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Coryell
County Courthouse
©2007 Bill Morgan. All
rights reserved
CORYELL COUNTY - Maybe it's just coincidence,
but it seems most of the people I met or heard of in and around Gatesville are
semi-serious students of their area's history. Kent Biffle, the long-time
Dallas Morning News Texana editor and historian-humorist extraordinare, made
himself a living and a huge fan base out of his passion for the past.
Kent's high school English teacher, Roberta Powell, captured his teenage
attention with her beauty and fueled it with her own infatuation with history
and well-written essays. John Frank Post was The Gatesville Messenger's main
reporter and/or owner for 40-odd years and spun stories with glowing detail
that rivaled the courthouse's façade. D.W. McDonald chaired the Coryell
County Historical Commission during the courthouse's renovation in 1986-88 and
added some of the most colorful tales of Coryell County's earlier years.
John Frank Post, Sterling Edwards and 52nd District Court Judge Truman
Roberts assigned themselves the task of finding why the statues of "Justice"
atop the courthouse weren't blindfolded. They concluded that the county
commissioners in office during the 1897 courthouse construction agreed that
"Justice is never sightless, but rather all-seeing, all-knowing." Another
theory that the three researchers agreed might be more pertinent is that
statues without blindfolds were a few bucks cheaper.
Then there were a
couple of Gatesville youngsters named Bob and Phil who grew up to become Tenth
Appellate Court Judge Robert Cummings and 52nd District Court Judge Phillip
Ziegler, successor to Judge Roberts. They kept the dust off the history books
by conducting courthouse tours during the annual Gatesville Shivaree.
I left Coryell County wondering if school kids who nod off in history class
catch it from the whole town.
Buy A
Print
11x17 prints on sturdy stock of the Coryell County
Courthouse are available on my ordering page. The cost is $20 for the first
print and $16 for additional prints of this, or any of the other 11
courthouses, purchased at the same time. (Add $3 for shipping) |
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