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City / Ragtown, TX
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City, on Ranch Road 399 two miles north of U.S. Highway 380 and eleven miles
west of Post in western Garza County, was on a site within the area purchased in
1906 by Charles William Post for his projected settlement. So many of the first
inhabitants used tents for homes that the village was called Ragtown, but it was
later renamed Close City. For a while Post encouraged construction there, until
surveyors discovered that the site was eleven miles from the geographical center
of the county and thus could not serve as the location of the county seat. Post
ordered work to stop in Close City and proceeded to select the present site of
Post. Close City consequently developed slowly. By 1920 it had a store, a
school, two churches, and a population of fifty. Though the school consolidated
with the Post Independent School District in the 1950s, the store and two
churches were still present in the community in the 1980s. In 1990 Close City
had a population of 107.
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Justiceburg,
TX
Justiceburg
is on the Santa Fe line, U.S. Highway 84, and the south branch of the Double
Mountain Fork of the Brazos River, fifteen miles southeast of Post in
southeastern Garza County. Rancher Jefferson Davis Justice gave the railroad a
right-of-way in 1910 and also donated the town site. The local post office had
operated from 1902 to 1905 as Le Forest. The community reported a population of
fifty in 1915, twenty-five in 1925, seventy-five in 1947, and seventy-six in
1980 and 1990. During the 1980s many of the residents were descendants of
Jefferson Davis Justice.
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Pleasant Valley, TX
Pleasant
Valley is a small community in northwestern Garza County on Farm Road 399 near
U.S. Highway 84, eight miles northwest of Post. The town was founded around
1906, and a school district was established in 1914. In 1936 Pleasant Valley had
a school, two businesses, a factory, and a few scattered dwellings. By the early
1980s all that remained of the community was a church, one business, and a few
houses. No population estimates were available.
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Post, TX
Post,
the county seat of Garza County, is on the Santa Fe Railroad at the junction of
U.S. highways 84 and 380, east of the Caprock escarpment near the west central
part of the county. The town began under the name Post City in 1907 as a
colonizing venture of cereal manufacturer Charles William Post, who
sought to develop a model town. He purchased 200,000 acres of ranchland and
established the Double U. Company to manage the town's construction. The company
built trim houses and numerous structures, which included the Algerita Hotel, a
gin, and a textile plant. They planted trees along every street and prohibited
alcoholic beverages and brothels. The Double U. Company rented and sold farms
and houses to settlers. A post office began in a tent during the year of Post
City's founding. Two years later the town had a school, a bank, and a newspaper,
the Post City Post. The railroad reached the town in 1910. The town
changed its name to Post when it incorporated in 1914, the year of C. W. Post's
death. By then Post had a population of 1,000, ten retail businesses, a dentist,
a doctor, a sanitarium, and Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches. The
Post estate pledged $75,000 and the town raised $35,000 in 1916 to bid
unsuccessfully to become the site of the proposed West Texas Agricultural and
Mechanical College, later known as Texas Tech University. Postex Cotton Mills,
which began production in 1913 with 250 employees, has remained the town's
leading industry. When the Post interests sold the business to Ely and Walker
Dry Goods Company of St. Louis in 1945, the plant was producing six million
yards of cloth a year and employed 375 workers who manufactured Postex cotton
sheets and Garza pillow cases. Ely and Walker sold Postex in 1955 to Burlington
Industries, the world's largest textile manufacturer at that time. By 1973 the
company employed 450 persons. Oilfield service companies have been important to
the economy, as have farming and ranching. In 1989 Post had two libraries, a
hospital, a nursing home, an airport, the Post Dispatch (founded in
1926), and ninety businesses. The population reached 3,400 in 1928, declined to
2,000 in 1940, and increased to 3,100 during the 1950s. With the development of
the local oil industry, the town's population attained its highest level of
4,800 in 1964. The 1980 census showed a population of 3,864, but by 1988 the Texas
Almanac reported 4,162. In 1990 the population was 3,768.
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Southland, TX
Southland
is on the Santa Fe Railroad, U.S. Highway 84, and the Caprock two miles from its
eastern escarpment and twenty miles northwest of Post in northwest Garza County.
It was named by rancher Andrew Briggs (Sug) Robertson for its location on the
south part of the V Ranch. The Curry Comb Ranch and several of John B.
Slaughter's ranches were located in the area, and Southland became a trading
center when the county was organized in 1907. Southland was a station on the
Pecos and Northern Texas Railway in 1910 and opened a post office in 1911. A
school district was formed in 1913. The community prospered for a time, thanks
to Charles W. Post's colonizing of the region, but never really recovered from
the setbacks of the Great Depression, which included the closing of its bank. In
1940 Southland had 280 residents and eleven businesses. With a decrease in the
farm workforce, the population declined to 153 by 1960. It was 168 in 1980 and
1990.
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Verbena,
TX
Verbena
Baptist Church - Used as a landmark in the 19th century by surveyors sighting
from Duffy's Peak, located ten miles northeast. Jasper Hays, earliest recorded
surveyor of this area, used the peaks during 1877-78 for charting the Llano
Ranch, later bought by C. W. Post, the cereal king.
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