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 July 21, 2008 | Falls County Courthouse Texas County Courthouse Project #19: Falls County (Marlin, Texas) Named for a ten-foot water fall on the Brazos River, Falls County was created in 1850. Before the Texas Revolution the town of Sarahville de Viesca, which served as the capital of Sterling Robertson’s “Robertson’s Colony”, thrived. After news of the fall of the Alamo reached Viesca, panic set in that Santa Anna’s army was approaching. The “Runaway Scrape” spread across East Texas as settlers fled their homes and towns. After the Texas victory at San Jacinto people were finally able to return, but Viesca never recovered. The Brazos river changed course in 1866 and now the river flows over only a two-foot drop. On New Year’s Day of 1839 at the home of George Morgan, known as Morgan’s Point, Indians attacked and butchered Morgan, his wife, daughter-in-law, grandson and a sixteen year old neighbor. Four others, including three young children survived and escaped to the home of their uncle. The event is known as Morgan’s Massacre. Viesca was originally selected as the county seat, but the citizens petitioned to have it moved to Adams, closer to where most of the people lived. Adams was later renamed Marlin in honor of a local pioneer, John Marlin who lived near Morgan’s Point and whose niece was the sixteen year old neighbor who was killed during the Morgan Massacre. Three of the four survivors of the massacre were two of his nieces and a nephew. Mineral water was discovered, by accident, in Marlin in 1892. Soon after the healing effects of the water gave rise to bathhouses and Marlin became somewhat of a medical town, boasting two hospitals. Between 1908 and 1918, Marlin was the spring training home to John McGraw’s New York Giants. The Giants won three pennants during that ten year span. The courthouse was built in 1939 as part of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration (WPA). This is the third courthouse I’ve been to that was built by the WPA in 1939, the other two are Gillespie County and Guadalupe County. All three have a very similar modern style. 
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