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  Texas : Features : Columns : All Things Historical

The Bell Tower

by Bob Bowman
Bob Bowman
In the mid-1890s, as Titus County completed its fifth and present courthouse at Mount Pleasant, county officials hung a large bell in a tower atop the building.

As it tolled the hours and half-hours, the bell became a beloved fixture in the town. From the bell’s sounds, people set their clocks, opened their businesses and planned their schedules.
1895 Titus County Courthouse, Texas,
The 1895 Titus County Courthouse

Postcard circa 1909, courtesy THC
But in 1940, the county removed the bell tower to add a fourth floor and in the sixties slapped an aluminum skin on the courthouse, earning it the title of “the ugliest courthouse in Texas.”
Titus County courthouse and square, Mount Pleasant, Texas, 1940s
Titus County Courthouse after the 1940 remodeling

Postcard courtesy rootsweb.com/
%7Etxpstcrd/
Although the bell no longer rang out the hours and half-hours, it was placed behind a glass case on the first floor of the courthouse.

But, thanks to Claude Alexander and the Titus County Historical Commission, the bell will soon ring again across Mount Pleasant’s courthouse square.

To build a new, free-standing bell tower and an electronic operating system to ring the bell, the Commission and others are putting together a $60,000 pot. County officials are putting up 42% of the cost, the City of Mount Pleasant is paying 20%, and the remaining funds are coming largely from engraved bricks.

To understand the bell tower project and the part that brick sales has to do with it, one must first know a little history of the Titus County courthouse.


The first courthouse was a log house built in 1847 on the present courthouse square. The second courthouse was built in the early 1850’s and the third came in the heels of the second in 1859 and lasted only eight years.

The fourth courthouse was built after 1867, but burned just after midnight on September 21, 1895. Local legend has it that a county employee was trying to cover up something and did so by burning down the whole building.

Luckily, the county had just finished a two-story fireproof vault. The county clerk and a helper had carried an armload of records into the vault after closing time on September 20, and all the remaining records were to be moved into the vault the next morning.

The county’s records prior to 1895 were destroyed, but individuals who had personal copies of deeds re-filed them with the county.
Present Titus county courthouse, Texas
Titus County Courthouse after the 1962 remodeling

Photo circa 1965, courtesy THC
After the county’s ill-fated experience with aluminum siding in the sixties, the metal skin was removed in the 1990s and the building was restored to its 1940s appearance--much to the relief of everyone.

If you’re interested in buying a brick for the bell tower, get in touch with Claude Alexander at 903-572-2897.


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November 15, 2005 Column
Published with permission
(Distributed by the East Texas Historical Association. Bob Bowman of Lufkin is a past president of the Association and the author of more than 30 books about East Texas.)

See Titus County Courthouse
Mount Pleasant, Texas
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This page last modified: November 15, 2006