Hamilton, Texas: The Dove Capital of Texas

The last stop on our journey from Fredericksburg was Hamilton. On the way out, we drove through the middle of town and saw the most beautiful courthouse. I took photos while on the move and they did not do it justice so we agreed to stop on the way home...and we did.

Hamilton was established in 1855 but there wasn't much going on here at first. There were a couple of guys here who got things started: James Monroe Rice and Henry Standefer. They opened a store here, dry goods. It was named for James Hamilton, a South Carolina man who invested in Texas' Independence. Hamilton died in 1857 off the coast of Galveston when his steamship sank.

Slow growth was contributed by the Civil War followed by continued Indian Raids. In fact, there's a memorial to Ann Whitney, a school teacher who was massacred by Comanche Indians in 1867 while protecting her students. The memorial is on the lawn of the county courthouse.

They weren't in a big fat hurry to build a courthouse, either. For the first twenty years they used some other building, including James Rice's store, to take care of city business. In 1878, they built this gorgeous building. I found the photo on the internet. Unfortunately, this courthouse burned in 1886.

They built this one in 1887. Even this photo doesn't do it justice. It looked like a castle when we drove by.

Meanwhile, Charity Rice, daughter of James, married a guy from South Carolina named James Eidson. This guy had been a Confederate General during the Civil War and moved to Texas in 1869. They had a son named Arthur. James Rice and James Eidson co-owned this building, which was erected in 1908. The top floor held offices for James Eidson's law practice with his son. The bottom floor, over the years has been many types of retail. When the Eidson's stopped practicing law, the upstairs was closed off while the bottom floor continued to be retail. In 2002, when the building was sold, the new owners found all kinds of papers from the Eidsons in that upper floor.

The Hamilton Herald-News was founded in 1876 and has been continuously been publishing the newspaper ever since! They have a cool looking building on the town square. The building was originally the Hamilton Bank And Trust. The building was erected in 1912 and housed the bank until 1943. The newspaper moved into this building in 2015.

As mentioned earlier, the Rice family was very prominent. This building was built by Price Monroe Rice, grandson of James. He followed in the family footsteps and was an attorney as well. The upper floors housed his offices and the lower floor was a the Little Dry Goods store.

The Hamilton County Jail is just off the square. It was built in 1938 and, similar to most county jails from that time, the lower floor was the residence of the Sheriff while the upper floor held the jail cells. This particular jail could hold up to 14 prisoners. It served as the jail until 1991. Now it's the Hamilton County Historical Museum. By the time we got to Hamilton, the museum was closed for the day but I'd love to come back and check it out!

This is Hamilton City Hall but it used to be Perry National Bank. E. A. Perry was a guy from Missouri who came to Hamilton Texas in 1881. He was a bank cashier at the Hamilton National Bank for thirty years before he became president of this bank. The building was erected in 1923 and served as the Perry National Bank until the 1950s. I love how this town hangs on to it's history by repurposing rather than tearing down.

Here's another quirky thing from Hamilton. Just north of the town is the Oakwood Cemetery where the grave of Brushy Bill, who in 1949 at the age of 90 confessed to being Billy The Kid, the infamous outlaw. Hmm...so I did a little googling and it said that Billy The Kid was shot in 1881 sooooo...It's still a quirky fun fact.

There's about 3k people that live in Hamilton. The conditions in the area a perfect for dove. Every year they have the "Annual Dove Fest" to open dove hunting season. Hence the name, Dove Capital of Texas. It's definitely a small town. They have a Brookshire's for groceries and the only restaurant chains I saw were Sonic and Dairy Queen.

I liked it, though. As with most places, I would have like to spend a little time here. Hopefully, we'll come through here again. If you're in the area, you should check it out.