OWENSVILLE, TEXAS. Owensville was on Farm Road 46 five miles northwest of Franklin near the center of Robertson County. The site was chosen in 1855 as the third county seat. David Love donated the land. A contract to build the new courthouse was let in 1855. County commissioners adopted the community's name in honor of Harrison Owen, first county clerk of Robertson County (1837–46). On August 19, 1856, the court ordered the transfer of county records from Wheelock to the newly completed courthouse in Owensville. That year also the post office opened. Owensville grew rapidly and remained the center of local government until after the Civil War. The railroad bypassed the community, however, and when the Reconstruction government appointed I. B. Ellison, who was not well received, as county judge in 1868, he moved the county records to Calvert. By an act of the Texas legislature on July 13, 1870, Calvert was officially declared the new county seat. The post office in Owensville was discontinued in 1872; it was reopened from 1895 to 1897. When the courthouse was removed, the community quickly died. In 1990 its site was marked only by a graveyard.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. W. Baker, History of Robertson County, Texas (Franklin, Texas: Robertson County Historical Survey Committee, 1970). Ivory Freeman Carson, Early Development of Robertson County (M.A. thesis, North Texas State College, 1954). Katherine Galloway, Owensville: A Seat of Robertson County (Texas) Government (Hearne, Texas: Robertson County Historical Survey Committee, 1974).
