Dougherty, F. M.

Fences became a deadly subject in Texas soon after Dougherty's terms. The Handbook of Texas says the 1883 drought set open-range cattlemen against ranchers who fenced with barbed wire. Armed night bands cut wire, and at least three men died in clashes. Governor John Ireland called a special session in January 1884, and the legislature made fence cutting a felony punishable by one to five years in prison. Dougherty's own House terms were in 1879 and 1881, before the violence, and the plaque lists fence law among his issues.

What the plaque says

Dougherty, F. M. (February 13, 1826-December 27, 1895) Alabama native Francis Marion Dougherty came to Texas in the 1840s, moving to Gainesville in 1858. Following service in the Civil War, where he saw action in the Red River Campaign of western Louisiana, he returned to Cooke County and worked as a merchant. Elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1879 and again in 1881, he worked on a number of important issues, including fence law, county boundaries, agriculture and railroad development. He was also a Gainesville banker and businessman, leading the board of trade, which helped develop the county fair. Recorded – 2003

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Great Hanging Memorial — 0.8 mi
  Two granite monuments in a Gainesville park, dedicated in 2014, for the Cooke County men the Confederate militia hanged in October 1862 on suspicion of Unionism.
• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 23 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.
• Stonewall Saloon Museum — 23 mi
  Saint Jo's first permanent building, a stone saloon of 1873 with rooms upstairs for trail drovers, in a town named, the story goes, as a joke on a founder who did not drink.

More markers nearby

• G. H. Ragsdale — steps away
• Fairview Cemetery — steps away
• James Menees Lindsay — steps away
• J. D. "Ikard" Sugg — steps away