n5zis on Flickr

Howard-Dickinson House. First brick home in county. Built 1855 by brothers, David P. and Jas. Logan Howard, settlers from Richmond, Va. The Howards made bricks with mud mill and later with a patented machine and kiln on the premises. (Howard bricks and carpentry went into the old courthouse on Square-- and most of the city's major construction in later 1800s.) Structure is iron-reinforced; has hand-wrought woodwork and oldest plastered walls in city. A frequent visitor in early years to this house was Texas statesman Sam Houston, a cousin of Martha Ann (Mrs. Dave) Howard. The home was bought 1905 by Mrs. M. C. Dickinson, the daughter of Dr. Alfred Graham, a pioneer physician of Rusk County. To the original house, the Dickinsons added frame wing at the rear. #11005