Old Hood County, Texas Records

My high school boyfriend is a landman, and he contacted me last week trying to locate a particular type of land-related record for my county of residence that could help him in a recent project he was assigned.  He was looking for what is sometimes called "Assessor's Abstracts of Land," and everyone he talked to in the Hood County Clerk's office and county Tax Assessor-Collector's office either had no idea of what he was talking about, or no idea where such records - going back to the establishment of the county (in November 1866, from portions of adjacent Johnson County) - were.  Other counties my landman friend had worked with typically had the records he was looking for in one of those two offices.

I used to manage the Regional Historical Resource Depository (RHRD) at Tarleton State University, and have some familiarity with records in old bindings like the ones pictured below.  I hadn't seen the type of record my friend was looking for among our holdings (counties decide which records, if any, they want the depositories to store), but I had a feeling that if they existed, they'd either be at the RHRD for Hood County (which is University of Texas at Arlington, which doesn't even have a listing online of what their holdings are), OR they'd be at the Hood County Genealogical / Historical Society.

Above and below:  The first and second shelves of volumes of Hood County Assessor's Abstracts of Land at the Hood County Genealogical / Historical Society headquarters at the Granbury Depot.

The local story goes that somewhere back in time - the late 1970s, I think - these old records were being thrown out at the courthouse.  Local people interested in genealogy and history rescued the volumes and papers from the dumpster, and in 1983, the local society was granted a lease of the old Granbury train depot, which is where the records are stored and are available for use most Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday afternoons.  That's where I went today.

Above:  The last four of the 25 volumes of the Hood County Assessor's Abstracts of Land at the Hood County Genealogical / Historical Society headquarters at the Granbury Depot.

Below:  Sample page from the first volume of the Hood County Assessor's Abstracts of Land at the Hood County Genealogical / Historical Society headquarters at the Granbury Depot.

I wasn't quite sure if I had the right records, so I took the photo just above and sent it to my friend, who verified I'd found them.  I then photographed all the records he needed from 1880 through 1972.

According to page 42 of Inventory of county records, Hood County Courthouse, Granbury, Texas, published in 1974, here is a description of these records:

"ASSESSOR'S ABSTRACTS OF LAND. 1880-current.  29 vols., 18" x 12" x 3".

Register of assessor's abstract of surveys showing abstract number; county; number of land certificate or land patent issued; class, character, and acreage of land; to whom issued; year rendered; by whom rendered; and value. Arranged by section number, thereunder by block number, and thereunder by year.  SPF-handwritten.   Not indexed."

To "render" property for taxation means to list it with the tax assessor-collector of the taxing district in question. The "by whom rendered" is generally the property owner.  SPF is an abbreviation for standard printed form - counties could purchase blank volumes with the appropriate headings for this type of record.  The standard printed forms have been filled out by hand as opposed to typewritten.

These types of records can help a landman run title in reverse (the trail of ownership) on a particular piece of property.

© Amanda Pape - 2025 - e-mail me!