East Texas Quarterly Magazine Spring 2014 | Page 19

bordering what is now called Toledo Bend Lake. This
territory was a path for many of the early migrants
into Texas from the United States, many of whom
settled here temporarily before proceeding
westward. It is said that the first permanent settler
was John Latham, who settled here in 1818 when the
A Spanish explorer named De Soto was the first white area was still under Spanish rule.
man to enter this area when he crossed the Sabine
River at what is now Logansport, Louisiana, in 1539. Shelby County was established in 1836, and for
The purchase of Louisiana by the United States in the next 30 years Shelbyville was the county seat.
1803 resulted in a boundary dispute with Spain. The R.L. Parker, who was county clerk in 1866, decided
absence of organized law provoked a conflict with the that the county seat should be in the “center” of the
settlers and resulted in the organization of a group county. That same year, the state legislature
called the Regulators and an opposition group called passed an act requiring counties to have centrally
the Moderators in 1842. Law and order was restored located seats.
by militia under General Sam Houston.
But Shelbyville was not quick to relinquish the
Shelby County is one of the original counties of Texas. county records. So Parker, a man of action, drove an
We are located in the eastern part of the state ox cart to the courthouse door in Shelbyville one
night and took them. The records
were placed under armed guard
in a log cabin near the geographic
center of the county, and the city
of Center was born.
Center of the Piney Woods, the city took the time to
plant a wide variety of trees on the courthouse lawn.
In addition, the trees complement the courthouse,
rather than obscure it. A long row of hitching-rings
are set into the curb on the West side of the square.

The city was incorporated in
1893, but later was dissolved and
reorganized under a charter. With
the arrival of the Gulf, Beaumont, and
Great Northern Railroads, Center
became a leading regional market
for East Texas and the western part
of Louisiana.
A wooden courthouse was
built soon after, but all records
were lost when it burned
in
1882.
The
courthouse
The occasion for the large gathering of people was the unveiling of the new
erected in its place is one of the
Chevrolet cars at Runnels Chevrolet Company
jewels of Center. With stately
towers, a cupola, and hidden stairwells, it is an
architectural masterpiece. It also has the
distinction of being one of the only Texas
courthouses modeled after an Irish castle. J.J.E.
Gibson,
an
Irish
architect,
not
only
designed
the
new
brick
courthouse,
but also made the bricks when the
commissioners’ court awarded him the contract
in 1883. The present Shelby County Courthouse
was built in 1885 and is on the National Register of
Historic Places in Texas. This courthouse is today one
of the five oldest courthouses in Texas of the original

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