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S.W.T. Lanham Home

604 S. Alamo

 

The three story home at 604 S. Alamo features bay windows and a multi-gabled pitched roof and occupies the entire block.  The house, started in 1871 and later enlarged, was built by Samuel Willis Tucker Lanham, a native of South Carolina born in 1846.  After service in the Civil War, he married Sarah Meng in 1866, and they came to Texas that same year.  He taught school assisted by Mary Dyer, who later married Charles Goodnight.

 

He read law, and was admitted to the bar in 1869, and in 1871 became District Attorney for five counties.  In 1882 he was elected a U.S. Congressman for the ninety-eight county “jumbo” district of West Texas and served 17 years.

 

S.W.T. Lanham was the last Confederate veteran to be Governor of Texas, 1903-1907.  Governor and Mrs. Lanham had 8 children.  The Lanhams both died in 1908 and are buried in City Greenwood Cemetery.

 

Fritz G. Lanham, a son of S.W.T. Lanham, was born at the house in 1880.  He graduated from Weatherford College, attended Vanderbilt University, graduated from Texas University, and was later admitted to the Texas Bar, practicing law in Weatherford until 1917.  We was elected to Congress in 1919 and served honorably for 24 years.  He is buried in City Greenwood Cemetery.  The Fritz G. Lanham Federal Building in downtown Fort Worth is named in his honor.

 

Frank Carter, son of W.F. Carter, local merchant and his wife, Nettie, bought the home before 1920 and lived there with their three children.  Mrs. Carter remained in the house until her death in 1971.

 

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