This was our one hundred-seventy-sixth Courthouse in Texas to visit. That means we are at 69.3% of our goal with 30.7% left to go.

The following article is from the original April 23, 1896, issue of The Gonzales Inquirer. I worked for that newspaper, located in Gonzales, Texas, from 1997-2002. The story was located on the front page of the old paper and it was crumbling away as time and the elements had taken their toll. I was able to read most of it, however, and have typed it out in its entirety. You will see in one of the paragraphs that I have noted where words are missing. This is due to a one inch hole in the page where the type was no longer there.

Every effort was made to copy this information just as it was written, including spelling and punctuation. You will observe that words which we normally capitalize, the writer of this article did not. Every effort has been made to reproduce this piece in its original form. — Murray Montgomery