Seven Pines

Franklin Hardin carried the news of San Jacinto. The Handbook of Texas says he took Sam Houston's victory dispatch to the United States border. Years earlier he had been secretary of Liberty's ayuntamiento in 1831 and surveyor of the Atascosita District from 1834 to 1836. In 1839 Houston appointed him postmaster, the year he moved his family into the house at Seven Pines. He went on to serve as county surveyor from 1838 to 1845 and as colonel of the militia's Second Brigade in 1842 and 1843.

What the plaque says

Seven Pines Benjamin Franklin Hardin (1803-1878) came to this area with other members of his family in 1826. Settling in the Atascosito District of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Texas, Franklin Hardin was named surveyor of the district in 1834. As a member of the Liberty Volunteers, he participated in the Battle of Concepcion and the Siege of Bexar in 1835 and the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. Hardin and his wife Cynthia O'Brien built a home on this site in 1839. the homesite, later known as Seven Pines, remained in the Hardin family for four generations. The family moved to a farm north of Liberty about 1845, but moved back and built a new house here in 1856. While Franklin Hardin was serving in the seventh Texas Legislature, Hardin County was created in 1858 and named in honor of his family. Following the deaths of Franklin and Cynthia Hardin, ownership of the homesite passed to their descendants. Geraldine Davis Humphreys inherited the property in 1914. One year later the 1856 home was destroyed by fire. Geraldine Humphreys (d. 1961) bequeathed Seven Pines to the Humphreys Foundation, which donated it to the city of Liberty in 1969. The Geraldine D. Humphreys Cultural Center was built in 1969-70. (1988)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center — 4.0 mi
  A state archives and museum north of Liberty with an exhibit on Southeast Texas history and a campus of historic buildings, including an 1848 house and an 1898 church.
• San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site — 27 mi
  The 1,200 acres of coastal prairie and marsh where the Texas Revolution ended in eighteen minutes, and the 567-foot shaft of fossil-studded limestone that has stood over them since 1939.

More markers nearby

• Plaza Iglesia Parroquial (Parish Church Square) — steps away
• Site of Liberty's Ursuline Convent — steps away
• Plaza Constitucional (Municipal Square) — steps away
• James B. Woods — steps away