The old record books show the signatures of many noted men, among who were Jacob Astor, June 30, 1878; W. H. Vanderbilt in 1881; Gen. Grant, Feb. 7, 1881.
Near the top of a crowded column of signatures is the name of Jay Gould. At the bottom of the page, in the same handwriting, is the notation: “The end of Jefferson, Texas.”
An old advertisement of the Irvine Hotel appears in the 1871 directory and states: “Stages arrive at and depart from this hotel daily.”
The Post Office
The property on which the Post Office and Federal Courthouse now stand was donated by Mrs. Kate Wood, once owner of the hotel.
Today the hotel is noted for the many beautiful pieces of antique furniture. Among them is a “button bed”, a suite in carved walnut, old fashioned secretary, settees, marble topped tables, quaint lamps, a massive Chickering square piano and its stool with needlepoint upholstery, and many lovely pictures, one worked in wool, valued at $1,000.
For each table in the spacious dining hall there was a revolving silver castor with the various glass bottles for pepper and salt, vinegar, pepper sauce and catsup.
“Queen Mab”
In 1877 Jefferson gave a celebration in imitation of Mardi Gras, as put on at New Orleans, Louisiana, but called it “Queen Mab”, borrowing the conception from Shakespeare, with whose plays even frontiersmen and pioneers were familiar. The street parade was several miles in extent, made up of floats decorated with flowers and grotesques, carrying innumerable fairy folk and punctuated with bands of music with “Queen Mab” herself as central figure, the whole “blow out” winding up with a grand ball. This was an annual affair for many years.
Dr. George T. Veal of Dallas, Texas, tells us that far back in slavery times Jefferson was one of the most famed towns of the South, and was set down in the school geographies as the “Emporium of the Southwest.”