Somervell County Courthouse

by Joan Carroll

Title

Somervell County Courthouse

Artist

Joan Carroll

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photograph

Description

On a early spring morning, the Somervell County Courthouse looks a bit eerie. The Somervell County Courthouse in Glen Rose TX is a simple two story structure featuring elements of Romanesque Revival and General Grant architectural styles. Intersecting hallways on the first floor divide the first floor space into four sections. The second floor features a courtroom and some office space. The building is modest in size, oblong in shape, and approximately 60 feet wide and 40 feet deep. The roof and clock tower were damaged in the 1902 Glen Rose tornado. County funds at the time limited the repair, which eliminated the clock tower. In 1986, work was done to restore the structure to its original design. The statue in the foreground is of the legend of the founding of Glen Rose and reads: Charles Barnard, who founded Glen Rose on the Paluxy River, was an educated New Englander who came to the REpublic of Texas in 1843. There he joined his other brother George in the operation of Indian trading posts beyond the advancing white frontier. Well liked by the tribesmen for their fairness, they prospered, bartering civilized goods for things like fu pelts and deer and buffalo hides. One very special item for which they bartered successfully was a spirited, intelligent young captive of the Comanches - Juana Cavasos, the daughter of a wealthy land-owning family of south Texas and northern Mexico. Charles and the ransomed girl fell in love, were married in 1848, and spent the following decade at a trading post on the Brazos River in present Hood County, a few miles north of the Paluxy. Juana proved to be not only a competent trader herself but an outstanding mother, horsewoman, herbal doctor, and neighborhood midwife. After their trading was ended in the late 1850s by the official removal of most Texas Indians to reservations, Charles bought land on the Paluxy and built a home and a stone gristmill, the nucleus for a community called Barnard's Mill, later renamed Glen Rose. The Mill, still standing today, ground settlers' corn and wheat and served as a refuge and fortress for them during a period of frequent raids by untamed Comanches and Kiowas. Many tales have come down from that era. But Juana and Charles grew homesick, and in 1870 moved back to the old trading post on the Brazos, where they were ultimately joined by Juana's twin brother Juan, who happened upon her while driving a herd up the Chisholm Trail and later returned to farm and ranch and raise his own family nearby. In that setting the Barnards spent their remaining years, legendary in their time and place, surrounded and honored by family and friends.

FEATURED PHOTO, FAA Featured Images group, 3/22/14

FEATURED PHOTO, Gothic Romance group, 3/17/14

Uploaded

March 15th, 2014

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