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