FIRST County Seat of Lamar County - Paris, TX
N 33° 41.138 W 095° 35.033
15S E 260477 N 3730298
A 1936 Texas Centennial Marker stands at the former site of Lafayette, which was the Lamar County seat from 1841 to 1843. Today, nothing remains.
Waymark Code: WM13RHK
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/09/2021
Views: 0
These markers were placed to observe the Texas Centennial in 1936, and were not known to be verbose. The text on this one reads:
First county seat of Lamar County * A clapboard courthouse was built by John Lovejoy on 40 acres donated by John Watson * Here court was held June, 1841 to June, 1843 * John A. Rutherford, Chief Justice; John R. Craddock County Clerk
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The Handbook of Texas (see URL, below) notes that there was settlement in the Red River Valley in the second decade of the 19th Century. Lamar County was established on December 17, 1840 by an act of the Republic of Texas Congress, and organized by election on February 1 of the following year, named for the fourth President of the Republic, Mirabeau Lamar. As the marker indicates, the courthouse was nothing fancy, and while land had been provided by John Watson, and a town platted, nothing significant was constructed here. By 1842, the Republic had decided that a county seat should be within five miles of a county's geographic center, so in June, 1843, operations were transferred to Mt. Vernon, another vanished settlement, not to be confused with the modern-day seat of Franklin County.
FIRST - Classification Variable: Place or Location
Date of FIRST: 06/01/1841
More Information - Web URL: [Web Link]
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