USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume II > Part 36
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
The population of the county in 1880 was 56; in 1890, 203 ; in 1900, 480 ; in 1910, 3,405, and in 1920, 4,663. The Kansas Southern division of the Santa Fe System was constructed across the northwest part of the county during the latter '80s, and in 1903 the Rock Island Line was built along the southern part of the county. The county seat is LeFors, no town at this time as it is off the railroad and has no accom-
763
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
modations, while an important town is Pampa, located in the north- west part of the county, on the Santa Fe Railway line in the great wheat growing belt. It is probably the largest wheat shipping point on that line, having shipped in 1919 about 2,000,000 bushels of wheat and a large amount of maize and kaffir corn and other products. There are also large shipments of cattle made from this point.
Pampa has a population of about 1,200 inhabitants. The school facilities are excellent and a high school building, valued at about $100,000, is being completed. There are three churches, two banks, the First National and the Gray County State Bank, and a dozen mercantile establishments and five large elevators, several machine shops and tractor repair works. Pampa has the distinction of having the largest tractor demonstration and tractor school in the state of Texas each year.
Gray County has several state highways. Highway No. 33 con- nects with Highway No. 12, leading west from Elk City, Oklahoma, at the state line, thence west to Wheeler, Mobeetie, Pampa, Whitedeer, Panhandle, Amarillo, Canyon, Hereford, Farwell and across New Mexico back into El Paso, Texas. The intracounty state highway, to be known as the C-P-S., leads off from No. 5 at Clarendon, north to Pampa, crossing No. 33 here, and north to Spearman, crossing the Canadian River at the old adobe walls fighting grounds, and connects with the Oklahoma State Highway at Guyman, Oklahoma, which runs north to Lamar and Denver, Colorado. The A. B. O. Pass Highway has its beginning at the Abo Pass Mountains in New Mexico, follow- ing state highway No. 33 from Farwell, Amarillo to Pampa, and turns north and follows the Intra County State Highway to Miami, Cana- dian, and on to Kansas City, Missouri.
Allan Reed, another town in the southern part of the county, on the Rock Island Railroad, has one bank, good schools and churches and the Postal Highway passes through the town from Oklahoma City to Amarillo.
The town of McLean, in the southeast part of the county, on the Rock Island, has two banks, excellent schools, several churches. It has good business houses, is a great shipping point, is surrounded by a fine farming country and ships a large tonnage of watermelons and fruits.
In 1903 the assessed valuation in Gray County was $1,244,000; in 1913, $3,564,083 ; in 1920, $4,222,723. Agricultural progress is reflected in the increase of improved land from about 9,000 acres in 1900 to about 100,000 in 1920. The total area of the county is 575,360 acres. The last enumeration reported 26,902 cattle, 6,132 horses and mules. Considerable interest is being manifested in horticulture, and the last enumeration reported about 12,000 orchard fruit trees and a number of small vineyards and other fruits.
HALE COUNTY
Hale County has been in the line of development in the Plains country of Northwest Texas for a long time. It received a consider- able share of the population that peopled the Panhandle, and though
764
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
remote from railways until recently, it sustained a larger population and had greater wealth than any of the adjoining counties. While the counties to the east and south had a mere handful of inhabitants up to the beginning of the present century, Hale County in 1890 had a popu- lation of 721; this increased by 1900 to 1,680. One of the chief reasons for the early development of Hale County is found in its topography. The following description, taken from a statistical re- port of 1903, explains the conditions which favored the early stockmen and farmers. The county "is situated in the center of the Staked Plains, and is one level prairie from center to circumference, almost every acre of which can be cultivated. It has no rivers, creeks, hills, mountains or forests. The only watercourses of any kind are from slight depressions called 'draws,' which trend from northwest to south- east. The drainage consists of a succession of saucer-shaped basins, varying in size from 1 to 1,000 acres, and so situated as to form the most perfect drainage and yet retain every drop of the rainfall. On this account a small rain here does as much good as a large rain does in a country where most of the water is carried away by creeks. Many of these basins hold water the year round, and hence are called surface lakes. In any of these draws water can be had by digging to a depth varying from ten to twenty feet." The existence of an inexhaustible underground lake was understood a number of years ago, and this supply was formerly made available largely through windmill pumps. and the water stored in earthen tanks for stock and other use.
The soil of Hale County is notably fertile, and the level surface offers ideal conditions for irrigation. Aside from the watering of small garden patches and fruit orchards, irrigation made little prog- ress until within the last four years, and agriculture was largely de- pendent upon the natural rainfall, supplemented by unusual favorable conditions for dry farming. In about 1910 was introduced a new phase in irrigation methods, the remarkable results of which can only be estimated, but which in the course of a few years must revolutionize agricultural productions in this county. In that year a deep well was sunk and by means of gasoline power and some centrifugal pumps water was brought to the surface in such abundance that the irriga- tion of a large field could be dependable and highly profitable. Since then many such wells have been put down without a single failure, and in some cases these flow to as much as 3,000 gallons per minute. While much private capital has since been invested in irrigation plants in Hale County, perhaps the best proof of confidence in its possibili- ties is found in the fact that the Pearson Syndicate of New York and London recently incorporated the Texas Land & Development Com- pany, bought more than 60,000 acres of land in the vicinity of Plain- view, and is now developing a large plant for irrigation, the total in- vestment being estimated at more than $3,000,000. Where irrigation has been employed, some remarkable crops have been produced. Hale County is one of the chief centers for the growing of alfalfa, and wheat, oats and the staple forage crops of the northwestern counties also yield abundantly. Hale County is also coming into fame as one of the principal fruit sections of Northwest Texas. Hale County wheat has
765
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
taken first premiums at the Dallas State Fair for three years, and in 1913 the county's products won seventy first and second premiums at the same fair, more than all other counties combined, in the competi- tion in farm, garden and horticultural products.
Hale County was created in 1876 and was organized with a local government August 5, 1888. In 1903 its assessed valuation was $1,- 697,875 ; the rapid growth of the next ten years is indicated by the figures for 1913, which were $8,547,561 ; in 1920 they were $14,135,805. While the county had a population of nearly 2,000 at the beginning of the present century, it was still without railways. The towns in the county in 1903, all of them small, were Plainview, the county seat, Hale Center, Petersburg and Running Water.
In 1907 the line of the Pecos & Northern Texas was extended from Canyon City south to Plainview, and by 1910 had been extended south to Lubbock. About 1910, a branch of the same road was built east from Plainview through Lockney to Floydada. The railroads have been followed by rapid development along all lines, and several towns have sprung up, including Abernathy, Ellen and Finney. Plainview, which seven or eight years ago was described as merely a point on the cowpath across the plains and sixty-five miles from a shipping point, had a population in 1910 of 2,829, and now claims more than 5,000. It is a prosperous little city with many improvements, has $50,000 invested in public schools, is the center for the Wayland Bap- tist College and the Seth Ward Methodist College ; has ten churches, three national banks, flour mills, elevators, wholesale houses, and is the logical market center for the great irrigation and stock farming districts of Hale County. The live stock and agricultural development of the county up to 1910, before the introduction of irrigation on an ex- tensive scale, is exemplified in some figures from the last census report. At that time there were 731 farms in the county, as compared with 259 in 1900. In 1900 only 20,000 acres were classified as "improved land," but by 1910 this had increased to about 127,000 acres. The total area of the county is 663,040 acres, of which 379,679 acres were in farms or ranches in 1910. Live stock statistics: Cattle, 2,050; horses and mules, 7,550; hogs, 4,430; sheep, 13,600. In 1909 the largest acreage was devoted to hay and forage crops, 28,570, including 3,619 acres in alfalfa ; in kaffir corn and milo maize, 14,329 acres were planted ; corn, 5,757 acres ; wheat, 2,862 acres ; oats, 941 acres, while the horticultural resources of the county at that time were indicated by the presence of about 70,000 orchard fruit trees and about 12,000 grape vines and other fruit.
HALL, COUNTY
The first Panhandle railroad, the Fort Worth & Denver City, com- pleted in 1888, crossed the northeast corner of Hall County and in- augurated an era of town building and agricultural development in a section which had for a dozen years been pre-eminently the home of the stockman. At the census of 1880, Hall County had a population of only 36. By 1890 the inhabitants numbered 703, and in spite of the hard conditions which prevailed here, as elsewhere, during the '90s, the population by 1900 was 1,670. Since the beginning of the
766
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
present century, Hall County has become well settled, and in 1910 the census enumerated 8,279 people residing within its boundaries ; in 1920, 11.137, showing 34.5 per cent increase. The county seat is Memphis, one of the flourishing towns of the Panhandle, with a popu- lation in 1910 of 1,936; in 1920, 2,855. Two other railroads towns are Newlin and Estelline, while several other postoffices and store cen- ters are found in the back districts of the county.
Hall County was created in 1876 and was organized June 23, 1890. While the early agricultural settlers in this and other sections of the Panhandle fell short of success because they depended upon methods long in vogue in other states, the modern farmers of the present cen- tury have conformed to local conditions, and in consequence Hall County produces an important share of the splendid aggregate of crops raised in the Panhandle. In 1900 there were only 219 farms and ranches in the county, but by 1910 this number had increased to 1,028. The total area of the county is 576,640 acres, of which 458,250 acres were in cultivation, and by 1910 about 117,000 acres were "improved land." Cotton is still the leading money crop, but diversified farming is increasing and the growing of the Panhandle staples, including alfalfa, along the bottoms of the Red River Valley, and also horticul- ture, are receiving greater attention every year. In 1909, 51,649 acres were planted in cotton; 14,317 acres in hay and forage crops, includ- ing about 200 acres in alfalfa; 11,649 acres in kaffir corn and milo maize, and 10,850 acres in corn. About 16,000 orchard fruit trees were enumerated and most of the homeowners raised fruit and vegetables. The last census reported 21,350 cattle; 7,065 horses and mules. In 1903 the valuation of property in the county was $1,838,331; by 1913, the valuation was $5,982,217, and in 1920, $9,701,273.
COUNTY SEAT
Memphis is the county seat and has some 3,000 population. The city has all modern conveniences and improvements. Three $30,000 churches, a $50,000 high school, two ward schools, a Carnegie Library and an abundance of shade trees, with thirteen miles of sidewalk, make the town an ideal one. The best and purest water supply of the entire Panhandle furnishes Memphis with drinking water and an abundance for all other domestic purposes. This water flows from under the plains, coming out in the foothills five miles above Memphis and is brought to the city by gravity pipe line. No steam pressure is needed to force the water for fire protection. Three banks, three wholesale houses, together with the most up-to-date mercantile stores, give every required facility in business lines. Two grain elevators, oil mill, steam laundry and ice and electric plant guarantee every modern service.
HANSFORD COUNTY
Organized February 14, 1889, Hansford County had a population in 1880 of 18; in 1890, 133; in 1900, 167; in 1910, 935; in 1920, 1,354. Situated in the northern tier of Panhandle counties, it has a branch of the Santa Fe Railroad, constructed in 1919 running to Spearman, which has a population of 530 inhabitants. Besides the underground water supplies, reached at a convenient depth but as yet little utilized,
767
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
it has several streams, and the valley lands are noted for their wild hay crop, and in recent years a large amount of land has been cultivated in alfalfa. It is estimated that about 1,000 acres are now irrigated from the Palo Dora Creek. Important improvements have been noted in the grading of live stock, and considerable attention is also given to the poultry industry.
All the towns of the county are small settlements, and the county seat is Hansford. The county's property valuation in 1903 was $909,- 821; in 1913, $1,489,777 ; in 1920, $2,218,103. The total area of the county is 564,480 acres, and the last census reported 233,559 acres in farms. The number of farms rose from 22 in 1900 to 152 in 1910, and the amount of "improved land" from about 2,260 acres in the former year to about 33,000 acres in the latter. Live stock enumerated com- prised 11,239 cattle ; about 2,000 horses and mules ; 6,342 sheep, and a considerable number of hogs. In 1920 the number of cattle was 22,348; of horses and mules, 3,563. The chief crop in 1909 was hay and forage crops, with 6,973 acres planted, including 1,830 acres in alfalfa, a larger acreage than almost anywhere else in the Panhandle in this particular crop. In kaffir corn and milo maize, 3,942 acres were planted; in wheat, 3,900 acres ; in oats, 1,730 acres, and in corn, 337 acres.
HARDEMAN COUNTY
Until 1891 Hardeman comprised the greater portion of what is now Foard County. Hardeman was created by the legislature in 1858, and a county government was organized December 31, 1884. The first county seat was at the town of Margaret, now in Foard County. Hardeman County has as its northern boundary Red River, and its west line sets it off from the great Texas Panhandle. It was the haunt of buffalo and Indians and a few transient stockmen until the decade of the '80s, and the history of its development is comprised within the last decades.
In 1880 only fifty inhabitants were found in the county. Population in 1890 was 3,904; in 1900, after the separation of Foard County, the population was 3,634; in 1910, 11,213; in 1920, 12,487.
Hardeman County has as one of its greatest 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 has been invested and established for the preparation of this commodity. and much of the cement plaster used in the construction of buildings at the Chicago and St. Louis World's Fairs came from this county. The town of Acme, west of Quanah, is the chief center for the gypsum in- dustry, while another village known as Gypsum has also sprung up.
Acme, during the last six or seven years, has become the starting point for a new railway, known as the Quanah, Acme & Pacific Rail- road, which has been extended southwest through Cottle County. The second town of the county is Chillicothe, at the junction point of the Fort Worth & Denver City and the Orient railways, and which had a population in 1910 of 1,207. Near Chillicothe is a large artificial reser- voir, constructed by the Hardeman County Irrigation Company and sup- plying water sufficient to irrigate about ten thousand acres. About five thousand acres are now under irrigation from this source, including the
QUANAH PARKER
769
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
largest single tract in the state devoted to the growing of alfalfa. At the last census over six hundred acres were reported as in alfalfa crop.
As a result of the building of railways and influx of many new settlers, the great pastures of Hardeman County have been cut up into farms, and this now ranks as one of the leading agricultural counties of Northwest Texas. The total area of the county is 487,040 acres, 310,388 acres included as farms at the last census, about 133,000 acres as "im- proved land," as compared with about 44,000 acres so classified in 1900.
In 1910 there were 1,068 farms, and 262 farms in 1900. The census reported 11,761 cattle ; 686 horses and mules. In 1909, 34,686 acres were planted in cotton; 23,750 acres in corn; 7,156 acres in kaffir corn and milo maize ; 7,059 acres in wheat; 4,158 acres in hay and forage crops; 2,479 acres in oats, and there were about 8,000 orchard fruit trees. In 1903 the valuation of property in the county was $2,393,668; in 1913, $8,873,320 ; in 1920. $9,389,520.
QUANAH
The city of Quanah, which was named after Quanah Parker, the noted Indian chief, grew up with the building of the first railroad, and its progress is typical of the development of the surrounding country. In November, 1885, there was one house on the site, while several other settlers lived in the vicinity. In 1886 a corps of engineers located the town; in the spring of 1887 the Fort Worth & Denver City Railway, which had begun to build west from Wichita Falls in 1885, was com- pleted to Quanah, the court house was then moved up from Margaret, and by the beginning of 1890 the town had a population, according to the census, of 1,477, a large number of the inhabitants being farmers. About that time, one writer said: "The man with the hoe has entered the county and where a few years ago the Kiowa and Comanche chased and killed the buffalo, are now wheat fields lovely to look upon. But men make cities, and Quanah has men devoted to her upbuilding." By 1900 Quanah had a population of 1,651 and in 1910 was a city of 3,127. while in 1920 there was a population of 4,000.
About the close of the last century Quanah became the terminus of a branch of the Frisco Railway, built across the Red River from Okla- homa. During the following decade the line of the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient was built through the county and put in operation about 1909. Quanah has three railroads, nine wholesale houses, paved streets, Q. A. & P. round-house and the Quanah Cotton Oil Mill, which is the largest oil mill in West Texas. It has ten church buildings and the bank deposits amount to over $2,000,000. It also has a court house.
HARTLEY COUNTY
About one-half of this county was included in the 3,000,000-acre grant to the Capitol Syndicate. Fifteen years ago it was estimated that a third of the county's area was held in these large pastures, and out- side of that vast tract the other farms and ranches contained not less than a section of land, and in some cases reached 15,000 acres. Under these conditions Hartley County has been the home of the cattleman rather than of the farmer, and supported a very meager population. The breaking-up of the larger tracts began a few years ago, and, as in other
770
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
Panhandle counties, agriculture and settled conditions are making rapid progress.
The county was organized February 9, 1891. In 1888 the Fort Worth & Denver City Railway was constructed across the eastern half of the county, and in 1900 the Rock Island Road was built across the northwest corner of the Panhandle, with about forty-five miles of its track in Hartley County. Besides the county seat at Channing, on the Fort Worth & Denver, other towns are Hartley, Romero and Middle- water. The prosperous little city of Dalhart, at the junction of these two railways, is located near the north line of the county.
The population of Hartley County at successive decades has been : In 1880, 100; in 1890, 252; in 1900, 377; in 1910, 1,298, and in 1920, 1,109. The total area of the county is 964,480 acres, of which 516,204 acres were in farms in 1910. The amount of "improved land" at the last census was about 195,000 acres as compared with only about 2,600 acres in 1900. The number of farms increased from 27 in 1900 to 165 in 1910. For a number of years the county has been the home of some of the fine Hereford and Polled Angus herds in this section of Texas, and in recent years considerable attention has also been given to hogs. The number of cattle in 1910 was 32,316 and the number of horses and mules about 2,500 ; in 1920, 52,073 cattle and 1,823 horses and mules. In 1909, 10,511 acres were planted in hay and forage crops; 2,941 acres in kaffir corn and milo maize; 2,173 acres in wheat and a small acreage in corn and oats, while noticeable progress is also being made in hor- ticulture and other branches of general agriculture. The valuation of property in 1903 was $1,623,506; in 1913. $5,376.036, and in 1920, $5,374,313.
Channing, the county seat, has two churches, one bank, two large general merchandise establishments, several smaller stores and a modern school.
The town of Hartley has, like Channing. an up-to-date school and is a live little railroad town with two mercantile firms doing a thriving business. The Hartley Lumber & Supply Company, of that place, handles general merchandise, including a good stock of lumber. The Farmers' Equity Company, of Hartley, carries general merchandise and owns the grain elevator at Hartley.
Channing and Hartley are on the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad.
Middlewater, located on the Rock Island Railroad, has one store and a good school. It is situated in the big pasture part of the county, which will later develop into a stock farming country and now has many pros- perous farmers and stockmen.
Romero is a thriving little town on the Rock Island Railroad. It has good mercantile houses and surrounding country and the prospects for its future are promising.
HEMPHILL COUNTY
The settlement which followed the construction of the Southern Kansas Railway across the Panhandle in 1887 was the chief factor in the organization of a county government in Hemphill County, one of the earlier Panhandle counties to support a local government.
771
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
The county officials were first elected in July, 1887, and the county seat town was established at Canadian, on the new railway and close to the Canadian River. As one of the oldest towns in the Panhandle, Canadian City has continued to grow, and is now one of the most pros- perous small cities of Northwest Texas, having a population at the last census of 2,500, more than half the population of the entire county being concentrated in that town. Along the railway are three other smaller towns, Isaacs, Mendota and Glacier.
Though an organized county for more than twenty-five years, much the greater part of Hemphill County was held in large ranches, and it is said that the first single section of land was sold in 1902.
There are long stretches of level land, suitable for grazing, and also a portion of the area is undulating hills and considerable bottom land along the Canadian River. In the Canadian Valley especially the cul- tivation of alfalfa has proved a profitable crop, and for some years wind- mills and other pump power have been employed to tap the underground water supplies, and to a limited extent irrigation has been practiced. The possibilities of irrigation are realized and future developments along that line are assured. The principal crops since the early settlement have been the drouth-resisting kaffir corn, milo maize, millet and sorg- hum, and while the acreage of cultivated land has greatly increased in recent years, the primary industry is still stock-raising.
In 1880 Hemphill County had a population of 149; in 1890, 519; in 1900, 815 ; in 1910, 3,170, and in 1920, 4,280. The amount of "improved land" in 1900 was about 12,000 acres, and in 1910, about 53,000 acres. The number of farms increased from 76 in 1900 to 249 in 1910. The total area of the county is 558,720 acres, of which 370,179 acres were included in farms or ranches at the last census. The number of cattle in 1910 was 24,125, 2,300 horses and mules and 4,500 hogs.
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.