The early history of Linden - Cass County seat

Linden was established and named in June, 1849 by the Commissioners Court of Cass County, Texas. It was named after Linden, Tennessee, home town of Edward W, Story who owned the land where Linden, Texas was established and who offered a fifty-acre site for location of the county seat. Several more persons, including Jerry? Wood, an old settler, wanted this Linden named for their home town or Linden, Tennessee.

The sits for Linden, Texas was a part of Story preemption survey (320 acres) which he had obtained; earlier from the Mathew Powell headright survey. By 1845 or before. Story and his wife, Emily Jane, were living in a log cabin in the dense forest where Linden is now. P.B. Kincaid who later became Cass county treasurer talked about passing through this area in 1845 and being royally entertained by the Edd Story family with whom he spent the night.

On June 30, 1848, Story gave to the county commissioners his bond of five thousand dollars to guarantee a good title for the town site of Linden. Before making final arrangements for the land, the commissioners waited to see results of the people’s voting for location of the county seat. The commissioners had already nominated three places Linden. Jefferson, and Holcombs Bluff to be voted on as county seat.

An election held October 16, 1848, gave Linden a majority of votes for county seat, but Jefferson citizens protested the timing of the election. The commissioners court waited nearly three more years then ordered another election. It was held Sept. 3 in 1851) and again Linden received the majority. The court officially designated Linden as permanent seat of Justice, but waited until May. 1852, to move county offices and records away from Jefferson which had been the temporary county seat since 1846. At that time, it was the principal town in Cass county. In i860 it became a part of Marion county.

On the last Thursday in May, 1852, Thos. J. White, the county clerk, by authority of the commissioner’s court, rented a wagon and team for fifteen dollars and moved ‘county records from Jefferson to Linden. Here they were housed in rented buildings at first, then in temporary ones erected with county funds, until the first courthouse was accepted in 1854.

Since 1848, county commissioners had made preparations for Linden to be the county seat. They appointed A. Ferdinand Holcomb and Benjamin Kimbla to lay out lots for the town site in January, 1849, and ordered a sale of town lots to be held in February that year. They paid fifty dollars on February 10, 1849, to Edward W. Story and wife Saily Jane for the fifty-acre site. The Storys reserved a lot at the corner of South Main and Campbell Streets for themselves Official land records do not reflect that any lots in the original town site were sold prior to April 16 of 1849 when Henry Collins bought one from E. W. Story for eighty-five dollars. Explanations are not clear as to how Story and his wife came into possession of the lot. It was not the one they had reserved.

The lot which Collins bought April 16, 1849, has historical significance for being among the first lots sold in Linden, and for being the one where Collins erected the “Double Building” rented by the commissioners in May, 1852, for a temporary court house. The lot is on Main Street and faces the west side of the square.

More town lots laid out in 1851 indicated that Linden was growing. In June. 1851, the county paid forty dollars to A.P. Holcomb for laying out lots and making a map of the town. He also received two hundred dollars for making a map of the county.

On February 18, 1852, the county court ordered Nelson H. Haney to have more lots cleared, surveyed, and good posts put at the corners of each lot. A few months later the court paid Bennett Story ( son of E.W. Story) six dollars for setting out 600 posts in the town of Linden. Another sale of town lots was held on Friday, July 9, 1852. In August, the court paid Williamson Petty six dollars for services rendered four days at the sale of lots in Linden.

The Linden post office established in May, 1852, has been operated continuously. Ward Taylor, Jr., was the first postmaster; Thomas J. Foster was the second; John B. Ligon was the third.

By the middle of 1852, Linden was growing a bit faster. County commissioners, perhaps to encourage people to live here, sold town lots for low prices and some on credit terms of a year or more. An example is that the lot now occupied by R.C. Taylor Barber Shop on Main Street sold in 1852 for thirty dollars credit of one year. Deed records reflect that George Melton bought it. Easy credit was extended to several other buyers.

The year 1853 saw increased activity in Linden, Thomas J. Foster, Sr., built the first courthouse The First Methodist Church organized with William Hill as pastor. People became more interested in school and received approval of a charter for a male and female academy -- granted by Texas Legislature. Town lots sold faster In 1853. Buyers included: Henderson Ward, Richard King, Thomas Heath, Ebenezer Frazior, John Poindexter, Chas. Graham. and many others who bought lots in the original town site, also acreage near the town site. Prices for lots sold by the county commissioners ranged from eight to fifty-three dollars per lot. Jesse Prison, county judge at the time, paid only forty-nine dollars for the four lots .facing the west side of the courthouse square. Janes T. Todd paid twenty-five dollars for one lot facing the south side of the square. William H. Beaver paid twenty dollars and fifty cents for a lot where the post office now stands (1972), Josiah Phillips and James Chapell paid fifty-one dollars for the lot now occupied by Conn Auto at the northwest corner of Houston and Main Streets.

The year 1854 stands out in the history of Linden and Cass county because of the ‘firsts’ that occurred. Miss Georgia Ann Harrison taught school in a log cabin at Linden. It is said to have been the first school taught here. The first courthouse was occupied by the county officials, and they continued to authorize Improvements of it and the square. Samuel Dunn was paid fifty-nine dollars for underpinning the courthouse. W.S. Griffin painted it for $243 -- first painting, Patrick Higgins dug the first public well on the square for ten dollars (a dollar per foot of depth), The first fence was built around the square for $65.

In September. 1854, the county commissioners Awarded a contract to the firm of Carpenter & Haggard to build the first county Jail at Linden for $2970. It was completed and accepted August 18, 1856, Specific information about all the ‘firsts’ at Linden has dimmed with passing years. Some of them were here by the middle 1840’s. Others came later, The two mercantile stores of John Moore and Robert Graham were the first places of business. Mitchell and Ward’s Blacksmith Shop just north of the courthouse was the first of its kind. Richard Clausell had the first cabinet shop; he also made coffins; bureaus, bedsteads, and other furniture. The first doctor, John B. Ligon. built the first hotel. Soon came Dr, Josiah Phillips who owned and operated the first drug store in Linden. Adam Sheffield built a small log house and opened the first saloon here. Drinks sweetened with brown sugar and stirred with small wooden paddles vert served in tin cups at Sheffield’s saloon.

The first private residence at Linden probably was Edward W. Story’s log cabin. The first frame residence was built about 1853 by Thomas J. Poster, Sr., at the northwest corner of Houston and Foster Streets^ about three blocks west of the courthouse. Mrs. Foster planted the large magnolia tree still growing in the front yard.

By 1858 or earlier, A. J. Nelson, H, Duncan. T. J. Logwood, S. U. Searcy, and A. J. McKee had business places facing the vest side of the courthouse square. Hinton Duncan owned a tavern house. Next door south, Searcy sold liquors in his one-room ‘building. Nelson had a retail grocery next door to Searcy. Logwood operated a general store farther south. About 1860 he accepted Janes Crawford Connally as a partner. The Logwood & Connally Mercantile Store operated through the Civil War is said to have been a large, popular place of business. Some of their customers in 1861 were George Cox, T. A. Nolen. H. G. Andrews. M. P. Lee, T. J, Stone, Abram Fite (spelled Fight in the account book). James Lundy, Allen Dennis, William Nash, A. T. Stone, Steven Sasser, W. H. Hall, B. A. Cameron, H. Ledbetter, S. B. Hines, Fleming Jones, J. W; Grant, Mrs. E. Moors, Janes Nixon, S. S. Morris, A. F. Winn.

When railroads came into Cass county in the 1870’s other industries prospered and the over-all economy was favorable to Linden. More professional persons came by the 1880’s. Attorneys J. H. Henderson and George T. Vaughn. also, the law firm of Whittle d Harrell were located here. Doctors included J. D. McWhorter and A. J. Oliver.

Real estate ownership changed in the’80’s as in other times. For example, in March, 1883, W. S. Lee and wife, Lula, sold their homestead of one acre in Linden to W. M. Woodward for $750. They also sold a business lot and the storehouse on it for $200 to, the firm of Sasser & Wood who owned and operated a big mercantile store for several years. The lot is occupied in 1972 by Orval Fuller Supply Company at the southwest corner of Main and Graham Streets* In the late ‘80’s John S. Morris Mercantile Store and Hall Brothers Grocery were located north of the square. J.H. Goodman had a confectionery and barber shop north of the square. By 1912 he had moved to the west side, C.H. Kelson opened a store about 1882.