Tarver Abstract Company

The company's later years are a chain of owners. According to a 2022 talk to the Dayton Rotary Club reported in Bluebonnet News, T. C. Tarver died in 1925, the same year as his son W. F. Tarver, who had inherited the family share after his brother died of tuberculosis during World War I service. W. F.'s half interest went to Compton H. Smith, who became sole owner when H. O. Compton died in 1957. Smith's daughters held it until 1984, when it was sold and merged with Liberty County Title Company.

What the plaque says

Tarver Abstract Company For well over one hundred years, the Tarver Abstract Company has provided real property title information to the citizens of Liberty County. Thomas Carey Tarver (1846-1925), a native of Tennessee, moved to Texas as a young boy. He served in the Confederate States Army before moving to Houston in 1875 where he worked in a number of different businesses, including a messenger for Wells Fargo and a clerk for the Houston & Central Texas Railway. In 1903, Tarver purchased a ten-year-old abstract business from B.F. Cameron and W.J. Swilley in Liberty and changed the name from Cameron and Swilley Abstract Company to T.C. Tarver Abstract Company. The company originally provided abstracts of title and over the years transitioned to title insurance policies, a regulated product issued by licensed title insurance companies. Abstract and title companies are an essential element of the local economy by providing stability in land ownership. The business operated out of the courthouse until 1919 when it moved to the local masonic building until 1950. For the next forty years, the business moved several times, finally settling at this location in 1992 and developing into one of the anchors of the downtown business district. Although ownership of the company has changed through the years, Tarver Abstract Company continues to provide an important service and remains a large contributor in the development of liberty county. (2016)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center — 3.9 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

• Captain William M. Logan — steps away
• Seven Courthouses of Liberty County — steps away
• Casa Consistatorial (Courthouse Square) — steps away
• Plaza Constitucional (Municipal Square) — steps away