134 of 254 Cherokee County Courthouse, Rusk, Texas. County Population: 50,845
Cherokee County, Texas
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"The Indians for whom the county was named—the Cherokees—joined by Delawares, Shawnees, and Kickapoos, began settling north of the Camino Real (the Old San Antonio Road) about 1820.
"Anglo-American settlers began moving onto land claimed by Cherokees near Linwood in the late 1820s. Indian hopes suffered another blow when in 1826 David G. Burnet obtained an empresario grant to lands north of the Camino Real, and the area south of the road fell to empresario Joseph Vehlein. "Rapid settlement began in 1834. ... the increased encroachment of settlers on Indian land led to violence. "This led directly to the Cherokee War of 1839 and the expulsion of all Indians from the county. White settlers quickly occupied the abandoned Indian farms, ... "Cherokee County was marked off from Nacogdoches County on April 11, 1846, and was organized on July 13 of that year, with the town of Rusk as the county seat. Only one family lived at Rusk then." John R. Ross, "CHEROKEE COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online Rusk is the eastern terminus of the Texas State Railroad, which operates tourists trains between Rusk and Palestine, a distance of about 25 miles. I visited Cherokee County and photographed the courthouse in Rusk on Saturday, March 24, 2012.
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State highway 110 in the East Texas woods
Cherokee County Courthouse 1889
Roof and tower removed and brick covered with stucco. Courtesy courthousehistory.com
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Architect unknown. Courtesy THC
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Cherokee County Courthouse 1941
Courtesy courthousehistory.com
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Photo courtesy TXDOT
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Although the courthouse has doors on all four facades, the main entrance in on the north side, on E 6th Street
The northwest corner of the courthouse
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The view from the east door of the courthouse, on S Henderson Street
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The southwest corner of the courthouse
The Cherokee Theater on W 5th Street
West of Rusk, on US Highway 84