The town of Oakville was established in 1856 as the county seat of Live Oak County. It remained as such until 1919 when George West became the county seat.

Today the old Oakville jail and its accompanying ‘hanging tree’, along with a few scattered buildings are all that physically remains of the once thriving seat of Live Oak County. Yet, the small community will always be remembered through its rich and vivid history.

Live Oak County was founded in part by Santiago [James] McGloin, a native of Ireland and Impresario of the State of Coahuila and Texas and other Irish settlers. On Dec. 18, 1831, McGloin sent a legal document written in Spanish to Mexican authorities to claim a league of land for colonization.

A portion of McGloin’s original document is translated here, “I have selected one league of land which is situated on the Nueces River on the right margin and adjoining land of Citizen Dionicio [Dennis] McGowan on the east and vacant lands on the other sources. I offer to settle and cultivate it as prescribed by law in conformity with the law I order that the land indicated be surveyed by Surveyor Guillermo [William] O’Docharty so as to issue the title to the interested party.”

A Warranty Deed dated July 22, 1844 between McGloin and Thomas Wilson carrying the official seal of the Republic of Texas shows that McGloin sold to Wilson for $1000 and other considerations the deed for the acreage marked ‘Oakville - 640 acres’. Wilson offered the 640 acres to build a town site that was subsequently named Oakville.

Seven months later, on Sept. 8, 1856 the appointed Chief Justice, John Powell, as well as Henderson Waller and Sheriff J. W. Mays, accepted the 640 acres from Wilson for the town site of Oakville. In addition to Powell and Waller the first County Commissioners were George W. Wright, William Gambel, D.L. Wood, N. Gussett, James B. Lewis, and James M. Grover.

Recorded during a County Commissioners meeting dated Jan. 23, 1857, Wilson said, “Block number 45 is to be used as a public burying ground. Block number 42 which I donate for the purpose of having churches and schools thereon. Also the Block which is marked as Public Square; I donate for the purpose of having a Courthouse in the center thereof.”

County business was conducted at the Bartlett House hotel (formerly the Pearce House) until the Oakville courthouse was built. The actual date the courthouse and jail were built is still in question. However, a student working on her Master’s thesis in 2002 stated the Oakville jail was built in 1887.

Examination of the County Commissioners minutes of 1872 reveals “J. W. Drury was paid $25 on March 25, 1872 to erect a ‘Public Privy near the Courthouse.’” Advertisements for bids to rebuild the Oakville Courthouse ran in the San Antonio Express and the Corpus Christi Free Press in 1879. According to the minutes the reconstruction contract was granted to John Imspon and Mr. J. S. Campbell was assigned the ‘finishing work’ contract.

In 1937, W.H. “Slim” Rosebrock purchased the old courthouse and jail after the property reverted to the Wilson heirs. The courthouse was torn down in 1939 because it was in poor condition. Yet, the old jail remains. Purportedly, it is the oldest building in Live Oak County. It was recently restored as a “Bed and Breakfast” hotel owned by Albert and Marty Davila of San Antonio.

A building next to the courthouse was used by the Confederacy to signup approximately 30 men from Oakville into the Confederate Cavalry according to Roy “Buddy” Jones, a resident of Oakville and a distant relation of Henderson Waller. Jones said his grandfather told him the soldiers were shipped out of Galveston to war. Of the 30 Oakville men who ostensibly signed up, only ten Civil War records were found. They include Edward Adams, Alexander Coker, P. Lawley, A. Butler, J. T. Curry, Dr. G.P. Reagan, G. Cude, Joshua Hinton, A.E. Wheelis, and Tom Church.

Several other families helped settle Oakville in the 1850’s according to old commissioner court documents and a visual reading of headstones in the Oakville cemetery. In addition to the family names already listed, other early settlers include J. T. James an attorney whose headstone reads ‘Founder of Oakville June 22, 1856’, E. Wimmer who owned the general store and L.P. Lawley who owned the mill. Dr. Green Pryor Reagan (previously mentioned) was the town doctor and pharmacist. M.A. Pearce was the hotel proprietor.

When Pearce died his widow sold the hotel to John R. and Angeline Bartlett. The house came to be called the Bartlett House. Without delay the Bartlett’s put up a sign that read: New Management, Polite Attention. Feed yard in Connection. Rates were $1 per day, boarding and lodging, $12 per month.

Additionally, other early settlers were the Bell, Boutwell, Cade, Cox, Crawford, Hagy, Martinez, McCowens, McMurry, Moore, Nations, Odom, Ramey, Talley, Tullis, and Van Meter families.

Jones said he heard a legend that an Englishman was traveling though Oakville in 1863 and the traveler made some disparaging remarks about the town of Oakville. The Englishman allegedly said, “The banks are steep by the river. Oakville is an awful settlement of twenty huts and the women were awful anxious.”

Despite the unwarranted commentary, Oakville grew into a thriving town that was soon shipping cattle, horses, cotton, and wool. The town boasted more than a dozen stores, with a hotel, a livery stable, and a cotton gin. The Oakville Baptist Church was fully established by 1857 as well as the county’s first post office.

According to a descendent of Mrs. Jewel Lemley, the Oakville Postmaster from 1944-1964, the post office was moved at least twice before it came to be part of Lemley’s home. A few years after Lemley’s retirement, the post office was moved and subsequently moved once again during construction of Interstate 37.

It was then moved to a newer building that is now known as the Oakville Mercantile. The building is not the original post office building as some believe; only the brass post office boxes and window are original (front facade).

The town continued to blossom with the establishment of the Live Oak County Leader (later the Times) in 1891 by T. R. Atkins and Miss M. E. Atkins. The county’s first free school building was established in 1881, and in 1899 Oakville established the county’s first independent school district. Files compiled by Thelma Lindholm called The Schools of Live Oak County state Miss Patti Louise Reagan (1873-1922) daughter of Dr. G.P. Reagan started her teaching career at the age of sixteen.

At that time Oakville had two other teachers, Sam Thompson and Thomas Belt. “Miss Patti held a second grade certificate and she secured her Life Diploma from Sam Houston College Normal on May 29, 1895.” Teachers were paid by tuition fees. The fee was 7 ½ cents per day per pupil. The county guaranteed payment of this tuition for ‘orphans of widows’. In 1917 the Live Oak County High School held their first graduation.

Various articles are available at the Live Oak County library and online that are filled with excerpts of Oakville’s daring frontiersmen that allegedly settled arguments with a six-shooter. One such manuscript stated, “When a man went on trial in those early days, he generally got justice tempered with mercy. But there were many tried outside the established courts that often got justice also, but not tempered with mercy for house thieves and cow thieves.”

Jones came upon a more recent article about the last Native American fight in southwest Texas. Jones found it in the June 2000 issue of South Texas Traveler magazine; it was written by Anna Mae Tullis Edwards, the granddaughter of Andrew Mitchell Tullis. In 1872, A.M. Tullis was just a youth. He took it upon himself to help feed the family and went out to hunt wild hogs.

While hunting he saw a herd of horses guarded by two men. Suspicious that the horses might have been stolen, he decided to investigate. Tullis approached the herd and discovered that several of the horses belonged to his father. He started to cut the Tullis horses from the herd and the two men began shooting at him. Tullis returned their fire but he had few cartridges. Tullis suddenly realized the men with “long headdresses streaming in the wind” were Native Americans. Tullis rode his horse into the brush for protection.

The next morning Tullis’ father and a dozen men went after the Native Americans determined to recover their horses. The posse followed the Native Americans’ trail into McMullen County where they were enjoying roasted meat. While the Native Americans were peacefully camped, Tullis and his posse opened fire and killed all the Native Americans.

According to the Handbook of Texas Online, “Oakville and the region became a ‘hotbed of lawlessness’ during the Civil War and remained so until Capt. Leander H. McNelly and his Texas Rangers cleared out the outlaws in 1876.”

Yet a horrific incident occurred December 20, 1914 when Harry Hinton, a descendent of J. Hinton (Civil War vet and town settler), was a Deputy Sheriff. According to Jones, “Five days before Christmas in 1914, Hinton was bringing dinner to two inmates.

Hinton was in a crouched position and one of the inmates struck him with an iron and killed him. Hinton was found the next day in the open jail cell.

One inmate stole a horse and rode west to Tilden. The other inmate hid near Sulphur Creek and was quickly captured by Sheriff Charles Tullis, a descendent of R. Tullis (early Oakville settler). The inmates were subsequently thrown back into jail.

Questions came up as to how the inmates acquired the iron. According to Jones, “A man that was always ‘hanging around’ the jail yard was accused of smuggling in the iron.” When news spread over the town of Hinton’s death the townsfolk took the matter into their own hands, enrolled themselves as vigilantes and hung the man at the jail yard ‘hanging tree’.

However, Jones insists they hung the wrong man. Jones alleges, “The man that really smuggled in the iron grew up to be a WW I and WW II hero. He was so riddled with guilt he eventually hung himself sometime in the 1960’s.”

Whether that portion of the story is truth or rumor, public records show the two inmates were swiftly tried, convicted, sentenced to hang. In early 1915, Tullis carried out the executions: one man was hung inside the jail and the other on the ‘hanging tree’ in the jail yard.

Oakville began to decline, shortly after the hangings when a portion of the railroad tracks from Corpus Christi to San Antonio known as the Crystal City & Uvalde Railroad (later the San Antonio, Uvalde & Gulf Railroad) were built between Dinero and Hamiltonburg (Three Rivers) bypassing Oakville.

During the same period of time, a wealthy rancher and landowner, George West was campaigning to move the county seat to his town by offering land and $75,000 to build a new courthouse.

Additionally, the aforementioned railroad was passing through his ranch land with train depots in George West and Kittie.

Consequently, the town of George West officially became the county seat of Live Oak County in 1919.