When was cass county established

The current courthouse building was originally built in the Greek Revival style and constructed from locally fired brick. Over the course of its century and a half of service, the courthouse has undergone four major sets of renovations. Two of those were prompted by another tornado in and then fire damage in The latest courthouse makeover was completed in and restored the building to its appearance.

The overhaul returned all public spaces — both inside and outside — to the way they looked in , right down to the light fixtures and globes. Today, the courthouse still occupies a prominent place in the center of Linden, where it's providing a new generation of Texans a unique link to the past. Sources: THC. Nonetheless, the war years were trying times for the county's citizens.

They were forced to deal with disruptions to the local economy caused by an unstable Confederate currency and the lack of a market for their cotton, as well as concern for those on the battlefield. The end of the war brought wrenching changes in the county's economic foundation. While the end of slavery meant freedom for the Black, it meant a serious loss of capital for the White slaveholder.

This represented 60 percent of all taxable property in the county. The loss brought about by emancipation, together with the widespread belief that free Blacks would not work and the uncertain status of the South in the nation, led to a loss of confidence that caused property values to plummet in Throughout and there were repeated reports from agents of the Freedmen's Bureau in Marshall that freedmen were being cheated and physically abused in Cass County, but neither federal troops nor an agent of the bureau was ever stationed in the county.

Thus the county never experienced military occupation by a conquering army. Still, the county's citizens felt the effects of Reconstruction because troops stationed at various times in Marion, Bowie, and Harrison counties occasionally passed through Cass County while chasing fugitives or traveling to their posts.

Military commanders also removed Cass County officeholders as "impediments to reconstruction. The voters of Cass County supported the Democratic candidates in , , , and and in every presidential election from to Republican William McKinley actually won pluralities of the county's votes in and , but for the first half of the twentieth century the Democrats dominated the area, winning virtually every presidential election there from through ; the only exception was in , when Republican Dwight D.

Eisenhower carried the area. The county's political balance shifted substantially after , when independent candidate George Wallace won a plurality of the county's voters, and , when Republican Richard Nixon took the county by a more than two-to-one margin over Democrat George McGovern. For the rest of the century the county's voters shifted back and forth; Democratic presidential candidates carried the area in , , , and , Republicans in and In the and presidential elections, however, Republican George W.

Bush carried the county with solid majorities. For more than sixty years after Reconstruction, the economic base of Cass County was agricultural, as it had been since the county's beginnings.

Cotton remained the principal cash crop, and corn remained the principal food crop. Hogs remained the other principal food product until, beginning in the s, changes in diet led to declining swine production. As late as , 57 percent of the county's labor force worked in agriculture, and three-quarters of the county's cropland was devoted to cotton and corn.

Although cotton provided the major source of income, however, it did not provide prosperity for many of the county's residents. From , when the statistics were first compiled, through , each census recorded a higher percentage of farmers who did not own the land they farmed.

In , 24 percent of the farmers in the county were listed as tenants. In , 61 percent of all farmers in the county fell into that category.

Though agriculture was the foundation of the county's economic base, the county was never exclusively agricultural. With the exception of a modest decline in the early s, the number of those involved in manufacturing expanded steadily. Although the number had grown, those employed in manufacturing in constituted less than 8 percent of the county's labor force.

One other important industry in Cass County was the lumber industry. The abundant forests in the county initially provided wood for houses and fences for the county's residents, but production gradually expanded to include the production of lumber and lumber products for export.

By the s Cass County lumbermills were producing 75 million board feet of lumber annually. Most of this wood was softwood from the shortleaf pines prominent in the county's forests. Though the timber industry was important, it employed about the same number of individuals as manufacturing and thus provided jobs for less than 10 percent of the county's labor force. In many areas there seemed to be little change in the county between the end of Reconstruction and Cotton and corn remained the principal crops, and most people in the county worked in agriculture.

The county was still overwhelmingly rural. In , 14 percent of the population lived in the county's four largest towns. In the percentage had not changed. Still there had been changes, some of which were dramatically altering the lives of Cass County residents. First, there were dramatic changes in the county's transportation system. During the antebellum period, the primary major market and supply center had been the riverport and supply center, Jefferson. In the East Line and Red River was constructed through the southwestern corner of the county; its principal Cass County station was Hughes Springs.

The two railroads gave residents more reliable transportation for their crops and enabled Hughes Springs and Atlanta to develop as supply centers. Within the county the predominant means of transportation remained horses and mules into the s. By , however, the automobile had become predominant. In only automobiles were registered in the county. By there were 5, By the major highways that crossed the county in the s had been constructed.

The s saw the birth of a new industry in the county, as the oil reserves beneath the surface were tapped, beginning with the exploration of the Rodessa oilfield south of Atlanta.

By over wells had been drilled. Although this activity brought a new town, McLeod, and prosperity to some landowners in the area of the oilfields, its impact on the economic base of the county is hard to measure. At no time were the early settlers in particular danger from the Indians, and the story of the early history is for the greater part a picture of peace amidst rough surroundings.

On their southeastern border they were neighbors of the Osage, although there is no evidence that either of these tribes ever had a truly permanent settlement in the territory of Cass County. At early camp meetings southwest of Harrisonville after the white man came, as many as Indians were often in attendance and seemed to enjoy religious services as much as the whites, with whom they mingled on such occasions.

These Indians were reportedly Shawnees and Delawares, both of Algonquain linguistic stock. Land Grant In a grant of land in southern Missouri was made to some Delawares, but it was re-ceded by them in Most of them moved to a reservation in Kansas, while others had previously gone to Texas.

Those who remained in the Harrisonville area were close relatives of the Sauk, Fox and Kickapoo tribes. Early Settlers The first white settler on the site of modern Harrisonville was James Lackey, in Joseph Hudspeth. Lackey was considered a "squatter", as he built a cabin and enclosed a small field on the tract of public land taken for county seat purposes.

In the same year, the first court met for the county, known as Van Buren County. William Lyon was appointed Clerk of the Court and county government was organized, included the setting up of Grand River Township.