This was our 209th Courthouse in Texas to visit. That means we are at 82.3% of our goal with 17.7% left to go.

The town was named after Margaret Hallett, wife of John Hallett, who bequeathed the land for the townsite. This woman’s life reads better than a novel.

Married to a seafaring man against her family’s wishes, the newlywed Halletts traveled west with a wagon whose tongue was cut from a ships mast and the sails serving as the wagon cover. He even brought his anchor.

A Veteran of San Jacinto along with one of his three sons, Mr. Hallett died, as did all the males in the family, leaving Mrs. Hallett alone with her only daughter. Fluent in Spanish and able to defend herself in two Indian dialects, she left Goliad where they had been living and returned to the original grant in Lavaca, opening a trading post and making friends with nearly everyone. She once cudgeled an Indian who was making a nuisance of himself. The Chief paid her a visit and she explained the injury should be regarded as “a knowledge knot”. The Chief laughed. Upon her death in 1863, local Indians decorated her grave. Her grave is in the Founder’s cemetery, a short distance from the Town Square.

Lavaca County is also the home of “The Archives War” in which the citizens of Hallettsville rode into Petersburg to liberate the county records, which had been removed in a disputed election over the official county seat. The Hallettsville “committee” rode into Petersburg where the Petersburgans were celebrating their “victory” with a barbecue. They not only reclaimed the records, but also ate the barbecue for their trouble. Petersburg never recovered from this, the greatest Texan humiliation, and faded into oblivion.