Coggin and Parks Building

The Coggin brothers ranched far beyond Brownwood, from the Cross Timbers to Terlingua Creek in the Big Bend, and a bank and a mercantile firm kept their business in town by the early 1880s. Their fences also drew them into the fence-cutting wars of that decade. Damage from the 1883 cutting was put at more than a million dollars in Brown County alone, the legislature made cutting a felony in 1884, and the strife here lasted until 1886, when Texas Rangers killed two cutters. The family name survives on Coggin Park.

What the plaque says

Coggin and Parks Building Brothers Samuel R. Coggin (1831-1915) and Moses J. "Mody" Coggin (1824-1902), prominent area ranchers, business leaders, and philanthropists, in partnership with businessman William Claibourne "Clay" Parks (1883-1916) completed this two-story commercial building in 1876. Originally part of a larger structure, it housed a variety of businesses, including a grocery, hardware store, business college, and restaurant. Because of the primary location, the Coggin-Parks building figured prominently in the early history of Brownwood. The exterior of the structure was later altered substantially. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Brownwood State Park — 9.7 mi
  A CCC park on a reservoir that filled in a single flood before its dam was done, with stone cabins, a hilltop dance pavilion and a grand staircase climbed by dancers arriving by boat.

More markers nearby

• Greenleaf Fisk — steps away
• Camp Collier, C.S.A. — steps away
• Welcome William Chandler — steps away
• Courthouses of Brown County — steps away