By GREG RUSSELL, Register Staff Writer
Gainesville —
Cooke County commissioners tabled an agenda item involving the installation of a privately funded monument to 42 men executed in 1862’s “Great Hanging of Gainesville” during Monday’s regular meeting.
Local historian L.D. Clark, who first proposed the project at a commissioners’ meeting on Jan. 14, said the granite monument would ideally be placed on courthouse grounds and include the names of all 42 hanged, plus an epitaph.
“They were lynched men who perished 150 years ago because they were loyal citizens of the United States and wanted nothing to do with the Confederacy,” he said. “And so they were standing up for their rights, and it got them hanged.”
Clark said Monday he was unsure of the monument’s cost but assured officials it would be privately funded and that money would be no issue.
A timeline for the approval of the monument installation remains unannounced.
Other meeting highlights:
• Commissioners approved an arrangement with Securus Technologies for inmate telephone use in the Cooke County Justice Center.
• Commissioners approved the placement of a sign indicating the location of Rep. Drew Springer’s office on the Cooke County Courthouse square.
• Commissioners approved the hiring process for an architect or engineer to construct a new county maintenance facility for Cooke County Precinct 2.
• Commissioners approved the following consent agenda items: monthly bills; fiscal year 2013 budget amendments; payroll and related expenses; appointment of the Lake Ray Roberts Planning and Zoning Committee for a two-year term; a lease agreement with Xerox for a copy machine for the Cooke County Court at Law office; the North Central Texas Council of Government Interlocal Agreement; a contract with Gabriel, Roeder, Smith, and Co. to perform Cooke County’s actuarial evaluation; filing of quarterly internal audits for the adult probation, Constable Pct. 1, Constable Pct. 4, juvenile probation and Justice of the Peace Pct. 4 departments; a bond for Chad Archer, Deputy Constable, Pct. 4; a maintenance agreement between Cooke County and the Facility Dude company for online maintenance software; renewal of MC-25, MC-800, and MC-3000 road oil materials with Southern Asphalt and Petroleum for a period of three months; a voting machine rental agreement between North Central Texas College and Cooke County for the May 2013 election; open meetings and open records completion certificates for Pct. 1 Constable Chris Watson; and the termination of a lease with Solis on property located at 212 E. California St. in Gainesville, which currently houses the Tax Assessor Collector’s Office.
