Three County Seats

Crosby County Has Had Three County Seats

Estacado

Estacado, upon the organization of the county, became the first county seat. To Crosby County were attached thirteen other counties for judicial purposes including Lubbock, Floyd, Dickens and Hale. Judge Swink of Dallas was County Judge; Paris Cox, County Clerk; Felix Franklin, Sheriff.
Source: "Through the Years, A History of Crosby County, Texas" by Nellie Witt Spikes and Temple Ann Ellis ©1951; The Naylor Company, San Antonio, Texas

Estacado became a town of much importance. As it was the central town in a region comprising more than one-fifth of Texas, it was recognized for twelve memorable years as the center of culture. A nice-sized town of five or six hundred people. Al the thinly populated counties died to it had to come to Estacado for court.

In 1888, a courthouse was built. Previous to that time court had been held in dugouts or any shack that could be found available.

Source: "Through the Years, A History of Crosby County, Texas" by Nellie Witt Spikes and Temple Ann Ellis ©1951; The Naylor Company, San Antonio, Texas

Emma

The hotly contested election was over, Emma received the most votes from the settlers and became the 2nd county seat of Crosby County. The courthouse of Estacado was torn down, plank by plank, and loaded on waiting wagons. Even the nails had been straightened out by John and Dick Cousineau. The planks were hauled to Emma, unloaded and soon rebuilt. The courthouse stood proudly in the center of the "square". A plank fence with four stiles on each side was built, the rock jail was ready for occupants; a windmill and a big cypress tank went up. This was the site of the Crosby County Courthouse for fifteen years.
Source: "Through the Years, A History of Crosby County, Texas" by Nellie Witt Spikes and Temple Ann Ellis ©1951; The Naylor Company, San Antonio, Texas
Article from Texas Day-By-Day
Emma loses out to Crosbyton as county seat On this day in 1910, Crosbyton defeated Emma in an election to determine the Crosby County seat by a vote of 198 to 120. The once prosperous town of Emma traces its origins to the fall of 1890, when R. L. Stringfellow and H. E. Hume, owners of a general store in Estacado, purchased a section of land in the central part of the county. In 1890 a post office opened, and in 1891 Stringfellow and Hume laid out a town on this site and named it Emma, after the woman that one of them later married. Emma replaced Estacado as county seat in October 1891. Sometime after this the courthouse that had been built at Estacado in 1887 or 1888 was brought to Emma, where it was the most impressive building in town. Emma prospered, and by 1910 the town had several churches, a post office, a school, a bank, and an estimated population of 800. Unfortunately, in 1910 the railroad came through the county and bypassed the town by five miles. By October the majority of residents had moved from Emma to Crosbyton. Many of the business buildings and several residences were moved across the prairie to Crosbyton in a caravan consisting of four engines, thirty men, and twenty-two mules. The old courthouse was torn down and hauled to Cedric. In 1911 the post office was moved to Ralls, and Emma became a ghost town. A Texas historical marker on State Highway 207 twenty-five miles east of Lubbock is all that remains to mark the site of Emma

Crosbyton

It was in 1910 the county seat was changed from Emma to Crosbyton. Mrs. Coonley had dedicated the park in the center of the square to the Citizens of Crosbyton, so Julian Bassett said he would give the lots for the courthouse, so said Will Ezell, and in 1912 a new courthouse was built. - Crosbyton Review, March 20, 1936


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