Eugene Thomas Heiner
With that in mind we set out on Memorial day to visit two of those buildings with a few more along the way. One of the buildings was destroyed by fire but they saved the cornerstone so I was able to photograph it. We visited a cemetery and a War Memorial as well.
Here are photos from our day
Waller County Courthouse ~ Waller, Texas Built 1955
Waller County Centennial Time Capsule Buried May 05, 1973 To be Opened May 05, 2023
From there it was on to Austin County in Bellville, Texas.
The Courthouse there was originally a Eugene Heiner Courthouse, but it burned and the only thing remaining are a few pieces. Thankfully they did preserve some things from the original building. Here is the bell and the cornerstone.
If you will notice the bell is burned at the top.
Here is a pic of the cornerstone with Heiner’s name on it:
The plaque:
Down the street is a cool old building, The Austin County Jail.
Then it was on to Columbus, Texas for the Heiner designed courthouse that is still standing. Columbus County Courthouse. And it is a beautiful building and a beautiful town square. So lovely.
A close up of the top showing the clock and the engraved name.
I thought this was an interesting cornerstone for the age of the building. It is the original.
This tree was across from the courthouse and as I love old trees I had to take a photo. It does have a historical marker because they held court there before the courthouse was built. But the most interesting part to me was court was held by someone name “Three Legged Willie”. Hummmmm
Confederate Memorial Museum
The old Stafford Opera House seated 1000 people. The opening performance was “As In The Looking Glass” and starred
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Lillian Russell
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Harry Houdini also performed there.
Most of you don’t know that I have Lupus. I had left my Solumbra Sunshirt in my other motorcycle bag so I had no shirt to wear while we were in Columbus looking around. My skin, when in the sun for any period of time, begins to feel like it is literally burning off and I will start to get sick. Well, this was starting to happen. Instead of looking around at the rest of the historic homes we started back to a BBQ place we had scouted out on the internet and had passed on the way.
Mikeskas BBQ was one of those places that had a special ‘charm’ all it’s own. I’m not one that really likes those animal heads that people hang on the wall. Let’s just say Jerry Mikeska likes his animal heads. And not only the heads, the whole animal too. As you recall I mentioned I was a bit sun sick so we got our food and sat down and I was remarking how there seemed to be a lot of animal heads and wasn’t that strange. Jer said that yes there were a few. After a while I began to feel better and started to get my wits about me and I realized that yes, there were a few animals there. Here is a view of the lovely chandelier at the restaurant:
And here are my dining companions. Now I ask you, has Jerry Mikeska overdone the animal head décor or is it just me?
We headed back to Bellville and went to Oak Knoll Cemetery to find the grave of famous baseballer Ernest Anyz Koy. After walking several sections I finally (with a little divine help) found him.
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After photographing him we turned around and found to our surprise a Houston Firefighter and someone Jerry knew.
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Larry Stanley
And a Vietnam Veteran:
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John Marquis
Turned around and saw this soldier:
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Zeferion Colunga
Very sad story…..
Right down the street was the Austin County Veterans Memorial.
Heading home:
On the way home we saw a huge farm that had a tall fence with barbed wire on the top. They had some type of exotic deer enclosed in there. How appropriate to end the day with the poor animals that will soon be hanging on Jerry Mikeska’s wall….
