A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 52

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 968

USA > Texas > A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I > Part 52

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diversifiers have made peanut culture pay in this sand. Immediately along the river the sand deepens into a red, and between Sherman and Denison sandstone, with more than passing evi- dences of iron deposit, and a tracing of copper, is plentiful. Some test shafts have been sunk for the ore last mentioned, and although the returns are not lucrative, the work has not been aban- doned. No effort to utilize the iron has been made. Prospecting for oil is being vigorously pushed by one citizen of the county. In point of excellence and marketable value, the crops raised in Grayson county equal those of any section of the Southwest. The principal crops are wheat, alfalfa, cotton, oats, corn and Irish potatoes. Barley, rye, tobacco, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, broom corn, turnips, etc., come in for considerable attention as part of general farm products and give handsome returns, while truck gardening has been found to be a paying avoca- tion, especially when conducted in close prox- imity to either Sherman or Denison. The green bug invasion of 1901 was the most severe blow received by the Grayson county farmer in twenty years, through the damage to small grain crops. All crops, including fruits, raised here have a superior hardiness, giving them qualities which encourage export. The principal fruits raised are apples, peaches, plums, pears, cherries and apricots. Strawberries, blackberries and all sorts of melons, including citron, grow well and make handsome profits. Unimproved lands are worth from $10 to $30 per acre and improved farms bring from $35 to $85 per acre, according to lo- cation. Scarcely any landlord will rent for less than $6 per acre. Improved and up-to-date farm- ing machinery is in use, and cultural methods are showing rapid advancement under the influence of farmers' institutes, led by practical men. In the matter of live stock, the disappearance of the range has not decreased interest, but elevated it and long ago marked the passing of the broncho and "long horn." The best class of driving and draught horses and mules are bred. Hog culture is quite an item, and the swine are of the best blood. Grayson county hogs have ranked high in the prize rings at Dallas and San Antonio fairs for years. Poultry culture has received careful

MR. AND MRS. C. M. ARNOLD

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

and successful attention. Manufacturing is diver- sified in Grayson county, and in that industry is represented cotton cloths, flour, iron products, patent medicines, ice, sash and doors, cotton seed products, deep well and mowing machinery, cooperage, bottling works, saddlery, wagons and carriages, etc. There are many other prominent labor-giving industries, such as cotton seed oil mills, compresses, steam laundries, cotton gins, custom mills, electric light and power plants, etc. The railroads entering and traversing the county are: St. Louis, San Francisco & Texas, fourteen miles; Red River, Texas & Southern (Frisco), twenty-four miles; Houston & Texas Central, twenty-six miles; Texas & Pacific, thirty miles ; Denison & Pacific Suburban, seven miles; St. Louis Southwestern, eighteen miles; Gulf, Colo- rado & Santa Fe (leased), eighteen miles; Mis- souri, Kansas & Texas, eighty-one miles. Total, 218 miles. Extensive terminals are maintained by the Frisco system at Sherman, and by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas at Denison. The county has unexcelled telegraph and telephone facilities. The urban population of Grayson is quite large. In 1900 the federal census showed 10,243 in Sherman and 11,907 in Denison. The estimated present population of these cities is 15,000 each. In addition thereto, Van Alstyne, Whitewright and Whitesboro have 2,000 or more each; Howe, Collinsville, Bells, Tioga, Tom Bean and several other towns, ranging from 1,000 to 300 inhabitants, are flourishing. A mag- nificent system of public free schools, white and colored, is maintained. Outside of the inde- pendent districts there are 126 white schools and 24 colored schools. Nearly all the religious de- nominations have houses of worship in the county, and there are magnificent colleges, lo- cated at Sherman, Denison, Van Alstyne and Whitewright, with high schools and seminaries in many other places. The population of the county, while thoroughly cosmopolitan, stands the peer of that of any community for respect for and obedience to the law. The climatic in- fluences and the magnificent sanitary equipments in the principal cities renders its death rate min- imum.

MONTAGUE COUNTY, also on the Red river and west of Cooke county, in 1900 had 24,800 popu- lation. Its nine hundred square miles of area is divided about equally between timber and prairie, is broken in parts, but contains large areas of level or undulating uplands, diversified by broad valleys and high rolling prairies. A belt of wood- land, fifteen miles wide, runs nearly north and south through the county, and along the Red river and other streams are other heavy wood growths. Half a dozen or more water courses drain the county, and an unfailing supply of domestic and stock water is obtained from springs and wells. Three-fifths of the county are cultivable, cotton, corn, wheat, oats, rye, mil- let and Kaffir corn being raised, and the soil is especially adapted to fruit raising, which is one of the principal industries. The county seat is situated off the railroad, its nearest station being Bowie, which is the largest town. Other centers are Belcherville, Bonita, Dye, Forestburg, No- cona, Ringgold, Saint Jo, Sunset, and Spanish Fort.

CLAY COUNTY, lying next west of Montague, bounded on the north and northeast sides for sixty miles by the Red river, had a population of 9,231 in 1900 and is one of the rapidly developing counties of this part of the state. The general surface is high, rolling prairie, with wide valleys along the numerous streams and with timber and prairie alternating in some sections. Of the total area but a small portion is too rough for cultiva- tion. The soil is described as being of two gen- eral types, sandy and sand mixed with clay. The Upper Cross Timbers run across the southeastern. corner, giving there abundant wood supply, but elsewhere the timber is not plentiful. The Big Wichita and the Little Wichita are the principal streams that traverse the county. Wheat, oats, corn, cotton and fruit are the general crops. At Henrietta, the county seat, a growing town, the Fort Worth and Denver City and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroads intersect, giving the county splendid transportation facilities. Bellevue, Newport, Vashti, Charlie and Jolly are other centers. Another feature of note is the small population of negroes, less than fifty being re- corded by the last census.

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

JACK COUNTY, similar in area to the other counties mentioned and lying south of Clay county, was formed from Cooke county in 1857, and in 1900 had a population of 10,224. The surface of the county, with an altitude at Jacks- boro of 1,400 feet, is undulating timber and prairie land, with low valleys, traversed by the West Fork of the Trinity and also by tributaries of the Brazos, as was found to be true of Parker .county. There is abundance of water, from sur- face, shallow wells and artesian sources. The prairies, covered in their natural state with sedge, long and curly mesquite grasses, make this a fine stock county, the mild climate making feeding necessary only in the mid-winter months. Timber growth is varied, pecans furnishing a large nut crop, and the soil, varying from light sandy to dark loam, is fertile and seventy per cent is tillable. Fruits of all kinds, wheat, rye, oats, barley, po- tatoes, and sorghum and hay crops are raised. There are also extensive mineral resources, coal, asphaltum, potter's clay, limestone, etc. The Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railroad passes through the county from east to west. The principal towns besides Jacksboro are Bryson, Vineyard, Cundiff, Postoak, Antelope, and New- hope.

PALO PINTO COUNTY, whose county seat is sixty miles west of Fort Worth, has an area of 971 square miles and a population in 1900 of 12,291. The surface is rugged with large hills and valleys, although there is also a large amount of fertile prairie. The Brazos river, along which the valleys lie, winds through the county from northwest to southeast, and presents in the county about three hundred miles of river front, and can be reached from the county seat by going either south, east or north. There are numerous trib- utary streams fed from mountain springs, and underground water is easily obtainable, while the rainfall seldom fails of a sufficiency for good crops. About one-fourth of the county is covered with timber, mainly post oak and cedar. The valley lands have been favored for agriculture, but the uplands and prairies are now being appropriated for that purpose. The valley soil is sandy and of great depth and fertility, while much of the prairie is black. Corn, cotton, wheat, oats, hay,

sorghum and the fruits yield good crops, and stock-raising is also a large and profitable in- dustry. With a general elevation above sea level of two thousand feet, the climate is salubrious and pleasant, and the picturesque country affords several resorts, the town of Mineral Wells hav- ing become famous for its mineral waters and one of the favorite health resorts of the south- west. Coal mining is a recently developed and important industry. The railroads are the Texas and Pacific and the Weatherford, Mineral Wells and Northwestern. Palo Pinto is the county seat, but the largest town is Mineral Wells, which also has a large transient population. Other towns are Strawn, Gordon and Santo.

YOUNG COUNTY, in the third tier of counties west of Tarrant, the county seat Graham being seventy-five miles northwest of Fort Worth, has an area of 900 square miles, and in 1900 a pop- ulation of 6,540. The surface of the county is generally rolling, the higher elevations being known as Twin and Gold "mountains" at Gra- ham, Belknap mountains, a few miles west of Graham, and Tackett mountains, still farther west, while to the southeast of Graham lie the Cement mountains. About one-half of the county is timbered, principally with post oak, and the other half is undulating mesquite prairie. The Clear Fork and the Salt Fork of the Brazos, which unite near Graham, with their tributaries drain the land surface, while the underground water supply is abundant and easily accessible. The soil is rich and varied, and both soil and climate are adapted to raising cotton, wheat, oats, rye, barley, millet and cane, and vegetables and many kinds of fruit. The hardy mesquite grass, good both summer and winter, predominates, mixed with coarser sorts, and the land, which is all under fence, is a fine stock-raising country, little provision against winter being necessary. All the very large pastures have been subdivided and sold to small farmers. The only railroad is the branch of the Rock Island from Bridgeport to Graham, since the completion of which in 1902 there has been a noticeable increase along all lines of industrial and commercial activity. Gra- ham, the county seat and principal town, has about fifteen hundred people, and other towns

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

are Eliasville, Farmer, Olney, True, Proffitt. There are thick coal deposits in the county.

WICHITA COUNTY is on the Red river, trav- ersed by the Fort Worth and Denver City Rail- way, Wichita Falls, the county seat, being 114 miles northwest of Fort Worth, and has an area of 589 square miles and a population in the last census numbering 5,806. This is one of the com- paratively new counties, having been organized in June, 1882, and its development having been rapid since the building of the railroad in the same year. The county is an extended high rolling prairie with valleys along the streams. In the extreme southwestern part there is some broken and rugged land, but at least nine-tenths of the county can be classed as agricultural lands. The soil varies from a dark mellow loam to a stiff, deep reddish alluvium, the latter principally in the Red river bottoms. The only timber is a fringe along the water courses, the Red river, Big Wichita and Beaver rivers being the principal and dependable streams. Holliday creek has been dammed five miles southwest of Wichita Falls, creating Lake Wichita with an area of three thousand acres, and supplying water for irrigating a large area devoted principally to truck farming and melon growing. The principal grain crops are wheat and oats, and there are some large stock farmers in the county. Wichita Falls is the railroad center for a large wheat country, and is an extensive shipping point, being a junction point of four railroad lines : namely, the Fort Worth and Denver City; the Wichita Valley, from Wichita Falls southeast to Seymour ; the Wichita Falls, from this town to Henrietta, being operated by the M. K. & T .; and the Texas and Oklahoma, from Wichita Falls to the Red river. Besides Wichita Falls there is the town of Iowa Park.

The next county west of Wichita and bordering the Red river is WILBARGER, with an area of 1,026 square miles and a population in 1900 of 5.759. Vernon, the county seat, is one hundred and sixty- two miles northwest of Fort Worth. The county was organized in 1881 with only fifty bona fide settlers. It was for many years the ideal resting place of the stockman and cowboy, the fine grasses and abundance of pure water, easily ob-

tained, making it a fine stock-raising country. While many are yet engaged in raising stock, the large herds have gone westward, and the man with the hoe has taken the place of the cowman. Vernon is situated on the great national cattle trail from central Texas to Dodge City, Kansas, and was the scene, in 1876 and the subsequent years, of immense cattle drives. The first farmer came in 1876, and agriculture has since become the principal industry. The soil has been class- ified into the following types: Vernon loam, Vernon sand, Vernon sandy loam, Vernon clay, Vernon fine sandy loam, Vernon silt loam. The principal crops suited to soil and climate are wheat, corn, oats, Kaffir corn and sorghum, cot- ton, melons, and fruits and vegetables. Pease and Wichita rivers and Paradise creek are the principal streams, the underground supply of water is copious, and the rainfall insures good crops. Vernon has between two and three thou- sand population, with business and industrial in- stitutions, and has two railroads, the Fort Worth and Denver City, and is the division point of the Frisco system.

BAYLOR COUNTY, adjoining Wilbarger on the south, its county seat Seymour being 150 miles northwest of Fort Worth, has an area of 900 square miles and a population in 1900 of 3,052. The surface of the county is generally level or slightly undulating, with some rough land along the streams. It is a prairie country, with suf- ficient mesquite for fence posts and firewood. Three-fourths of the county is susceptible of cul- tivation, and the soil is generally a dark sandy loam, and is very fertile. The Brazos and Wichita rivers run through the county and to- gether with their tributaries furnish a good sup- ply of stock water, while good well water is found at à depth of from twenty-five to forty feet. The state school lands have all been sold, and all the land is enclosed and only about a fifth of the county is occupied with large ranches, the rest being occupied by farms and small stock ranches. Fine building stone is one of the natural products, while the principal industries of the people are farming and stock-raising. Corn, wheat, oats, milo maize, Kaffir corn and cotton are the main crops. The Wichita Valley is the only rail-

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

road, Seymour being its present terminus. Sey- mour is a good business center, having a popula- tion of about fifteen hundred, with municipal im- provements. Another town is Round Timber, in the southeast part of the county.

TAYLOR COUNTY, next to be considered in this survey, has as its county seat the city of Abilene, the chief trading and shipping point of a large territory, this city being 161 miles west and south of Fort Worth. The county was organized in 1879, has an area of 900 square miles, and a population in 1900 of 10,499. The surface of the county is level and undulating, with a small range of "mountains" extending through it from south- east to northwest, forming a divide between the Colorado and Brazos rivers. The general alti- tude is 1,800 feet above sea level. Within the county are numerous tributaries to each of the two rivers mentioned above, and wells and springs furnish unfailing water for domestic and stock purposes and the small irrigation works of the farmers. The mesquite is the predominating wood growth, useful for fuel only, but the mesquite beans furnish nu- tritious stock forage. There are several varieties of soil, most of it productive, and the large diversity of crops include corn, cotton, wheat, oats, sorghum, potatoes, and many vege- table, fruit and nut products. Farming and stock- raising form the main occupations of the people, but there are also mineral resources, as yet unde- veloped. One-third of the county is adapted to grazing purposes, the native grasses furnishing forage for all but about two months of the year. Abilene, besides being a shipping center, has a number of business and industrial enterprises, splendid educational facilities, and other institu- tions. The citizens of the town and county are especially proud of their new government build- ing, which was completed in 1904. Abilene began planning for this institution as far back as 1881, and never ceased in their efforts until a fit place was secured in which the sessions of the federal district court and the other federal business in the city might be carried on. In the first plat of the town ground was reserved for the federal building, J. Stoddard Johnston, a resident of Louisville, Kentucky, who had large interests here churches, good hotels and business and private

being one who was very instrumental in pressing the enterprise. Delegates were sent to Washing- ton to urge the matter, but it was twenty years be- fore Congress made the requisite appropriation. The entire cost of the building was one hundred thousand dollars, and the first court session was held in the completed structure in March, 1904. The building is a handsome structure, built of stone, fireproof and with all modern improve- ments. The lower floor contains the postoffice, and the court room is on the second floor.

JONES COUNTY, the next county block of terri- tory on the north of Taylor, is 150 miles west of Fort Worth and is one of the most rapidly de- veloping sections of the state. Its population in 1900 was 7,053. The surface of the county is smooth and nearly level, ninety per cent being good agricultural land. The soils, running from two to six feet in depth, vary from a stiff black and chocolate loam to black and red sandy loam lands, both black and red being highly productive. This is one of the few successful cotton-pro- ducing counties that are adhering strictly to di- versified farming, combining stock, the different grain crops, forage and cotton. There is suffi- cient timber for fuel and all practical purposes. The Clear Fork of the Brazos and California creek, with their tributaries, afford running water and drain the county, and the underground sources of fine water are easily tapped. Irriga- tion in this section is limited to orchards and gardens, no extensive plants having yet been in- stalled. The principal crops raised are corn, cot- ton, wheat, oats, sorghum, milo maize, Kaffir corn and millet, and all kinds of vegetables. The Texas Central Railroad enters the county about the center of the east line and, running in a north- westerly direction, has its terminus at Stamford, which is the principal commercial center of the county. Anson, the county seat, with a popula- tion of about a thousand, located near the center of the county, was named in honor of Anson Jones, the last president of the Republic. Stam- ford, with a population of 2,500, was founded in 1900, and has developed into a place of first im- portance among the towns located along the Texas Central Railroad. First class schools,

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

buildings, electric lights and water works, and various industries, and many other advantages make Stamford an attractive place for both resi- dence and business purposes.

HASKELL COUNTY, in the fifth tier of counties west of Fort Worth, had in 1900 a population of 2,637. The surface of the county is very level and smooth, undulating enough to drain off the rainfall into the Salt Fork and Clear Fork and other tributaries of the Brazos river. A copious supply of water is obtained for all purposes either from the surface streams or from wells. Mes- quite timber furnishes fuel and posts, and there are several other kinds of trees along the streams. There are large bodies of red loam, sandy and black sandy soil, which, being friable and deep, require the minimum of moisture. Stock farm- ing is the principal industry, and most of the large estates have been divided up. Stamford, in Jones county, is the nearest railroad point .. Has- kell is the county seat, and other small centers are Ample, Cliff, Pinkerton and Marcy.

HARDEMAN COUNTY, the most westerly of the tier of Red river counties, has experienced a re- markable development since the Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad came through the county about 1888. Its population in 1900 was 3,634. Quanah, the county seat, is two hundred miles northwest of Fort Worth. Practically all the county is a rolling prairie. The soil is a sandy loam, underlain with gypsum. This county has, as one of its greatest natural resources, immense deposits of gypsum, which is a natural cement plaster, prepared for market by drying. Several large plants and a great amount of capital are employed in the preparation of this article, and many carloads are shipped to the eastern markets annually. Much of the cement-plaster used in the construction of the buildings at the Chicago and St. Louis world's fairs came from this county. The timber supply of the county is not extensive. Besides the Red river on the north and Pease river on the south the principal stream is Groes- beck creek, which runs water all the year, and water may be obtained by going beneath the sur- face at depths from ten to seventy feet. Irriga- tion is also being introduced on an increasing scale. The principal agricultural crops are corn,

cotton, wheat and forage, and diversified and small farming is gaining over the standard occu- pation of stock farming. The railroads of the county are the Fort Worth and Denver City; the Frisco, a branch of which has its terminus at Quanah; the Acme and Red River; and the Orient line. Quanah, which was named after Quanah Parker, a Comanche chief, has a popula- tion of about 2,500, is situated in the midst of the agricultural district, is well supplied with rail- roads, and is the center of a large wholesale and retail trade. Chillicothe is another prosperous town, and Acme and Gypsum are station villages.

This brings our survey of the counties of nortliwestern Texas up to the Panhandle and Great Plains region, a general description of which has already been given, and in the follow- ing paragraphs attention will be directed only to the more important and settled counties of this part of the state.

WHEELER COUNTY, on the east side of the Pan- handle, with a population in 1900 of 636, has de- veloped rapidly in the last half-decade. The large land holdings are being divided and small farm- ers are becoming numerous. The surface of the county is level, but well drained by the north fork of the Red river and numerous tributary streams, the county being one of the best watered in the state. The soil is dark loam and dark red sand, covered in nature with mesquite and sage grass, and when cultivated is very productive. The underground water supply is excellent, being of the sheetwater variety and found at a depth of five to fifty feet. The leading agricultural crops are corn, Kaffir corn, milo maize, wheat, oats, alfalfa and cotton, and fruits and vegetables grow in abundance. The cattle business has always been the leading industry. The south half of the county is traversed by a railroad, Shamrock and Story being stations on this line, while the county seat, Mobeetie, is without a railroad.

HEMPHILL COUNTY, the next county north of Wheeler, has been settled up considerably since the Pecos line of the Santa Fe was built through half a dozen years ago. Its population in 1900 was 815. The county was organized nineteen years ago, but the first single section of land to be sold was in 1902. There are long stretches

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of level land, suitable for grazing, succeeded by undulating hills and fruitful bottom lands. The surface is mainly rolling, interspersed with small creeks or subirrigated valleys. The altitude aver- ages 2,500 feet. There are some heavy fringes of timber along the Washita and Canadian rivers, the main surface streams. Windmills tap the in- exhaustible underground water sources and bring to the surface that used in irrigation. The prin- cipal crops are drouth resisting, such as Kaffir corn, milo maize, millet and sorghum, and the raising of these crops and cattle constitute the chief industries. Canadian is the county seat and chief commercial center, where most of the county's population had their residence at the last census.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 52

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co. Number of Pages: 968

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 968