GONZALES, TEXAS - In the 60's I
remember taking a trip to Gonzales with my father. He parked our
pickup truck across the street from a beautiful building. I can
remember asking my father what building was that and he
replied it was the Gonzales county courthouse. He then casually mentioned
the clock was cursed. He told me to get out of the truck and walk
around the building. The four faces of the clock never show the
correct time. Sure enough he was correct, all the clock faces
showed a different time. For years I wondered what had happened to
that clock. Was it just neglect that caused the clock to fail?
Here for you is what I found when I researched the tale of "THE
CURSED CLOCK TOWER" of Gonzales, Texas.
The Clock as seen from the street |
The historic community of Gonzales was
named for
Rafael Gonzales, governor of Coahuila and Texas. The town was
constructed along the banks of the
Guadalupe River in 1827.
Byrd Lockhart in August 1832 surveyed the town on sixteen
leagues of land given for town development. As the westernmost
point of Anglo-American settlement and the closest town to San
Antonio de BĂ©xar, it was the center of much of the Texas
revolutionary activity. Gonzales has been called "the Lexington"
of the Texas revolution. For the first shots of the war took place
in this community.
Gonzales County, named for the
capital of Green DeWitt's colony, was established in 1836 and
organized in 1837 as one of the original counties in the Republic
of Texas. Gonzales was named the county seat and every county
needs a courthouse.
J. Riely Gordon began to build the "Romanesque Revival" style
courthouse in 1894. In 1896 for the crowning touch of his work he
installed on top of the courthouse tower a clock. The clock has
four faces and are on the four sides of the courthouse so the
citizens of Gonzales can always see what time of day or night it
is. The reputation of the clock was known for it accuracy.
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