This week’s article is a continuation of the article written in the first part of June. The information is taken from past newsletters written by Joe Louis Jones. The new exhibit for the museum is history on the courthouse and the early development of Shelby County. If anyone has history or artifacts about Shelby County or the courthouse, the museum would love to have them for this new exhibit.  
There has been much activity at the courthouse lately as the William Carroll Crawford Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas are now docents of the courthouse. As docents we have been gathering the history of the courthouse to share with others during tours of our “Irish Castle”.

One of the builders of the courthouse was Patrick Finigan who was born May 16, 1852, in Dundalk, County Loth, Ireland. He probably left his native land, as thousands did, because of the potato blights that swept Ireland during the 1800s, causing terrible famines. The date of his arrival to his new home of America is unknown but by 1880 he appears on the U.S. Census of Shelby County, Texas for the first time. He married Elizabeth Weaver, daughter of L.H. Weaver and wife, Parlee.  He and his wife had two children at the time of the 1880 census and is listed as being a farmer. By the 1900 census he is listed as a painter. It appears from census records they had at least seven children together. Finigan died November 25, 1903, and is buried at Timpson-Woodlawn Cemetery.

Pat’s daughter, Maggie Finigan Bussey, tells one of her favorite stories about her father: “My father wa known as the best painter in East Texas and was hired by John Joseph Emmett Gibson, the builder of the Shelby County Courthouse, to paint the wooden portions of the courthouse. One of his fellow workers on the building looked upward at the newly completed cupola atop the courthouse and asked, Now, Pat, just how do you plan to get all the way there to paint that cupola?” Mr. Finigan replied, “Faith and begora, we shall see.” Popa went up as quick as a cat squirrel and completed the job in time for the dedication – way back in the year 1885.

The next person I want to share some information about is William Henry Humphries who was born in 1894 and died 1951 in Carthage, Texas. He is buried at Corinth Cemetery, Timpson, Shelby County, Texas.His job was digging the foundations of the Courthouse, the County Clerk’s Office and the jail. These foundations ditches had to be six feet deep by four feet wide around the entire perimeters of the three buildings, a monumental task in itself.  Mr. Humphries lived in Huber, a community about halfway from Center to Timpson, close to nine miles from the job. Mr. Humphries walked all the way to Center to his work each morning and then back home to Huber every night. In those days the workday began when the sun rose and continued through the day until sundown, so he had to start to work three hours before sunrise. This left him about four hours daily to bathe, eat, and sleep. After a few weeks of this he was dog tired, and his wife and children were missing him terribly. But Mr. Humphries needed the money. In those days a laborer’s wage was about fifty cents per day, but a fifty-cent piece was as big as a wagon wheel, as the saying goes. William Humphries had the solution. He brought his family to Center, bought a tent and pitched it between the Courthouse and where the Farmers State Bank now stands. The whole family lived there until the job was completed, probably months later.  One can only assume that once the courthouse job was finished, Mr. Humphries went back to farming in the spring and summer while hunting, trapping and selling dressed hides in the winter. He lived to the ripe old age of seventy-five. He was one of our truly great pioneers.

The story of Bert Graves is just as incredible.  Per Joe Louis Jones – I had always just assumed the sand for the foundation and the brick mortar came from the Shelby County sand hills, just a few miles west of Center. Not so! It takes special sand to make the best mortar, and everyone knows Mr. J.J.E. Gibson never compromised quality. The nearest good mortar sand was about seven miles east of Mansfield, Louisiana, about forty-two miles of dirt and mud roads from the courthouse. This sand is still used to this date. It is called “doty sand” by the people who use it. It is a coarse sand with just the right amount of small gravel about half the size of a black eye pea. It varies in color from gray to orange to red.

Mr. Bert Graves got the job of hauling doty sand from the sand pit to Center over those dirt and mud roads, crossing the Sabine River by ferry and fording three major creeks. Sand is HEAVY. One cubit yard weighs about twenty-four hundred pounds. Twenty-four hundred pounds is a heavy load for two mules to pull in a wagon. Mr. Graves chose to use oxen because they can pull much heavier loads than mules. But they are much slower. Ten miles a day is a long way for oxen to travel. So, Mr. Graves undoubtedly used a tandem ox team of three to four yokes to the team. In other words, six to eight oxen to pull a wagon or cart that could hold three to four yards of sand. This means Mr. Graves was on the road maybe seven to nine days for a round trip, camping out every night in the rain, the cold, the sweltering heat, and even at times very pleasant weather.

Thomas Richard “Dutch” Goodwyn II has some tools located in the Courthouse he used while to build the courthouse. He and Jesse Pickard skillfully shaped raw, unplaned, boards into beautiful shutters, doors, windows, door frames, etc. found in the building. Even the floors had to be smoothed with hand tools. Thomas was the second child of Thomas Richard Goldwyn and Lydia Ann Manning. He was born July 23, 1852. The elder Mr. Goodwyn died when “Dutch” was two years old. He was now the man of the family and because of his responsibility to manage the family farm, from the time he could hold on to the handles of a plow, he got very little formal education. By the time he was nine years old, he was “working for the public”. As he grew older, he attended school as often as he could, learning how to read, write, and do arithmetic. He became a skilled wood worker and as a carpenter built and helped build many homes in the Patroon area where he lived. He crafted furniture and manufactured caskets. He kept at least tow partially made caskets on hand at all times. If someone in the community died, not matter what the hour, day or night, a family member could come to his house telling him and his wife how they wanted the coffin finished. They would complete the job immediately. Mrs. Goldwyn did the sewing necessary for the linings of he caskets. Thomas Richard Goodwyn II was a pilar of the community. “Dutch” died August 11, 1914, at age sixty-two and buried at Patroon Cemetery. His wife, Mollie, joined him on January 5, 1960 and is also buried at Patroon Cemetery.

Of the other builders of the Courthouse, very little information is known about Daniel McSwain.

(Note: Do you have an ancestor who helped build the courthouse? If so, we would love to hear your story. Do you know someone who helped J.J.E. Gibson? Do you know anyone who furnished or hauled building materials or someone who worked at Gibson’s brick kiln, or helped in any way? If so, please let us know, we need your information.)