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5

La Grange Area Chamber of Commerce

FEATURE

THE HISTORIC

J.RIELY

GORDON

COURTHOUSE,

designed in 1891 stands as the focal

point of what locals call “The Square”

in La Grange. It is listed in the National

Register of Historic Places as the

1975-Fayette County Courthouse and

Jail, and as part of a larger registry,

the 2001-Fayette County Courthouse

SquareHistoricDistrict. The courthouse

by itself was designated a Recorded

Texas Historic Landmark in 2001. The

ambience is unique. It’s like taking a step

back in time with the Courthouse as the

center point of the town, surrounded

by well-aged historical buildings filled

with shops and restaurants. You will

most certainly enjoy the wonderful

experience just walking around “The

Square" and downtown area observing

historical markers and memorials.

If these gnarled branches could talk,

they would tell stories of tears shed

as parents, grandparents, wives, and

sweethearts said their goodbyes under

the shady branches of this tree, as

young men left to serve their country

in the War with Mexico, the Civil War,

the Spanish-American War, and the two

WorldWars.

Nodoubt, the lost branches and twisted

brokenness of this Fayette County

treasure serves as an icon to many

historic events which have occurred on

this courthouse square since Fayette

County’s beginning in 1837.

In 1842, Captain Nicholas Mosby

Dawson, of La Grange, recruited about

15 men under this tree when Mexico

invaded Texas. Two days later, Dawson

and 35 others, some of whom were

from La Grange, were massacred by a

troop of the Mexican cavalry.

THE LA GRANGE

AREA CHAMBER OF

COMMERCE HAS

PROUDLY CHOSEN

THE MUSTER OAK AS

THEIR LOGO.

“Here on this Courthouse Square the

scarred remains of what was once a

mighty oak marks the spot from which

Fayette County has on every occasion

sent its sons to battle. Wives, mothers

and sweethearts have bade farewell

here and sent their men to war each

time to win acclaim as true patriots.

They held in their keeping the safety

of the Lamp of Liberty because they

refused to betray their Texas heritage

by abandoning the eternal values

embodied in the concepts of Life,

Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

Their patriotic sense of duty helped

to preserve the American way of life,

and their record of service to God and

country is almost without peer. They

lived and died so that the eternal

verities by which men live shall not

perish from the Earth.”

-W. P. Freytag