Turner-White-McGee House
a.k.a. Bridges House
Off U.S. 96, Roganville, TXThe Turner-White-McGee House in Roganville, Texas is one of Texas' best-preserved examples of the Early Texas vernacular frame house common on the frontier and an important link with Jasper County's settlement period. Built c. 1840 the house retains its original form and much of its original materials. Situated on an undeveloped tract of forested land, just outside the rural community of Roganville, the Turner-White-McGee House represents an accurate picture of the style and setting of an Early Texas frontier dwelling.
Jasper County was one of the original Republic of Texas counties, created on March 17, 1836, and organized in December. The John Bevil homesite, first settled in 1824, was named Jasper and became the county seat. In 1829 the area had been included in the empresario grant of Lorenzo de Zavala and 1835, Ruffin C. Turner from North Carolina applied to the Mexican Commissioner in Nacogdoches for permission to settle in the Zavala Grant. Turner and his family were granted title to a league (4428 acres) on June 23, 1935. The tract of land, known as the Ruffin C. Turner league, abstract No. 39, Jasper County, Texas, was located in the Municipality of Bevil in the southeast part of what later became Jasper County. Not long after Turner was awarded the league, the city of Belgrade was founded on the Sabine River about 23 miles southeast of Turner's property and the city began to flourish as an early trading center. Turner's house was located on the main road between Belgrade and Jasper and a portion of this road still follows the same course, giving access to the house. The community of Roganville was not established until 1898.
The date "1838" was carved into one of the window sills and may be the date that Turner began construction on the house. According to tradition, completion of the house took two years and the Turners finally moved into their permanent home in 1840.
The Ruffin Turner family left Jasper County in 1852, selling their house to Edwin White, a farmer from West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. The Whites remained in this house until after the Civil War but transferred the title to L. H. McGee on December 15, 1866. The McGee family owned the house for 29 years, longer than any other owner.
For a few years from 1911-17 Mr. E. S. Stone, general manager of the Kirby Lumber Company's plant in Roganville, owned the house and the surrounding 200 acres. Mrs. William H. Bridges, a niece of Mrs. Stone's, spent her childhood summers here and when the property was placed on the market again in 1938, Mr. and Mrs. Bridges bought the house. Their nephew, John Blake is the current owner.
Bibliography
Smith, Marie, History and description prepared for application to the National Register, 1976.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.