Jones County was created by the Seventh Texas Legislature in 1858 and named for Anson Jones, the last president of the Republic of Texas. The Civil War, Reconstruction, and the area’s untamed wilderness delayed the county’s formal organization until 1881, when voters chose Jones City, later renamed Anson, as the permanent county seat. The first permanent courthouse was a small frame building, followed in 1884 by a purchased hotel used as a courthouse, and then by an 1886 brick courthouse that served for the next 24 years. In late 1909, the Jones County Commissioners Court, led by County Judge J.R. Stinson, decided that the county’s growth required a larger courthouse and chose Elmer G. Withers of Stamford and the Texas Building Company of Fort Worth as architect and contractor. Completed in 1910, the courthouse is an excellent example of Beaux Arts styling, with Arts and Crafts Movement influences in decorative painting uncovered during a 1990s rehabilitation on the ceiling of the district courtroom. Its notable features include the statue of Lady Justice atop the domed clock tower and pedimented porticoes with flanking pairs of ionic columns on each facade. Built of brick and Pecos Red Sandstone, it remains an important part of Anson’s architectural heritage and a center of politics and government for county citizens.