First Ward County Courthouse

A three-story red sandstone courthouse with a domed cupola was built here in 1893, one year after Barstow was chosen as the first county seat of Ward County. The first elected officials to serve there were R.D. Gage, county judge; S.D. McWhorter, county and district clerk; W.M. Ware, sheriff and tax collector; John W. Phillips, county attorney; S.H. Parker, tax assessor; J.B. Carson, surveyor; J.J. Walker, treasurer; Pat Wheat, commissioner No. 1; W.C. Carson, commissioner No. 2; Pat Duracke, commissioner No. 3; and A.D. Irvin, commissioner No. 4. The courthouse was razed soon after the county seat moved to Monahans in 1938, and only a cornerstone remains.

Barstow, Texas · United States