James Nesbit Stuart House

Strawn exists because two ranchers held land where the railroad came. The town was laid out on ground belonging to Stephen Bethel Strawn and James N. Stuart as the Texas and Pacific began service around 1880. It replaced a settlement called North Fork on Palo Pinto Creek and took in Russell's Pocket to the west and Davidsonville to the east. The Handbook of Texas says Stuart built the area's first house in 1875; the plaque dates this house 1874. The house stands on a dead-end street, and this entry gives no route to it.

What the plaque says

James Nesbit Stuart House Built in 1874 by J. N. Stuart (1837-1910) and wife, Sally Allen Stuart (1835-1918), of materials hauled by ox-wagon from east Texas. A ship builder, Andrew Murdock, joined frame with pegs. House was first in area to have milled lumber and window glass. Four sons, all successful in later business life, were reared here. The youngest, Sally James Stuart (named for his mother and father), became owner in 1910 -- the same year he wed Margaret Gordon. House became a stopping place for circuit riders, public officials, travelers, and friends; still owned by Margaret Stuart. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Rip at the Eastland County Courthouse — 21 mi
  A horned lizard in a glass-topped casket in the 1928 Eastland courthouse, the creature said to have come out alive from the old building's cornerstone after thirty-one years.
• Lake Mineral Wells State Park and Trailway — 32 mi
  A Cross Timbers park on the old Camp Wolters grounds, built around a 1922 water-supply lake for a spa town, with Penitentiary Hollow's rock climbing and a 20-mile trailway.

More markers nearby

• Bethel Strawn — 0.3 mi
• Mary Jane Gentry — 1.0 mi
• Mount Marion Cemetery — 1.0 mi
• Mingus Baptist Church — 4.6 mi