The Best Courthouse: From the Best of East Texas by Bob Bowman of Lufkin Submitted by: G V Richards GVRICHARDS@aol.com ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. ************************************************************************** From: The Best of East Texas, by Bob Bowman of Lufkin. (The fifth printing in 1980 - Lufkin Printing Company) Someone once described the architecture of the Red River Courthouse at Clarksville as Late 19th Century Debatable. Some call it Victorian, some Gothic. Buck Schiwetz, the noted painter of Texas Courthouses, insists that it is Italian Renaissance. And Frank Tolbert of the Dallas Morning News says it looks like a German Castle. Regardless of its design, the old courthouse is still basically sound and Clarksville's residents have made it clear on more than one occasion they don't want it torn down and replaced by another building. Built in 1885, the courthouse boasts turrets and buttresses of mellow yellow stone cut from a quarry near Honey Grove. Clarksville itself goes back to 1833 and was named for James Clark, who also established the first Red River town of Jonesborough (now vanished). The county, one of the 23 original counties created by the Republic of Texas in 1836, had four other temporary courthouses, but for all practical; purposes Clarksville has always been The Place. The towns courthouse clock, known affectionately as Old Red, ticked from 2:30 P.M. on May 27, 1885, until developing operating troubles and was electrified in 1961. This saved the janitor 30 minutes of hard winding once a week. But four months later, at 4:35 on a June morning, Old Red started striking and struck her bells 120 times before somebody pulled the plug. Clarksville people still talk about the night it got later that it ever has been.