USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume II > Part 33
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
DEAF SMITH COUNTY
A portion of the vast holdings of the Capital Syndicate Ranch was located in Deaf Smith County, and for many years almost the entire area of 991,360 acres were included in great ranches, and the grazing of cattle is still almost the only vocation except along the line of railways.
Deaf Smith County was organized October 3, 1890, and the first
1
737
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
county seat was at La Plata, a village no longer in existence. When the Pecos & Northern Texas Railroad from Amarillo was completed through the county towards the close of 1898, a station was established at a point called Hereford, and a few houses soon marked the site.
This location was voted the county seat, and it has since been the metropolis of the county. In 1910 it had a population of 1,750. Here- ford has for a number of years been the shipping points for cattle ir. Northwest Texas, and besides its varied commercial enterprise is also a school town. Through the efforts of local citizens Prof. Randolph Clark, one of the founders of the noted Add-Ran College at Thorp Springs, which became the nucleus for the Texas Christian University, was in- duced to interest himself in the founding of a new college in the North- west, and as a result in 1902 the Panhandle Christian College was founded at Hereford. Other towns along the Pecos & Northern Texas are Dowell and Dawn, and there are one or two stations in the north- western corner of the county along the line of the Rock Island Road, which was built about 1910.
In 1880 Deaf Smith County had a population of 38; in 1890, 179; in 1900, 843; in 1910, 3,942, and in 1920, 3,747. The valuation of prop- erty in 1903 was $1,630,092 ; in 1913, $5,992,272, and in 1920, $7,346,780.
Like many other sections of the Panhandle, Deaf Smith County is underlaid by an abundant supply of water, reached at a depth of from 40 to 150 feet. This supply has been drawn upon for many years for stock and domestic purposes, and more recently considerable enterprise has been manifested in irrigating crops from the same source.
In 1913 more than four thousand acres were irrigated. As compared with the total area only a small portion of Deaf Smith County has been brought under cultivation. In 1910, 273,456 acres, less than a third of the total area, was included in farms or ranches, and about 86,000 acres were classified as "improved land," as compared with about 11,000 acres in 1900. There were 97 farms and ranches in 1900 and 361 in 1910. The last census enumerated 42,056 cattle ; 4,057 horses and mules, and 4,454 sheep. The chief crops in 1909 were: Hay and forage crops 18,892 acres; wheat, 7,973 acres; oats, 1,934 acres; kaffir corn and milo maize, 1,495 acres, and corn, 126 acres.
HEREFORD
Hereford, the county seat, was laid off, plotted and named when the railroad was built through the county in 1898. It took its name from a herd of pure bred, registered cattle of that famous breed then maintained near the location of the present town, on the Tierra Blanco Creek, one of the tributaries of the Prairie Dog Town Fork of Red River.
The growth of the town has been slow but gradual and constant, especially in quality.
A handsome court house, with marble outside walls, was built a few years ago, which is commodious and convenient and up-to-date in every way. The town was incorporated in 1906 and in 1912 adopted the com- mission form of government with a mayor and two commissioners.
There are five or six church organizations, which have comfortable places of worship, and two of them, the Christian and the Methodist
738
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
churches, have handsome, new brick buildings arranged and equipped in the latest way. The town is well supplied with a modern sanitary sewer system, with over seven miles of sewer lines, and with an excellent water works system, both of which are owned and operated by the city. A beginning has been made in the formation of a public library, which is being added to from year to year and now contains several hundred volumes of well-selected books. It will soon be of good size and great usefulness.
The city has fifteen blocks of well-paved streets and more in con- templation. An excellent electric plant is in operation furnishing lights and power all over town.
Two good schools supply the educational needs of the community. The Grammar School is a handsome three-story brick building erected a few years ago. The High School will soon have to be provided with a larger, better and more modern building. Now that the constitution has been amended so as to make a new building financially possible the pro- gressive spirit of the community may be trusted to vote the money to get it.
The population, including the incorporated limits and the addition, is about 2,500.
DENTON COUNTY
This county was settled first in the early forties. It is located in the second tier of counties south of the Red River and is west of Collin and East of Wise counties. The county was created from Fannin in 1846 and was organized in July of that year. The first county seat was Pinckneyville, which was situated about one and one-half miles east of the present county site. Later the county seat was moved to a new town, which was called Alton, and moved again to a new site, on the banks of Hickory Creek, about six miles southeast of the city of Denton, to a new town which was also called Alton or "New Alton." This move was made necessary because of the failure to find sufficient water at the first town of Alton. At the presidential election in 1856 the voters voted to move the county seat to what is now the city of Denton. On Janu- ary 10, 1857, the citizens and other interested individuals gathered at the new town site and an auction was held by C. A. Williams, who was sheriff at that time and is still living in Denton. From that date the town of Denton dates its existence. Pilot Point is, however, the older town and was settled and of some importance commercially several years before the town of Denton existed.
Denton County has four railroads. The Texas and Pacific runs through the county from northeast to southwest. The Gulf Colorado and Santa Fe crosses the full length of the county from north to south. The Dallas and Wichita Falls branch of the Katy was the first line built in the county and runs from the southeast corner of the county through to the north line. The St. Louis and San Francisco Railway traverses the country along the east line of the county and has two stations in Denton County and several just across the line in Collin County, which serve Denton people.
Railway stations in the county are: Denton, Pilot Point, Aubrey. Sanger, Krum, Ponder, Justin, Roanoke, Argyle, Corinth, Garza, Lewis-
739
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
ville, Mingo, Camey Spur and Hebron. Villages in the county not on any line of railway are: Little Elm, Navo, Mustang, Bolivar, Stony, Waketon and Parvin.
The census of 1920 gave the county 35,355 inhabitants. The towns of the county which were incorporated in the last census were Denton, 7,625 ; Pilot Point, 1,399, and Sanger, 1,204.
The land in Denton County is divided into three distinct belts, which are : the Elm Flat country, east of the Cross Timbers, and is a part of the Black Belt, which includes Collin, Dallas and other counties of Cen- tral Texas. Joining this on the West is the belt of timbered land which extends across Texas and known as the Lower Cross Timbers. West of this belt lies what is known as Grand Prairie, which extends from the Red River in Cooke County south and eastward to Tarrant and Johnson counties.
The east part of the county is adapted to. cotton, small grains and corn the timbered belt raises cotton, peanuts, fruit and vegetables, while the western prairies are largely cultivated in wheat, oats and other small grains and constitute what is known as the Great Denton County Wheat Belt. Denton County has an abundance of pure soft artesian water, which may be procured practically anywhere in the county by drilling from two hundred to six hundred feet.
The city of Denton, as stated elsewhere, has a population of 7,625 according to the last census, while the suburban parts of the city will bring the population well up toward ten thousand, and it is safe to say that one-third of the people in the county live within three miles of the court house at the county seat.
DENTON
The city is celebrated for the excellence and size of its educational institutions. Beside one of the strongest city school systems in the state. which boast a daily attendance of more than two thousand students, the town has within its borders two of the great educational institutions of the state in the North Texas State Normal, with a record of 3,017 (dupli- cates excluded), enrolled students in one year and the College of Indus- trial Arts for young women, which is one of the largest schools of its kind in the United States, boasting an enrollment exceeded by only two female colleges in the nation. It has a record of 2,162 students in one year.
These schools are perhaps the greatest asset the city has, although the agricultural and livestock interests are large and have grown greatly in the past few years. The Denton Dairy Association has more than two hundred members, and the daily production of milk is the largest of any single community in the state, unless it be some of the large cities where the dairy industry is spread over a much wider district. The town has two flouring mills, with a combined capacity of some seven hundred bar- rels of flour, and as much meal and feed.
A brick factory turns out the highest grade of brick in the South- west, and Denton brick are found as the finishing brick in almost all the great buildings of the larger cities of the state and neighboring states.
Other industries are a cotton oil mill, with a capacity of 80 tons of seed per day ; an ice factory of 60 tons capacity daily ; municipally
740
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
owned water, light and power plant, sewer plant, fence factory, machine shop. There are five public school buildings, representing an investment of $250,000, and the usual complement of mercantile establishments incident to a town of its size.
The people are almost all descendants of the old South, and the whole population is of a high class, with no undesirable foreign element and very few who do not boast a forward look toward better things in education and civic life.
DICKENS COUNTY
This county, in Northwest Texas, presents a broken surface, with undulating valleys, while in the northwestern portion is a section of the Staked Plains. The county was created August 21, 1876, and was organ- ized March 14, 1891, with Dickens as the county seat.
HOUSEHOLD ART BUILDING AND ADMINISTRATION BUILDING. DORMITORIES IN BACKGROUND. COLLEGE OF ARTS, DENTON
For a number of years three or four ranches covered most of the available portion of the county for ranching purposes, and the develop- ment of the county for any other purpose than grazing has been slow. The population in 1880 was only 28; in 1890, 295; in 1900, 1,151; in 1910. 3,092: in 1920. 5,876.
In November. 1909, regular service was instituted over the line of the Stamford & Northwestern Railway, now a division of the Wichita Valley. The northern terminus of this road is Spur, in Dickens County, and though the town is little more than four years old its improvement has been rapid, its population is estimated at about one thousand, and- all modern facilities and public utilities have been provided.
Of recent years many settlers have been induced to come to Dickens County, and ranch owners have cut up their pastures into farms and placed them upon the market. The farmers are growing all the West
741
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
Texas staples, cotton being the chief crop. For many years small or- chards and vineyards at various ranch homes have demonstrated the fruit possibilities of the county. Ranch owners have taken an interest in im- proving their grades and the old range animal has almost disappeared from the county. Herefords, Shorthorns and other beef cattle have taken their place.
The assessed value of property in Dickens County in 1903 was $1,352,451 ; in 1913, $3,973,744; in 1920, $4,207,925. The total area of the county is 563,840 acres, of which about 35,000 acres were reported as "improved land" in 1910. The number of farms at the last date was 349, as compared with 197 in 1900. The number of cattle in 1920 was 29,304, and of horses and mules, about 2,900. The acreage in cotton in 1909 was 5,481 ; in kaffir corn and milo maize, 2,430, and in corn, 2,014. The interest in horticulture is indicated by the numeration of about twelve thousand orchard fruit trees, and upwards of one thousand grape vines.
DONLEY COUNTY
Situated on the southern tier of the Panhandle counties, Donley was among the first of the county divisions in this section of the state to be organized. Its boundaries were formed in 1876, and in March, 1882, a county government was organized.
The county seat, Clarendon, is one of the oldest centers of settlement in the Panhandle. It was laid out as a town about 1878, at which time there was no railroad within 300 miles. The surrounding country was entirely taken up by cattlemen and their interests, but with the extension of the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad through the county in 1887 a new era was inaugurated. When Clarendon was moved from its former location on the Salt Fork of the Red River to its present location, five miles south of the original one, it began to grow and attracted many merchants, real estate men, cattle dealers and others, and was also the home center for many of the cattlemen operating in that section. Claren- don is now one of the important towns along the Fort Worth & Denver Railway, and in 1920 had a population of about 3,000.
Donley County's population in 1880 was 160; in 1890, 1,056; in 1900, 2,756; in 1910, 5,284 ; in 1920, 8,035.
Over thirty years ago, about the time the county was organized, there were estimated to be about twenty thousand cattle, besides several thou- sand sheep, horses and mules in the county, and this industry was operated in the open range, and the cattle after maturity were driven north and found their principal market at Kansas City. Clarendon at that time was said to be a village of from fifty to one hundred inhabit- ants, had two stores, and a Methodist Church. Donley, like other Pan- handle counties, has developed a substantial agricultural industry, a crop failure has never been known, and the population now find the sources of living both in the ranch and in the fields by following diversification in crops. Interest in dairying and poultry raising is increasing.
Irrigation is not necessary, for the average rainfall is 25 inches, with abundance of good shallow water. Several natural lakes are in the vicinity of Lelia Lake, a town of 500, seven miles east of Clarendon, on the Fort Worth & Denver City Railway.
742
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
It is one of the greatest alfalfa centers and shipping points in Texas. There are also several pure-bred herds of hogs that have become famous here. Hedley, a town of 800, fourteen miles east of Clarendon, is a center for pure-bred, big bone Poland-China hogs, having some of the finest herds in Texas, and it is one of the finest farming sections in the historic Green Belt of the Panhandle.
At the last census Donley had 1,000 farms. The progress in the ten- year period in agriculture is indicated by the increase in farms to a total number of 601 in 1910, as compared with 188 in 1900. The approximate land area of Donley County is 579,840 acres and the last census reported 488.721 acres in farms, with about 82,000 acres in "improved land," as compared with about 14,500 acres so classified in 1900. The county is essentially a diversified farming and stock-raising section, and the censtis enumerators found 31,896 cattle, about 4,500 horses and mules, 5,132 hogs, 720 sheep, and 24,639 poultry ; in 1920 there were : 21,464 cattle, 5,957 horses and mules, 7,200 hogs, 600 sheep, and $35,000 poultry. In 1909, 30,975 acres were planted in the cereal crops, including 19,675 acre, in corn, 766 acres in oats, 270 acres in wheat, 10,262 acres in kaffir corn and milo maize, and in 1920 this was increased by 100 per cent. The acreage in hay and forage crops was 12,108, including 679 acres in alfalfa and 8,229 acres in coarse forage. Cotton is an increasing crop, and had 4,811 acres in 1909, with about 20,000 acres in 1920, and some attention is also paid to the vegetable crops. About 30,000 orchard fruit trees were enumerated, and the statistics also showed production of grapes and small fruits.
CLARENDON
The county has five towns and cities on the railroad. They are : Clarendon, Hedley, Lelia Lake, Ashtola, Giles and Jerico.
The county has six banks, with a total deposit of more than three million dollars (November 15, 1920). The county has practically every industry that is necessary to the welfare of mankind and has a fine public school system. The school buildings and equipment in Clarendon alone are well worth over $600,000. Besides the only Junior College in the Panhandle is located here-Clarendon College, which has an equipment worth about $500,000. The church property in Clarendon is worth approximately $250,000, which shows that the people are church loving people.
Donley County has one of the best County Fairs in the entire Pan- handle and takes premiums at all of the State Fairs. In 1920 the county won second prize at the State Fair of Texas in the County Exhibits.
The Famous J-A Ranch, which was founded in 1884 by Mr. John Adair, is partly in Donley County. This ranch has more than 600 sec- tions in it.
Clarendon has paved streets, White Way, which lights up the streets, good water system, etc.
EASTLAND COUNTY
Created on February 1, 1858, and named in honor of William M. Eastland, who had been murdered while a prisoner in Mexico, Eastland County was one of the number of blocks of territory carved from the
743
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
public domain before the war by legislative enactment, but which for many years had no population to justify a county government. The county was formally organized December 2, 1873. In 1860 the Federal census enumerated ninety-nine inhabitants of Eastland County, and in 1870 this population had decreased to eighty-eight. The few settlers that remained during the '60s comprised a sort of advance guard against the forces of barbarism that still held the entire western region of Texas. From the immigration which followed the war Eastland profited to some degree, but its real development was due to railroads, and in this connec- tion some generalization may be noted with reference not only to East- land but to other counties in the same vicinity.
The decades of the '70s and '80s witnessed the real settlement of
₹
FIRST STATE BANK, EASTLAND
Western Texas. During the '70s the buffalo were finally hunted from the plains, and quickly following them came the great herds of domestic stock and the old-time stockmen. For a few years these latter were supreme lords of the domain of grass-covered prairies. Not far behind was another instrument of progress-the railroad-which invaded the cattlemen's country and, while co-operating with the stock industry, it also served to introduce permanent settlers. More than any other factor, the railroad has made West Texas a home for people. Where the rail- road has penetrated counties have been organized, towns have been built, and fences have divided the prairies from the sown fields.
In anticipation of the railway, settlement became fairly rapid in East- land County at the middle of the '70s. A newspaper correspondent writ- ing in January, 1876, said: "Six months ago Eastland City, the county seat, was laid out on the north prong of the Leon River. At that time VOL. II-20
744
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
it was nothing more than a wilderness. We now number about 250 people ; have twenty-five dwelling houses; one saw and grist mill; two large retail stores; one large stone house is being built on the public square, the upper story to be used gratis for a court house. Our county has not been troubled by the red men for two years." This last refer- ence indicates how closely the modern era followed upon the close of Indian troubles.
By October, 1880, the construction trains of the Texas & Pacific had reached Eastland City, and Ranger in Eastland County had become a reg- ular station on that road. In 1881 the Texas Central was built from the southeast to Cisco, making a junction with the Texas & Pacific. It was soon afterwards continued into Shackelford County, and these two lines comprised the only railways of Eastland County until recently a branch of the Texas Central was built across the southern edge of the county.
The settlement of the county following the railroad period is indicated by the following statistics for the ten-year periods beginning in 1860. In 1860 the population was 99; in 1870, 88; in 1880, 4,855; in 1890, 10,373; in 1900, 17,971; in 1910, 23,421 ; in 1920, 58,505. As a railway junction point Cisco was the chief population and business center of the county until the discovery of oil in the county, since which time Eastland and Ranger have larger populations, the last census showing Ranger more than 16,000 ; Eastland, 10,000; Cisco, 7,500. Cisco's population in 1890 was 1,063; in 1900, 1,514, and in 1910, 2,410. At the last census East- land had a population of 855; Gorman, 963; Rising Star, 640, and Car- bon, 479. In 1882 the only towns outside of Eastland and Cisco were Ranger and Desdemona.
In 1881 the county had taxable values of $1,077,682; in 1903, $4,575,- 172; in 1913, $9,816,415 ; in 1920, $24,037,100; in 1921, $55,000,000. The county has an area of approximately 592,000 acres, much of it rugged land and best suited to grazing purposes. In 1882 it was estimated that only about 10,000 acres were in cultivation, and the stock industry, according to assessment returns, was at that time not so important as in other counties in the same general locality. In 1910 about 420,000 acres were included in farms, and the amount of "improved land" was approx- imately 174,000 acres. There were 2,981 farms in 1910 as compared with 2,510 in 1900. The stock interests in 1920 are: 14,850 cattle, about 7,340 horses and mules, 9,560 hogs. The acreage in the principal crops in 1909 was: Cotton, 87,441 ; corn, 15,525; kaffir corn and milo maize, 1,791 ; peanuts, 1,082; hay and forage crop, 8,823; while about 179,000 trees were enumerated in orchard fruits, and about 15,000 pecan trees.
Concerning agricultural and general development of resources, a writer in the Texas Almanac for 1914 said: "An increased acreage of peanuts and other feed crops has increased the number of live stock on farms, and large numbers of cattle and hogs are marketed in a finished condition every season. Live stock raising on ranches continues as an important industry, but greatly improved as compared with old conditions in both class of animals and in methods of handling. In all sections there is progress in agricultural and horticultural lines. The small-grain crop is generally good. Cotton is grown on nearly every farm and the feed- stuffs adapted to this section yield a heavy acre tonnage. Silos are being
745
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
introduced and the practice of selling the feed crops on the hoof is becoming more general. Most farmers grow their own fruit, local mar- kets are also supplied and small express shipments are made in season. Apples, pears, plums and grapes are well adapted to climatic and soil conditions. Coal is mined several miles north of Cisco, and deposits of this mineral exist in several other sections."
Until 1917 Eastland County was a typical West Texas county, with a population of about 25,000 people, and almost wholly a pastoral and agricultural county, with a preponderating rural population. Then, almost in a night, came a dramatic and spectacular change. The dis- covery of oil in October, 1917, in the McCleskey well west of Ranger. precipitated an economic revolution in the county and ushered in the big- gest and most quickly-developed oil field in the Southwest, if not in the United States.
Some ten years ago the Texas & Pacific Coal Company drilled a number of test wells with a diamond drill in the eastern part of East- land County, with a view of extending their coal operations. Near the little village of Staff, about twelve miles east of Eastland, at a depth of some six hundred feet, they found traces of oil and gas. This discovery aroused little local interest, but induced W. K. Gordon, the general man- ager of the coal company, to pursue drilling operations with a view of developing an oil field in the vicinity. For several years and at an expense of several hundred thousand dollars the T. & P. Coal Company prospected various parts of Eastland, Stephens, Palo Pinto and Erath counties within a radius of perhaps fifteen or twenty miles of the town of Thurber, in all instances drilling only comparatively shallow wells, most of them not over a thousand or fifteen hundred feet in depth. They found nothing specially encouraging until their No. 1 well west of Strawn, which afforded small production at a depth of something like eight hundred feet, which was then assumed to be the approximate depth of the producing oil sand in this territory.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.