Courthouse Living

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  • Tex and Smoky, his saddle horse, relax on a summer afternoon in 2019. Courtesy/Enola Gay Mathews
    Tex and Smoky, his saddle horse, relax on a summer afternoon in 2019. Courtesy/Enola Gay Mathews
  • Tex (third from left, front row) stands with others in this 1965 Texas Department of Public Safety headquarters in Mount Pleasant. Of the 10 DPS District 1-B7 officers serving Northeast Texas in 1965, five are still living.
    Tex (third from left, front row) stands with others in this 1965 Texas Department of Public Safety headquarters in Mount Pleasant. Of the 10 DPS District 1-B7 officers serving Northeast Texas in 1965, five are still living.
  • Tex carries the United States flag with his granddaughter, Gracie, on back of Smokey, his horse, in the 2019 Hopkins County Dairy Festival Parade with others in the Hopkins County Sheriff’s Posse.
    Tex carries the United States flag with his granddaughter, Gracie, on back of Smokey, his horse, in the 2019 Hopkins County Dairy Festival Parade with others in the Hopkins County Sheriff’s Posse.
  • Tex stands in front of his cabin on his property in this 2019 photo. Courtesy/Enola Gay Mathews
    Tex stands in front of his cabin on his property in this 2019 photo. Courtesy/Enola Gay Mathews
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Roger Maynard last known living person to have lived in county’s iconic building

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This is a story about the only living person to have resided inside the Hopkins County Courthouse. I have this on good authority, because that person told me the story himself recently.

Roger "Tex" Maynard, Special Texas Ranger, charter member of the Hopkins County Sherrif's Posse's mounted patrol and former Hopkins County Constable Precinct 1, began his law enforcement career with the Texas Department of Public Safety, and that career quickly became much more colorful once he arrived in Hopkins County, where he eventually settled, made his home and raised his family.

It was Dec. 10, 1965 when Maynard arrived in Sulphur Springs after receiving orders for transfer to the DPS office serving Hopkins, Wood and a few other surrounding counties. He had been serving at the DPS Driver's License office at Sherman, Texas in Grayson County, and because the re-assignment came up quickly, he arrived in Sulphur Springs without a vehicle or a place to live.

He had elected to leave the family car with his wife, Marie, and baby daughter, so he didn’t have transportation of his own when he reported for duty. He figured that would be alright, because he would be sharing a patrol car during his shifts.

At that time, DPS office 1-B7 was on the second floor of the Hopkins County Courthouse. To Maynard, the office looked really small, containing just a small red table, chair and filing cabinet squeezed into a cubbyhole between the offices of Justice of the Peace DeWitt Loyd and County Attorney John Perry.

"I met my new partner, Don King, and along with John Odom, that made three of us in the office to serve the large district. At that time, I had no idea of the wild and woolly adventures awaiting me in this new role,” Maynard said. “I had previously been working in a driver's license office, and I was just 25 years old, fresh out of the Army and Highway Patrol School in Austin.

“Well, it's true that my training had prepared me to be hired as a DPS Highway Patrol officer, but I would gain a lifetime of valuable experience while serving here over the next 28 years of my career. But for now, where was I going to stay until my family could re-locate from Howe, Texas? And could we afford a place since my budget for rent would only be about $100 a month, tops? The answer to my problem came from County Judge W.B. Kitts, to 'just bunk in the courthouse until you can find a place to live'. And so I did."

On the third floor of the drafty old building was a room with a sign on the door that read “Jury Room.” In it were about a dozen old Army-style cots. At that time, when citizens were called to jury duty from a distance away — 15 or 20 miles or more — from the Courthouse and might not be able to return for each day's session if they had to travel by horseback or wagon, the jurors could stay in the jury room.

The courthouse used steam heat with radiators along the walls, and it had indoor plumbing. This made the jury room fairly livable.

The janitor, known as "Doc,” stayed up there full time and was on site in the courthouse at night.

“So, I just picked a cot at the other end of the room from where he had his space,” Maynard said, “and we both slept fairly well as I remember, except for the sometimes rowdy noise from people hanging out on the square. But, of course, I was looking for more permanent quarters.

“A few nights later, my partner, Don King, received a late-night call at his home and came to pick me up. We went out to a location south of Martin Springs and handled the call without incident. But on the way back in, Don told me about a house on Church Street he'd heard of that was for rent. He drove me by to check it out. It looked like it would do for us, and when I found out it would be only $60 per month, I said I'd take it.

“That was sure good news. I called Marie, and soon enough, she was ready to come to Sulphur Springs. Don came through for us again by borrowing a cattle trailer from a friend and helping me move my family and our furniture to Sulphur Springs.

“We actually moved in on Christmas Eve 1965 with just enough time before the stores closed downtown to do some quick Christmas shopping. At a store, maybe it was Babcock's, on the east side of the square, we bought a little pedal car for Tammy to play in. It sure was a good Christmas just being together, and that ended my 10 days’ residence inside the Hopkins County Courthouse.

“To my knowledge, I am the only law enforcement officer who was on duty in Hopkins County back then, whether city, county or state, who is still living,” Maynard said.

In the mid-1960s, the Hopkins County Sherrif was Delphie Leewright. He had a little office in the old jail, and he had six deputies on his staff. The Sulphur Springs Police Chief was Ernest Morton, and he had eight officers. Others on the county payroll were Liquor Agent Wayne Woods, Game Warden John Jackson and Constable Gird Grant.

“The local DPS office had three of us, but our District Headquarters was in Mount Pleasant with 10 employees total,” Maynard said. “Between us, we covered Titus and Red River counties too and basically everything starting north from the Red River to the Sabine River south of Rains County.

“Back then, everybody helped each other. Nobody tried to hog the scene when we worked an accident, and there would often be numerous officers at an accident site. There was lots of co-operation, and there was plenty of work for us too, which kept us quite busy enforcing the law within our counties and sometimes beyond.

“But I want you to know, the bravest peace officer I ever saw or worked with in person was Sherrif Leewright,” Maynard said.

One day while out on patrol, they received a radio call concerning a man in the Pickton area who supposedly was "on his way to his home to kill his wife.” The men headed straight to the location.

“I was driving and my partner riding with me, and we followed in pursuit, using the directions and landmarks we had been given. The Sherrif was headed there too, because he knew the man and where he lived,” Maynard recalled.

“When we arrived on the scene, we followed the 'procedure to approach a suspected gunfight,’ which means we waited outside our patrol cars, leaving the doors open to use as shields, as we were trained to do. We were crouched down with our weapons pulled when the Sherrif arrived on the scene.

“Deputy Joe Bevill was driving the Sherrif's car, and when they pulled up at the front of the house, the Sherrif bailed out of his unit on the passenger side and ran full speed toward the chain link gate. He never tried to stop and open the gate, he just knocked it off the hinges and kept running. He jumped up onto the porch, and then he hit the screen door and the wooden door with his shoulder, knocking both off the hinges, into the living room and went right on in.

“In about 30 seconds he stepped back out on the porch and said, ‘It's over, boys'. The man had committed suicide after he killed his wife there at the home,” he said.

The old jail was behind the courthouse in the ‘60s. It was connected to the courthouse by a stairway and an above-ground walkway that was two stories high, which was how prisoners were taken to and from the jail and courthouse.

“Very seldom would a woman ever be jailed in Hopkins County, but when that was necessary, there was one isolated cell separate from the main jail used for male prisoners, Maynard explained.

“Back before drugs became prevalent, we were kept pretty busy because of alcohol and handling calls about people who were rowdy or under the influence of alcohol. This was true during my days on Highway Patrol and then during my 18 years as a Constable.

“Times have really changed since then,” he said. “But actually, people are still the same. They still break the rules and the law has to intervene.

Maynard said that modern technology, like Global Positioning Systems, have been a tremendous help to law enforcement personnel.

“Not that many years ago, we'd find a location by landmarks, like 'turn after Mitchell's hay meadow,’ or 'the house right after two curves in the road,'” Maynard said. “Now, computers provide indispensable support for law enforcement. But they will never replace the personal touch in this profession, because so often a situation still comes down to one-on-one. I hope officers never have to lose the human aspect of law enforcement.”

I am proud to say this public servant is my friend and probably yours too. Maynard, originally from Smith County, Texas, built his home in southern Hopkins County where today he and Marie raise cattle and hay and enjoy their 12 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.