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 December 31, 2008 | Hardin County Courthouse Texas County Courthouse Project #60: Hardin County (Kountze, Texas) Hardin County was named for the Hardin family of neighboring Liberty County. Brothers William Hardin, Benjamin Franklin Hardin and Benjamin Watson Hardin fled to Texas from Tennessee after their involvement in the murder of Isaac Newton Porter who had made the fatal mistake of bragging about his affair with their sister. Once in Texas their legal troubles followed them and William was arrested and escaped from jail more than once. They all eventually settled in the Atascosita District in present day Liberty County and became influential members of society. Benjamin Franklin Hardin carried Sam Houston’s victory dispatch of the battle of San Jacinto to the United States Border. Benjamin Watson Hardin served as Sheriff of Liberty and became a prominent rancher. William Hardin (the one who escaped from jail twice) practiced law and became a judge in Liberty. By the time of his death he was one of the wealthiest men in Texas. In 1881 the Sabine and East Texas Railway created a new station in Hardin County and named it for the railroad’s financial backers, brothers Herman and Augustus Kountze. The Kountze brothers were bankers from Omaha who had invested heavily in railroads throughout the south. When an election to move the county seat to Kountze from Hardin (which the railroad had bypassed) came up, the brothers donated money for the new courthouse to seal the deal. The current Hardin County courthouse was built in 1959 and replaced the one from 1904 that had been razed the year before. To celebrate Hardin County’s Sesquicentennial the county constructed a replica of the dome, complete with the original pillars. The dedication for the dome took place on December 5, 2008, fifty years after the demise of the old courthouse. The addition definitely makes the ugly 1950’s courthouse more bearable to look at and makes quite an impression as you drive into town. 
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