J.W. and Ruth Baines House

The maternal grandparents of Lyndon B. Johnson, Joseph W. and Ruth (Huffman) Baines moved away from Blanco, Texas in 1904, after financial losses that led J.W. to sell his house, and moved to Fredericksburg. Here he started up a new law practice and made a new modest home. The couple used cement blocks made by the company Basse Blocks, other features included “a gabled dormer with paired windows above the entryway, and jig sawn fretwork”. 

Joseph W. Baines was born in Mount Lebanon, Louisiana on January 24, 1846. His parents were Melissa Ann Butler and George W. Baines. He was tutored for years by his father and then attended Baylor University at Independence. After college he was a part of the Walter L. Mann's Texas Cavalry Regiment, in which he served until the end of the Civil War. Then he moved to McKinney in Collin County,Texas, in 1867, to study law with James W. Throckman. In 1869, he married his wife Ruth A. Huffman in Blanco, Texas. 

Ruth (Huffman) Baines was born in Rowlett, Texas on December 10, 1854. Her parents were John Smith Huffman and Mary Elizabeth Perrin. After marrying Joseph W. Baines, the couple had three children: Josefa Baines, Huffman Baines, and Rebekah Baines. Rebekah later married Samuel Ealy Johnson in 1907. Together they had five children: Josefa Hermine Johnson, Lucia Huffman Johnson, Sam Houston Johnson, Rebekah Luruth Johnson, and future president Lyndon Baines Johnson. 

 Ruth Baines sold this house a year after her husband died in 1906. While Lyndon B. Johnson never got to meet his grandfather Joseph W. Baines or spend time at the house in Fredericksburg, he was however able to meet his grandmother and see the house before it became a memorial in 2002.