Freestone County, Texas
Reflections


FREESTONE PAST/PRESENT 
By J. R.(Sonny) SESSIONS


Butler

By J. R. (Sonny) Sessions -Special to The News

Interesting article by Museum Curator in local papers recently on the Butler Female and 
Male Academy. Butler one of early settlements in County, many today refer to Butler as 
where the Butler School located and the store today, this is what was known as Cross 
Roads. Butler located a few miles east of Cross Roads on US 84. In the early l960’s there 
were several small stores in Butler, Evans, Killough’s, Billy Paton’s, Trawick’s and 
Edwards. 

Homer Edwards a descendent of early and prominent family, and his nephew Knute 
Kurtsinger, lived in their store, which was built with material from the old Academy 
when US 84 widened. Many things were moved and rebuilt. The old Academy was 
located just north of here on a hill with some of it still there in l963. I think Homer and 
Knute lived here before the new store built. Homer an old bachelor was very intelligent 
and educated for the times, I don’t know if he attended the Academy or not.

He and his family have been friends of my family for several generations. Homer claimed 
that the Edwards buried at Troy and close kin a brother to Hayden Edwards of the 
Fredonian Rebellion, this was never proven.

Knute Kurtsinger and Homer both characters in their own right. Knute had some speech 
and physical problems that many thought him retarded but I found this not really correct. 
Knute was injured as a pedestrian and lived his last few years in a local nursing home, 
Knute loved beer and I tried to furnish enough for at least one daily, when he ran out the 
nursing home would call for help, said he snapping at them.

Homer lived in the store building until his death, he and Knute both buried in the Mayes 
Cemetery which joins Lone Star. The store building sits abandoned in brush where it sat.

Today and for several years the only business operating in Butler is the Durham auto 
repair shop. There been many business’s here in early years. The Trinity River port of 
West Point was a few miles from here with riverboats. Mr. Will Solomon an elderly 
black man living in the area told of steamboats coming here with supplies and hauling 
bales of cotton to the coast. During the Civil War there were two “Soldier’s Homes” in 
the area at the Manning and McDaniel plantations. There were numerous cotton 
plantations in the area in the early days. Travel to or from Palestine usually meant using 
one of the River Ferry’s until the first bridge built across the River, opened in late l920’s 
with the Governor and all there with big ceremony. This one-way bridge was replaced 
shortly after WWII. Was privileged to have known and been involved with many of the 
early families, Raymond Mobley who served as Constable during some of the years 
Freestone Co. was wet after prohibition and the honky tonks running wild on US84 and 
& 79 his son Oneal (Gobbler) served as his deputy, this probably before nepotism laws. 
The Evans, Trawicks (I think he moved here from Wortham to serve as deputy for my 
father), the Nesbitt’s, Hardin’s, Edwards, Franklin’s and many others of the past.