Confederate Veterans Statue Outside Parker County Courthouse Staying Put For Now

WEATHERFORD, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - A Confederate statue in Parker County will not be coming down, at least for now.

The monument has stood in front of the Parker County Courthouse for more than a century.

County Commissioners were set to accept a request Monday morning from a local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to give them the statue back.

The UDC raised the money to start building the monument back in 1915.

But before the final vote, a state level president for the group told commissioners the local chapter had no authority to make a request like this.

She said the state group wants to keep the Confederate veterans statue where it is.

With that, county leaders backed away from voting to take it down.

Now, they will likely get the State Historical Commission to weigh in, as well as look at more records from the UDC.

"You don't do things like this rash," said Parker County Judge Pat Deen. "You don't make decisions like this in a vacuum. It's been there a hundred years, and what that represents is 100 years of history to both sides of this."

Judge Deen also told CBS 11 he wants to take care of this quickly so it does not become a more divisive issue.

There have been competing groups demonstrating around the statue every day since last week.