patient rooms 

with six beds. 

Drs. Roy L. Brock and R. N. Rawls joined Dr. 

Ballard at Granbury General just a few years 


after the hospital opened. All three doctors then 

added a wing on the south end of the hospital, 

which included a lab and more patient rooms. 

Drs. Ballard, Brock, and Rawls were small-town 

family doctors who also had a medical clinic in 

the hospital building where they saw their daily 

outpatients. Dr. Brock’s daughter, Linda Powell 

Preston, said her dad made house calls 

whenever his patients needed him. “I remember 

lots of phone calls at night, and him packing up 

his black leather bag to visit patients,” she said. 

“Granbury was very much a small town 

where everybody knew everybody,” said Gloria 

Whitley, a Hood County native who worked at 

the hospital during the 1960s. “We all knew 

where everybody lived and where everybody 

went to church.” 9 

Preston recalled childhood memories of days 

spent at the hospital with her father. She said 

rural county residents who came to town for 

the day always stopped by Granbury General. 

“Honey, is there anyone I know in the hospital?” 

they would ask her, and then they’d walk 

up and down the hallway visiting people 

they knew. Preston also remembered hospital 

cook Emma Perkins and her delicious food 

and fried pies that attracted regular customers. 

“People would come in just to eat at the hospital,” 

she said. 10 

During the middle of the twentieth century, 

the emergency ambulance service in Hood 

County was provided by the local funeral home. 

Whenever the Granbury ambulance departed 

the funeral home to make an emergency pickup, 

“everybody chased it in their cars,” said Jane 

Smith, who worked in the lab at Granbury 

General. “And the rest of town would come to 

the hospital to find out what was happening— 

there would be so many people there we would 

have to ask them to leave.” Smith explained that 

during that time in Hood County, “there just 

wasn’t a whole lot going on.” 11 

Smith’s father, Charlie Perkins, drove the 

northwest Hood County area ambulance for 

Martin’s Funeral Home, and he kept the 

ambulance at his home in Lipan. Residents of 

Lipan joined together and donated funds to 

build a small community hospital there during 

❖ 

The Brazos Drive-In, built in 1952, 

has remained in continuous operation 

as a drive-in movie theater. The City 

of Granbury has designated the 

drive-in as a local historic landmark. 

PHOTO BY GLEN DAVIS. 

Chapter VII ✦ 57

the late 1940s. Lipan citizens also funded and 

operated their own small phone system. The 

phone company started out as a cooperative, 

where each Lipan subscriber worked a number 

of days to keep the system operating. A five-man 

board of directors oversaw the co-op. During 

the 1950s, the directors decided to make 

improvements to the co-op system because 

residents still used crank phones and the local 

operator placed all calls. Directors incorporated 

the cooperative as Lipan Telephone Company 

and placed 650 shares of stock priced at $10 

each at the Lipan bank. They soon realized the 

shares weren’t hot sellers, so one of the 

directors, Lipan rancher Herman D. Howard, 

borrowed $5,000 and purchased 500 shares. 

Over the years, Howard made several 

improvements and updates to the Lipan 

Telephone Company and he received offers from 

other companies to buy the phone system. 

According to Lipan native Earlene Gilliam, 

Howard’s descendants still own the Lipan 

telephone system fifty-two years later. 12 

In Granbury, a few new families moved to 

town after the war. “We just gradually plodded 

along—we were trying to get out of our rut and 

up into the real world,” Mary Kate Durham 

said. “Somebody new would move in and, boy, 

that was exciting—oh, Lordy, it was dull around 

here!” The Junior Woman’s Club was formed 

in Granbury in 1954, providing a social outlet 

and “a little bit of culture” for young women in 

the community. In 1981, the group changed its 

name to Granbury Woman’s Club. 13 

Granbury residents worked as merchants and 

service business providers, or they worked for 

one of three local manufacturing companies. 

Some residents drove to southwest Fort Worth 

to work for the bomber plant, which is still in 

existence and now owned by Lockheed Martin 

Corporation. Most rural Hood County residents 

in the 1950s were still farmers or ranchers. 

Nationwide, the “Fat Fifties” boomed with 

one of the greatest sellers’ markets of all 

times. In the decade after 1947 Americans 

would buy thirty million cars. “Forget austerity,” 

author Jane Holtz Kay wrote. “Conservation was 

over, consumption was in.” 14 

For the first time in United States history, 

there were more white-collar than blue-collar 

workers and more middle-class than workingclass 

Americans. 15 Rising incomes, increased car 

ownership, and the baby boom all contributed 

to a postwar housing explosion. In 1944, there 

were 114,000 new single family houses built 

in the United States; by 1950 there were 

1.7 million. 16 

These houses were built in new suburban 

developments even further from city centers, 

linked to cities by freeways and newly developed 

interstate highways, which were authorized 

when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed 

the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956. 

Texas began a large highway and farmto-market 

road-building project in the 1950s, 

constructing almost sixteen thousand miles 

of highway. Increased federal funding during 

Eisenhower’s administration brought Texas new, 

high-speed interstates that bypassed Granbury 

and Hood County. New highways and the state’s 

“drought of record” prompted residents to leave 

rural areas like Hood County for opportunities 

in bigger cities and their new suburban living. 

The 1950s brought even more advances in 

science and technology, which resulted in an 

avalanche of modern conveniences, appliances, 

and electronics and made an enormous material 

difference in the lives of everyday Americans. 

Frost-free freezers, automatic garbage disposals, 

electric blenders, and other appliances suddenly 

provided most everyone with more leisure time. 

Available time led to increased automobile travel 

and a national quest for entertainment. This 

unprecedented combination of automobiles 

and leisure time led Americans to develop a 

unique drive-in culture. This distinctly American 

phenomenon included drive-in diners, drive-in 

movies, and drive-up motels. 

By the 1950s, everybody in Granbury had 

cars, recalled Mary Kate Durham, whose fatherin-law 

and husband, R. E., were the local 

Chevrolet dealers. Although her family had a 

television in their home by 1950, most local 

families didn’t have televisions for several years. 

“There was nothing else here to do—so everybody 

went to the movies,” Durham remembered. 17 

Responding to the national drive-in entertainment 

craze, local entrepreneurs built a 

drive-up motel and a drive-in theater in 

Granbury. The Brazos Motel, where travelers 

could park their cars right outside their rooms, 

was built along the river. Constructed of paint- 


ed concrete masonry units, the single-story 

Brazos Motel featured glass block and metal 

casement windows along with a private entry 

for each room. A modern, stylized neon pole 

sign located along the road into Granbury from 

Fort Worth advertised the new drive-up fiveroom 

motel. 

On June 5, 1952, “Texas’ Finest Small-Town 

Drive-In Theatre,” known as the Brazos, opened 

“just west of Granbury” in Hood County, to 

eager congratulations and thanks from the local 

community. 18 Featuring a giant 50-foot soft 

screen, in-car speakers, the latest in projection 

and sound equipment, an “inviting” snack bar 

with lawn chairs out front, and ramps for 250 

cars, the Brazos opened with a showing of The 

First Time, “a delightful family comedy,” starring 

Robert Cummings and Barbara Hale. 19 

“When you drive out in the cool of the 

evening for pleasure and relaxation you 

won’t have to fix supper…. Just have a barbecue 

sandwich, a hot dog, cold drink, candy, 

sno-cone or whatever you wish from the 

snack bar….,” said Fort Keith, the owner of 

the drive-in, as he was interviewed by a reporter 

with the Hood County News-Tablet. 20 

Featuring two cartoons each night, the 

Brazos promised a policy of showing firstquality 

pictures at all times with three schedule 

changes a week, on Sunday, Wednesday and 

Thursday. Regular admission was fortynine 

cents per person, but Wednesdays and 

Thursdays were “bargain car” nights at sixty 

cents per carload. 21 

During the postwar years, many businessmen 

in Granbury, including R. E. Durham, “began 

to work on all kinds of ideas—anything 

they could think of to make people want to 

come to town—anything that would bring in 

another dollar,” Mary Kate Durham said. The 

community held several fundraisers to build the 

first part of a city park, including a small 

swimming pool. “That was the beginning of a 

little bit of another life besides going to the 

movies,” Durham recalled. 22 

Instead of just going to the movies, several men 

in Granbury created their own entertainment 

by organizing poker games. In 1960, three 

❖ 

The west side of the Hood County 

Courthouse Square during the 1960s. 

During this decade of “Urban 

Renewal,” most of the buildings on the 

square remained intact. 


Chapter VII ✦ 59

❖ 

Reverend Connie Mass, preacher at 

the Granbury Methodist Episcopal 

Church and Jake Caraway in 1959. 


hoodlums burst into a card game in Granbury, 

held up the participants and escaped with six 

thousand dollars in cash. During the robbery, 

the bandits tied up eight men, three women, 

and a twelve-year-old boy. 23 

The flood of modern conveniences like 

electric refrigerators in Granbury’s homes were 

the downfall of the city’s small municipal power 

plant and its diesel engines and generators 

dating from earlier in the twentieth century. In 

1955, the City of Granbury began purchasing 

power from Brazos Electric Cooperative. After 

painting the windows of Granbury’s power plant 

gray to protect it from air strikes during World 

War II, the city shut down its engines within the 

next decade. Today, the plant and its old diesel 

engines are still intact and have been restored. 

The engines are fired up for special occasions 

and tours. 

In 1951, an old man named J. Frank Dalton 

rode into Granbury aboard the Estes Funeral 

Home ambulance. He claimed to be the 

notorious outlaw Jesse James, still alive at 

more than 100 years old. Although historians 

believed that Jesse James was shot and killed 

in Saint Joseph, Missouri, in 1882, Dalton 

explained that the man who was killed was 

actually Charles Bigelow, a member of the James 

gang. Claiming to be Jesse James, Dalton began 

a tour of the United States during the late 

1940s and visited California and New York City, 

where he appeared on a national network 

radio program. When Dalton became ill and 

bedridden, he asked to be brought to Granbury. 

He said he had visited the small Texas town 

before, and wished to die there. Lee Howk, who 

claimed to be the great grandson of Jesse James, 

and Golda Rash Burk, who was the daughter of 

local constable Sam Rash, accompanied Dalton 

to Granbury. They moved into Rash’s house in 

Granbury, located along Lambert Branch. 

Mary Kate Durham said that Howk promoted 

Dalton as James, and she remembered paying 

twenty-five cents to go through the Rash 

house in Granbury and look at the old man 

reclining in bed. On August 15, 1951, Dalton 

died in Granbury. Oran Baker, who was Hood 

County Sheriff at the time, conducted a visual 

post-mortem exam of Dalton and found that 

he had thirty-two bullet wounds and a rope 

burn around his neck. Dalton was buried in 

Granbury Cemetery, where his headstone bears 

the name “Jesse Woodson James.” Many oldtimers 

in Hood County, as well as some James 

family descendants, believe the man buried 

in Granbury Cemetery is, in fact, Jesse James. 

However, the legend promoted by Dalton and 

Howk has never been substantiated. 

The 1950s ended with the publication of 

Goodbye to a River, a narrative written by John 

Graves. The book is Graves’ tribute to the 

upper-middle Brazos River in Palo Pinto, 

Parker, Hood, and Somervell Counties that was 

about to be dammed. Graves described “a 

certain enraged awe when you hear that a river 

that you’ve known always, and that all men of 

that place have known always back into the red 

dawn of men, will shortly not exist.” 24 

In 1957, Graves paddled a canoe down the 

Brazos from just below Possum Kingdom Dam 

in Palo Pinto County to just above Lake 

Whitney. Along the way, he ventured into 

Granbury, where he described the Hood County 

Courthouse Square. “Around it old men sit now 

and chew tobacco and smoke and talk,” Graves 

wrote. “And the stores and other buildings that 

face inward at them from four sides nearly all 

are older than they are.” Graves lamented the 

changes coming to “my piece of the Brazos 

River” and its valley, where he had built so many 

youthful memories. “Strangeness and change are 

so familiar to us now that they are getting to 


e normal,” he wrote about the mid-twentieth 

century in North Central Texas. 25 

In his book, Graves quoted the Texas 

Almanac and reported that Hood County’s 

population during the late 1950s was 99.3 

percent Anglo American, 0.2 percent Latin 

American, and 0.5 percent African American. 26 

This lack of diversity reflected the Upland 

Southern culture brought to North Central 

Texas by the yeoman farmers who settled there, 

but it also told the story of the flight of African 

Americans from rural communities in Texas 

during the twentieth century after two droughts 

and a depression. 

In 1964, faced with losing $15,366 of federal 

funding, the Granbury Independent School 

District officially desegregated all twelve grades, 

allowing thirteen African-American students to 

attend district classes. Two years earlier, the 

federal Department of Health, Education and 

Welfare announced that 184 Texas school 

districts, including Granbury, would lose federal 

aid unless they integrated their classes. 

According to a 1962 article in the Dallas Morning 

News, nearby school districts that also faced 

losing federal funding included Fort Worth, 

Mansfield, Weatherford, Stephenville, and 

Cleburne. Hood County’s other school districts 

in Tolar, Lipan, and Cresson were not mentioned 

in the article in the Dallas Morning News. 27 

The Hood County News-Tablet reported in 

October 1964 that the new U.S. Highway 

377 (old State Highway 10) bypass around the 

Granbury Town Square would be completed 

within the year, along with a second bridge 

across the Brazos River. “The location of 

the bridge is a beautiful site. Approaches will 

be straight and wide,” the News-Tablet reporter 

wrote. “The business route and present 

bridge will be maintained, according to plans, 

giving residents and travelers two routes. 

Through traffic including heavy trucks which 

are not scheduled to stop here, will use the 

loop, while other traffic will choose the 

business route.” 28 

At first, the new loop or bypass seemed to 

draw away travelers, which added to the sleepy 

stagnation adrift in downtown Granbury. 

“When the state finally built Highway 377 

around it, Granbury became another little 

Texas town that people and progress literally 

bypassed,” wrote Stewart Dill McBride, a staff 

correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor. 29 

The year 1966 was particularly eventful in 

Hood County. Local citizens celebrated the 

county’s 100th Anniversary. County centennial 

activities included a rodeo, beard judging 

contest, costume judging contest, centennial 

parade, and barbecue supper, along with a “Big 

Street Dance on the Square.” The Hood County 

News-Tablet built an appreciation for the 

county’s colorful history by publishing a special 

centennial edition in August 1966 that featured 

old photographs and pioneer tales. 30 

After commemorating their county centennial, 

locals celebrated the victorious season of 

Granbury High School’s Pirates football team. 

Students began playing football at Granbury 

High School before 1919, and the team was 

named “Granbury Pirates” in 1925. By then, the 

team even had a coach. By 1966, Granbury was 

known as a “Football Town,” and the Pirates 

won every game that year, except the state 

championship. The “Fighting Pirates” played 

against the Sweeney Bulldogs in the District 2A 

state championship in Austin, and lost. In an 

article entitled “Pirates No. 1 in Hearts of Fans 

Despite Loss of State Finals,” a reporter for the 

Hood County News-Tablet wrote, “They were 

fine representatives for the northern half of 

Texas and have brought more glory and honor 

❖ 

The Granbury Methodist Episcopal 

Church was built by the city’s African- 

American community. The church was 

demolished in the late twentieth century. 

COURTESY OF JOANN MASSEY. 

Chapter VII ✦ 61

❖ 

Lynn Martin, a member of the Granbury 

Pirates Football Team in 1928. 


to Granbury and Hood County than anyone 

has before.” 31 

In December 1966, the long-awaited dam at 

the DeCordova Bend of the Brazos River 

came closer to reality. After purchasing more 

than 300 tracts of privately owned land, the 

Brazos River Authority announced the 

acceptance of two bids for construction projects 

to create the DeCordova Bend Reservoir, now 

known as Lake Granbury. H. B. Zachry Co. of 

San Antonio would build the dam for $6.9 

million, and Zech Burkett Company of Graham 

would spend $198,371 to construct a dike 

to protect the City of Granbury’s sewage 

treatment plant. Plans for the dam featured 

a reinforced concrete spillway approximately 

892 feet long and 90 feet high, containing 

16 gates. Each gate was designed to be 36 

feet wide and 35 feet high. The dam would 

create a conservation reservoir holding 155,000 

acre feet of water when filled, with a lake surface 

of 8,500 acres extending 33 river miles 

upstream from the dam. Groundbreaking 

ceremonies for the dam were scheduled for 

December 15. 32 

“We had grins from ear-to-ear,” said Norma 

Crawford, who was editor of the Hood County 

News-Tablet, about the building of the dam. 

“That was a big deal.” 33 Members of the 

community who worked to bring the dam and 

lake to Hood County included Henry Zweifel 

and his sons-in-law, A. B. Crawford and John S. 

Luton; Mayor A. W. Norman; and insurance 

agent Jack Wortham. 

During the 1960s, members of the Granbury 

Junior Woman’s Club, under the leadership 

of Alice Newton, began working toward 

establishing a public library in Hood County. 

The Junior Woman’s Club was part of the Texas 

Federation of Women’s Clubs, an organization 

that had worked since 1898 to establish public 

libraries. At least seventy percent of the public 

libraries in the state were founded with the help 

of women’s clubs. 

In Hood County, Junior Woman’s Club 

members circulated petitions calling for an 

election to establish a countywide tax to support 

a public library. Ernestine Shugart, who has 

lived in Granbury for fifty years, worked on 

the woman’s club library petition drive. Shugart 

remembered driving through a fourteeninch 

snowfall in February 1964 to attend 

an important woman’s club meeting where 

members were trying to get information in the 

mail to voters regarding the library petition. 

Despite the efforts of the woman’s club 

members, their first request and petitions 

submitted to the county commissioners court 

were rejected, and no library election was held. 

But supporters persevered and formed the 

local Friends of the Library group, made up 

of representatives from other local clubs 

and organizations. The first president of 

Hood County’s Friends of the Library was 

Glynn Evelyn Van Zandt. Under her leadership, 

the Friends opened a volunteer-based library, 

which operated in various locations in 

Granbury, including the 1936 school building, 

a building on the south side of the courthouse 

square, and the Nutt House Restaurant. 

Volunteers held book drives to collect books 

for the library, and Nettie Baccus, a retired 

Granbury Independent School District teacher, 

was the first librarian. 

Hood County native Floyd West would stop 

by the small volunteer library whenever he was 

visiting Granbury from his home in Dallas. 

West’s family originally settled in the Squaw 

Creek area of Hood County in 1854. When 

West realized what a great need there was for a 

public library building in his home county, he 

offered to build it. West asked that the county 

financially support the library and that land be 

provided. West’s offer spurred support from the 

county commissioners and the public; an 

election was held to establish a county library 

tax, and it passed. Land for the library was 

arranged in cooperation with the American 

Legion, which was headquartered in the Mission 

Revival-style building just south of the new 

library site. In 1968, West had the first Hood 

County public library building constructed of 

limestone from an old fence on his family’s 

ranch in Squaw Creek. The building was 

designated as a memorial to West’s wife, Jewel 

Kyle West, and to his father and mother, 

Owen Collins West and Emma Hudspeth 

West. Ernestine Shugart was president of the 

Friends of the Library when the library’s first 

building was constructed. She remembered that 

members of the local Jaycees helped move the 

library into its new building, where they erected 


shelving made of apple crates for the children’s 

book collection. 

In 1961, the first stone building at old 

Add-Ran College in Thorp Spring was razed. 

The year before, county commissioners voted 

to restore the courthouse clock tower, which 

was damaged by a fire. “When the county 

commissioners voted to save the tower instead 

of removing it as a first step toward modernizing 

the square, many despaired of ever overcoming 

the town’s lack of interest in ‘progress,’” wrote 

historian Mavis Bryant. In an effort to promote 

progress, Granbury received a grant from the 

federal urban renewal administration in 1964 

“to aid in comprehensive planning for growth 

and development.” A respected urban design 

firm prepared a master plan for Granbury’s 

future, which was published in 1968. As part of 

the plan, the firm recommended demolishing 

the entire south side of the Hood County 

Courthouse Square, in order to open up a view 

to the future lake. The south side of the 

courthouse square features the 1886 Granbury 

Opera House. Fortunately, the community 

could not afford to carry out the plan’s 

downtown demolition recommendation. 34 

Two watershed beginnings dawned on 

Hood County toward the end of the 1960s. 

Fulfillment of a long-held dream became reality 

with construction of the DeCordova Bend 

dam, which would spawn Lake Granbury and 

a booming Brazos River Valley. At the same time, 

Granbury’s promising historic preservation 

movement began reigniting the pioneering 

spirit that founded Hood County. Norma 

Crawford, who remembered Granbury before 

1969 as a “sleepy little town,” said the lake 

and revitalization of Granbury’s town square 

brought hope for a bright future to Hood 

County. “All these things have worked together 

to make Hood County grow,” she said. “It’s put 

us on the map.” 

❖ 

The Granbury High School Pirates 

football team, 1928. Front row, third 

from left: Pig Williams; fourth from 

left: Harley Cherry, fifth from left: 

Lynn Martin. Second row, third from 

left: Milt Kennon. Third row, fifth 

from left: Mr. Abbott; eighth from left: 

Poodle Martin. 


Chapter VII ✦ 63

CHAPTER VIII 

R EVITALIZATION, REBIRTH, AND R APID G ROWTH 

Hood County has been blessed with history… 

The stately old courthouse still has in its towers one of the 

old clocks that has to be wound by hand. Just walking around it 

gives visitors a taste of that past. There are plenty of interesting 

shops, antique stores, a bookstore, ice cream parlor, and the 

Granbury Opera House, a beautifully restored 

theater where musicals and plays are produced. 

—Jon McConal, Bridges Over the Brazos, 2005 

Growth is inevitable and desirable, but destruction of community character is not. 

The question is not whether your part of the world is going to change. 

The question is how. 

—Edward T. McMahon, The Conservation Fund 

❖ 

The courthouse clock tower was 

sitting on the parking lot for citizens 

to see up close when it was 

rehabilitated in 1970. 

COURTESY OF BOBBIE JORDAN. 

Workers finished building the DeCordova Bend Dam across the Brazos River in September 1969, 

and it took just three weeks for the lake to fill. “We always had to walk down to peek at the river,” 

Norma Crawford remembered. “But after they closed the dam, we had torrential rains and in three 

weeks, the lake was full. We went to New York to see some shows and when we came back, there 

was water in the lake—I couldn’t believe it.” 1 

The Brazos River Authority planned to name the lake DeCordova Bend Reservoir, but Granbury 

citizens protested. “Our chief undertaking at this time, other than to support the city and the county 

in their works, is to get the lake named for Granbury. Most of us feel that DeCordova Bend Lake 

will not identify it,” Chamber of Commerce Manager J. T. Maness told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 2 

The dedication ceremonies for Lake Granbury and the DeCordova Bend Dam on June 19, 1970, 

featured Governor Preston Smith as the principal speaker. The Granbury High School Band played, 

and everyone enjoyed a barbecue supper. “This is a day that many people have been looking forward 

to for a long time,” announced A. L. Brooks, Jr., president of the Brazos River Authority. 3 


“Only people that were headed somewhere 

else that needed gas would stop here,” said 

Fall Creek resident Martin Maddox about the 

decades before Lake Granbury was created. “We 

needed something to make people want to live 

here and the lake did just that.” 4 

Even before the dedication ceremonies were 

held, the Hood County News-Tablet reported “The 

lake is proving to be an outstanding recreational 

attraction, and thousands of lots have already 

been sold in subdivisions all around the lake.” 5 

According to historian Mavis Bryant, Lake 

Granbury’s 103-mile shoreline was ripe for 

recreation, second homes, retirement homes, 

and condominiums. By 1976 there were fifty 

separate developments, some more than 1,000 

acres each, that housed half of Hood County’s 

people. From 1950 to 1970, the population of 

Hood County grew from 5,287 to 6,368, and 

the population of Granbury increased from 

1,683 to 2,473. 6 

By the time builders were working on the dam, 

many of the late nineteenth century buildings 

around the Granbury town square were 

dilapidated and boarded up, empty except for the 

occasional itinerant squatter. Writer Stewart 

Dill McBride with the Christian Science Monitor 

described Granbury at that time as a “ghost town,” 

where “a cannonball could have rolled down 

Crockett Street at high noon and not hit a soul.” 7 

The once-proud 1886 Granbury Opera 

House was being used to store hay, and its roof 

was collapsing. When planning consultants 

recommended tearing down the south side of 

the square, county and city leaders were looking 

forward to the future without also looking to the 

community’s fascinating past. 

Bud Olson, who served on Granbury’s city 

council during the 1970s and later served as 

mayor, remembered that the city was literally 

bankrupt in 1969. “We couldn’t buy a light bulb 

without having to pay cash,” Olson said. 8 

But the town’s woeful financial state was 

something of a blessing. Leaders couldn’t afford 

to carry out the recommendations of planning 

consultants to tear down buildings; nor could 

they make any other changes to Granbury’s 

historic town square like many other cities did 

during the urban renewal of the 1960s. 

The worn, slowly deteriorating Victorian-era 

buildings around the Granbury Town Square 

offered hope and possibilities to some residents, 

like attorney Jimmy Dixon and his wife, Mary. 

In 1967, the Dixons began rehabilitating an 

old house on West Pearl Street. Then they 

refurbished the red-brick Richardsonian 

Romanesque bank building on the southwest 

corner of the town square for use as Jimmy 

Dixon’s law office. 

In 1968, the county’s history captured the 

fascination of more residents when local car 

dealer R. E. Durham discovered an old log cabin 

inside a frame house near Comanche Peak. The 

cabin had once served as the U.S. Post Office for 

the Hood County frontier settlements of Panter 

Branch, Hill City, and Pony Creek. Research 

revealed that the cabin was also known as 

the “eight-mile stop” because a stagecoach 

once made regular stops there with both mail 

and passengers. 

Durham became so entranced by the old log 

cabin and its history that he purchased it and 

moved it to Granbury in order to save it. While 

dismantling the frame house and cabin, Durham 

discovered an Indian arrowhead, with part of 

the shaft still attached to it, imbedded in one of 

the cabin’s timbers. Once the cabin was moved 

to Granbury, Durham replaced its limestone 

chimney and fireplace, because its original old 

stonework couldn’t be moved. In 1969, Durham 

replaced the cabin’s front porch and roof. 

Durham and his wife, Mary Kate, filled the log 

cabin with memorabilia that they had collected 

over the years, including antique pots and 

kettles, butter churns, and an old coffee grinder 

from a covered wagon. Known as the “Panter 

Branch Log Cabin,” it still sits on North Baker 

Street. A plexiglass window provides a view into 

the cabin so visitors can catch a peek of the 

county’s past. 

This early excitement regarding Hood County 

history and the preservation of local heritage 

was timely, because in 1968, a bad storm or 

tornado damaged the clock tower on the Hood 

County Courthouse. Once again, county leaders 

planned to remove the courthouse clock tower. 

The past significance of the old courthouse had 

diminished in the eyes of county commissioners, 

its symbolism of prosperity and unity dimmed by 

years of wear and lack of maintenance. 

Many local residents, however, regarded the 

courthouse as a significant, symbolic remnant of a 

Chapter VIII ✦ 65

❖ 

Shanley House, built c. the 1870s. In 

1975, when this photo was taken, this 

old mill building was called the 

“Opera Hilton,” because it housed 

Opera House performers. 



more affluent past, and they insisted on 

preserving the clock tower and its clock. Norma 

Crawford, publisher of the Hood County News- 

Tablet, led a grassroots campaign to save the 

courthouse clock tower. She published coupons 

in the paper, and encouraged readers to fill them 

out and mail them to county commissioners. 

“It needed a lot of repair. There was talk of 

(leveling off) the roof,” Crawford said about the 

courthouse clock tower. “I couldn’t stand that! 

I used a little ink on that.” 9 A little ink worked, 

because the county commissioners were deluged 

with coupons clipped from the local paper. 

In response, the county spent $73,000 to 

rehabilitate the clock tower. 10 A crane removed 

the clock and set the old time piece down on the 

parking lot where citizens could view it closely 

for the first time since it was built. 

Community awareness of the significance of 

the Hood County Courthouse and the other old 

buildings around the courthouse square started 

to emerge. Residents began to see the buildings 

as relics of the past and appreciate their value as 

historic structures to be preserved for future 

generations. This appreciation of local historic 

resources as legacies from the past coincided 

with an increasing nationwide awareness of historic 

preservation. 

During the late 1960s, Mary Lou Watkins, a 

descendant of Granbury’s founding Nutt brothers, 

returned to Granbury from Dallas and 

restored her family’s homestead. Watkins looked 

at the forlorn old buildings in downtown 

Granbury and immediately recognized their 

inherent economic potential. 

“What did this town have?” Watkins asked. 

“True, the Brazos River was being dammed to 

create a lake. But the way things had been 

going, Granbury stood fair to becoming an ice 

stop, bait-shop village full of fishing shacks and 

mobile homes parked just anywhere. But the 

town also had this interesting old square.” 11 

Together with her cousin, Joe Nutt, Watkins 

restored her family’s 1893 mercantile building on 

the courthouse square, and opened the Nutt 

House Restaurant. Standing on the northeast corner 

of Granbury’s town square, she rang the dinner 

bell for the first meal served in the restored 

Nutt family building on April Fools’ Day 1970. 

The efforts of Norma Crawford and Mary Lou 

Watkins sparked Granbury’s historic preservation 

movement and the revitalization of the Hood 

County Courthouse Square. Inspired by their successes, 

other owners began to rehabilitate their 

buildings. Joe Nutt organized equity syndicates 

that bought and repaired some of the old buildings 

on the Granbury town square, selling them to 

investors or renting them to merchants. These 

syndicates worked with First National Bank of 

Granbury, the local downtown bank, enabling 

many of Granbury’s leading citizens to have a 

direct financial stake in the town square’s redevelopment. 

Civic pride and a community-wide interest 

in preserving the community’s heritage and 

rich history was further stirred by the celebration 

of Granbury’s centennial in 1971. 


That pride and interest culminated in a 

community-wide effort to rehabilitate the 1886 

Granbury Opera House, led by Joe Nutt in the 

early 1970s. Volunteers began by pulling three 

dump trucks up to the front of the old building 

and hauling away forty loads of debris. Local 

craftsmen volunteered their time and talents, 

and residents hand-stitched the needlepoint 

seat cushions. The entire project, which included 

rebuilding the interior of the theater, was 

funded by foundation grants and private 

donations of cash and services by local citizens. 

The total cost was $200,000. 

Jo Ann Miller, an entertainment professional 

whose experience included managing theaters, 

singing with Tommy Dorsey’s band, and 

performing in shows on Broadway, visited 

Granbury. Miller was so taken with the 

community and its efforts to rehabilitate the 

Opera House that she decided to move there. 

Miller helped rehabilitate the Opera House and 

then became the theater’s manager. In June 

1975, the Granbury Opera House reopened its 

doors to audiences, showing a melodrama 

entitled Gold in the Hills. The Opera House 

earned $130,427 in income its first year. 12 

As brick-and-mortar rehabilitation work in 

Granbury was catching on, the Hood County 

Historical Commission, under the leadership of 

Randle Rash, was conducting research and 

compiling histories about many of the buildings 

in downtown Granbury. Commission members 

began to erect interpretive markers on some of 

the historic buildings and worked with the 

Texas Historical Commission to obtain state 

historical designations. 

This research and documentation helped 

Watkins and other preservation leaders as they 

worked to develop Granbury’s first historic 

preservation ordinance. Enacted by the city 

council in 1972, the ordinance established the 

Hood County Courthouse Square as a local historic 

district and protected the buildings from 

inappropriate changes and demolition. The 

leaders of this small Texas town were remarkably 

farsighted. They protected Granbury’s 

downtown historic resources just six years after 

the National Historic Preservation Act was 

passed. For fifteen years, Jeannine Macon served 

as chair of the Granbury Historic Preservation 

Commission. Macon restored the old Aston- 

Landers saloon on the north side of the town 

square and opened Jeannine’s, an upscale ladies’ 

clothing shop. Another influential member of 

the preservation commission was Cynthia 

Brants, who was a member of the progressive 

and talented group known as the Fort Worth 

Circle of Artists. Brants moved to Granbury and 

lent her artistic eye toward the restoration of 

Granbury’s historic charm. She also rehabilitated 

the limestone building on the south side of 

the town square that was home to the Palace 

Theater for years. 

During the early 1970s, Texas architect 

O’Neil Ford visited Granbury. After dining at the 

Nutt House Restaurant, Ford sat on a sidewalk 

bench with Mary Lou Watkins and discussed 

❖ 

Above: This photo of the Granbury 

Opera House was taken in 1966, nine 

years before the community-wide 

effort to restore the Opera 

House began. 



Below: Opera House and south side of 

the courthouse square during the 

late 1990s. 


Chapter VIII ✦ 67

❖ 

Rehabilitation of the Palace Theater 

building on the south side of the 

square by Granbury resident and Fort 

Worth artist Cynthia Brants, 

c. the 1970s. 

COURTESY OF JEANNINE MACON COLLECTION. 

the Hood County Courthouse Square. Watkins 

recalled and retold their conversation often. As 

they sat on the bench, she and Ford considered 

each building around the courthouse square and 

talked about its eligibility for nomination to the 

National Register of Historic Places. 

After they had looked at several buildings, 

Ford said, “Oh, hell, Mary Lou, nominate the 

whole damn square.” So she did. In 1974, the 

Hood County Courthouse Square was the first 

town square in Texas to be listed in the National 

Register of Historic Places as a historic district. 

In its listing, Granbury’s town square is called 

“one of the most complete examples of a late 

19th century courthouse square in Texas.” 13 

As the buildings around the courthouse were 

restored and occupied by retail businesses, the 

merchants became downtown revitalization 

proponents. When the city considered putting 

meters on the courthouse square parking lot 

in 1976, the merchants downtown formed 

the Historic Granbury Merchants Association. 

As a group, they fought the installation of 

parking meters, which they felt were unfriendly 

to tourists. 

Like their predecessors from the past, the 

merchants around the courthouse square became 

community organizers and leaders. The Historic 

Granbury Merchants Association began organizing 

new festivals and special events downtown, 

which brought more visitors to Granbury. 

The events they developed included General 

Granbury’s Birthday Celebration and Bean 

Cook-Off in March, the Harvest Moon Festival in 

October, and the Granbury Candlelight Tour of 

homes in December. 

In the early 1970s, the entire community 

joined together with the local chamber of 

commerce to resuscitate Hood County’s Fourth 

of July Celebration, which was held in downtown 

Granbury. “In all of these activities, they are 

renewing their faith in the possibility of 

restoring not only buildings but the values 

embodied in those buildings, as well as the sense 

of community people have always felt making 

their living around a little town square and trying 

to build something together,” wrote historian 

Mavis Bryant about Hood County citizens. 14 

At the beginning of Granbury’s preservation 

movement in 1970, all the property on the 

courthouse square was appraised for $519,975. 

City sales tax revenue was $19, 942. Within just 

six years, assessed valuations on town square 

properties had risen to $1.25 million and sales 

tax revenue to $100,187. 15 

Such immediate impressive financial results 

led the Texas Historical Commission to award 

the citizens of Granbury in 1976 its prestigious 

Ruth Lester Award for Meritorious Service 

in Historic Preservation for the unified nature 

of the city’s redevelopment project. “There’s 

nothing about Granbury that attracts the high 

rollers or jet set,” Mary Lou Watkins said. “But 

the nation has been through a rootless period 

of alienation, and many of us are trying to 

re-establish our sense of place. Granbury has 

become a hometown for a lot of these people.” 16 

In 1986, The Texas Historical Commission 

saluted Granbury’s preservation and revitalization 

as a model for the state’s Main Street Program. 

In The Texas Main Street Handbook, a Practical 

Guide to Small Town Revitalization, the historical 

commission called Granbury “Texas’ original 

Main Street city.” According to the handbook, 

“Granbury is renowned across the state as 

a shining example of a dying town that made 

a comeback.” 17 

During the 1970s, Americans began reversing 

the trend toward urbanization by moving back to 

rural areas and small towns for the first time since 


1940. This interest in country living, combined 

with the appeal of Granbury’s pristine historic 

buildings nestled along the banks of a sparkling 

lake, brought booming growth to Hood County. 

Between 1970 and 1980, Hood County had the 

sixth highest growth rate of all counties in the 

country. According to USA Today, Hood County 

was also the fastest growing county in Texas from 

1980 to 1985. The county’s population grew 

from 6,368 in 1970 to 17,714 in 1980, and to 

28,981 in 1990. The population of Granbury also 

increased from 2,473 in 1970 to 3,332 in 1980, 

and then to 4,045 in 1990. 18 

Contributing to the community’s growth was 

the construction of the first nuclear power plant 

in Texas in neighboring Somervell County. In 

late 1974, the federal Atomic Energy Commission 

issued permits to Texas Utilities Company for 

construction of Comanche Peak Steam Electric 

Station, which would be located about four 

miles north of Glen Rose. Although Hood 

County did not receive any tax income from the 

power plant, the construction of Comanche 

Peak brought thousands of new residents to 

the community from 1974 through 1993. 

Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station is a 

two-unit power plant with an operating 

capacity of 2,300 megawatts. The plant now has 

approximately 1,300 employees, many of whom 

are Hood County residents. 19 

By 1984, visitors to Hood County were 

spending $6.4 million each year. In recognition 

of the growth of heritage tourism into the community’s 

leading industry, Granbury formed its 

first convention and visitors bureau the next 

year. Known as the Granbury Visitor Center, it 

was part of the Lake Granbury Area Chamber of 

Commerce, through a contract between the city 

and the chamber. In 1986, Granbury’s hotelmotel 

tax receipts, which fund the promotion of 

tourism, were $122,000. 20 

Interest in preservation of local heritage and 

community revitalization spread from Granbury to 

cities and communities throughout Hood County 

and neighboring Somervell County. By 1972, 

Cresson’s school district had been incorporated 

into the Granbury Independent School District. At 

that time, the small community had a population 

of about 208 residents, down from 279 earlier in 

the twentieth century. When the Granbury school 

district absorbed Cresson’s students, it closed the 

historic Mission Revival-style Cresson School 

building, which was constructed between 1930 

and 1931. The historic yellow-brick Cresson 

School building was left abandoned and neglected. 

In 1979, residents of Cresson, interested in 

preserving their town’s heritage, formed the 

Cresson Community Organization, Inc. This 

group obtained a ninety-nine year lease for the old 

Cresson School. With the help of donations and 

fundraisers, the group began rehabilitating their 

community’s significant school building. In 1999, 

Cresson Community Organization took over 

ownership of their town’s old school. 

In Granbury, the rapid growth in population 

allowed the city to change from General Law to 

❖ 

Above: Howard Clemmons, mayor of 

Granbury during the late 1970s, in 

the General Granbury’s Birthday 

Celebration parade. For years, 

Howard portrayed General Granbury 

during the celebration. 


Below: Preservationists Jeannine 

Macon and Mary Lou Watkins 

receiving the Jim Calhoun Memorial 

“Spirit of Granbury” Award from the 

Historic Granbury Merchants 

Association in 1998. Left to Right: 

Municipal Judge Ben Macon, Jeannine 

Macon, and Mary Lou Watkins. 


Chapter VIII ✦ 69

❖ 

Above: The old Cresson School 

building restored by the community 

and currently used for civic purposes. 

Art by Joan Heller of Cresson 

in 2000. 


Below: The Robert Patton Crockett 

Memorial Bridge, with the railroad 

bridge in the background, before 

1969. The Crockett Bridge was torn 

down in 1992. 


Home Rule. Led by former Mayor J. Howard 

Clemmons, the citizens of Granbury passed a 

Home Rule Charter in 1989. This charter enabled 

Granbury to annex property and increase the 

physical size of the city. With even more growth 

to come during the 1990s, the Home Rule 

Charter proved to be a significant milestone in 

the history of the City of Granbury. 

In 1992, despite protests and appeals from 

citizens of Granbury, the Texas Department of 

Transportation demolished the old iron bridge 

along the U.S. Highway 377 business route into 

Granbury. The bridge, which was opened in 

1932 by Governor Ross Sterling , was dedicated 

to the memory of Robert Patton Crockett, son 

of Alamo hero David Crockett. The Texas 

Department of Transportation called the bridge 

“structurally deficient” for the amount of traffic 

it was carrying in the early 1990s. Because the 

1932 steel-truss bridge held historic meaning 

and nostalgic appeal for county residents, many 

of them gathered together and held a “Bye-Bye 

Bridge Party” in November 1991. 

Throughout the years since 1969, Hood 

County has continued to maintain its 1891 

Second Empire courthouse. 

In 1998, Hood County completely 

reconstructed the 

courthouse clock tower, 

using a steel superstructure. 

The final monochromatic 

metal design made it difficult 

for county residents to read 

the courthouse clock for the first time in more 

than 100 years. To alleviate this problem, the 

clock faces were later covered with a white 

material so the hands could be seen from street 

level. In 2001, the county hired professionals to 

prepare and submit a Historic Structure Report 

and Restoration Master Plan to the Texas 

Historical Commission as part of the state’s 

courthouse preservation grant program. In 

2008, the county began working with the Texas 

Historical Commission to restore the interior of 

the courthouse as outlined in the master plan. 

Hood County and Granbury closed the twentieth 

century with two significant honors. In 

1998, the readers of Texas Highways magazine 

voted to name the Hood County Courthouse 

Square in Granbury “The best Town Square in 

Texas.” Then, on New Year’s Eve 1999, CNN 

featured Granbury as “Small Town America” 

during its millennium broadcast. Citizens of the 

city welcomed the new century with a “Back to 

the Future” Turn of the Century Celebration. 

The twenty-first century dawned in Hood 

County with even more rapid growth. Between 

1990 and 2000, the county’s population grew 40 

percent to 48,000. In 2004, The Wall Street Journal 

identified the Hood County area as a “micropolis.” 

A new term coined by the U.S. Census Bureau, 

“micropolis” describes a growing population center 

far removed from a big city that draws residents 

from both rural areas and suburbia. A “micropolis” 

is usually appealing because it offers many of the 

cultural attractions and conveniences once found 


only in large cities. In 2005, according to the Hood 

County Economic Development Foundation, 

Granbury was identified as the eighth top “micromarket” 

and the thirty-sixth wealthiest statistical 

area in the United States. 21 

Three communities within Hood County 

incorporated as cities after the turn of the 

twenty-first century. DeCordova residents 

voted to incorporate on January 15, 2000, 

earning it recognition as Texas’ “Millennium 

City.” DeCordova is a residential gated community 

that started developing in 1969 when Lake 

Granbury was created. According to the City of 

DeCordova, it is Hood County’s second-largest 

city with a population of 3,206. 22 

In 2001, residents of the historic community 

of Cresson in northeast Hood County voted to 

incorporate as a city. Half the population of 

Cresson actually lives in neighboring Parker 

and Johnson Counties. According to a U.S. 

census estimate, Cresson’s population was 543 

in 2005. 23 Located between Granbury and Fort 

Worth along U.S. Highway 377, Cresson is 

experiencing annexation outreach from both 

cities as well as development pressure along the 

two major highways that intersect in the heart of 

the community. 

Most recently, in 2004, the seventy-one 

residents of the community of Brazos Bend 

voted to incorporate as a city. Brazos Bend is 

located along a deep bend in the Brazos River 

northeast of Granbury. 24 

In the City of Granbury, historic preservation 

continues to be a planning priority. The city 

council published and approved a preservation 

plan as part of its comprehensive planning 

process in 2002. Following approval of the 

preservation plan, the city council voted to 

expand Granbury’s historic districts to include 

the old neighborhoods surrounding the town 

square, as well as the entryways to the square. 

They also created a historic compatibility district 

encompassing older neighborhoods and 

commercial districts between the town square 

and the old city cemetery, which sits atop a hill 

north of the town square. 

Under the leadership of Mayor David 

Southern, the City of Granbury decided to build a 

new city hall just after the turn of the twenty-first 

century. Mayor Southern spearheaded the drive to 

locate the new city hall in the heart of Granbury’s 

historic district, adjacent to the northwest corner 

of the town square. Reviewers at the Texas 

Historical Commission approved designs for the 

new city hall, to be certain it was compatible 

with Granbury’s National Register District. In 

December 2002, Mayor Southern and other officials 

dedicated Granbury’s new city hall, which is 

constructed of native Hood County limestone. 

Because Granbury is just thirty-five miles 

southwest of Fort Worth, it is rapidly becoming 

a suburban bedroom community. The U.S. 

Highway 377 bypass around downtown has 

become Granbury’s suburban strip, with big box 

stores and strip shopping centers set back 

behind large parking lots. Home Depot opened 

a store along the highway in 2001, and Lowe’s 

Home Improvement Center opened in 2005. 

New housing communities are also developing 

adjacent to the highway bypass. According to 

Granbury’s Annual Program of Services for 2004- 

2005, “The city’s hometown atmosphere combines 

with aggressive development attitude to produce 

results. The city anticipates future growth in the 

local economy as a result of capital improvements 

completed this past year and new projects budgeted 

this year.” One of the capital improvements budgeted 

for 2005 was $1.1 million for the upgrade 

and extension of a major sewer main being 

installed in “an upscale residential development 

with an 18-hole championship golf course….” 25 By 

2008, that upscale development, known as 

Harbor Lakes, had 150 custom-built houses 

around its 7,300-yard golf course. 

Along with new housing developments, 

gas-drilling rigs popped up frequently across 

❖ 

The interior of the Granbury News 

building, which was constructed in the 

early 1900s. The building was 

originally located on North Houston 

Street, a half block north of the 

courthouse square. The City of 

Granbury moved the building to 

Lambert Branch Park when the new 

City Hall was built and will be 

restoring it. 

COURTESY OF JO HILL. 

Chapter VIII ✦ 71

❖ 

Above: The Berry House. built on the 

Crockett land bounty where Robert 

Crockett’s log cabin was located. 

COURTESY OF JON AND BECKY BRUMLEY. 

Below: The Berry House today as 

restored by Jon and Becky Brumley. 

COURTESY OF JON AND BECKY BRUMLEY. 

Hood County’s rolling prairies and scenic landscapes 

during the early twenty-first century. 

Improvements made in gas drilling technology 

were an economic boon to North Central 

Texas. Hood County and the surrounding region 

sit above the Barnett Shale, considered to be 

the largest onshore natural gas field in the 

United States. According to the Texas Railroad 

Commission, Hood County wells produced 22.7 

billion cubic feet of natural gas during 2007. 26 

By 2008, development and change were 

sweeping through Hood County and Granbury at 

a breathtaking rate. The City of Granbury built a 

hotel and conference center along the shoreline 

of Lake Granbury on East Pearl Street, the gateway 

into the town square from the northeast. 

Investors began planning and building condominium 

developments, retirement homes, and 

luxury hotels along East Pearl Street and Lake 

Granbury as well as in other parts of the city. 

In order to accommodate new buildings, some 

developers demolished existing resources, 

including mid-twentieth 

century modern architecture 

and old trees. 

In response, the City of 

Granbury passed a tree 

ordinance and protected 

noteworthy mid-20th 

century resources, such 

as the Brazos Drive- 

In and old Granbury 

General Hospital, as 

historic landmarks. 

Toward the end of the twentieth century, 

Granbury and Hood County found the community’s 

dynamic future by honoring and preserving 

its colorful past. Success in preserving the 

community’s uniquely charming sense of place 

is bringing rapid growth and development, 

making it more challenging to maintain Hood 

County’s traditionally rural character and 

Granbury’s small town ambience. 

With development spreading north toward 

Fort Worth along U.S. Highway 377, there are 

fewer open spaces and traditional rural landscapes 

along what was once a scenic byway. As 

drivers head south along the highway from 

Fort Worth, they crest a limestone ridge upon 

entering Hood County. Atop this hill, there is 

a panoramic view of the Brazos River Valley 

before them, backed by the silhouette of the 

solitary flat-topped mesa known as Comanche 

Peak. Today, that wide-open view is increasingly 

cluttered with cell-phone towers, water 

storage tanks and other newly built structures. 

The challenge for the twenty-first century in 

Hood County is the sustainability of past, 

present, and future preservation, conservation, 

and development efforts. The county and city 

governments, as well as local citizens, must work 

with building owners and developers to assure 

that historic resources already restored can 

continue to be put to practical, profitable use. 

Resources built in the 1950s and 1960s must be 

appreciated and preserved in order to allow them 

to reflect their special era of local history. And 

finally, as new buildings are constructed, they 

should be compatible with the charm of Hood 

County, while reflecting their own time and place 

in the continuum of the community’s history. 

Hood County’s special “sense of place” grew 

from several distinct historical and cultural 

contexts including early settlement, creation of a 

small Texas county and its seat, development of 

a railroad boomtown, and movement from an 

agrarian way of life to a more urban-industrial 

society. Each one of these historic periods 

created cultural resources and vernacular 

architecture that should be preserved to keep 

Hood County as peaceful and scenic as it was 

when Thomas T. Ewell described it as a 

“picturesque landscape which nature seems to 

have laid out and planned as the most healthful 

and appropriate home.” 27 


NOTES 

CHAPTER 

I 

CHAPTER 

III 

1 Brian J. Axsmith and Bonnie Jacobs, “The Conifer Frenelopsis Ramosissima 

(Cheirolepidiaceae) in the Lower Cretaceous of Texas: Systematic, 

Biogeographical, and Paleoecological Implications,” International Journal of Plant 

Sciences, vol.166, (2005): 327, 336. 

2 W. C. Nunn, Somervell, Story of a Texas County (Fort Worth: Texas Christian 

University Press, 1975), p. 7. 

3 T. T. Ewell, Hood County History (Fort Worth: Historical Publishers, 1895, 

1978), p. 140. 

4 W. W. Newcomb, Jr. The Indians of Texas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 

1961), p. 97. 

5 Ibid., p. 253. 

6 Ibid., p. 157. 

7 T. R. Fehrenbach, Lone Star, A History of Texas and the Texans (Da Capo Press, 

1968, 2000), pp. 32-33. 

8 Ibid. p. 204. 

9 Vance J. Maloney, The Story of Comanche Peak, Landmark of Hood County, 

Texas (Glen Rose, Texas: Vance J. Maloney, 1973), p. 2. 

10 Ibid., p. 3. 

11 Ibid., p. 7. 

12 Joseph Carroll McConnell. West Texas Frontier or a Descriptive History of 

Early Times in Western Texas (Jacksboro, Texas: Gazette Printing, 1933). 

13 Ewell, Hood County History, p. 1. 

14 A vara is an old Spanish unit of measurement that is the equivalent of 33 

1/3 inches. 

15 Nunn, Somervell, Story of a Texas County, p. 12. 

16 Maloney, The Story of Comanche Peak, p. 1. 

17 Ibid., p. 14. 

18 Ibid., p. 19. 

CHAPTER 

1 Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov, The Upland South (Santa Fe: Center for American 

Places, 2003), p. 17. 

2 McConnell. West Texas Frontier, p. 194. 

3 Raymond Elliott and Mildred Padon, Of a People and a Creek (Cleburne, 

Texas: Bennett Printing, 1979), p. 4. 

4 Fehrenbach, Lone Star, p. 498. 

5 Nunn, Somervell, p. 14. 

6 Rebecca Brumley, “Crockett’s Bounty, Hood County, Texas” (Application for 

a Texas Historical Marker). 

7 Merle Stevens, Letter, September 16,1986, Collection of the Author and 

Joel Henry Dyer, Letter, 1856, Reproduced from the Holdings of the Texas 

State Archives. 

8 Terry G. Jordan, Fort Worth’s Log Cabin Village, A History and Guide (Fort 

Worth: Texas State Historical Association, 1980), p. 18 

9 N. B. Self, “Early Settlement, Interview with Mr. N. B. Self Lipan, Texas,” by 

Ada Davis, March 1, 1937, American Life Histories Manuscripts from the 

Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940, Available on U.S. Library of Congress 

American Memory Web Site, http://memory.loc.gov/. 


11 Nunn, Somervell, p. 41. 

12 Ibid., p. 27. 

13 Mrs. J. D. Rylee, “Folkways, Interview with Mrs. J. D. Rylee, Granbury, 

Texas,” by William V. Ervin, January 8, 1937, Manuscripts from the Federal 

Writers’ Project. 


15 Ibid., p. 499. 


17 Terry G. Jordan, Immigration to Texas (Boston: American Press, 1981), p. 20. 


19 Nunn, Somervell, pp. 32 and 33. 



II 

1 Ewell, Hood County History, pp. 85-86. 

2 Mary G. Saltarelli, “Historic Homes: Rylee-Aiken House and Rylee Ferry 

Masters Cabin: A Pioneer Family Settles on Brazos Banks,” Granbury! The 

Journal of the Historic Brazos River Valley (May/June 1984): pp. 29-30. 

3 Mary G. Saltarelli, “Warren-Nutt House” (Application for a Texas Historical 

Marker, April 1987), p. 5. 


5 “Hanging Recalled 100 Years Later,” Village Weekly, May 27, 1976. 


7 Fehrenbach, Lone Star, pp. 536 and 538. 

8 Ibid., p. 540. 

9 Ibid., pp. 553-4. 


11 Ibid., p. 144. 

12 “32 Years Ago Bridge Over Brazos Was Dedicated Before Thousands,” Hood 

County News-Tablet, October 15, 1964. 

13 Candace Ord Manroe, “The Colony Rests in Peace,” Granbury! The Journal 

of the Historic Brazos River Valley (May/June 1984): pp. 12-15. 

14 “Hood County,” Handbook of Texas Online, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/ 

online/articles/HH/ hch17.html (accessed Feburary 10, 2008). 

15 Gene Fowler, Crazy Water, The Story of Mineral Wells and Other Texas Health 

Resorts (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1991), p. 260. 

16 Granbury Graphic, October 30, 1886, p. 4. 

17 Texas Almanac 1984-1985, (Dallas: A. H. Belo Corporation, 1983), p. 344. 

CHAPTER 


2 Granbury News, August 12, 1886, p. 2. 

3 Carolyn Kemplin, “The History of the Granbury Opera House, 1886-1911,” 

Hood County Texas Genealogical Society, www.granburydepot.org/home/ 

HCGShomepage.htm (accessed March 16, 2008), p. 5. 

4 Ibid., p. 6. 

5 Tommye Bryan Hiler and Eloise Cramer, “A History of Granbury United 

Methodist Church, 1871-1992,” p. 40. 

6 “How a Stephenville editor saw Granbury,” Granbury Graphic, January 29, 1887. 

7 “A Railroad Meeting,” Granbury Graphic, October 30, 1886. 

8 Granbury Graphic, January 29 and March 12, 1887. 

9 Granbury News, January 28, 1892. 

10 Mary G. Saltarelli, “The Granbury Railroad Depot” (Application for a Texas 

Historical Marker, April 9, 1984), p. 11 and appendix. 


12 “Cresson, Texas,” Handbook of Texas Online, http://www.tshaonline.org/ 

handbook/online/articles/CC/hlc59.html (accessed March 9, 2008). 


14 “Free Bridge!” Granbury News, September 8, 1892. 

15 Junior Woman’s Club, Hood County History in Picture and Story, 1978 (Fort 

Worth: Historical Publishers), pp. H-36 and 37. 

16 Granbury Graphic, July 17, 1886. 

17 Mary G. Saltarelli, Walking and Driving Tour of Historic Granbury and Hood 

County (Granbury: Granbury Visitor Center, 1988), p. 29. 

18 “About Texas Christian University,” TCU, http://www.tcu.edu/at-a-glance.asp 

(accessed March 16, 2008). 


20 ArchiTexas Architecture, Planning and Historic Preservation, Inc., Hood 

County Courthouse 1890, Historic Structure Report and Restoration Master Plan 

(Dallas: Published by ArchiTexas, 2001), p. 21 

21 Vance J. Maloney, “The Five Court Houses of Hood County, Granbury, 

Texas” (February 12, 1970), pp. 2 and 5. 

22 Junior Woman’s Club, Hood County History, 1978, p. H-19. 

IV 

Notes ✦ 73

CHAPTER 

1 “Hood County,” Handbook of Texas Online, http://www.tshaonline.org/ 

handbook/online/articles/view/HH/hch17.html (accessed March 7, 2005). 

2 Sanborn Insurance Company Map of Granbury, Hood County, Texas, 

1910, available at the Barker Texas History Collection, Center for 

American History, University of Texas, Austin. 

3 “An Optimistic View,” Granbury News, June 15, 1905, p. 8. 

4 Saltarelli, “The Granbury Railroad Depot,” p. 6. 

5 Saltarelli, “Warren-Nutt House,” p. 13. 

6 Ibid., p. 

7 “Bridge Contract Let,” Granbury News, May 13, 1909. 

8 “Hood County,” Handbook of Texas Online (accessed February 10, 2008). 

9 “Cattle Raisers Banked on First National,” The First National Bank Notes, 

100th Anniversary Commemorative Edition, June 18, 1987. 

10 Seth Sheppard McKay, Texas Politics, 1906-1944 (Lubbock, Texas: Texas 

Tech Press, 1952. 

11 Granbury Graphic, May 28,1887. 

12 Ibid. 


14 Tom Mullins, “Folkways, Killing of Bird Tracy, Interview with Mr. Tom 

Mullins, Granbury, Texas,” by William V. Ervin, Manuscripts from the Federal 

Writers’ Project. 


16 Tom Finty, Jr., “Sisters Have Acted; Brothers to Meet,” Dallas Morning News, 

Oct. 24, 1913, p. 5. 

17 Elizabeth A. Taylor, Citizens At Last, The Woman Suffrage Movement in Texas 

(Austin: Ellen C. Temple, 1987), p. 37. 

18 McKay, Texas Politics, 1906-1944, p. 85. 

19 Granbury News, March 21, 1919, p. 1. 

20 Taylor, Citizens at Last, p. 191. 

21 “Monument at Acton for Mrs. Crockett,” Dallas Morning News, May 22, 1913, 

p. 6, and “Crocket Monument Unveiling May 30,” Granbury News, May 16, 

1913, p. 1. 

22 Granbury Graphic Democrat, May 2, 1913, p. 3. 

23 Junior Woman’s Club, “Hood County Today,” Hood County History (Granbury, 

Texas: reprinted by the Junior Woman’s Club, 1956), p. iii and Granbury 

Graphic Democrat, May 30, 1913. 

24 Granbury Graphic-Democrat, May 30, 1913. 

25 City of Granbury, City Council Minutes, February 20, 1918, available at the 

Granbury Depot Archives. 

26 Granbury Graphic Democrat, May 29, 1913. 

27 Granbury News, September 5, 1912. 

28 Granbury, City Council Minutes, April 27, 1914. 


30 “Texas in the 1920s,” Handbook of Texas Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/ 

handbook/online/articlesTT/ hpt1.html, and Hilton Hagan, An Informal 

History of The Texas Department of Transportation (Texas Department of 

Transportation, 1991), p. 15. 

31 Granbury, City Council Minutes, March 6 and June 5, 1909 and April 11, 1910. 

32 Granbury Graphic-Democrat, May 16, 1913. 

33 Granbury Graphic Democrat, May 30,1913. 

34 Granbury Graphic Democrat, May, 29, 1913. 


36 Granbury News, January 16, 1902. 

37 Granbury, City Council Minutes, May 10, 1915. 

38 The Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company, Local and Long Distance 

Telephone, Granbury, Texas (Granbury: Graphic-Democrat, Sept. 1, 1908). 

39 Granbury News, March 5, 1905. 

40 Granbury News, September 6,1906. 

41 Granbury, City Council Minutes, January 29, 1917. 

42 Granbury, City Council Minutes, March 26,1923. 


44 “World War I Veterans, 1917-1919, Hood County, Texas,” Hood County 

Texas Genealogical Society, http://www.granburydepot.org/home/ 

HCGShomepage.htm. 

45 Saltarelli, “The Granbury Railroad Depot,” Appendix. 

46 “World War I Veterans,” Hood County Texas Genealogical Society. 



V 


50 McKay, Texas Politics, 1906-1944, p. 86. 


52 Mary G. Ramos, “Oil and Texas: A Cultural History,” Texas Almanac, 

www.texasalmanac.com/ history/highlights/oil/ (accessed March 25 2008). 

53 Hood County Historical Highlights (Granbury, Texas: Hood County News, 

1993), p. 71. 


55 “Bank Overcomes Depression Years,” The First National Bank Notes. 

56 Granbury News, March 19, 1920. 

57 Granbury News, April 2, 1920. 

58 Junior Woman’s Club, Hood County History, 1978, pp. H-44-52. 

CHAPTER 

1 “Hood County,” Handbook of Texas Online. 

2 Albert Porter, Interview by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, March 5, 1984. 

3 William J. White, “Economic History of Tractors in the United States,” E.H. 

Net Encyclopedia, August 15, 2001, http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/ 

white.tractors.history.us and “Dust Bowl,” Handbook of Texas Online, 

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/Ddydd1.html 

(accessed March 25, 2008). 

4 “Treasury Extends Charter 99 Years,” The First National Bank Notes. 

5 “Hood Pecans Scarce,” Dallas Morning News, December 4, 1929, Part 2, p. 28. 

6 “Treasury Extends Charter 99 Years,” The First National Bank Notes. 

7 Kathryn Talalay, Composition in Black and White (New York: Oxford 

University Press, 1995), p. 35. 

8 Ibid., pp. 33 and 35. 


10 “Drought in Texas Burns All Crops,” New York Times, July 28, 1934. 

11 “America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the 

FSA-OWI, 1935-1945,” American Memory, U.S. Library of Congress, 

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b38484 (accessed March 28, 2008). 

12 “Hood County Reports Fewer Farms in 1935,” Dallas Morning News, March 

12, 1935, Section II, p. 7. 

13 Candace Ord Manroe, “Portrait: Marie Williams, Her Memories Flow Clear 

and Pure,” The Granbury Tablet, March 15, 1984. 

14 “Great Depression,” Handbook of Texas Online, http://www.tshaonline.org/ 

handbook/online/articles/GG/ npg1.html (accessed March 25, 2008). 

15 “Hood County Pair Held for Death of Youthful Merchant,” Dallas Morning 

News, May 23, 1935, Section I, p. 4. 

16 Mary Kate Durham, Interview by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, June 

18, 1984. 

17 Mary Kate Durham, Interview by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, April 

24, 2004. 

18 Carl Abbott, Urban America in the Modern Age, 1920 to the Present (Arlington 

Heights, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, Inc., 1987), p. 48. 

19 Granbury News, March 1,1935. 

20 Granbury City Council Minutes, June 4, 1935. 


County News-Tablet, October 15, 1964 and “To Open New Granbury 

Bridge,” Dallas Morning News, June 7, 1932, Section I, p. 2. 

22 Sanborn Insurance Company Maps of Granbury, Hood County, Texas, 1932. 

23 Granbury, City Council Minutes, June 30, 1933. 

24 “Lamp Blowing Jubilee Caps Lipan Fiesta,” Dallas Morning News, November 

13, 1936, Section V, p. 3. 

25 “Surveys to Start on 2 Brazos Dams,” Dallas Morning News, April 23, 1936, 

Section I, p. 3 and “Three More Brazos Dams Will Be Asked,” Dallas Morning 

News, November 8, 1938, Section I, p. 3. 

26 Mary Kate Durham, Interview by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, 

March 5, 1984. 

27 Walter Prescott Webb, editor-in-chief, A Handbook of Texas, A Dictionary of 

Essential Information (Austin: The Texas State Historical Association, 1952), 

p. 715. 

28 “Lipan, Texas,” Handbook of Texas Online, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/ 

online/articles/LL/ hll47.html (accessed Mary 7, 2008). 


30 Ibid. 

VI 


31 “Soil Conservation Has Place On Vast Hood County Ranch Owned by 

Largent and Black,” Dallas Morning News, October 8, 1939, Section V, p. 12. 

32 “Texans In World War II,” Handbook of Texas Online,” http://www.tshaonlineorg/ 

handbook/online/articles/WW/qdw2.html (accessed March 26, 2008). 

33 Bob Barker, “Dear Mr. President,” Interview by John Henry Faulk, January 

or February 1942, American Memory, American Folklife Center, U.S. 

Library of Congress, http://hdl.loc.gov/ loc.afc/ afc1942003.sr30. 

34 Virginia Hale, “Military Veterans of Hood County Texas, World War II, 

1941-1945,” Hood County Texas Genealogical Society, http://www. 

granburydepot.org/ home/ HCGShomePage.htm (accessed March 31, 2008). 

35 “County, First National Support Defense,” First National Bank Notes. 

36 Bob Barker, “Dear Mr. President” Interview. 

37 Mike Kingston, Editor. A Concise History of Texas from the Texas Almanac, 

(Dallas: Dallas Morning News and Texas Monthly Press, 1988.), p. 113. 

38 “Air Force Plant 4, Fort Worth, Texas,” Global Security.org,http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/afp-4.htm, 

(Accessed March 31, 2008). 


CHAPTER 

VII 


2 Mary Kate Durham, Telephone Interview by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, 

Texas, November 3, 2003. 


4 “Peanuts Become an Important Crop,” and “Zweifel Leaves Impact on 

County,” The First National Bank Notes. 


6 “Henry Zweifel Led Texas G.O.P.,” The New York Times, September 3, 1970. 

7 Ibid. 

8 Kenneth Hendricks, “Pioneer Newsman Built Monument in Print,” Granbury! 

The Journal of the Historic Brazos River Valley (March/April 1984): p. 17. 

9 Linda Powell Preston, Gloria Whitley, Jane Smith, Earlene Gilliam, and Mildred 

Thormann, Interview by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, April 7, 2008. 

10 Ibid. 

11 Ibid. 

12 Art Von Reyn, “In Lipan He’s Known as the Telephone Man,” Fort Worth Star 

Telegram, 1976. 

13 Mary Kate Durham, Interview by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, 

November 3, 2003. 

14 Peter Wollen and Joe Kerr, editors, Autopia, Cars and Culture (London: 

Reaktion Books, 2002), p. 267. 

15 Kenneth T. Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier, The Suburbanization of the United 

States (New York and Oxford: Oxford Univesity Press, 1985), p. 246. 

16 David Halberstam, The Fifties (New York: Villard Books, 1993), p. 157. 

17 Mary Kate Durham, Interview, November 3, 2003. 

18 Hood County News-Tablet, May 29, 1952, p. 1. 

19 Ibid. 

20 Hood County News-Tablet, May 29, 1952, p. 4. 

21 Ibid. 

22 Mary Kate Durham, Interview, November 3, 2003. 

23 “Bandits Rob Card Game,” Dallas Morning News, December 22, 1960. 

24 John Graves, Goodbye to a River (Austin: Texas Monthly Press, 1960), p. 9. 

25 Ibid., pp. 8 and 213. 

26 Ibid., p. 220. 

27 “184 Texas School Districts Facing Loss of Federal Aid,” Dallas Morning 

News, April 10, 1962, Section 1, p. 4 and “40 School Districts Join 

Integrated List,” Dallas Morning News, March 25, 1964, Section 1, p. 4. 


County News-Tablet, October 15, 1964. 

29 Stewart Dill McBride, “Victorian Revival of a Wild West Town, Granbury, 

Texas,” The Christian Science Monitor (November 4, 1977). 

30 “’60s Important to Hood County,” The First National Bank Notes. 

31 Ibid. 

32 “Bids Accepted by BRA for Two Construction Projects,” Hood County News- 

Tablet, December 1, 1966. 

33 Mary G. Saltarelli, “Lake Roots Traced to Woodrow Wilson’s 

Administration,” Dreamin’, Hood County News, October 1989. 

34 Mavis Bryant, “Back to a New Life: Granbury’s Town Square,” Texas Historical 

Commission Reference Series, Number 1 (c. 1980), p. 2. 

CHAPTER 

VIII 

1 Saltarelli, “Lake Roots Traced to Woodrow Wilson’s Administration,” Hood 

County News, October 1989. 

2 “deCordova Lake?” Dreamin’, Hood County News, October 1989. 

3 “Gov. Preston Smith Principal Speaker at 4:00 PM Ceremonies,” Hood 

County News-Tablet, June 1970. 

4 “When It All Began…,” Dreamin’, Hood County News, October 1989. 

5 Hood County News-Tablet, June 1970. 

6 Bryant, “Back to a New Life: Granbury’s Town Square,” pp. 1-2. 

7 McBride, “Victorian Revival of a Wild West Town, Granbury, Texas,” The 

Christian Science Monitor, November 4, 1997. 

8 Ibid. 

9 “Crawfords Play Major Role in Granbury Newspaper History,” Hood County 

News Centennial Special Edition, September 25, 1986, p. 13. 

10 Bryant, “Back to a New Life: Granbury’s Town Square,” p. 7. 

11 Ibid., p. 3. 

12 Ibid., p. 10. 

13 James Wright Steely, A Catalog of Texas Properties in the National Register of 

Historic Places (Austin: Texas Historical Commission, 1984), p. 104. 

14 Bryant, Back to a New Life: Granbury’s Town Square, p. 15. 

15 Ibid., p. 13. 

16 McBride, “Victorian Revival of a Wild West Town,” The Christian Science 

Monitor, November 4, 1997. 

17 The Texas Main Street Handbook, a Practical Guide to Small Town Revitalization, 

(Austin: Texas Historical Commission, 1986), pp. 1–2. 

18 Saltarelli, Walking and Driving Tour of Historic Granbury and Hood County, p. 

4; “Hood County,” Handbook of Texas Online; and “Granbury,” Handbook of 

Texas Online. 

19 “Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station,” TXU, www.txucorp.com/power/ 

plants/comanche_peak. 

20 Granbury Visitor Center, “Marketing Plan, 1987,” p. 1. 

21 “Top U.S. Micromarkets,” and “Wealthiest U.S. Core-Based Statistical 

Areas,” Granbury/Hood County Economic Development Corporation, 

www.granbury hoodedc.com. 

22 “City of DeCordova,” DCBEnewsOnLine, www.dcbeweb.com/ 

DCBEabout.htm. 

23 “Cresson, Texas,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/ 

wiki/ Cresson,_Texas. 

24 “Brazos Bend, Texas,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/ 

wiki/Brazos_Bend,_Texas. 

25 “Annual Program of Services, Granbury, Texas, Fiscal Year October 1, 2004 

through September 30, 2005,” p. 21 and 37. 

26 “Oil and Gas Production,” Texas Railroad Commission Interactive Online, 

http://webapps.rrc.state.tx.us/=PDQ/mainReportAction.do. 


Notes ✦ 75

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

BOOKS 

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ArchiTexas Architecture, Planning and Historic Preservation, Inc. Hood County Courthouse 1890, Historic Structure Report and Restoration Master Plan. 

Dallas: Published by ArchiTexas, 2001. 

Elliott, Raymond and Mildred Padon. Of a People and a Creek. Cleburne, Texas: Bennett Printing, 1979. 

Ewell, T. T. Hood County History. Fort Worth: Historical Publishers, 1895, 1978. 

Fehrenbach, T. R. Lone Star, A History of Texas and the Texans. Da Capo Press, 1968, 2000. 

Fowler, Gene. Crazy Water, The Story of Mineral Wells and Other Texas Health Resorts. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1991. 

Glassie, Henry. Material Culture. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1999. 

Graves, John. Goodbye to a River. Austin: Texas Monthly Press, 1960. 

Halberstam, David. The Fifties. New York: Villard Books, 1993. 

Hood County Historical Highlights. Granbury, Texas: Hood County News, 1993. 

Jackson, Kenneth T. Crabgrass Frontier, The Suburbanization of the United States. New York and Oxford: Oxford Univesity Press, 1985. 

Jordan, Terry G. Fort Worth’s Log Cabin Village, A History and Guide. Fort Worth: Texas State Historical Association, 1980. 

Jordan, Terry G. Immigration to Texas. Boston: American Press, 1981. 

Jordan-Bychkov, Terry G. The Upland South. Santa Fe: Center for American Places, 2003. 

Junior Woman’s Club. Hood County History. Granbury, Texas: reprinted by the Junior Woman’s Club, 1956. 

Junior Woman’s Club. Hood County History in Picture and Story, 1978. Fort Worth: Historical Publishers. 

Kelton, Elmer. The Time It Never Rained. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1984. 

Kingston, Mike, Editor. A Concise History of Texas from the Texas Almanac. Dallas: Dallas Morning News and Texas Monthly Press, 1988. 

Maloney, Vance J. The Story of Comanche Peak, Landmark of Hood County, Texas. Glen Rose, Texas: Vance J. Maloney, 1973. 

McConal, Jon. Bridges Over the Brazos. Fort Worth: TCU Press, 2005. 

McConnell. Joseph Carroll. West Texas Frontier or a Descriptive History of Early Times in Western Texas. Jacksboro, Texas: Gazette Printing, 1933. 

McKay, Seth Sheppard. Texas Politics, 1906-1944. Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech Press, 1952. 

Newcomb, Jr., W.W. The Indians of Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1961. 

Nunn,W.C. Somervell, Story of a Texas County. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1975. 

Nutt, Joe L. The Restoration of the Granbury Opera House. Granbury: Granbury Opera House, 1980. 

Saltarelli, Mary G. Walking and Driving Tour of Historic Granbury and Hood County. Granbury: Granbury Visitor Center, 1988. 

Steely, James Wright. A Catalog of Texas Properties in the National Register of Historic Places. Austin: Texas Historical Commission, 1984. 

Talalay, Kathryn. Composition in Black and White. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. 

Taylor, Elizabeth A. Citizens At Last, The Woman Suffrage Movement in Texas. Austin: Ellen C. Temple, 1987. 

Texas Almanac 1984-1985. Dallas: A. H. Belo Corporation, 1983. 

The Texas Main Street Handbook, a Practical Guide to Small Town Revitalization. Austin: Texas Historical Commission, 1986. 

The Southestern Telegraph and Telephone Company. Local and Long Distance Telephone, Granbury, Texas. Granbury: Graphic-Democrat, Sept. 1, 1908. 

Webb, Walter Prescott, Editor-in-Chief. A Handbook of Texas, A Dictionary of Essential Information. Austin: The Texas State Historical Association, 1952. 

Wollen, Peter and Joe Kerr, Editors. Autopia, Cars and Culture. London: Reaktion Books, 2002. 

PERIODICALS 

Axsmith, Brian J. and Bonnie Jacobs. “The Conifer Frenelopsis Ramosissima (Cheirolepidiaceae) in the Lower Cretaceous of Texas: Systematic, 

Biogeographical, and Paleoecological Implications.” International Journal of Plant Sciences vol.166, (2005). 

Bryant, Mavis. “Back to a New Life: Granbury’s Town Square.” Texas Historical Commission Reference Series, Number 1 (c. 1980). 

Dallas Morning News, May 22 and October 24, 1913; December 4, 1929; June 7, 1932; March 12, 1935; April 23 and November 13, 1936; November 

8, 1938; October 8, 1939; December 22, 1960; April 10, 1962; and March 25, 1964. 

Fort Worth Star Telegram, 1976. 

Granbury Graphic, July 17 and October 30, 1886; January 29 and March 12, 1887; May 28, 1887. 

Granbury Graphic Democrat, May 2, 16, 29, and 30, 1913. 


Granbury News, January 28 and September 8, 1892; August 12, 1886; January 16, 1902; March 5 and June 15, 1905; September 6,1906; May 13, 

1909; July 11 and September 5, 1912; March 21, 1919; March 19 and April 2, 1920; and March 1,1935. 

Hendricks, Kenneth. “Pioneer Newsman Built Monument in Print.” Granbury! The Journal of the Historic Brazos River Valley (March/April 1984). 

Hood County News, September 25, 1986 and October 1989. 

Hood County News-Tablet, May 29, 1952; October 15, 1964; December 1, 1966; and June 1970. 

Manroe, Candace Ord. “The Colony Rests in Peace.” Granbury! The Journal of the Historic Brazos River Valley (May/June 1984). 

McBride, Stewart Dill. “Victorian Revival of a Wild West Town, Granbury, Texas.” The Christian Science Monitor (November 4, 1977). 

New York Times, July 28, 1934 and September 3, 1970. 

Saltarelli, Mary G. “Historic Homes: Rylee-Aiken House and Rylee Ferry Masters Cabin: A Pioneer Family Settles on Brazos Banks.” Granbury! The 

Journal of the Historic Brazos River Valley (May/June 1984). 

The First National Bank Notes, The First National Bank, Granbury, Texas, 100 th Anniversary Commemorative Edition, June 18, 1987. 

The Granbury Tablet, March 15, 1984. 

Village Weekly, May 27, 1976. 

INTERVIEWS 

Barker, Bob. “Dear Mr. President,” Interview by John Henry Faulk, January or February 1942. American Memory, American Folklife Center, U.S. 

Library of Congress, http://hdl.loc.gov/ loc.afc/ afc1942003.sr30. 

Burks, Jr., Burton. Interview by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, March 19, 1987. 

Cunningham, J. C. Interview by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, June 18, 1984. 

Durham, Mary Kate. Interviews by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, March 5 and June 18, 1984; November 3, 2003; and April 24, 2004. 

Johnson, Jim. Interview by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas. November 30, 2003. 

Keith, Bill. Interview by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, November 29, 2003. 

Kennon, Milton. Interviews by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, March 19 and June 25, 1984. 

Mullins, Tom. “Folkways, Killing of Bird Tracy, Interview with Mr. Tom Mullins, Granbury, Texas,” by William V. Ervin. American Life Histories 

Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940. Available on U.S. Library of Congress American Memory Web Site, http://memory.loc.gov/. 

Porter, Albert. Interviews by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, March 5, 1984 and March 18, 1987. 

Preston, Linda Powell; Gloria Whitley; Jane Smith; Earlene Gilliam; and Mildred Thormann. Interview by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, 

April 7, 2008. 

Rylee, Mrs. J. D. “Folkways, Interview with Mrs. J. D. Rylee, Granbury, Texas,” by William V. Ervin, January 8, 1937. American Life Histories 

Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940. Available on U.S. Library of Congress American Memory Web Site, http://memory.loc.gov/. 

Self, N. B. “Early Settlement, Interview with Mr. N. B. Self Lipan, Texas,.” Interview by Ada Davis, March 1, 1937. American Life Histories Manuscripts 

from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940. Available on U.S. Library of Congress American Memory Web Site, http://memory.loc.gov/. 

Self, P. D. “Range Lore, Interview with P.D. Self,” by William V. Ervin, February 11, 1941. American Life Histories Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ 

Project, 1936-1940. Available on U.S. Library of Congress American Memory Web Site, http://memory.loc.gov/. 

Shugart, Ernestine. Telephone Interview by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, April 20, 2008. 

Walker, H. P. “Range Lore, Life History of H. P. Walker,” by William V. Ervin. February 11, 1941. American Life Histories Manuscripts from the Federal 

Writers’ Project, 1936-1940. Available on U.S. Library of Congress American Memory Web Site, http://memory.loc.gov/. 

White, Warren. Interview by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, March 12, 1987. 

Williams, Marie. Interview by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, March 23, 1984. 

Williams, Tollie. Interview by Mary G. Saltarelli, Granbury, Texas, March 9, 1984. 

Wood, W. A. “Interview with W. A. Wood, Glen Rose, Texas—Early Settler,” by William V. Ervin. American Life Histories Manuscripts from the Federal 

Writers’ Project, 1936-1940. Available on U.S. Library of Congress American Memory Web Site, http://memory.loc.gov/. 

UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS 

Brumley, Rebecca. “Crockett’s Bounty, Hood County, Texas.” Application for a Texas Historical Marker. 

Dyer, Joel Henry. Letter, 1856. Reproduced from the Holdings of the Texas State Archives. 

Hiler, Tommye Bryan and Eloise Cramer. “A History of Granbury United Methodist Church, 1871-1992.” 

Maloney, Vance J. “The Five Court Houses of Hood County, Granbury, Texas.” February 12, 1970. 

Saltarelli, Mary G. “The Granbury Railroad Depot.” Application for a Texas Historical Marker, April 9, 1984. 

Bibliography ✦ 77

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Sanborn Insurance Company Maps of Granbury, Hood County, Texas, 1910, 1932. Available at the Barker Texas History Collection, Center for 

American History, University of Texas, Austin. 

Stevens, Merle. Letter, September 16, 1986. Collection of the Author. 

GOVERNMENT 

DOCUMENTS 

“Annual Program of Services, Granbury, Texas, Fiscal Year October 1, 2004 through September 30, 2005.” 

Hagan, Hilton. An Informal History of The Texas Department of Transportation. Texas Department of Transportation, 1991. 

City of Granbury, City Council Minutes, March 6 and June 5, 1909; April 11, 1910; April 27, 1914; May 10, 1915; January 29, 1917; February 20, 

1918, March 26,1923; June 30, 1933; and June 4, 1935. Available at archives of the Hood County Genealogical Society, Granbury Railroad Depot. 

Granbury Visitor Center, “Marketing Plan, 1987.” 

INTERNET 

SOURCES 

“About Texas Christian University.” Texas Christian University, 

http://www.tcu.edu/at-a-glance.asp. 

“Air Force Plant 4, Fort Worth, Texas,” Global Security.org., 

http://www. globalsecurity.org/military/facility/afp-4.htm. 

“America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945.” American Memory, U.S. Library of Congress. 

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www.dcbeweb.com/DCBEabout.htm. 

“Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station.” TXU, 

www.txucorp.com/ power/plants/comanche_peak 

Hale,Virginia. “Military Veterans of Hood County Texas, World War II, 1941- 1945.” Hood County Texas Genealogical Society, 

www.granburydepot.org/home/ HCGShomePage.htm. 

Kemplin, Carolyn. “The History of the Granbury Opera House, 1886-1911.” Hood County Texas Genealogical Society, 

www.granburydepot.org/home/ HCGShomepage.htm. 

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Ramos, Mary G. “Oil and Texas: A Cultural History.” Texas Almanac, 

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“Top U.S. Micromarkets,” and “Wealthiest U.S. Core-Based Statistical Areas.” Granbury/Hood County Economic Development Corporation, 

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 

“World War I Veterans, 1917-1919, Hood County, Texas.” Hood County Texas Genealogical Society, 

http://www.granburydepot.org/home/HCGShomepage.htm. 


INDEX 

A 

A. P. Gordon Store, 33 

Abbey Bend, 55 

Acton, 10-11, 13, 23-4, 33, 42, 45 

Acton Cemetery, 13, 37-39 

Add-Ran Christian University, 31 

Add-Ran Male and Female College, 25- 

26, 31, 50, 63 

Add-Ran-Jarvis College, 31 

Allen, Amanda, 24 

Alvarado, Luis de Moscoso de, 8 

Anderson, Bill, 35 

Anderson, Clarence, 35 

Anderson, J. W., 24 

Andrews, Ida, 17 

Aniky, 46 

Apaches, The, 7-8 

Arapaho, The, 22 

Army of Texas, 17 

Aston and Landers Saloon, 36, 67 

Aston, Andy, 34, 36-37 

Aston, John, 21 

Austin, 8, 21, 56, 61 

Austin, Stephen F., 8 

B 

Baccus, Nettie, 62 

Baker, J. D., 24-25 

Baker, Jess, 34-35, 37 

Baker, Oran, 43, 60 

Baker, Walter A., 43 

Ballard, L. G., 56-57 

Barker, Bob, 51-52 

Barker, W. F., 14, 16 

Barnard Trading House, 11 

Barnard, Charles, 10-11, 15 

Barnard, George, 10-11 

Barnard’s Mill, 16, 20 

Barrett, A. P., 55 

Barrow, Clyde, 47-48 

Berry House, 72 

Berry, Maggie, 25 

Big Jim, 46 

Big Tree, 22 

Bigelow Charles, 60 

Bircham, Houston, 26 

Bircham, Roy, 26 

Black, John R., 47 

Bond, Amon, 13 

Booth, John Wilkes, 21 

Bosque County, 20 

Bowers, Effie, 37 

Bowers, Nell, 37 

Brady, Bessie, 38 

Brants, Cynthia, 67-68 

Brazos Bend, 71 

Brazos Drive-In, 57, 59 

Brazos Electric Cooperative, 60 

Brazos Indian Reservation, 15 

Brazos Motel, 58, 59 

Brazos River, 5, 7-11, 13, 16-17, 19, 20, 

23-24, 28, 33, 35, 44, 49, 50, 52-53, 

55, 60-62, 64, 66, 71 

Brazos River Authority, 53, 62, 64 

Brazos River Bridge, 24, 30, 35 

Brazos River Valley, 6, 7, 17, 63, 72 

Brooks, A. L., Jr., 64 

Brown, J. D., 34, 48 

Brumley, Jon, 13, 72 

Brumley, Rebecca, 13, 72 

Bryant, Mavis, 53, 63, 65, 68 

Burk, Golda Rash, 60 

Burks, Burton, Jr., 43 

Burns, Thomas A., 24 

Butler, Pierce M., 9 

C 

Caddo, The, 7, 11, 14-15 

Caraway, Jake, 60 

Carpenter, Gussie, 38 

Cash, Max, 47 

Cavasos, Juana, 11 

Cheyenne, The, 22 

Cherry, Harley, 63 

City of Granbury, 40, 57, 60, 62, 70-72 

City National Bank, 46 

Civil War, 16-18, 23-25, 29, 33 

Clark, Addison, 25, 31 

Clark, Grady, 35 

Clark, Joseph A., 25, 31 

Clark, Randolph, 25, 31 

Clear Fork Reservation, 15 

Cleburne, 19, 28-29, 61 

Clemmons, J. Howard, 69-70 

Cleveland, Charlotte, 52 

Cleveland, Chevis, Sr., 6, 21-22, 26, 38 

Cleveland, Courts, 52 

Cleveland, John Franklin, 11 

Cochise, 7 

Cogdell, Daisy, 25 

Cogdell, Daniel C., 27, 34, 40, 42, 46-47 

Cogdell, Earl, 40 

Colony, The, 24 

Comanche Peak, 5-6, 8-10, 13, 19, 33, 

43, 65, 72 

Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station, 69 

Comanche Peak Trading House, 10-11 

Comanche, The, 5, 7-9, 11, 13-14, 16- 

17, 23, 25 

Confederacy, 16-18, 38-39 

Cook, Frederick A., 55 

Crawford, A. B., 56, 62 

Crawford, Norma, 62-64, 66 

Crawford, Thomas, 9 

Cresson, 22, 29, 40, 61, 69-71 

Cresson Community Organization, Inc., 

69 

Cresson School, 69 

Cresson, John, 29 

Crockett, Ashley, 24, 28, 37, 56 

Crockett, David, 11, 13, 24, 28, 49, 52, 56 

Crockett, Elizabeth, 13, 37-39, 50 

Crockett, Robert Patton, 13, 24, 49, 70, 72 

Cruse, Monroe, 35 

Curl, Dess, 37 

Curl, Ima, 37 

Curl, Ruby, 37 

D 

Dallas, 21, 24, 29, 47, 49-51, 62, 66 

Dallas Morning News, 39, 48-51, 61 

Dalton, J. Frank, 60 

Daniel Brothers Grocery, 28 

Davis, Henry, 38, 43 

Davis, John W., 20 

Davis, Wanda, 50 

DeCordova, 71 

DeCordova Bend, 9, 44, 50, 55, 62-3 

DeCordova Bend Dam, 64 

DeCordova Bend Reservoir, 62, 64 

DeCordova, Jacob, 9 

Index ✦ 79

Dixon, Jimmy, 65 

Dixon, Mary, 65 

Dodson, W. C., 32 

Doyle, J. N., 31 

Duke, T. J., 31 

Durham, Mary Kate, 40, 42, 48, 50, 55, 

58-60, 65 

Durham, R. E., 59, 65 

Dyer, Joel Henry, 13 

E 

Easley, Claudius Miller, 51 

Edwards, Mary, 24 

Elliott, Raymond, 11 

Erath County, 18, 28, 43 

Erath, George B., 9 

Estes, Ben, 33 

Estes, Ben Phillip, 33 

Estes, Phoebe, 33 

Evans, Strain, and Haney, 24 

Ewell, Thomas T., 6-7, 9, 10, 14-21, 24, 

29-30, 72 

F 

Fairview, 35 

Fehrenbach, T. R. 8, 11, 14-16, 22-23, 

27, 32, 40, 47, 54-55 

Ferguson, Miriam “Ma”, 47 

Ferris, Aaron, 13 

First Christian Church of Granbury 

(Disciples of Christ), 31 

First National Bank of Granbury, 27, 37, 

45-47, 52, 55, 66 

Ford, O’Neil, 67-68 

Formwalt, J. A., 33 

Fort Belknap, 14-15 

Fort Sill, 23 

Fort Sill Reservation, 23 

Fort Worth, 5, 7, 14, 22, 28-29, 31, 34, 

36, 49-52, 55, 59, 61, 71-72 

Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad, 28-29 

Fort Worth Circle of Artists, 67 

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 

Fredericksburg, 17 

Frisco, 35 

Frisco Ice and Light Company, 42 

G 

Gainesville, 17 

Gaston, Frank, 29, 34, 56 

General Granbury’s Birthday, 68-69 

George, David, 21 

Geronimo, 7 

Glen Rose formation, 6, 7 

Glen Rose (town), 7, 20-21, 51, 69 

Glenn, Marshall, 38 

Gordon, A. P., 21 

Gordon, F. J., 21 

Graham, 62 

Granbury, 5, 6, 8, 13-14, 17-37, 39-43, 

45-72 

Granbury Band, 35 

Granbury Board of Trade, 30 

Granbury Cemetery, 25, 32-33, 43, 56, 60 

Granbury Chamber of Commerce, 49, 

53, 56, 64 

Granbury College, 25, 28 

Granbury Depot, 48 

Granbury Elementary School, 50 

Granbury General Hospital, 72 

Granbury Graphic, 27-29, 31, 36 

Granbury Graphic-Democrat, 34, 39-41 

Granbury High School, 38, 52, 56, 61, 

63-64 

Granbury High School Pirates, 61-63 

Granbury Historic Preservation 

Commission, 67 

Granbury Independent School District, 

39, 40, 61, 69 

Granbury Junior Woman’s Club, 58, 62 

Granbury Methodist Episcopal Church, 

25, 60-61 

Granbury Milling Company, 42 

Granbury News, 27-30, 34-37, 41-43, 45- 

46, 48, 52, 56, 71 

Granbury Opera House, 28, 63-65, 67 

Granbury Quarry Company, 37 

Granbury Vidette, 24 

Granbury Water, Ice, Light and Power 

Company, 42 

Granbury Woman’s Club, 58 

Granbury, Fannie Sims, 33 

Granbury, Hiram B., 18, 32-33, 39, 69 

Graves, John, 60-61 

Green, A. P., 15 

Green, George, 9 

Green, Jake, 26, 52 

Green, Sallie, 15 

Grissom, Minnie, 38 

Grissom, Preston, 26, 38 

Grissom, Sam, 36 

H 

H. B. Zachry Co., 62 

Hambright, Margaret, 50 

Hambright, Sam, 50 

Handbook of Texas, 47 

Hannaford, E. A., 19, 24-25, 28, 30 

Harbin, A. P., 24 

Harris and Estes Funeral Home and 

Furniture Store, 33 

Hendricks, Gladys Crockett, 56 

Hendricks, Kenneth, 52 

Hightower, Hettie, 24 

Hightower, Lorine, 38 

Hightower, Reuben, 24 

Hightower, Simon, 24 

Hill City, 47, 65 

Hiner, Annette, 38 

Hiner, Freida, 38 

Historic Granbury Merchants Association, 

68-69 

History of the Granbury Opera House, 

1886-1911, The, 28 

Hobby, William P., 37 

Holderness, E. J., 34 

Holmes, Thomas, 48 

Hood County, 5-10, 13-24, 26-37, 39-52, 

55-65, 68-72 

Hood County Economic Development 

Foundation, 71 

Hood County Genealogical Society, 51 

Hood County Historical Commission, 67 

Hood County History, 6, 7, 9, 10, 14, 17-18 

Hood County Milling Company, 37 

Hood County News-Tablet, 56, 59, 61-62, 

65-66 

Hood County Tablet, 51-2, 56 

Hood, John Bell, 18 

Houston, 11, 49 

Houston, Sam, 11, 16 

Humphrey, Walter, 53 

J 

Jack County, 22 

Jacksboro, 22 

James, Jesse, 60 

Jarrett, R. P., 38, 40 

Jarvis, J. J., 31 

Johnson County, 18, 71 

Johnson, Cecil, 50 

Jones, Bascom, 37 

Jones, Earl, 38 


Jones, Jesse H., 49 

Jones, Marvin, 49 

Jordan, Annie, 21 

Jordan, T. C., 20 

Jordan, Terry G., 10, 13 

K 

Keith, Bill, 52 

Keith, Fort, 59 

Keith, Murel, 38 

Kemplin, Carolyn, 28 

Kennon, Milt, 63 

Kerr’s Opera House, 27 

Kerr, Henry, 27, 35 

Kerr, Mag Joe, 38 

Kerr, R. G., 35 

Kersands, Billy, 28 

Kimbrow, Rebecca Elvira Crockett, 13 

Kingsbury, W. H., 23 

Kiowa, The, 8, 14, 16-17, 22 

Kiowa-Apache, The, 8, 22 

Kristenstad, 44 

L 

Lake Granbury, 50, 62-65, 71-72 

Lake Granbury Area Chamber of 

Commerce, 69 

Lamar, Mirabeau, 8 

Lambert Branch, 19 

Lambert, Thomas, 19 

Landers Hotel, 30 

Landers, Abe, 18-19 

Landers, George W., 35-37 

Leonard, O. P., 55 

Lewis, M. G., 9 

Lipan Telephone Company, 58 

Lipan (town), 7, 13, 24, 40, 42, 50, 57- 

58, 61 

Lipan, The (Apache), 7-9, 24 

Lockheed Martin Corporation, 58 

Lone Star: A History of Texas and Texans, 8, 

11, 32, 40 

Long, Huey, 22 

Luton, John S., 62 

M 

Macon, Ben, 69 

Macon, Jeannine, 67, 69 

Maddox, Martin, 65 

Maloney, Vance J., 8 

Maness, J. T., 64 

Mangold, Mattie Landers, 37, 51 

Martin, Cody Catlett, 32, 36 

Martin, Lynn, 62-63 

Martin, Poodle, 63 

Martin, William Cody, Sr., 46 

Martin, Willie Edgar, 46 

Martin’s Funeral Home, 57 

McCamant, A. S., 19 

McCauley, Jim, 37 

McConnell, Joseph Carroll, 9 

McGaughey, W. L., 30 

McEwen, Nancy Hicks Oldham, 17 

MacKenzie, Ranald, 22 

Mecca Café, 50 

Meyers, Dude, 55 

Meyers, X. A., 55 

Miller, Jo Ann, 67 

Milliken, Sam, 24-25 

Mitchell Bend, 20 

Mitchell, Billy, 20 

Mitchell, Jan, 45 

Mitchell, Jeff, 20 

Mitchell, Nelson “Cooney”, 20 

Mitchell, Zeb, 38 

Mopechucope (Old Owl), 8-9 

Morehouse Expedition, 17 

Morgan, H. Bush, 38 

Morris, Emma, 38 

Morris, Lottie, 38 

Mullins, Tom, 37 

N 

Neely, Windell D., 52 

Neighbors, Robert S., 15 

New Deal, 49-50 

Newton, Alice, 62 

Newcombe, W. W., 7 

Norman Lumber Company, 52 

Norman, A. W., 62 

Nunn, W. C., 7 

Nutt House Restaurant, 62, 66-67 

Nutt, Abe, 20 

Nutt, Jacob, 18, 20 

Nutt, Jesse F., 18, 20 

Nutt, Joe, 66-67 

Nutt, Mattie E., 25 

Nutt, Milburn, 38 

O 

Of a People and a Creek, 11 

P 

Padon, Mildred, 11 

Palo Pinto, 15, 24 

Palo Pinto County, 16, 60 

Paluxy River Valley, 6 

Panter Branch, 65 

Parker County, 16, 22-23, 71 

Parker, Bonnie, 47-48 

Parker, Donnard, 48 

Parker, Quanah, 22-23 

Penateka Comanche, The, 14-15 

Perkins, Charlie, 57 

Perkins, Emma, 57 

Perkins, Lillian, 38 

Peters Colony, 9 

Peters, W. S., 9 

Pointer, Pat, 26 

Pony Creek, 65 

Preserve Granbury, 5 

Prewett, S. W. F., 11 

Procter, Ben H., 47 

Q 

Quahadi Comanche, 22 

R 

Randle, Greta, 37 

Randle, Kay Lee, 48 

Randle, Keith, 48 

Randle, Lavelle, 37 

Randle, Mary Kate, 47 

Randle, Minnie, 47 

Rankin, John Y., 32 

Rash, Randle, 67 

Rash, Sam, 60 

Rayburn, Sam, 49 

Reed, Charlie, 26 

Republic of Texas, 8-11, 13 

Richardson, Rupert N., 17 

Roberson, Fred, 38 

Robinson Creek, 21 

Rodgers, C. F., 18 

Rothell, Gertrude, 38 

Ryburn, Lucyle, 38 

Rylee, J. D., 14 

Rylee, Mary, 16 

Rylee, Sadie McDonald, 14 

Rylee, Y. J., 16, 20 

S 

Sammons, Gertrude, 38 

Index ✦ 81

San Antonio, 8, 62 

Santa Fe Expedition, 8 

Satank (Sitting Bear), 8, 22 

School District No.1, 31 

Schuyler, George, 47 

Schuyler, Josephine Cogdell, 46-47 

Schuyler, Philippa, 47 

Self, P. D., 23 

Sheridan, Phil, 21-22 

Sherman, William T., 21 

Shugart, Ernestine, 62 

Smith, Jane, 57 

Smith, Martha Luzany Dillahunty 

Hutcheson, 23 

Smith, Preston, 64 

Smith, Sam, 23 

Smith, Sue, 25 

Somervell County, 5, 7, 19, 54, 60, 69 

Spiker, Issall, 26 

Spirit of Granbury Award, 69 

Squaw Creek, 21, 62 

Squaw Creek Station, 30 

St. Helen, John, 20-21 

St. Louis, San Francisco and Texas 

Railway Company, 35 

Stephenville, 20, 24, 29, 35, 61 

Stephenville Empire, 28 

Sterling, Ross, 70 

Stockton, 13, 19, 35 

T 

Tahmahkera, Lewis, 8 

Tawakoni, The, 7-8 

Tehuacana Creek, 11 

Texas Almanac, 41, 46, 61 

Texas Brazos Improvement District, 50 

Texas Christian University, 31 

Texas Department of Transportation, 70 

Texas Emigration and Land Company, 9 

Texas Federation of Women, 62 

Texas Historical Commission, 53, 67-68, 

70-71 

Texas Power and Light Company, 50 

Texas Railroad Commission, 72 

Texas Rangers, 15, 47 

Texas Schoolchildren’s Chorus, 50 

Texas Utilities Company, 69 

Texas War for Independence, 8, 10, 13 

Thomas, Seth, 32 

Thomason, Roy Ernest, 45, 52 

Thorp Spring, 15, 17, 20, 24-26, 31, 50- 

51, 63 

Thorp Spring Christian College, 26, 32 

Thorp, Pleasant, 17, 25 

Thorp, Roy, 17 

Thorp, Victor, 17 

Thorp, Virgil, 17 

Thrash, Lucy, 38 

Thrash, P. H., 24 

Thrash, Sid, 35 

Tolar, 24, 29-30, 36, 40, 43, 46-47, 51, 

52, 61 

Tolar, Alf, 30 

Tonkawa, The, 7-9, 11, 14-15 

Torrey, John F., 11 

Tracy, Bird, 47-48 

Traylor, John H., 27 

Truitt, James, 20 

V 

Van Zandt, Glynn Evelyn, 62 

W 

Waco, 29, 31-32 

Waco, The, 7, 8, 11 

Walker, H. P., 23 

Walters, W. C., 24 

Waples, 47 

Ward, Pierce B., 38-39 

Warren, A. T., 43 

Watkins, Mary Lou, 66-69 

Weatherford, 24, 28-29, 35, 56, 61 

West Texas Chamber of Commerce, 55 

West, Emma Hudspeth, 62 

West, Floyd, 62 

West, Jewel Kyle, 62 

West, Owen Collins, 62 

Whitehead, R. S., 33 

Whisenant, Fannie Green, 15 

Wichita, The, 7-9, 11, 14-15 

Williams, Corinne, 38 

Williams, Dick, 35 

Williams, E. G. “Pig”, 35, 63 

Williams, Marie, 29, 43, 47 

Wilson, Mollie, 38 

Wortham, Jack, 62 

World War I, 42-43 

World War II, 51, 54, 56, 60 

Wright, A. J., 20 

Wright, Jim, 56 

Y 

Yeats, Austin, 12-13, 16 

Yeats, Frances Bond, 13, 16 

Z 

Zech Burkett Company, 62 

Zweifel, Henry, 55-56, 62 


SHARING THE HERITAGE 

Historic profiles of businesses, 

organizations, and families that have 

SPECIAL 

THANKS TO 

contributed to the development and 

economic base of Granbury and Hood County 

Cleveland and Randle Families .........................................................84 

First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) ...................................................88 

Lake Granbury Medical Center .........................................................91 

Granbury Independent School District ................................................92 

First National Bank of Granbury.......................................................95 

Chris Thomas Custom Homes, Inc. .....................................................96 

1906 Pomegranate House .................................................................98 

G & G Electric Service Company, Inc. ..............................................100 

The Doyle Agency, Inc. ..................................................................102 

Pruitt Plumbing & Repair...............................................................104 

Wagon Yard..................................................................................106 

Fall Creek Farms ..........................................................................108 

Silverado Custom Boot Company......................................................110 

PDX, Inc. ....................................................................................112 

Historic Nutt House Hotel ..............................................................114 

Books on the Square ......................................................................115 

Granbury Chamber of Commerce 

and City of Granbury ...............................................................116 

Blushes Spa/Salon .........................................................................117 

First Baptist Church ......................................................................118 

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Store #371 ...................................................119 

Hood Tire Center, Inc. ...................................................................120 

Almost Heaven, Inc. ......................................................................121 

Stringfellow’s Casual Dining ...........................................................122 

Southern Concepts, Inc. .................................................................123 

Historic Granbury 

Merchants Association 

The Hooks Family 

ReMax Lake Granbury 

Tommy’s 

Water’s Edge Properties 

Sharing the Heritage ✦ 83

CLEVELAND 

AND RANDLE 

FAMILIES 

John Frederick Cleveland and Maggie 

Randle married in 1888 in Acton, uniting two 

pioneering Hood County families and creating 

a clan whose members would donate time, 

energy, land, and other resources to help 

develop their historic community. 

accomplished farmer and rancher, and was 

featured in Texas Who’s Who for 1895. 

Before her marriage, Maggie attended 

Granbury College and became a talented 

musician. John opened a General Merchandise 

store in downtown Acton near the present-day 

❖ 

Sallie Kendall Randle with her 

granddaughter, Courtsene, in her lap. 

In back are her grandsons (left to 

right): Courts Cleveland, Leo 

Cleveland, Thurman Randle (a World 

War I veteran), Fred Cleveland, 

Raymond Randle, and Chevis 

Cleveland (a World War I veteran). 

Maggie Randle Cleveland is 

“directing” the photo. c. 1917. 

Maggie Randle’s father, William Green 

Randle, rode into Hood County on horseback 

in 1870. After finding land in Acton, 

Randle returned to his home in Tennessee. 

He and his wife, Sallie Kendall Randle, 

loaded their four children and all of 

their belongings into ten ox-drawn wagons. 

They traveled by wagon to their new 

home in Acton, arriving in 1871. William 

died just three months after bringing his 

family to Acton. Sallie raised their family 

alone and became a successful farmer and 

land entrepreneur. 

John Frederick Cleveland’s father, Frederick 

Moss Cleveland, migrated to the Acton area 

from South Carolina with his wife, Nancy 

Isbell, in 1870. By 1873 they had acquired 

farmland in Hood County. Frederick became an 

triangle, where he sold mostly groceries. 

Hood County historian T.T. Ewell called him 

“one of Acton’s most substantial merchants.” 

The Cleveland family house featured the 

county’s first telephone, flush toilet, and 

electricity, powered by its own generator. 

Visitors came from far and wide to see such 

modern marvels. The Clevelands donated 

land for Acton Cemetery, a local school, a 

non-denominational community tabernacle, 

and Acton United Methodist Church. 

The Clevelands’ house still stands in Acton, 

near the community’s present-day tabernacle. 

Known affectionately as “Mama Mag” by 

her grandchildren and “Aunt Mag” by her 

community, Maggie was a gracious hostess, 

entertaining neighbors and governors of Texas. 

In the evenings, when the Clevelands were 


❖ 

Top: Courts Cleveland, Jr., saddled up 

upon “Old Colonel,” Chevis 

Cleveland’s favorite roping horse. 

Sadie Rylee rode sidesaddle atop “Old 

Colonel” at the front of Hood County’s 

Old Soldiers and Settlers Reunion 

parade for many years. c. 1924. 

Bottom: Courts Cleveland, Sr., and his 

children in front of the family’s car at 

their family’s home in Granbury (left 

to right): Mozelle, Courts, Jr., and 

Charlotte. c. 1928. 


❖ 

Top: Courts Cleveland, Sr., and his 

wife, Olga, with their three children at 

the old Cleveland home in Acton (left 

to right): Charlotte, Courts, Jr., and 

Mozelle, Christmas Day, 1929. 

Bottom: Maggie Randle Cleveland 

surrounded by her sons (left to right): 

Leo, Fred, Chevis and Courts. 

c. 1930. 

Opposite page, top: Maggie Randle 

Cleveland and her clan at her home 

in Acton. First Row (left to right): 

Loma Pate Cleveland, Ruby Goforth 

Cleveland, Leo Cleveland, Maggie 

Randle Cleveland, Ora Cleveland 

Harvey, and Courts Cleveland, Sr., 

Second Row (left to right): Fred 

Cleveland, Olga Cleveland, and Lewis 

Harvey. Third Row (left to right): 

Mozelle Cleveland Randolph, Chevis 

Randle Cleveland, Sr., Jessie Dee 

Harvey, and Billie Harvey. Fourth 

Row: Charlotte Cleveland Crowley, 

and Courts Cleveland, Jr., Christmas 

Day, 1937. 

Opposite page, bottom: The Cleveland 

family in front of the J. Newton Nutt 

House on East Bridge Street in 

Granbury, where Chevis Cleveland, 

Sr., and his family lived (left to right): 

Mozelle Cleveland Randolph and 

daughter, Jane, Chevis Cleveland, Sr., 

Lois Cleveland, Loma Pate Cleveland, 

Fred Cleveland, Dolly Morrison, 

Courts Cleveland, Jr., Ruby 

Cleveland, Leo Cleveland, Charlotte 

Cleveland Crowley and son, David 

Crowley; Olga Cleveland; Courts 

Cleveland, Sr., Suzanne Randolph 

Culp; and Chevis Cleveland, Jr., 

c. 1945. 

home, they would switch on their porch light. 

Friends and neighbors joined them on the 

front lawn, enjoying great food, dancing, 

and conversation. 

Together John and Maggie had one daughter 

and four sons: Ora, Courts, Chevis, Fred, and 

Leo. After John’s death in 1901, “Aunt Mag” 

moved to Granbury temporarily so her sons 

could be closer to Granbury High School and 

attend Granbury College and Thorp Spring 

Christian College. Courts became a successful 

rancher in Acton. Chevis was a master roper and 

accomplished cowboy, and he served as 

Granbury’s postmaster from 1935 until 1963. 

Fred and Leo became successful businessmen. 

Two of Maggie’s grandsons served their country 

in the U.S. military. Courts, Jr., served in the 

U.S. Army during World War II as a lieutenant 


with the 93rd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron 

in the 13th Armored Division. Chevis’ son, 

John, served in the U.S. Army’s 31st Combat 

Engineers during the Vietnam War. 

For many years, Courts, Jr., owned Comanche 

Peak, Hood County’s 1,229-foot mesa. He cared 

for the old Native American landmark and 

opened it to the public with the Hood County 

Historical Society each year. Courts, Jr., remains 

an active member of Acton United Methodist 

Church. Today, Courts, Jr., and his wife, Sally, 

and John and his wife, Connie, live in Hood 

County in DeCordova Bend, on land once owned 

by their pioneering Acton family. 


FIRST 

PRESBYTERIAN 

CHURCH 

(PCUSA) 

One of the earliest communities in what is 

now Hood County was Walnut Creek near 

Acton. There were a few Presbyterians among 

the pioneers. The residents shared a common 

building for Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, 

and Reformed Christian congregations. Circuit 

Riders from the various denominations came on 

different Sundays to conduct worship services. 

Two Cumberland Presbyterian preachers, Ben D. 

and W. D. Austin, were among those preachers. 

After the Civil War, the population expanded 

throughout the county and, in 1871, Granbury 

was founded as the County Seat. In 1879 the 

Cumberland Presbyterian Church was officially 

organized with the Reverend A.G. Martin as pastor. 

For the next seventeen years, the congregation 

held services in the Court House, the Baptist and 

the Christian (Disciples) Church buildings. 

In 1892 the lot on which the church still 

stands was purchased for $300. The Ladies Aid 

Society was formed and immediately began 

planning events to raise money for the new 

church building. In 1894 the adjoining property 

to the east was purchased and a parsonage was 

built for the first full-time pastor, C. C. McConnell. 

J. M. Walley was awarded the building contract 

and construction was completed in April of 1896. 

The congregation decided to wait until all debts 

on the building were paid before holding a formal 

dedication. The mortgage was burned on 

Saturday, November 6, 1897, and the dedication 

service was conducted the next day. 

The next few years were fruitful as members 

continued to take an active role in the life of 

their growing community. From 1913 to 1920, 

there were adult and children’s Sunday School 

classes, a ten-piece orchestra that played every 

Sunday, and many youth activities. Though 

membership declined after World War I and 

during the Depression and World War II, the 

spirit of the church never wavered! With 

the help of the Presbyterian Churches in 


the Presbytery, pastors were supplied and help 

was given on maintenance of the church 

building. Many laymen and student pastors 

provided services. 

In 1956, Jim Wright, mayor of Weatherford 

and an Elder in the Weatherford Presbyterian 

Church, began preaching and conducting 

services on a regular basis and activity in the 

church was revived. Wright would later be 

elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and 

serve as Speaker of the House. 

Early in the 1960s the Presbytery felt that 

there was no future for the First Presbyterian 

Church in Granbury and were making plans to 

close the church. Legend has it that when the 

Presbytery Committee came to talk to the 

members about this decision, Elder Jake Morris 

conveniently misplaced the key to the building. 

His words of wisdom to the committee were, 

“We are getting old, and if God does not want a 

Presbyterian Church in Granbury, He will let it 

die with us.” The church never did close its 

doors and it certainly never died. 

During this period, A. M. Pate, Jr., and 

his family began to attend the church. The 

financial and moral support of the Pates 

and the tenacity of the small congregation 

began to bear fruit in the church. In 1965 

the plain glass windows were replaced with 

antique smoked glass, the back of the sanctuary 


was partitioned off for an office and a restroom, 

and a stained glass window depicting the 

story of the “rich young ruler” was added in 

the chancel. 

The window, donated and installed by Pate, 

originally hung in the home of Lewis K. 

Thompson, built in 1890 in Sherman, Texas. 

When Thompson donated the house to Austin 

College, the window was removed and placed in 

storage. Pate purchased the window from Austin 

College and eventually had it installed in First 

Presbyterian Church. 

In an ecumenical arrangement in 1972, the 

Roman Catholic congregation was invited to 

use the First Presbyterian Church building 

for their services, while in 1973 the doors 

were also opened to the Lutherans. The 

Presbyterian Elders felt this was a way for 

their small congregation to reflect the history of 

cooperation of the pioneers and to be “doing the 

Lord’s work.” This shared relationship led to the 

establishment of a joint building fund for the 

restoration of the water-damaged steeple. 

In 1974 the church was in a yokedrelationship 

with the Presbyterian Church in 

Stephenville and Reverend John Brannon was 

called to serve both churches, to preach in both 

churches each Sunday, and to divide his pastoral 

time between the two congregations. This 

schedule required that the Lutherans find 

another building, while the Catholics were able 

to stay for another year. 

That same year, the church received a Texas 

State Historical Marker and the Honorable Jim 

Wright was invited to preach at the marker 

dedication service. In 1979 he returned to 

speak at the celebration of the church’s one 

hundredth birthday. 

The opening of Lake Granbury and the many 

new housing developments and businesses 

made the Granbury area one of the fastest 

growing in the state and the membership and 

activities of the church increased. 

In 1982 the Reverend Elisha Paschal 

was called as part-time pastor. During his 

ten year ministry, membership not only 

increased, but a choir was organized, new 

Sunday School classes started, and a new organ, 

piano and handbells were purchased. Many 

new fellowship activities were enjoyed and a 

financial commitment for church operations 

and missions was increased. 

In 1992 a new fellowship hall, office, and 

classroom building was built across the street 

from the historic building. In 1994, Dr. Charles 

Somervill was called as the first full-time pastor 

in more than fifty years. As Granbury has 

continued its rapid and constant growth, so 

has the First Presbyterian Church, which now 

has 375 members, two worship services each 

Sunday morning, and many activities for 

its members. 

In 2005 an annex was built next to the 

historic church. It includes a meeting room, 

Session room, a parlor and a memorial garden 

and columbarium designed as a final resting 

place for devoted members. 


Serving the healthcare needs of Granbury 

and Hood County for over fifty years, Lake 

Granbury Medical Center (LGMC) is an 

outstanding medical facility originally founded 

as Granbury General Hospital and Clinic by 

local doctors in the 1950s. 

After its opening, Drs. Ballard, Rawls, Brock, 

and Jennings partnered in the leadership of 

the facility, which included eight beds and a 

small team of dedicated staff, near Granbury’s 

town square. 

Today, that once-small hospital has become a 

beacon for medical care in the community and 

includes more than 115 physicians, an 

expansive ER, a three-story Medical Office 

Building, a Women’s Service Department, a 

Therapy Center, and primary care clinic. 

The hospital complex itself has expanded 

through several major initiatives over the years. 

When House Bill 259 created the Hood County 

Hospital District in 1971, a medical clinic was 

built across the street from its original location 

and the hospital grew to sixteen beds. Its tightknit 

group of employees considered themselves 

more like family than co-workers and patients 

from the surrounding communities were cared 

for as friends and family. 

During the hospital’s early years, an office call 

was only $10 and, with only one ambulance, it 

was not uncommon to see the Martin’s Funeral 

Home hearse providing transportation to the 

emergency room. Meals were so delicious, with 

food purchased from the local farmer’s market, 

that people often came to eat their favorite 

dish, especially “Miss Emma’s” famous dressing, 

at the hospital. 

In 1972 the hospital’s name was changed to 

Hood General Hospital and the Hood Hospital 

Auxiliary Organization was created to offer 

volunteer assistance within the hospital. In 

1976 the grand opening of a new hospital 

facility at Paluxy Road near Highway 377 was 

celebrated. The hospital was later expanded to a 

second floor in 1986. 

In 1996 the hospital became Lake Granbury 

Medical Center and since then has recruited 

both primary care and specialty physicians to the 

community, while also expanding its facilities 

and services. Major projects included Emergency 

Department and Women’s Services additions. 

The interior of the hospital was completely 

renovated and all rooms were made private in 

2006; and expansion to The Pavilion has enabled 

its Senior Circle and Healthy Women 

memberships to grow to several thousand. 

In 2006, LGMC was ranked number one in 

inpatient satisfaction among seventy-seven peer 

hospitals and remains committed in its efforts to 

reach out to the community. LGMC is a proud 

sponsor of United Way, Granbury ISD, Mission 

Granbury, and many other local charities. 

The future of healthcare in Hood County 

looks bright. Lake Granbury Medical Center is 

planning to invest $17 million to expand its 

facilities and patient services. This major 

expansion project is slated to begin in 2008 and 

be completed by the end of 2009. 

For the past fifty years, Lake Granbury 

Medical Center has improved the quality of life 

in Hood County. The passion of the hospital’s 

first four dedicated physicians has flourished 

into over 100 board-certified physicians and 

more than 300 employees, who continue to 

deliver quality healthcare to friends and family. 

For more information you can visit 

www.lakegranburymedicalcenter.com or call 

817-573-2273. 

LAKE 

GRANBURY 

MEDICAL 

CENTER 

❖ 

Lake Granbury Medical Center is 

located at 1310 Paluxy Road 

in Granbury. 


GRANBURY 

INDEPENDENT 

SCHOOL 

DISTRICT 

❖ 

Above: Teachers and administrators 

work hard to develop curriculum 

plans to help students reach 

high achievement. 

Below and opposite page, bottom: 

Granbury students take part in a 

number of activities that support the 

community, such as conducting a book 

drive for a summer feeding program 

and raising funds for Hood County 

Christmas for Children, a local 

nonprofit organization that provides 

Christmas gifts for 

undepriviledged children. 

Granbury Independent School District 

has always been driven by its commitment 

to pursue excellence in education through 

utilizing all community resources and 

providing students with opportunities to 

become productive, contributing members 

of society. 

Granbury ISD believes that students 

come first; that each student can learn and 

will have equal opportunity to do so; that 

the success of each student is the shared 

responsibility of families, schools, and 

communities; in accountability at all levels; 

and in achieving higher levels of performance. 

The District believes that graduates should have 

strong characteristics that will continue to guide 

them throughout their lives. They should be 

employable, academically prepared, display 

good citizenship, communicate effectively, and 

be a problem solver. 

With a total enrollment of approximately 

sixty-eight hundred students, Granbury ISD has 

a vision for the learning community: 

• For its students: to embrace the values 

that make them good citizens, to help 

them be educated to make well-informed 

choices, to value learning as a tool for 

personal success, to provide them with a 

broad spectrum of subjects beyond those 

required by the state, and to have the 

knowledge and skills to be successful in 

the workplace. 

• For the learning environment: to provide 

a positive, caring, learning environment 

involving the whole community, to be a 

cooperative partnership between school, 

home and community, to use current 

technology to enhance communication and 

to maintain the partnership among school, 

community and home, to provide an 

environment for relevant instruction to 

promote individual achievement and lifelong 

learning, students and educators are 


emotionally and physically safe and secure, 

to have the highest qualified teachers and 

support staff, and to be guided by an up-todate 

district improvement plan. 

• For its supporting environment: to provide 

facilities and resources that meet the needs 

of students and staff, to have mutual 

cooperation with public and private entities 

in the planning and use of facilities and other 

resources, vertical and horizontal alignment 

of curriculum to be reflected in high 

student performance, the stability in district 

leadership providing positive, consistent, 

informed and effective decisions, and 

experiences enthusiastic public support. 

Granbury High School serves students 

in grades ten through twelve, while freshmen 

attend the Willie and Wanda Crossland Ninth 

Grade Center. There are two middle schools: 

Acton Middle School and Granbury Middle 

School, for grades sixth through eighth. 

Elementary and intermediate campuses are 

Acton Elementary School, Nettie Baccus 

Elementary School, John and Lyn Brawner 

Intermediate School, Mambrino School, Oak 

Woods Intermediate School, and Emma 

Roberson Elementary School. 

At Granbury High School, a complete college 

preparatory curriculum is taught, including 

Advanced Placement and Dual Credit courses. 

There are varied elective courses, which range 

from Agriculture to Computer Science. The 

Choir program has risen to district and state 

level, with All-State Honor Choir designations. 

The Band earned a Division I rating at the 2007 

district marching contest. Granbury students 

are competitive in UIL academics as well as 

theater, speech, and debate. Students become 

leaders and have many opportunities for growth 

through extracurricular clubs and organizations 

that are available to them at GHS. 

GISD’s well-balanced athletic program allows 

students to excel in a wide variety of sports. 

The district provides athletics in football, 

volleyball, cross country, track, basketball, 

tennis, swimming, golf, baseball, softball, and 

power lifting. 

❖ 

Above: For several years, Granbury 

Middle School students have 

participated in an exchange program 

with a community in South Korea. 

The South Korean students have 

visited Texas, attended classes, and 

lived with host families. Likewise, 

Granbury students have traveled to 

South Korea during the summer to 

experience that culture. 


❖ 

Above: In September 2007, Granbury 

ISD named the field at Pirate 

Stadium in honor of Johnny Perkins, 

a Granbury High School alumnus 

who played for the New York Giants 

in the 1980s. 

Below: STARS Academy holds 

graduation ceremonies in both the 

Spring and the Fall. 

STARS Academy provides an optional setting 

for high school students whose needs are not 

met in the traditional school. This setting is 

quite different from the traditional high school. 

The school’s most important aspects are its 

flexibility and personalized self-paced courses. 

Students may also choose from a variety of 

career and technology courses. 

The Behavior Transition Center provides an 

alternative education center for students who 

have exhibited severe behaviors. The BTC 

provides an opportunity for students who have 

been removed from a regular educational 

setting to achieve academically, to learn 

behavioral and interpersonal skills, and to 

develop the self-control necessary for them to 

function more effectively both as students and 

as members of this community. 

Leadership for the GISD Board of Trustees 

includes a seven-member Board of Trustees. 

Ron Mayfield became the superintendent of 

Granbury ISD in May 2009. He succeeded 

William Harris, who led the district from 1996- 

2009. Previous superintendents include Dr. 

Gwyn Boyter, Jerry Christian, and James Wann. 

For more information about the exciting 

events taking place in the Granbury ISD, visit 

www.granburyisd.org. 


FIRST 

NATIONAL 

BANK OF 

GRANBURY 

The First National Bank of Granbury was 

established in 1887 and was Hood County’s first 

bank. Today, Hood County’s oldest bank is very 

proud of its rich local heritage. 

First National began as a private banking and 

real estate company started in 1883 by John 

Traylor and Dan Cogdell, two Texas pioneers. 

Traylor and Cogdell built an Italiante 

Victorian structure on the northwest corner of 

the Granbury courthouse square to house the 

private banking business. First National has 

preserved their historic building and the main 

bank is still located there. 

Traylor and Cogdell’s business boomed and 

the partners, along with early frontier merchants 

E. A. Hannaford, Jess Baker, and James H. Doyle, 

chartered the bank as the First National Bank of 

Granbury in 1887. 

The Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad 

arrived in Granbury that same year. Local 

settlers were joyous about their community’s 

strong growth. In March 1887 the Granbury 

Graphic wrote, “A bank, a bridge, a railroad and 

a new college the all absorbing enterprises just 

now. On with the boom and a good rain.” 

First National grew steadily with the 

community over the years, and in 1928, 

assumed the accounts of Granbury’s City 

National Bank. 

From the 1950s to the 1970s, the bank’s 

strong growth resulted in expansion from the 

original corner building on the Granbury 

downtown courthouse square to the two 

historic buildings next door. 

A convenient seven-lane motor bank was 

built north of the historic downtown location. 

The bank now has branches on Highway 377 

East, Highway 144 South, Acton, Kroger, Pecan 

Plantation, and the newest at Tolar. FNB 

Mortgage Group is located on Highway 377 to 

serve customers. 

The bank’s employees and directors have 

years of banking experience and are active 

in schools, government, and community 

organizations. First National believes in serving 

the community that has supported the bank for 

so many years. 

First National now has $326 million in assets, 

and is growing stronger. First National’s employees 

work hard to make banking convenient for 

customers, and are proud of the bank’s long legacy 

of friendly, personal hometown service. 

Additional information is available on the 

Internet at www.fnbgranbury.com. 

❖ 

Below: First National Bank main 

office is located at 101 East Bridge on 

the Historic Granbury Square. 


CHRIS THOMAS 

CUSTOM 

HOMES, INC. 

For more than twenty years, the name Chris 

Thomas has been synonymous with fine 

homebuilding in the Lake Granbury area. Chris 

grew up in the nearby community of Lipan and 

began his career early on as a framer and 

eventually worked with 5-T Enterprises before 

launching his own company, Chris Thomas 

Custom Homes, Inc., in 1990. 

With the rise in consumer confidence of late, 

Granbury’s seen a steady growth not only in 

home sizes, but in home prices. In the mid- 

1990s, the typical house plans changed from the 

more modest family homes and lakeside 

vacation homes that had once been the norm to 

four bedroom homes with three car garages 

even giving way to multimillion dollar dream 

homes. Chris has remained in the forefront of 

this growth and demand as evidenced by one 

home he recently built that included its own 

bowling alley! However, Chris also knows that 

the bulk of people moving to the Lake Granbury 

area are looking for casual elegance where they 

can entertain friends and family in spacious 

kitchens and eating areas, large gathering areas 

and extra bedrooms. 

Another facet of Chris Thomas’ homes is the fact 

that they are designed with the “view” in mind and 

are often complete with magnificent swimming 

pools, outdoor kitchens, and the occasional boat 

deck. He realizes that to accommodate the 

lakefront and golf course communities in the 

Granbury area, the back of the homes needs to be 

just as breathtaking as the front. In Granbury, the 

back of the house is where people spend most of 

their time and the rear elevation is seen just as often 

by passers by as the front elevation. 

With the continuing influx of buyers from 

the Dallas/Fort Worth area, as well as from 


around the country, it is no surprise that Chris 

Thomas Custom Homes, Inc., has prospered. 

Even with intense competition in the area today, 

the company’s standing as one of the area’s most 

talented builders is difficult to challenge. 

Chris, himself, would say that his success is 

due primarily to his team’s ability to satisfy 

customers. With the delivery of outstanding 

product and unparalleled service, he has earned 

not only referrals, but repeat homebuilding 

clients over the years. He has even ventured 

into light commercial building jobs at the 

request of customers. While Chris remains 

involved in every job, he is assisted by a staff of 

two foremen, an office manager, an estimator 

and bookkeeper. 

Chris’ emphasis on the value of continuing 

builder education has set an example for 

his peers in the industry. He continues to 

maintain membership with the Hood County 

Builders Association, the Greater Fort Worth 

Builders Association, and the Certified Master 

Builders Corporation. He believes that the 

primary benefit of membership with the 

organizations is keeping current on all codes 

and standards that larger cities mandate. 

Perhaps the greatest component of Chris 

Thomas’ story is that while so many others are 

just coming to discover the wonderful lifestyle 

that exists in and around Lake Granbury, he has 

enjoyed the experience all his life. Chris feels 

fortunate to have built a successful business and 

great life for his family, including his wife Susan 

and children Amber, Amanda, Jordan and Scott, 

in the area he so deeply treasures. 

For more information about Chris Thomas 

Custom Homes, you can visit their website at 

www.christhomashomes.com or contact them by 

email at cthomashms@frontierbroadband.com. 


1906 

POMEGRANATE 

HOUSE 

❖ 

Above: The Ratliff grandchildren 

happily pause for a photograph in 

front of the sleeping porch (now a 

living room and office). 

Below: Since 1996 the house on West 

Pearl has been the 1906 Pomegranate 

House (named for the trees still 

providing fruit), a thriving bed and 

breakfast that offers a charming, 

serene location for a romantic 

honeymoon or anniversary; a quiet 

place away from the city for rest and 

relaxation; or a warm, welcoming 

location for a family reunion or a 

“girls’ getaway” weekend. 

In the same way that when a 

child is born one does not know 

what the future will hold; the man 

who builds a house has no idea 

what will become of that house. The 

hope is that generations of family 

will live there, be nurtured there, 

and celebrate holidays and special 

events, like birthdays, anniversaries 

and weddings. 

So the builder begins with a 

good foundation and sturdy materials, 

like cypress siding, to resist termites, and twoby-six 

interior framing. He plants ten plus 

acres of pecan trees to shade and maybe a 

few pomegranate trees, both providing 

autumn treats. Then this homebuilder adds 

gables, curlicues, spindles and petrified wood 

porch foundations to make it look festive 

and welcoming. 

One can only guess that those thoughts 

stirred in the mind of James and Ada Ratliff 

when they built a home for their family at 

1002 West Pearl Street in Granbury in 1906. 

James (J. N.) was a mechanic, working on 

the early automobiles in Granbury, and he 

loved his family. A treasured collection of 

photographs proudly shows his son, James 

Naulon Ratliff, Jr., in his Merchant Marine 

uniform and half a dozen sweet grandchildren 

gathered in front of the sun porch. And while the 

house itself has gone on to a different purpose 

than the original, the grandchildren and greatgrandchildren 

are still a close-knit, loving family. 

It is nice to think that one hundred years 

later, the house is still a place of love, nurturing, 

and special occasions. In September of 2006, 

Pomegranate House celebrated her one 

hundredth birthday, complete with party, ice 

cream and cake. Her birthday gift was a lovely 

new coat of paint and an array of new flowers in 

the garden. Among the party guests were James 


and Ada’s granddaughters, their children, and 

their great-grandchildren. 

After having been divided into a duplex 

in the early 1970s, the house sat empty 

for several years. Around 1992, David and 

Sarah Foster saw its potential, bought it, did some 

large-scale restoration (for example dropping 

fourteen foot ceilings to install ductwork for 

central heat and air conditioning) and turned it 

into a bed and breakfast. When the Fosters sought 

a new adventure, they sold Pomegranate House to 

Billie and Alden Moore. Billie used her passion for 

pink, teapots and all things Victorian to change 

the entire house into a storybook setting. Alden’s 

vision was to turn the almost barren area under 

the 300 year-old live oak trees into a peaceful 

garden, complete with a Koi pond. Together they 

added two cozy cottages. 

In 2005, as much as they loved being 

host and hostess, the Moores decided they 

needed a new creative outlet, and found 

enthusiastic new owners in Tommy and 

Betty Potts. They were returning to Texas 

to be near children and grandchildren and 

wanted a place to do what they do best— 

entertain others and offer what they call, 

“abundant hospitality.” 

They built a new cottage, the Carriage 

House, bringing the total number of rooms to 

five. Check-in takes place in the kitchen, with 

the smell of fresh-baked cookies in the air. 

Breakfast at Pomegranate House is bountiful, 

and includes homemade items such as waffle 

boats filled with grilled peaches; ham, cheese 

and New Mexico green chile soufflé; ovenroasted 

Yukon gold potatoes with sweet cubanel 

peppers from the garden; and Texas-style 

biscuits and sausage gravy. 

Six different porches and a tree-shaded patio 

with many seating areas invite folks to sit a spell 

and unwind. Folks have been doing that for 

over one hundred years and hopefully they can 

for another one hundred. 

Yes, the Pomegranate House has certainly 

seen a lot in her time and it is fun to 

celebrate her life. For more information about 

this treasured home and for reservations, 

visit www.pomhouse.com. 

❖ 

Above: 1906 Pomegranate House, the 

perfect place for a peaceful retreat in 

Hood County, Texas. 

Below: This photo, taken in the 1940s, 

shows two gentlemen—the builder, 

James Ratliff (J. N.) and his son, 

James Naulon, Jr.,—standing in front 

of the house. 


G & G 

ELECTRIC 

SERVICE 

COMPANY, INC. 

❖ 

Above: The company’s current 

partners. Front row (from left to 

right): Rebecca “Becki” Taylor, Shelley 

Taylor holding Cheyenne Taylor, 

Rachel Garrett, and Diane Garrett. 

Back row (from left to righ): Terry L. 

Taylor, J. W. Taylor, Macky Garrett, 

and Danny Garrett. 

Below: The company’s first offices, 

built in 1987. 

G & G Electric Service Company, Inc., is an 

electrical contractor providing electrical services 

from small to multimillion-dollar projects, 

including service work, residential, commercial 

and industrial electrical installations. 

One of the partners of G & G Electric Service 

Company, Inc., John W. Gibbs, had purchased 

property on Lake Granbury in 1984 with the 

intent of retiring to Lake Granbury a few years 

later. Due to a slowdown of the economy in 

Carlsbad, New Mexico, John and his wife, P. J., 

moved to Granbury, Texas in 1986. 

P.J.’s son, Danny Garrett, and his wife, Diane, 

were looking for a good place to settle down and 

raise their family and decided to go into business 

for themselves. John had been in the electrical 

business since the age of eighteen, but never for 

himself, and Danny had worked in the electrical 

trade on and off since high school. On “a wing 

and a prayer,” they bought some property, 

parked a construction officer/trailer on the lot, 

and went into business on July 29, 1986. 

John had held a New Mexico Electrical 

License since 1962, but he needed to get a local 

Texas Master License before he could bid jobs 

inside any city limits. In the meantime, the only 

work G & G Electric Service Company, Inc., 

could do was in the surrounding counties, which 

included schools, commercial, residential, and 

service work. John obtained his Masters License 

in 1987. Danny followed by obtaining his Master 

License in 1989. 

The company’s first major job was a school in 

Crowley, Texas. John and Danny would work 

there all day and P. J. ran the office and took the 

calls. John and Danny would then return to the 

office about 3:00 p.m. and return local calls. 

In 1987, G & G Electric Service Company, 

Inc., moved into the building that they have 

occupied for over twenty years located at 3805 

Weatherford Highway. With four offices and a 

warehouse, the company has grown from two 


men to thirty-nine, one truck to nineteen, and 

one part-time to four full-time office staff. 

The company employs 1 Electrical Engineer, 

1 Electrical Inspector, 4 Licensed Master 

Electricians, 11 Licensed Journeyman Electricians, 

and 25 Licensed Apprentice Electricians. 

Additions to the building were made in 1997 and 

1998 to accommodate the growth in business. 

G & G Electric Service Company, Inc., has 

always encouraged its employees to get their 

Journeyman Licenses, even before the State of 

Texas made it a requirement. The company 

paid for classes for their employees to prepare 

them to take the necessary exams to get their 

Journeyman Licenses. As a result of their 

training and obtaining licenses, the company 

has had three employees go into business 

for themselves. 

In June of 1991, Neal Kilcrease was hired 

and currently acts as the Residential Foreman 

supervising six crews. Diane Garrett joined the 

company full time in November of 1994 to help 

in the office and brought the company into the 

computer age. In 1996, long-time friend Terry L. 

Taylor and his wife, Rebecca “Becki” Taylor, were 

welcomed as additional partners. In 2000, Terry 

and Becki’s son, J. W., joined the company full 

time after graduating from New Mexico State 

University. In 2001, Macky, Danny and Diane’s 

son, joined the company full time after he 

graduated from Howard Payne University. In 

2006, Macky’s future wife, Rachel Proctor, and 

Shelley Taylor, J. W.’s wife, joined the office staff 

to help fill the void that would be left when John 

and P. J. retired on February 1, 2007. 

G & G Electric Service Company, Inc., is a 

proud supporter of the Granbury Area Chamber 

of Commerce, the annual General Granbury 

Birthday Celebration, the Fourth of July Parade, 

the Hood County Builders Association Tour of 

Homes and the Hood County Merchants 

Association Christmas Parade of Lights. 

Active as members of the Hood County 

Builders Association and the City of Granbury 

Electrical Board, G & G Electric Service 

Company, Inc., also helps with the Mission 

Granbury Emergency Assistance Network; a 

community group consisting of representatives 

from local churches and community 

organizations working together to help those 

in need. 

❖ 

Above: A shot of the business as it 

appears today. 

Below: P. J. and John Gibbs, 

retired partners. 


❖ 

THE DOYLE 

AGENCY, INC. 

Above: The Doyle Agency parade 

entry, 1971. Granbury City 

Centennial 1871-1971. 

Below: Celebrating one hundred 

years, 1899-1999, on December 10, 

1999. Shown are (from left to right) 

Tim Hayworth, Sue Strickland, 

Johnnie Couch, President Patsy 

Hewlett, Jim Hewlett (retired), and 

Denna Jones. Not pictured 

Nicole Adair. 

The Doyle Agency, Inc., has a rich history. 

The company’s founder, Ed Doyle, was a 

junior at Texas A&M in 1898 when he 

went to work selling insurance for D.C. Cogdell, 

a former president of First National Bank in 

Granbury who had begun selling insurance 

in the area in 1895. Doyle’s income that 

summer was $300 and Cogdell graciously 

purchased a horse and buggy for him to use, 

and supposedly told Doyle he could “have” the 

business when he graduated. Doyle returned to 

Granbury and bought the business in 1899 and 

named it “The Doyle Agency.” His motto: “Better 

To Have It and Not Need It Than Need It and 

Not Have It.” 

Doyle’s brother in law, L. D. Shoemaker, 

purchased the agency in 1921 and became 

popular for giving away “diary hardback books” 

in appreciation of his customers. W. E. “Buddy” 

Guest then purchased the agency in 1941 

for $8,000. 

In 1944, Guest sold the agency to Courts K. 

Cleveland, Sr. Along with his wife, Olga, Courts 

operated the business until 1950. The couple 

offered cardboard fans, very popular during the 

time of no air conditioners, mirrors and pencils 

to happy customers. Later, Cleveland sold the 

agency to Albert Porter and Jack Arrington, who 

ran the business along with a Real Estate and 

Abstract business. Then, in 1960, Felix Harris 

Company of Dallas bought the agency. 

In 1962 the business was purchased by Jack 

and Donna Wortham, combining it with the 

Wortham General Insurance Agency. After 

attempting for a very short time to call the 

agency Wortham-Doyle, the Worthams retained 

the original name, The Doyle Agency. 

Jack soon became friends with fellow 

insurance agent and Mason, James “Jim” 

Hewlett, who owned an insurance agency in 

Glen Rose. Jack often dropped by the office 

and enjoyed visiting with Jim. After Wortham’s 

death in 1970, Jim, a graduate of Texas Tech 

in Lubbock, purchased half interest in the 

agency in 1971 and formed a partnership 

with Donna. 

In 1974, Jim purchased Donna’s interest 

and became the agency’s sole owner before 

marrying Patsy Vaughn Hayworth and 

incorporating the agency in 1975. During the 


early years of the Granbury agency, Jim 

continued to run the agency in Glen Rose and 

began a tradition of inviting company special 

agents, managers, underwriters, and claims 

adjusters to a barbeque at his ranch on the 

Brazos River. 

Today, The Doyle Agency, Inc., offers 

personalized insurance service to meet all 

the insurance needs with competitive rates, 

coverages and services and supplies via an 

honest, friendly and experienced staff of six 

local-born and raised people with over 165 

years of combined experience. Jim and Pasty 

lead an outstanding and knowledgeable group 

of employees including Sue Strickland, Denna 

Jones, Johnnie Couch, Tim Hayworth, and 

Nicole Adair. 

The Doyle Agency, Inc., has always 

been located on or near the square. Customers 

have “dropped in” sometimes to just visit 

or have a cup of coffee. The agency has 

been an unofficial information site and over the 

years hundreds of Granbury visitors have 

stopped in for help with a break-down, 

assistance in retrieving keys from locked cars, 

and directions. 

In the early days, sales were often made by 

handshake, with no premium paid until the 

policy was delivered, and very little personal 

information required. Knowing most everyone 

on a personal basis, a policy could by typed 

and ready the same day or the next. Today, 

it takes much more information, payment up 

front, and several weeks to deliver the 

policy, but that has not kept The Doyle 

Agency from continuing its history of personal 

service to loyal customers. Three different 

calendars, weekly desk and pocket diaries 

and pens have always been available. When 

Jim was active in the business, he personally 

delivered calendars and diary books to 

many customers. 

Jim and Patsy are members of the Chamber 

of Commerce, donated land for the first five 

“Habitat for Humanity” houses in Granbury 

and for a park on East Bridge Street, which 

will be named “Hewlett Park” and have 

contributed to several community charitable 

organizations, churches, schools, VFD, research 

and fraternal organizations. 

The Doyle Agency, Inc., is located at 108 East 

Houston Street in Granbury. 

❖ 

Above: The Doyle Agency. Standing 

(from left to right): Patsy Hayworth, 

Sue Strickland and Patsy Price. 

Seated: Former owners Jack and 

Donna Wortham. 

Bottom, left: The former owners 

during Hood County Centennial, 

1966. Albert Porter 1950-1960 and 

Jack Wortham 1962-1970. 

Bottom, right: The Doyle Agency’s 

sign in early 1950s at 108 South 

Houston Street in Granbury. 


❖ 

PRUITT 

PLUMBING & 

REPAIR 

Below: Herman Pruitt stands outside 

the business in 1981. 

It all began in 1972 in Granbury, Texas, when 

Herman Pruitt opened his own plumbing 

business, Herman Pruitt Co., Inc., better known 

as Pruitt Plumbing & Repair. He worked on his 

own for about five years before hiring his first 

employee, Dale Holderness, in 1977. The men 

would work together for the next fifteen years. 

Times were tough in the beginning— 

working twelve- to sixteen- hour days up to six 

days a week—just to make ends meet. All the 

hard work paid off though, and the company 

grew with a large customer base. Herman soon 

hired more than sixteen employees and went 

from a one-truck business to a fleet of ten 

work trucks. 

Pruitt’s first place of business was out of 

Herman’s garage. From there, he moved into a 

building downtown on Pearl Street, which is 

next to what is known now as Martin’s Office 

Supply. As the company grew, he moved it into 

a portion of the building where Arrow Feed and 

Ranch now resides and stayed there until 1978, 

when he built his current location at 200 Kings 

Plaza. Pruitt Plumbing remained there in a small 

two office building for over twenty-eight years 

until the group recently remodeled into a large 

four office building. 

Herman was involved in the Hood County 

Jaycees working for the community. With six 

children, he and his wife were always involved 

in little league baseball. He has also been very 

supportive of the Hood County Livestock 

Raisers in helping the children in the Hood 

County 4-H and FFA. 

There are many who were instrumental in the 

beginning of the business and Herman’s growth, 

and he is quick to mention each one of them. A 

key individual in his success is Bill Neighbors, 

Sr. Neighbors hired Herman in 1969 and taught 

him all the basics of plumbing. Herman worked 

for him for the next three years before going 

out on his own. Bill taught Herman the 

fundamentals of a good work ethic and what 

working hard really means. 

Jim Clements was vital in helping Herman 

pass his plumbing test to become a licensed 

plumber in 1972; he will always be grateful to 

Jim for his time and help. 

Another man who played a large role in 

getting Herman started was J.V. Durant, owner 

of Durant Chevrolet. J.V. helped him purchase 

his first work truck and loaned him money to 

start his first plumbing job. Due to his trust, 

Herman was truly able to begin his business in 


Herman’s six children and wife have all been 

instrumental in the business. His three boys 

have all worked there—the oldest son, Russell, 

began working when he was seven years old 

and ultimately studied for his Masters License 

in plumbing and electrical, working with his 

dad for over twenty-five years. 

Michael worked for Herman for about ten 

years. Having received his Masters License in 

plumbing, Michael has now started his own 

home-based plumbing business. 

Heath, Herman’s youngest boy, worked in 

the business during high school. He is now a 

successful employee with Furgeson Enterprise. 

Herman’s three daughters, Heather, Michelle 

and Amanda and his wife, Carol, have all 

worked in the office keeping books and making 

appointments. Heather is a stay-at-home mom 


with three children. Michelle is currently 

working in the office and Herman’s youngest, 

Amanda, has a culinary degree and is the 

manager at Super Suppers in Franklin, 

Tennessee. Herman’s family is one of his greatest 

assets and has always been a strong support for 

him—especially his loving wife, Carol. 

Pruitt Plumbing & Repair has grown as the 

county has grown due to the many builders and 

customers that have supported Herman through 

the years, and he is truly grateful. Above all, 

though, he gives credit for his success to the 

Lord. He has blessed Herman and the entire 

Pruitt family so richly through the years. 

❖ 

Herman Pruitt in 2007. 


WAGON YARD 

❖ 

Above: The original wagon yard 

viewed from the southeast. Drawn by 

J. C. Campbell in 1975. 

Below: Northeast side of the square 

taken in 1912. Note the wagon yard 

building and long wagon shed behind 

H. L. Nutt Grocery. 

The site of today’s modern Wagon Yard 

actually began its historic life in Hood County a 

century ago in 1906. The original structure was 

built with native limestone and metal roofing. 

At that time the area was developed as a wagon 

yard where townspeople would park their 

horse-drawn wagons and conduct the days’ 

activities around Granbury’s square. Inside the 

wagon yard were skilled workmen who serviced 

wagons and buggies that were in need of repair. 

After the horse-drawn wagon era ended, the 

building housed Bond Feed Store for several 

years. The entrance was located on the south 

end of the building facing the Nutt House Hotel 

and Restaurant. They opened a loading dock 

along Crockett Street for trucks to pull in to 

load and unload their feed and ranch supplies. 

In the 1950s a wing was added to 

the original structure which expanded the 

size to nearly 9,000 square feet. This addition 

turned the rectangular structure into a large 

L-shaped building. After Bond Feed moved 

to the Thorp Spring Street location, the 

wagon yard building was used among other 

things as a restaurant, photography studio 

and shopping mall. 

In the 1970s Ray King opened a store 

in downtown Aplington, Iowa, where he 

sold drugstore merchandise, antiques and 

collectibles. In 1976, Ray purchased a 

Victorian house in Thorp Spring and moved 

his family from Aplington. He opened up a 

business in the St. Helen’s building on the 

south side of the square to house his 

antiques and collectibles. In 1977, Ray secured 

the original portion of the wagon yard building 

and opened Ray King’s Wagon Yard Antiques. 

In the early 1980s he took over the entire 

building and began to expand into a wider 

range of products. 

Throughout the early and mid 1980s the 

primary focus of the business was antiques. 


Frequent trips were made back to Iowa and 

surrounding states in search of quality antiques 

to resell. As antiques became increasingly 

more difficult to find, the company began 

expanding into ceiling fans, 

reproduction furniture and primitive 

items. As more employees were added 

to the staff of Wagon Yard, the product 

line has further expanded to include 

many lines of quality furniture for 

every room in the home or office, an 

array of lighting, home décor, 

paintings, tin ceilings, western 

furnishings, nostalgic music on CD, 

and much more. The lighting 

department at Wagon Yard supplies 

many of the area building contractors 

with ceiling fans and decorative 

lighting for new construction projects 

and remodels. 

Customers have come to admire 

and expect the company’s commitment 

to quality merchandise, friendly 

service and reasonable prices. Wagon 

Yard is also located on the web at 

www.wagonyard.com where it offers a 

close-up sample of the variety of 

merchandise currently available. 

❖ 

Above: Active owners left to right: 

Phil King, Jon King, Sam King, 

Aaron King. 

Below: Front room. 


FALL CREEK 

FARMS 

Mansfield native Cullen Crisp and his wife, 

Ashley, purchased Fall Creek Farms to fulfill the 

desire of leaving the city life behind. Today, that 

dream has been realized. Dotted with 1,400 

peach trees and a giant two-acre patch of more 

than 17,000 Chandler and Sequoia strawberry 

plants, Fall Creek Farms is a 165 acre familyoperated 

farm with sustainably grown fruits. 

Cullen’s passion for farming is not an accident. 

His great grandfather Dave Crisp produced 

fruits and vegetables in Hood County near 

Nubbin Ridge in the late 1800s. Fall Creek 

Farms is open to the public from late 

March through the summer months; it is 

recommended to call before visiting Fall Creek 

Farms to check availability of crops. 

Along with the abundant and fertile soil of 

the land has also come some unique history. 

Unbeknownst to them, the Crisps purchased 

the old home place of James Elijah and Fanny 

Massey, which included the original house, 

salvageable but in a state of disrepair. Since 

moving in, the Crisps have gotten to know the 

descendants of the original Masseys who still 

live in the area and they say that they have been 

nothing but helpful and have made great 

neighbors. Cullen decided to keep the house. 

Today, after much renovation, it has been made 

into The Carson House Bed & Breakfast at Fall 

Creek Farms. The peace and quiet of the 

country and the opportunity to pick your 

breakfast are just some of the amenities available 

to guests who stay. 

The fourteen acre peach orchard at Fall 

Creek Farms is one of the largest organic 

orchards in Texas, with over 800 trees 

producing delicious Harvester, Rustin Red, 

Sentinel and Alberta peaches. There is nothing 

like picking a warm peach off the tree in the 

middle of summer and eating it right then. 

Cullen and Ashley know that when you pick 

your own peaches direct from the tree, they 


always taste better, and because they are 

organically grown without the use of synthetic 

fertilizers, visitors will enjoy a treat that not only 

tastes delicious, but is healthy, too. Tours are 

also available to guests of the farm to enjoy 

riding the tractor-pulled trolley to choose the 

best tree. 

Picking strawberries at Fall Creek Farms 

has become a popular annual tradition with 

many North Texas families. The strawberry 

season typically begins April 1 and the 

berries are generally gone by early May. 

A basket full of strawberries right off the vine 

are better, fresher, and typically costs less 

than supermarket prices. Cullen chose specific 

varieties for his farm because he knew they 

were the kind most often used to make jams 

and jellies and that they tasted delicious, even 

without sugar. 

The strawberry crop started as a result of the 

Crisps wanting to share a crop not typically 

found in the area. Strawberries are often grown 

in California, but Crisp knew with a little work 

and learning, he could make them available in 

Texas. “Not only are they fun to pick and eat,” 

says Crisp, “they’re also fun to grow.” He also 

enjoys knowing that the children who come to 

Fall Creek Farms are learning that vegetables 

and fruits can, and do, come from local 

providers. Visiting Fall Creek Farms is a fun and 

affordable outing that is deliciously educational! 

Finally, visitors to Fall Creek Farms will 

find a collection of iron critters. Experience a 

real “Bug’s Life” as you pose for pictures with 

their giant beetle, grasshopper, ladybug, and 

scorpion. Visitors will also find Killer, the 

world’s largest armadillo, as well as Torch, the 

ever protecting dragon. 

For more information, visit Fall Creek Farms at 

www.upicktx.com or by phone at 817-910-9232. 


SILVERADO 

CUSTOM BOOT 

COMPANY 

❖ 

Above: Boot-bottom tear-off guy; Vern 

Mason, master bootmaker, formerly of 

M. L. Leddy’s Gerry Griffin; boss lady 

Traci Gilbert; Master Bootmaker 

Extraordinaire Dean Dawson; saddle 

guy and Master Float Builder Bobby 

Boaz; and Financial Advisor and Boot 

Jack Maker “Uncle” Bunn Butler. 

Below: Every Fourth of July, Dean 

puts together a float and a skit. 

Silverado customers participate in a 

shoot-out. Silverado Custom Boot 

Company has won Best in Parade for 

two years in a row. 

In 1953, Dean Dawson was five years old 

when his parents encouraged his interest in 

leather by exposing him to the Fort Worth 

Children’s Museum’s Leather Craft Class. Dean 

was too young for the class but one of the 

sponsors, Charles Tandy, recognized Dean’s 

talent and enthusiasm and invited him to come 

to his downtown store and let him pick out a 

box of leather and challenged Dean to show him 

what he could do. 

By the age of twelve, Dean was apprenticing 

under legendary saddle maker, Ed Chapman, 

in Lake Worth. After Chapman became sick, 

Dean apprenticed under renowned master boot 

and saddle maker, L. White, on the north side 

of Fort Worth and later went on to work 

with James “Doc” Ford, whose nickname was 

“The Beekeeper.” 

Dean had a leather shop catering to the 

hippie era in Dallas called the House of Taurus. 

Dean returned to Fort Worth in the mid-1970s 

and continued working in his shop behind 

his parent’s home on the west side of Fort 

Worth. Dean alternated between boot making 

and stunt work, including doubling for Dennis 

Weaver of the McCloud series and various other 

projects, such as Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show 

overseas for Monty Montana, Dale Evans, and 

Roy Rogers. 

In November of 2003, sparks flew when 

Dean met a fourth-generation Granbury girl, 

Traci Gilbert, at his shop in Fort Worth. Traci 

was fascinated with Dean’s amazing talent and 

superhuman strength. A few weeks later, Traci 

heard a rumor that Dean was about to throw in 

the towel because he just could not make a 

living making custom cowboy boots. Traci felt 

the closing of Dean’s business would be such a 

loss that she offered to buy out his business if he 

would teach her how to make boots. After much 

research, she found that most other great boot 

makers were very old and mostly men. Traci 


discovered not only that boot making was 

definitely a dying art but also that a lot of 

“custom” boots came from El Paso or Mexico 

and were mass-produced. 

Dean took Traci up on her offer and she 

began the search for the perfect location for the 

business. After looking for twelve months, she 

found the perfect place but it was way out of 

financial reach. The second-best place turned 

out to be the best choice and Silverado Custom 

Boot Company moved into Hugh Raupe’s old 

shop at 106 North Lambert Street, west of the 

square. Since 2004, Dean has been teaching 

Traci the craft of boot making and the business 

is flourishing. Customers come from as far away 

as Australia, Brazil and Canada and as close to 

home as Texas and Oklahoma. Traci is 

passionate about boot making, but her real 

talent is handling temperamental artists and 

working with customers. 

Silverado Custom Boot Company carries 

1800’s-style clothing, knives, saddles, and 

refurbished, used boots. Custom-made boots 

have about a one-year turnaround. Custom 

holsters, chaps or a “to-die-for” purse take about 

one week to complete. The shop also offers boot 

and shoe repair. Each custom boot is handcut 

out of the finest handpicked leathers and 

exotic hides and all work is done on 

the premises. Wooden pegs and a ten-penny 

nail are used for the shank and the 

welts are hand-sewn, while all the 

custom in-lays are done freehand—not with 

computerized machines! 

Future goals of the Silverado Custom 

Boot Company include continuing to strive 

to cater to custom orders, as well as 

assembling and training a great team of boot 

makers to make an in-house factory line 

boot with the same handmade quality of 

custom with the Silverado Custom Boot 

Company–Granbury, Texas label. 

The Silverado Custom Boot Company 

supports several local charities including 

Granbury Cancer Society, the Committee 

for Aged, Granbury Brigade, the local 

Chamber of Commerce, and the Granbury 

Historical Merchants, as well as the 

American Cancer Society. 

For more information about the 

Silverado Custom Boot Company, please call 

817-219-7209. 

❖ 

Above: Full Crocodile boots and belt. 

Left: Pink crocodile purse. 


PDX, INC. 

❖ 

Granbury “coffee club” where men, 

and sometimes women, gathered to 

solve problems, make some predictions 

and tell a few lies. c. 1975. 

COURTESY OF HOOD COUNTY NEWS. 

PDX, Inc., traces its history to the 

early 1970s, when Ken Hill, Sr., and 

his wife Bennie owned The Drug 

Store, a Granbury town-square 

pharmacy. After the couple purchased 

a computer for the store, 

Ken was asked by IBM to speak 

at their pharmacy computer conferences. 

A marketing campaign 

began for pharmacy computers 

across Texas and Ken traveled 

several days a week in an Air Stream 

to demonstrate them, while at the 

same time managing to operate his 

own pharmacy. 

The Hills also formed a company in 1978 

called The Hill Group (which later became 

National Health Systems). After great success, 

Ken’s territory expanded to include New 

Mexico, Louisiana, and Mississippi and in 1980, 

The Drug Store was sold and Ken began 

marketing pharmacy computers full-time. 

In 1983, Ken developed the flagship 

software company, pc I pharmacy systems, 

which was the first to use pharmacy software on 

a personal computer and a 10MB external hard 

drive. Today, pc I—still based in Granbury— 

continues to serve over 450 independent 

pharmacies throughout the United States. 

Another affiliate of National Health Systems, 

PDX, Inc., was established in 1985 to address 

the requirements of high volume prescription 

filling and the pressing demands of third party 

processing. Along with its counterpart, the 

PDX Host System, the PDX Pharmacy System 

ensured that the third party requirements of 

chain clients were in place alongside the 

essential clinical tasks. Sixty pharmacy chains— 

including drug stores, supermarkets, and mass 

merchants—and more than 350 independent 

pharmacies in the United States, representing 

over 11,000 stores, now use PDX software to fill, 

bill, and track prescriptions. PDX also serves 

two major Canadian pharmacy chains that use 

the PDX Pharmacy System in over 250 stores. 

Realizing the pharmacy’s need for 

standardized data, National Health Information 

Network (NHIN) was founded in 1991 to 

provide customers with up-to-date and 

standardized drug file and third party plan 

information. NHIN has also become an industry 

leader in submission and reconciliation service, 

keeping its customers well below the national 

average in receivables. NHIN is currently 

working with over 300 processors and 

processing over 10 million claims a month, with 

a 99.7 percent payment rate. 

Introduced in 1998, NHIN’s disease 

management software Care Rx enabled 

pharmacies to promote complete healthcare 

through a collaborative effort between the 

patient, pharmacist and physician. Based not 

only on drug therapy but also total lifestyle 

choices, Care Rx provides pharmacists with a 

sophisticated, yet intuitive way to help patients 

manage their diseases. 

During one of its busiest years ever—1999— 

NHS introduced a web engine that pharmacies 

could use to compete in the online prescription 

business and currently, over eight hundred 

stores use this e-Pharmacy technology. In 1999, 

NHS also introduced its version of Central Fill. 

The year 2001 saw the introduction of eRx 

Network, a new company founded by NHS and 

the Lyle family. This was an enhancement of the 

products that NHS had put into place as early 

as 1995. 

An affiliate of PDX, Inc., Rx.com Partners, LP, 

is located in Fort Worth, Texas and was 

acquired in December of 2001 to provide an 

integrated suite of technology and services 

to the pharmacy industry including retail-based 

mail order and traditional fill services; 

pharmacy workflow technology; an electronic, 

web-enabled healthcare record; centralized 

data files; MTM/pharmaceutical manufacturer 

performance programs; and electronic prescription 

technologies. 


In 2002, NHS released its Workflow and 

Alternate Site technologies to address 

increasing prescription volumes and limited 

staff availability. In 2005, NHS released its 

Electronic Healthcare Record technology 

and ePharmacy Web Engine enabling chains to 

offer a true chain-wide prescription profile. In 

2007, NHS released its next generation 

pharmacy system, the Enterprise Pharmacy 

System, which features an advanced, enterprisewide 

workflow engine, central patient record 

technology, and a revenue-based Medicare 

Therapy Management module. 

Many members of the Hill family have 

contributed to the wide success of each 

company over the years, including Ken Hill, Jr., 

who today serves as executive vice president 

and chief marketing officer; David Hill, R.Ph, 

Ken, Sr.’s brother, who joined the group in 1990 

to help the company launch its data center 

services and later became company president 

before retiring in 2006; and 

James “Smokey” Hill, R.Ph, who joined 

the company in 1991 to lend his experience 

in the development of the industry-standard 

drug file. Granbury residents Bea Allen and Jeff 

Farris have also served in various capacities, and 

today Bea serves as president of pc I and Jeff 

serves as PDX president. Ken and Bennie Hill 

still remain active in the company with Ken 

serving as CEO and Bennie serving as Vice 

President of Administration. 

For over twenty years, National Health 

Systems and its affiliates have maintained a 

strong commitment to the pharmacy industry 

and patient healthcare business by offering a 

completely integrated, single-source strategy 

that yields optimal efficiency, profitability, and 

patient care and convenience. 

Please visit www.pdxinc.com, www.rx.com 

or www.pclsystems.com for more information 

about this historic company. 


HISTORIC NUTT 

HOUSE HOTEL 

Whether it is reliving the early boom days of 

this grand Texas town, enjoying a romantic 

weekend with that someone special surrounded 

by the ambiance of a bygone era, or discovering 

just the right place to hold that long awaited 

reunion or small group retreat, a historic trip back 

in time awaits guests of the Nutt House Hotel on 

the square in downtown Granbury. 

The small seven-suite hotel has a long history 

in the accommodation and lodging business and 

has been in use as a lodging facility continuously 

since 1919. It was established when two blind 

brothers, Jesse and Jacob Nutt, established their 

small mercantile business in 1866. David Lee 

Nutt was the younger brother of Jake and Jesse 

and served as their “eyes” in the mercantile store 

from the time he was twelve. In 1879, David and 

his wife built a house that doubled as a hotel 

since the suppliers of Nutt’s merchandise had no 

other place to spend the night when visiting 

Granbury on business. 

By the 1890s, the years of endless visitors to 

the Nutt home had begun to wear thin with Mrs. 

Nutt, so the brothers developed plans for a “new” 

stone building which was large enough to house a 

hotel for salesmen and other travelers on the 

second floor while providing the mercantile store 

with larger facilities downstairs. The current 

hand-hewn stone building known as the Nutt 

House Hotel was completed in 1893 and 

remained in the Nutt family until 2002. 

In the 1960s it was inherited by Mary 

Lou Watkins, a descendent of the original 

Nutt brothers. Mary Lou and several others 

began a revitalization effort that included 

the historic hotel as well as the entire downtown 

area of Granbury. Keeping the old 

boarding house approach of fourteen rooms 

sharing two baths upstairs, and 

opening a home-style cooking 

restaurant downstairs, Mary Lou 

and the Historic Nutt House 

Hotel and Restaurant became a 

Granbury institution! In 1968 the 

Texas State Historical Society 

named the Nutt House a historical 

and cultural landmark. 

Declining health forced Mary 

Lou to close the restaurant in 

1998, and after her death the 

hotel was sold in 2002. $250,000 

later, the grand old lady reopened 

with seven luxurious suites, 

Victorian-era antiques, and elegant 

private baths. A reconfigured 

downstairs provided space for a 

larger restaurant with a full bar, 

complete with rustic décor, and a 

hotel office and reception area. 

In October 2006, ownership of 

the Nutt House came home to 

Granbury, when a group of local 

investors formed RLJ Enterprises 

and purchased the property. Today, 

whether it is a small family wedding, 

a honeymoon or romantic getaway, a 

business trip or group retreat, service 

and a big Granbury welcome are at 

home in a historic and luxurious 

setting of the Nutt House Hotel. 


Shakespeare, Defoe, Twain, Chaucer. 

For more than forty-six years, from the 

1880s to the 1930s, these literary greats 

lined the walls of the historic E. A. 

Hannaford building on the Granbury 

Square. Now they have returned. 

Books on the Square was established 

in the mid 1970s and was purchased in 

the early 1980s by former schoolteacher 

Dee Gormley, who successfully 

ran the store for over twenty years and 

sold it in 2001. The shop’s new owners 

Scott and Victoria Young had the 

business for two years before it was 

purchased by Melinda Ray, a long-time 

employee of the Granbury school 

system, in June of 2003. Throughout its 

history, the store was located at 124 

North Houston Street, now the location 

of Brazos Moon Antiques. In 2005, 

Melinda purchased the E. A. Hannaford 

building two doors down and Books on 

the Square moved into the building 

built by pharmacist E. A. Hannaford to 

house his drug and bookstore. This 

brings full circle the story of the 

proud limestone structure so long a 

part of the northwest corner of the 

Granbury square. 

Melinda feels a great sense of 

connection with the building’s original 

owner. Hannaford was not only a 

pioneer and entrepreneur, but also was 

a long-time Granbury school board 

member and supporter of higher 

education, who took great pride in 

providing books for students of 

Granbury College and the local 

schools. Today, Books on the Square 

remains a landmark Granbury shop, 

while the upstairs of the building was 

remodeled and the grand opening of 

The M&R Book Nook Bed and 

Breakfast was held in 2006. 

“It was very exciting to be able to 

purchase and restore this piece of 

Granbury history,” Ray says. “The idea 

that we are returning this building to at 

least a portion of its original use 

makes me feel that this is where we are 

supposed to be.” 

BOOKS ON 

THE SQUARE 


GRANBURY 

CHAMBER OF 

COMMERCE 

CITY OF 

GRANBURY 

❖ 

Above: Lake Granbury and 

Harbor Lakes. 

COURTESY OF ANDY RASH PHOTOGRAPHY. 

Below: Granbury Live Musical 

Theater on the Historic Square. 

COURTESY OF LORI WOEHL PHOTOGRAPHY. 

GRANBURY CHAMBER OF 

COMMERCE 

Granbury, Texas, is simply a great place to 

live. It is a place where hometown values, 

community spirit and humanitarian efforts 

are alive and well. And the Granbury Chamber 

of Commerce and its 900 plus members are 

the link to that vibrant and ever-growing 

community in Granbury and Hood County. 

Chamber committees and task forces tackle 

varied challenges such as business retention 

and expansion, environment and watershed, 

education/workforce development, government 

affairs, transportation, and special events. 

The Chamber’s volunteer Ambassadors assist 

in every chamber event and work closely 

with the membership director to conduct 

groundbreakings, ribbon cuttings and new 

member visits. 

The Granbury and Hood County area 

continues to grow at four to six percent 

each year, and the Chamber’s large volunteer 

membership of businesses and individuals 

leads the economic growth and prosperity 

of Granbury. The Chamber provides excellent 

opportunities to help members develop a solid 

customer base, engage local resources, and 

enhance name recognition. 

For more information about the Granbury 

Chamber of Commerce, visit them on the web at 

www.granburychamber.com. 

often referred to as the NAFTA Highway. 

Nestled around Lake Granbury, which was 

created in 1969 by damming the Brazos River, 

the city’s unique hometown atmosphere offers 

a dichotomy of both historic attractions and 

present day accommodations and shopping. 

A riverboat, drive-in theater, musical theater 

productions, wineries and bed and breakfast 

inns, and new hotels join Granbury citizens in 

making the area a special place to visit and a 

wonderful place to live. 

The historic town square remains in many 

ways just as it was in the late 1800s. The entire 

Square is registered as a historic landmark, 

including the 1886 Granbury Opera House. 

The City of Granbury warmly extends a 

special invitation to visit and see why Granbury 

has become known as “the Branson of Texas.” 

For more information visit the Convention 

and Visitors Bureau Granbury online at 

www.granbury.tx.com or stop by the 

Convention and Visitors Bureau Offices and 

Visitors Center located in the City Hall Complex 

at 116 West Bridge Street in Granbury. 

CITY OF GRANBURY 

Granbury is a vibrant and growing community 

located approximately thirty miles 

Southwest of Fort Worth on U.S. Highway 377, 


Established in 1983, Blushes is the oldest salon 

in Granbury, and the only Destination Salon/Spa 

in the area. Blushes was originally a dream of a 

fifteen year old girl, Jeanne, who was and still is 

passionate about skin care. Mary, Jeanne Thomas’s 

mother was just as passionate about quality 

service, which she felt was lacking in the salon 

industry in Granbury at that time. So together 

they set out to create an extraordinary dream for 

themselves and ultimately for their clients. 

Because of this dedication to exceptional 

service Blushes has been featured in nine 

magazines, on Good Morning Texas and was 

honored by the Ellen DeGeneres Show to style hair 

for the ladies on the “Road to Ellen” segment. 

This was possible because Jeanne was in the salon 

on Sunday making sure everything was ready for 

the next day and answered a call which turned 

out to be one of the producers of the Ellen 

DeGeneres Show. In order to take care of everyone, 

the stylists who do not usually work on Monday, 

came in, which helped make it a huge success. 

Of course none of this would be possible 

without its clients and without the dedication of all 

the professionals at Blushes. As Jeanne says, “This 

is not only my business but this is all our business. 

Blushes has always been my dream but now has 

become something more, something because it 

belongs to all of us.” Blushes is a sanctuary, a place 

of serenity away from all the chaos and stress in 

our daily lives, especially now in this environment 

of anxiety and financial insecurity. The team at 

Blushes is dedicated to taking care of our clients 

and making them feel relaxed and beautiful. 

Blushes offers all salon services, hair, nails, 

and pedicure treatments, facials, massages, body 

treatments, permanent make-up, waxing and 

products for detoxification and nutrition. We 

also have a luxury suite for guests that overlooks 

the countryside so they can spend the night or a 

weekend to get away from the hustle and bustle 

of everyday living. 

In 2008, Mary retired to pursue her dream of 

educating people all around the world about the 

impact of toxins in our bodies and how we can 

eliminate those toxins through nutrition. 

Jeanne, now forty with her own sixteen-yearold 

daughter, has now taken the reins of Blushes 

and her dream has come true. As the owner of 

Blushes, she is creating her own vision of an 

extraordinary salon/spa that adds amazing value 

to our clients and to our community. 

Blushes Spa/Salon is located at 5464 

Acton Highway in Granbury and on the Internet 

at www.blushessalon.com. 

BLUSHES 

SPA/SALON 

❖ 

Above: Jeanne Thomas. 

Below: Blushes, “luxurious city 

services…peaceful country 

atmosphere,” is located at 5464 Acton 

Highway in Granbury. 


FIRST BAPTIST 

CHURCH 

❖ 

First Baptist Church is located at 

1851 West Weatherford Highway 

in Granbury. 

First Baptist Church of Granbury has long 

been a refuge of hope where anyone can find “a 

place to belong.” Its broad history in the 

community has served as a testament to the 

people who have grown and served the church 

and its community for nearly 150 years. 

First formed as Bethlehem Church near 

Walnut Creek on May 28, 1860, the church’s 

first recorded pastor, J.N. Chandler, came to the 

area in 1866. He stayed on for the next sixteen 

years and would oversee the organization of the 

group’s first Sunday school in 1878. Around 

that time, the church was renamed Granbury 

Baptist Church. 

Soon the church was moved to the bank of 

the Brazos River near the city park on East Pearl 

Street, then to a small log house before the 

congregation agreed to move just up the hill to 

begin construction on a brush arbor and church 

at Stockton and East Pearl Street. 

Later, in 1905, Granbury Baptist Church 

moved to a property on North Houston and 

remained there until 1984, when Beulah 

Bedwell donated ten acres on Highway 51, not 

far from the North Houston location. 

A final name change came when the church 

was dedicated as First Baptist Church in 1947. 

In 1990 the church received approximately 

fourteen additional acres from Bedwell’s estate 

to provide space for worship, education, 

fellowship, and parking. The current location 

of First Baptist Church was completed in 1992, 

on the same donated property at 1851 

Weatherford Highway. 

With a heart for outreach, First Baptist 

Church provides weekly ministry to various 

Nursing facilities, a Bed & Breakfast Ministry, 

and several Neighborhood Mission Points 

located in Sky Harbor, Whippoorwill Bay, and 

Oak Trail Shores. 

In the twenty-first century, First Baptist 

Church remains a historic “place to belong.” It 

is a church striving to meet the spiritual needs 

of people in all of life’s varying circumstances 

and stages, in a manner that is exciting, relevant, 

and enjoyable. With a strong foundation of 

core values that include worship, discipleship, 

fellowship, prayer, ministry and evangelism, the 

church holds that each one leads to a gifted body 

that can, in turn, act as a unified community of 

servants stewarding the spiritual gifts. 

For more information about First Baptist 

Church, join them at any of their weekly services 

or visit them online at www.fbcgranbury.org. 


WAL-MART 

STORES, INC., 

STORE #371 

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Store #371, located at 

735 Highway 377 East celebrated its historic 

grand opening on September 29, 1981, after 

company founder Sam Walton was flying into 

Granbury to go hunting with a friend and noticed 

that the city did not include a place to shop. 

The original building was 55,000 square feet 

and was later expanded to 72,000 square feet. 

In 1989, just after completion of the 

expansion of the old store, a Re-Grand Opening 

was scheduled. The morning of the event, the 

store manager at the time, David Norman, 

received a call that Walton would be joining the 

celebration. After meeting with store associates, 

David led everyone in a Wal-Mart cheer and 

ended the meeting with a series of back flips. 

Before leaving, Walton spoke on the store’s 

intercom system and thanked the customers 

and associates for their time. It was truly a 

landmark event in the store’s history. 

In 1995 construction began on a new, 

201,789 square foot SuperCenter. In 2007 three 

of the store’s charter associates continue to work 

in the store: Shirley Marrs, Mary Huddle and 

Jo Ann Cochran. 

Several associates have been promoted into 

upper management positions, including David 

Norman, who was promoted to District Manager 

and currently serves as Regional Manager in 

the Southeast Division. Another associate, 

Nikki Bayne, was a Store Manager who became 

Regional Personnel Director before accepting a 

position as Market Manager in Plano, Texas. 

Historically, Granbury Wal-Mart has 

experienced many unique characteristics as it 

has transitioned into the twenty-first century. In 

the past, every item was hand-keyed into the 

registers and priced with a green sticker as it 

was unloaded off the trucks. Any credit card 

purchase over $50 had to be approved through 

the Customer Service Manager. All ordering was 

done manually and store hours were from 9 a.m. 

to 9 p.m. in the winter, 10 p.m. in the summer. 

The store was closed on Sunday. 

Today, the store remains open twenty-four 

hours a day, seven days a week, and is closed 

only on Christmas Day, while all inventory is 

streamlined and all communication takes place 

through computers. 

However, no matter how big or high-tech 

Wal-Mart of Granbury grows, it will still hold to 

Walton’s beliefs in excellent customer service. 


❖ 

Hood Tire Center is located at 1437 

North Plaza Drive. 

HOOD TIRE CENTER, INC. 

In December of 1980, Dave Callaway made 

the decision to open his business, Hood Tire 

Center, Inc., at a time when very few auto 

centers existed. He worked his business alone 

for the first few months helping customers 

with tires, alignments, auto repair, lube jobs, 

brakes, heat and air conditioning, and engine 

diagnostics, but quickly needed more help. 

Within the first year, his business grew so fast he 

added two more working bays to the building 

and added three more the following year. 

Located at 1437 North Plaza Drive at the 377 

Bypass, the 5400 square foot building that 

houses Hood Tire Center, Inc., has seen a lot 

of changes since opening over a quarter century 

ago. Where a grassy field once stood in front 

of the business, a shopping center now stands 

and despite all the new competition in the 

area, the clientele has remained faithful and 

continues to refer new customers. That’s no 

wonder since the mission statement of Hood 

Tire Center, Inc., is to strive to give their 

customers the best service and the best products 

with honesty and integrity. 

Currently, Hood Tire Center, Inc., employs 

five of the best qualified technicians to be 

found: the president and owner, Dave Callaway, 

Aaron Callaway, Jasper Hibden, Scott Shull and 

James Postalwait. Hood Tire Center, Inc., also 

sells some of the best-known brand tires on the 

market including BF Goodrich, Michelin, Toyo, 

and Uniroyal brands. Future plans include a 

completely redesigned building housing all the 

latest auto technology. 

Hood Tire Center, Inc., is proud to be a part 

of Granbury and is a proud supporter of Mission 

Granbury, Optimist Club, Lions Club, VFW Law 

Enforcement and Leadership of Granbury. 

For additional information on Hood Tire 

Center, visit www.hoodtire.com or stop by their 

convenient location in Granbury. 


As a young girl, Linda Powell Preston spent 

many hours on the north side of the Town Square 

in Granbury where her grandparents owned and 

operated Aiken Grocery during the 1950s. 

Her grandmother, “Nanny Aiken” as everyone 

called her, was the butcher and her grandfather, 

Cecil Aiken, made change and chatted with 

customers. Her father, Dr. Roy L. Brock, along 

with Dr. L. G. Ballard and later Dr. Robert Rawls, 

owned and operated the General Hospital. 

When Linda moved back to her hometown 

in 1979 with her husband, Dr. R. Lynn Powell, 

and two daughters, a business on Granbury’s 

square seemed like a perfect idea. Almost 

Heaven, Inc., was founded and celebrated its 

grand opening in June of 1980. 

The original shop and name was 

purchased from Kay Jackson Gill and 

was mostly a consignment shop with a 

handcrafted look. Linda also purchased the 

building, formerly Williams Dry Goods, from 

“Pig” Williams. 

After the untimely death of her husband in 

1991, Linda moved the shop to its current location 

at 118 West Houston after deciding that she 

wanted to live above her store. With a completed 

renovation, she moved into the beautiful loft 

apartment where she currently resides with her 

second husband and partner, Rodger Preston. 

Today the shop places an emphasis on home 

décor, lighting, art and collectibles with a casual 

feeling and a leaning toward handcrafted designs. 

Linda Powell Preston has given back to the 

community from which she draws such fond 

childhood memories. She has served as president 

of the Historic District Merchants Association and 

has been active on the Convention and Visitors 

and Chamber of Commerce as well as the 

hospital boards. She is also the co-founder of the 

Granbury Candlelight Tour and is a member of 

the Historic Presbyterian Church. 

For more information about Almost Heaven, 

Inc., visit them on the square in Granbury or by 

calling (817) 573-1591. 

ALMOST 

HEAVEN, INC. 

❖ 

Hood County’s Old-Fashioned Fourth 

of July Parade during the late 1980s. 



STRINGFELLOW’S 

CASUAL DINING 

Stringfellow’s Casual Dining opened its doors 

with a bang on the Fourth of July, 2003, and has 

become a well-known landmark for fine dining 

on the corner of Pearl and Houston. Owner 

Dianne Rawls Davis and her husband, Michael, 

opened the 100-seat restaurant complete with 

patio dining on the same day and in the same 

location that Dianne had opened her former 

business, Silver Gold Antiques, only thirteen 

years earlier. 

The restaurant is named after the original 

owner of the building, Martha Washington 

Stringfellow (1834-1914). She was an enterprising 

widow who had the building built as a boarding 

house and named it The Granbury House. 

Running a boarding house was a respectable 

business for a woman in the 1800s and she 

could make a decent woman’s living for herself 

and her three children. 

The building was designed by Stringfellow as 

a Mission-style native limestone building. When 

the remodeling was begun in 2002, Michael and 

Dianne did everything possible to preserve the 

natural effects of the building’s architecture. The 

native limestone walls were completely restored, 

as well as the rich color and wear patina of the 

original hardwood floors. 

The ground floor, where Stringfellow’s is 

located, served as the family quarters, with four 

fireplaces to warm the family when the cold 

north wind swept across the town square. The 

upper floor where Michael and Dianne maintain 

living quarters was the area originally 

designated for boarders. Judging from the 

fact that there are only two fireplaces upstairs, 

Dianne assumes there were probably only 

two dormitory style rooms there, one for males 

and the other for females. Each room might 

have held as many as three to five beds for 

boarders on each side. The fireplace on the 

northwest side of the big room keeps Michael 

and Dianne’s apartment cozy even on the coldest 

of nights. 

In 1874 the widow Stringfellow married 

Joseph W. Anderson, a local builder who had 

erected the building. Anderson was a stone 

mason and partner in a lumber mill. He 

constructed many of Granbury’s churches, 

homes, and Victorian commercial buildings. 

Stringfellow, a “no-nonsense” lady, would 

probably cringe at the notion that her boarding 

house was used down through the years 

as a hotel, a car repair shop, a store for 

collectibles, and most recently, a restaurant. 

Legend has it that the building was once as a 

house of ill repute! 

Because of the great antique back bar 

reported to have been in place since the turn of 

the century, the new décor has turned rather 

“English casual.” Michael and Dianne have 

chosen warm colors, comfortable seating, 

natural textures, and some carefully placed 

antiques to create an attractive, inviting 

atmosphere with a feeling of history. 

The tree shaded courtyard behind the 

building has a bubbling fountain that makes a 

wonderful atmosphere for outdoor dining as the 

evenings cool and the daylight surrenders to 

subtle lighting and intimate conversation. The 

courtyard is a great place for a casual gathering 

with friends. 

Stringfellow’s good food and hospitality were 

born out of the years Michael and Dianne owned 

and operated the Merry Heart Tearoom, just 

across the square. They hold to Proverbs 11:23, 

“…he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.” 

Several of the couple’s favorite dishes have made 

their way from the tearoom to Stringfellow’s, 

including the famous Toasties and the Merry 

Heart Cherry Crisp and Chocolate Fudge Pie. 

New to the menu are starters with “south of the 

border” flair and entrees that feature Angus beef, 

shrimp and chicken. 

Open for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and 

Sunday lunch and dinner 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., 

Stringfellow’s invites visitors and locals alike to 

relax in the historic, warm setting. For reservations 

or information, please call 1-817-573-6262 or 

visit www.granburyrestaurants.com. 


In April of 1980, David and Claudia Southern 

bought the historic Smith-Savage House on North 

Thorp Springs Road to be used as a Community 

Home for folks with intellectual and developmental 

disabilities. Although there was opposition from 

the neighborhood, thanks to the Planning and 

Zoning Board Chairperson Jim Best (who had 

grown up at Mexia State School where his parents 

had worked and were provided housing) the city 

approved a one year special use permit. The Smith- 

Savage Home had been empty for years and had 

fallen into disrepair, as had the neighborhood, prior 

to this adaptive reuse of the property. A community 

home seemed ideal since the home had been a girls’ 

boarding facility when Mrs. Savage was the head of 

the Rationing Board during WWII. Restoration of 

the exterior of the building was completed in 1984, 

and a second residential building was built 

and dedicated by Speaker Jim Wright who, at 

the time, was the majority leader of the U.S. House 

of Representatives. 

Southern Concepts continues to grow and today 

serves over 150 folks in six counties. Its central 

offices are in two other historic houses—the Baker- 

Carmichael and Baker-Durham Homes—located 

near the square on East Pearl Street. 

Southern Concepts clients and employees are 

actively involved in community service. David 

Southern is in his twenty-fourth year on the 

Council, including fifteen years as mayor. Claudia 

served for seven years on the Granbury 

Independent School District Board of Trustees, 

including being elected as the first woman to be 

school board president. She also serves on the city 

of Granbury Historic Commission, and served as 

its Chair for part of that time. Southern Concepts 

Clients have assisted with the Meals on Wheels 

Program, as well as projects for the Granbury 

Chamber of Commerce, Granbury Convention 

and Visitors Bureau, helping at People Helping 

People, Boys and Girls Club, and Jacob’s Locker as 

well as others too numerous to mention. 

Southern Concepts, Inc., continues to make 

history as it serves its clients in the Granbury 

Area as an innovator in services for people with 

intellectual and developmental disabilities 

living and working in the community where we 

all belong. 

❖ 

SOUTHERN 

CONCEPTS, 

INC. 

A pen and ink drawing of the 

Smith-Savage Home by the late 

Jim Calhoun. The house is SCI’s 

first community home, serving 

eleven residents since 1980. The 

house is registered in the Texas 

Historical Registry. 


SPONSORS 

1906 Pomegranate House.............................................................................................................................................................98 

Almost Heaven, Inc. ...................................................................................................................................................................121 

Blushes Spa/Salon.......................................................................................................................................................................117 

Books on the Square...................................................................................................................................................................115 

Chris Thomas Custom Homes, Inc. ..............................................................................................................................................96 

Cleveland and Randle Families .....................................................................................................................................................84 

The Doyle Agency, Inc................................................................................................................................................................102 

Fall Creek Farms ........................................................................................................................................................................108 

First Baptist Church ...................................................................................................................................................................118 

First National Bank of Granbury...................................................................................................................................................95 

First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) ..............................................................................................................................................88 

G & G Electric Service Company, Inc. ........................................................................................................................................100 

Granbury Chamber of Commerce and City of Granbury.............................................................................................................116 

Granbury Independent School District .........................................................................................................................................92 

Historic Granbury Merchants Association.....................................................................................................................................83 

Historic Nutt House Hotel..........................................................................................................................................................114 

Hood Tire Center, Inc.................................................................................................................................................................120 

The Hooks Family........................................................................................................................................................................83 

Lake Granbury Medical Center.....................................................................................................................................................91 

PDX, Inc. ...................................................................................................................................................................................112 

Pruitt Plumbing & Repair...........................................................................................................................................................104 

ReMax Lake Granbury..................................................................................................................................................................83 

Silverado Custom Boot Company ...............................................................................................................................................110 

Southern Concepts, Inc. .............................................................................................................................................................123 

Stringfellow’s Casual Dining .......................................................................................................................................................122 

Tommy’s .......................................................................................................................................................................................83 

Wagon Yard................................................................................................................................................................................106 

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Store #371...............................................................................................................................................119 

\Water’s Edge Properties ...............................................................................................................................................................83 


ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

M ARY E STELLE G OTT S ALTARELLI 

Mary Saltarelli moved to Hood County from Maryland in 1976 with her husband, Joe. Mary’s parents, Jane and Dick Gott, who are 

descendants of Maryland colonists, instilled a love of history in Mary that she brought with her to North Central Texas. Captivated 

by Hood County’s fascinating past, Mary researched property histories and wrote applications for historical designations. Her 

applications resulted in six Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks, one Texas Site Marker, and one listing in the National Register of 

Historic Places. 

Mary served as chair of the Hood County Historical Commission and as a member of the city of Granbury Historic Preservation 

Commission for nine years. She also worked as the first director of Granbury’s Convention and Visitors Bureau and as Granbury’s 

historic preservation officer. Mary received a bachelor of arts degree in history from the University of Maryland and a master of arts 

degree in historic preservation from Goucher College in Baltimore. After serving as preservation program director for Historic Fort 

Worth, Inc., Mary is now working as Preserve Granbury’s consulting executive director. 

About the Author ✦ 125

For more information about the following publications or about publishing your own book, please call 

Historical Publishing Network at 800-749-9790 or visit www.lammertinc.com. 

Black Gold: The Story of Texas Oil & Gas 

Garland: A Contemporary History 

Historic Abilene: An Illustrated History 

Historic Alamance County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Albuquerque: An Illustrated History 

Historic Amarillo: An Illustrated History 

Historic Anchorage: An Illustrated History 

Historic Austin: An Illustrated History 

Historic Baldwin County: A Bicentennial History 

Historic Baton Rouge: An Illustrated History 

Historic Beaufort County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Beaumont: An Illustrated History 

Historic Bexar County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Birmingham: An Illustrated History 

Historic Brazoria County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Charlotte: 

An Illustrated History of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County 

Historic Cheyenne: A History of the Magic City 

Historic Clayton County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Comal County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Corpus Christi: An Illustrated History 

Historic DeKalb County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Denton County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Edmond: An Illustrated History 

Historic El Paso: An Illustrated History 

Historic Erie County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Fayette County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Fairbanks: An Illustrated History 

Historic Gainesville & Hall County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Gregg County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Hampton Roads: Where America Began 

Historic Hancock County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Henry County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Houston: An Illustrated History 

Historic Illinois: An Illustrated History 

Historic Kern County: 

An Illustrated History of Bakersfield and Kern County 

Historic Lafayette: 

An Illustrated History of Lafayette & Lafayette Parish 

Historic Laredo: 

An Illustrated History of Laredo & Webb County 

Historic Lee County: The Story of Fort Myers & Lee County 

Historic Louisiana: An Illustrated History 

Historic Midland: An Illustrated History 

Historic Montgomery County: 

An Illustrated History of Montgomery County, Texas 

Historic Ocala: The Story of Ocala & Marion County 

Historic Oklahoma: An Illustrated History 

Historic Oklahoma County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Omaha: 

An Illustrated History of Omaha and Douglas County 

Historic Orange County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Ouachita Parish: An Illustrated History 

Historic Paris and Lamar County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Pasadena: An Illustrated History 

Historic Passaic County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Pennsylvania An Illustrated History 

Historic Philadelphia: An Illustrated History 

Historic Prescott: 

An Illustrated History of Prescott & Yavapai County 

Historic Richardson: An Illustrated History 

Historic Rio Grande Valley: An Illustrated History 

Historic Scottsdale: A Life from the Land 

Historic Shelby County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Shreveport-Bossier: 

An Illustrated History of Shreveport & Bossier City 

Historic South Carolina: An Illustrated History 

Historic Smith County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Temple: An Illustrated History 

Historic Texas: An Illustrated History 

Historic Victoria: An Illustrated History 

Historic Tulsa: An Illustrated History 

Historic Williamson County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Wilmington & The Lower Cape Fear: 


Historic York County: An Illustrated History 

Iron, Wood & Water: An Illustrated History of Lake Oswego 

Jefferson Parish: Rich Heritage, Promising Future 

Miami’s Historic Neighborhoods: A History of Community 

Old Orange County Courthouse: A Centennial History 

Plano: An Illustrated Chronicle 

The New Frontier: 

A Contemporary History of Fort Worth & Tarrant County 

The San Gabriel Valley: A 21st Century Portrait 

The Spirit of Collin County 

Valley Places, Valley Faces 

Water, Rails & Oil: Historic Mid & South Jefferson County 


LEADERSHIP SPONSORS 

The Cleveland and 

Randle Families 

ISBN: 9781935377085

Historic Hood County

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