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Angelina
County is named after an Indian girl who became an enthusiastic convert of the
Franciscan missionaries. A bronze statue across from the Museum of East Texas
honors her.
Angelina
County CourthousesJonesville
was the second of Angelina County’s four county seats, sandwiched between Marion
and Angelina (aka Homer). It
served in this capacity from 1854-1858.
Jonesville never grew and in it’s
short reign as county seat and they never got around to building a courthouse.
County offices were rented.
Homer
became the Angelina County Seat in 1858 after defeating Jonesville
in a contested election. Homer’s
name was changed to Angelina at this time, but the name didn’t gain favor and
it was officially changed back to Homer
in 1862.
Marion, Texas (being the first Angelina County seat) had retained
the county’s first (log) courthouse. Since Jonesville
never built one, the courthouse was dismantled and moved to Homer
where it was used until it was replaced by a two-story frame building in 1873.
Homer became the county’s most
important town – with only Lufkin as a near rival.
The tables were turned in the early 1880s when the Houston, East and West Texas
Railroad bypassed Homer in favor of the more direct path through Lufkin.
It retained the courthouse and a population in the 300s through the rest of the
1880s. In late 1891, Homer’s courthouse burned. The more prosperous city of Lufkin
became county seat the following year. |
"The
uninspiring 1955 Angelina County courthouse in Lufkin."
- Terry
Jeanson, December, 2007 photo |
The Present
Angelina County Courthouse - Lufkin
Date - 1955
Architect - Wilbur Kent
Style - Modern
Material - Brick,
limestone and steel |
| | The
1955 Angelina County Courthouse
Postcard courtesy rootsweb.com/
~txgenweb//
postcards/Index.html |
| "The
cornerstone from the 1902-03 Angelina County courthouse embedded in a wall on
the first floor of the current courthouse." - Terry
Jeanson, December, 2007 photo |
Remembering
a Courthouse by Bob Bowman
"[I]n the l950s, many
Texas counties threw aside history, tradition and elegance and replaced some of
our finest courthouses with modern buildings -- many of them with little character
or appeal. That happened in my home town of Lufkin.
The Angelina County Commissioners Court decided that its fifty-year
old courthouse, resplendent with a dome and a clock, was inadequate to meet the
county's needs. Following a bond election to fund a new courthouse, the county
demolished the old courthouse without ceremony in 1953." ... more
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| | The
razed 1903 Angelina County Courthouse
1939 photo courtesy of TXDoT |
| | The
demolished Angelina County courthouse as it appears in a downtown Lufkin mural
by Lance Hunter
TE Photo, 2002 |
| "The
1902-03 Angelina County courthouse designed by architect James Riely Gordon. This
painting, by artist Audrey Midford, is hanging in the county clerk's office in
the current courthouse." - Terry
Jeanson, December, 2007 | |
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