Inventory of county records, Washington County courthouse, Brenham, Texas Page: 5
xiv, 159, [1] p. : map ; 28 cm.View a full description of this book.
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COUNTY CLERK
The present Constitution provides that the County Clerk
shall be clerk of the County and Commissioners
Courts and recorder of the county, whose duties,
perquisites and fees of office shall be prescribed
by the Legislature, and a vacancy in whose office
shall be filled by the Commissioners Court, until
the next general election; provided, that in counties
having a population of less than 8,000 persons there
may be an election of a single Clerk, who shall perform
the duties of District and County Clerks.1
These three functions result in this office having the respon'
sibility for recording and maintaining the largest volume of
records in the operation of county government.
Clerk as Recorder
During the Republic period the statutory duties of the
County Clerk had, to a large extent, already been defined.
The Clerk was to record all deeds, conveyances, mortgages, and
other liens on land; to record all estrays; to issue and record
all marriage licenses; to issue various types of business licenses;
and to post a list of taxpayers.2 State laws after 1846 further
required the Clerk to record deeds of trust, bonds, covenants,
defeasances, and other instruments relating to property, including
marriage contracts, powers of attorney, abstracts of judgment, and
land titles. He is also to provide an alphabetical list of all
names occurring in his records and to record all livestock marks
and brands in the county.3
Since 1903 the Clerk has been required to record all births
and deaths in the county, and since 1919, he has been required to
record official discharges of persons from military service.4
5
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Clayton, Cathy. Inventory of county records, Washington County courthouse, Brenham, Texas, book, 1977; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth25171/m1/22/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.