(FROM THE FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM)
I am an old timer. I even may be called a pioneer. My father B.G. Worswick was instrumental in organizing Dickens County, in 1891. I was born in 1893, in a dugout in Dickens City. There were only three houses in the city at that time, so that by far the greater number of the population of 350 lived in dugouts."Incidentally, although Dickens City has always been the County Seat of Dickens County, it has never had more than 600 population.
The first farm in the county was started by the Spur Ranch in 1885. A tract of 30 acres was planted to Johnson Grass to raise feed for the ranch horses. From this crop the whole county was messed up with Johnson Grass.
In this part of the county in it's early days most people traveled to Quanah in wagon trains for their supplies. The round trip would take from ten days to two weeks, depending on the weather, if the weather was wet, then they would spend several days camped on the eastern edge of Croton Breaks. Three red mud canyons just three miles east of Dickens City made up the Croton Breaks, and when it was wet it was impossible to cross the breaks with a wagon and team. Of course there are bridges across them now. This is highway 82 that crosses Dickens County.
I often made the trip with my father when I was a child. My mother had a sister living in Quanah and it was a fine outing. I remember one trip when I was along Papa left the chuck box out of the wagon overnight and it was raided by coyotes.
Another time we had to camp on the edge of the canyons almost a week. There were seven wagons in the train that time. I remember a Mr. Windam in the party had a bass fiddle with him. After supper each night we would gather around the campfire and he would entertain us. The coyotes would gather just outside the ring of the campfire and howl and Mr. Windam played.
I have been witness to the change of the country from ranch to farming district, having seen three of the biggest ranches in the state disintergrate into farms.
Ella was the oldest daughter of the late B.G. and Minnie Worswick, before her marriage she taught school at old Liberty and New Hope schools for many years. They were one teacher schools in the North part of the County.
Source: History of Dickens County; Ranches and Rolling Plains, Fred Arrington, ©1971
Funeral services for Henry Harrison Smith were conducted Sunday, June 20, in the Dickens Baptist Church. Rev. Victor Crabtree officiated.Smith was born December 12, 1888 in Virginia and he passed away June 18, 1954 at 10:30 a.m.
He came to Texas from Oklahoma in 1930 and then to Dickens County in 1946. On May 1, he was married to Ella Worswick at Dickens. He was a member of the Dickens Baptist church.
Pallbearers were Cecil H. Meadors, John Sharp, Faye Sough, Frank Murphy, Johnny Koonsman, Fred Arrington.
Survivors were his wife: Mrs. Ella Smith of Spur; 3 sisters, Mrs. Elizabeth Hadley of Washington, Mrs. Jennie Bennett and Mrs. Mary Smith of Oklahoma City; one step brothers, Tom West of Davidson, OK; his step mother, Mrs. Alice Smith of Davidson, OK. His only son was killed during the Pearl Harbor attack.
Interment was in the Dickens Cemetery under the direction of Chandler Funeral Home.
©The Texas Spur, June 24, 1954
Funeral services were held at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Campbell Funeral Home Chapel for Mrs. Ella Nora Smith, 70.Rev. Victor Crabtree officiated at the service and was assisted by Rev. John Jenkins.
Mrs. Smith died in Spur Memorial Hospital March 24. She had been ill about one week. She was a member of the Baptist Church and had resided in Dickens most of her life. She was a daughter of the late County Judge B.G. Worswick, who was the first county judge of Dickens County.
Survivors include six sisters, Mrs. Mary Johnson, Glendate, AZ; Mrs. Lena Walker, Los Angeles, CA; Mrs. Frances Harkey, Phoenix, AZ; Mrs. Margaret Dawe, Los Angeles, CA; Mrs. Virginia Cox, Bull Shoals, Ark; and Mrs. J.B. Nusbaum, El Paso.
Pallbearers include Faye Slough, Fred Arrington, R.J. Bell, Johnnie Koonsman, E.V. Arthur, and Cecil Meador.
Burial was in Dickens Cemetery.
©The Texas Spur, March 26, 1964
© Dickens County Historical Commission 1997-2022
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