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History
in a Pecan Shell
Oakville was the first post office in Live Oak County. The year was
1857. The town had been a stage stop on the San Antonio - Corpus Christi
stage line. It was also the first county seat, and the first bank
in Live Oak County was opened there.
The town was a notorious and dangerous place during the Civil War.
It took Texas Ranger Captain McNelley to clean up the lawless element
in the 1870s.
The town throve until it was bypassed by the railroad.
George West (the man George West) built a new courthouse
to replace the existing (1880) structure in the town that he modestly
named after himself. The Oakville courthouse had been constructed
in 1857.
Today, a post office (a rural branch of the Three Rivers Post Office)
and a couple of gas stations provide about the only businesses in
Oakville. It does, however, have a marked exit from Interstate 37.
See Live Oak
County Jail Building in Oakville |
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Oakville
Texas Forum
Subject:
Oakville Courthouse (and hanging tree?)
Regarding the old courthouse in Oakwood, I grew up with the Hinton
boys and they told me about their grandfather being the judge and
hanging criminals from the big oak tree. I remember seeing the tree
when I was young. I think there is more to this story. - Stephen
Allen, Round Rock, Texas, October 30, 2006
My dad was
born and raised in Oakville (born in 1935). As a child living there
I remember the Rosebrock's that lived in the jailhouse. It is also
rumoured that the big oak tree on the lot is the old hanging
tree.
I really wish the state could restore the place for future Texans.
It deserves a place in our history. Thanks for the Site - Kim
Harrod Ratliff, October 16, 2004
Julia Dunks
recently did a Master's thesis on this jail building in Oakville.
She is an architectural graduate student at UT-San Antonio. (It
is not the courthouse, which was torn down about 1941.) She said:
The Oakville jail was built in 1887 of native sandstone, building
served as the Live Oak County jail until 1919 when the county seat
was moved to George West.
In 1937 the late Slim Rosebrock paid the county $1000 for the courthouse
and jail. Because of the poor condition of the courthouse, it was
demolished. - Mary R. Johnson, Museum Director of Live Oak County,
September 11, 2003
My father knows
this building. It's the old jail house. Then it was a home to a
family once the jail was closed. - Penny Kerr, January 11, 2002
The photo
you have ... is the old courthouse. In the old days it had a wooden
gallery across one side which was later torn or rotted away. There
is a photo of it from the late l800's with this gallery in place
in THE PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF LIVEOAK COUNTY and probably other books
as well. My great grandfather signed up for the Confederate Cavalry
at this courthouse in l861. - Jim Richards, December 30, 2001
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