Lipscomb County Towns
Source: The Handbook of Texas Online
LIPSCOMB
DOMINION
TIMMS CITY
GAYLORD
FOLLETT
HUNTOON
DARROUZETT
BOOKER
HIGGINS
GLAZIER
LIPSCOMB
Lipscomb, the county seat of Lipscomb County, is on State
Highway
305 in the central part of the county. Originally its site in
Wolf Creek Valley was deemed a cattleman's paradise. In 1886 J.
W. Arthur, anticipating the arrival of the Panhandle and Santa
Fe
Railway, established a combination store and post office at the
site. Arthur named his townsite Lipscomb, after pioneer judge
Abner Smith Lipscomb. Frank Biggers, the county's leading
developer, organized the town company, which sold land for three
dollars an acre. The next year, Lipscomb was elected county seat
after a heated contest with the rival townsites of Dominion and
Timms City. John Howlett operated a general store; John N.
Theisen took over the Gilbert Hotel after its move from
Dominion;
H. G. Thayer managed a saddle and harness shop. A school
district
was established for the community. Liquor flowed freely at the
Alamo Saloon until 1908, when the county voted to go dry. As it
turned out, the railroad routed its tracks south of the
townsite.
Subsequent attempts to get a railroad line to Lipscomb were
unsuccessful, as was the attempt of local businessmen to develop
a coal mine in 1888, after a five-inch vein was discovered in
the
area. The present courthouse was built in 1916. The community's
position as the county seat, coupled with the success of W. E.
Merydith's real estate ventures, has enabled the town to
survive.
By 1910 several churches, a bank, a drugstore, and various other
businesses had been established there. Lipscomb has had two
newspapers, the Panhandle Interstate and the Lipscomb County
Limelight. Only two businesses and the post office remained at
the community by 1980. Nevertheless, the importance of the town
as a farming and ranching center, along with oil and gas
explorations in the vicinity, kept Lipscomb's economy alive. For
most of the twentieth century, its population level has remained
fairly stable: population was reported as 200 in 1910, 175 in
1930, 200 in 1940, and 190 in 1980. By 1990 it was estimated as
forty-five. Though in the early 1990s Lipscomb remained the
smallest town in the county, was off the main highways, and
lacked rail facilities, it was still the permanent county seat.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A History of Lipscomb County, Texas, 1876-1976
(Lipscomb, Texas: Lipscomb County Historical Survey Committee,
1976). F. Stanley [Stanley F. L. Crocchiola], The Lipscomb,
Texas, Story (Nazareth, Texas, 1975).
H. Allen Anderson
DOMINION
Dominion, on Wolf Creek in Lipscomb
County near the Oklahoma state line, was one of two townsites
that rivaled Lipscomb for the position of county seat. It was
founded by two land agents, C. P. Walker and John Holzapfel,
employees of the Interstate Town Company in Colony, Kansas. It
was platted in February 1887 and named for the fact that its
site
was in the heart of the Dominion Cattle Company's holdings (see
BOX T RANCH). The town's planners, anticipating the arrival of
the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway, reportedly sold $15,000
worth
of land, in twenty-four sections. S. T. Gilbert erected a
two-story hotel there. However, the railroad bypassed the site,
Lipscomb was chosen county seat, and the Dominion townsite was
abandoned within a matter of months. Gilbert's hotel was moved
to
Lipscomb under new ownership. Laura V. Hamner commented that
Dominion's advertising circulars "claimed 5,000 inhabitants.
This claim could be substantiated since they had fully 5,000
prairie dogs as residents."
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A History of Lipscomb County, Texas, 1876-1976
(Lipscomb, Texas: Lipscomb County Historical Survey Committee,
1976).
H. Allen Anderson
TIMMS CITY
Timms City was four miles southwest of
the site of present Darrouzett in northern Lipscomb County. It
was begun in 1887 and was one of two towns competing with
Lipscomb to become county seat. It was named for George Timms, a
Kansas financier who backed the community. Soon, Timms City had
a
hotel, several saloons, a post office, a newspaper (the Texas
Tribune), and various other businesses. However, the election of
Lipscomb as the permanent county seat quickly led to the town's
demise. One county businessman, H. E. Hoover, described it as
"one year growing and four years dying." By the time
the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway pushed through this portion
of
the county in 1919, Timms City had disappeared.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A History of Lipscomb County, Texas, 1876-1976
(Lipscomb, Texas: Lipscomb County Historical Survey Committee,
1976).
H. Allen Anderson
GAYLORD
Gaylord, on a mail route five miles
east of Booker in northwestern Lipscomb County, was established
in 1917 as a station on the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway and
was named for an employee of the line. There A. L. Clarke
established a general store and a post office, which closed in
1922; the store was moved to Booker. A grain elevator in the
community continued to operate until the late 1940s. Gaylord
reported a store and a population of twenty-five in 1940. Its
grain elevator was torn down in 1960, and the 1982 county
highway
map identified Gaylord only as a railroad stop.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A History of Lipscomb County, Texas, 1876-1976
(Lipscomb, Texas: Lipscomb County Historical Survey Committee,
1976).
H. Allen Anderson
FOLLETT
Follett, on State Highway 15 in
northeastern Lipscomb County, was established in 1917 by Santa
Fe
railroad official Thomas C. Spearman as a townsite on the North
Texas and Santa Fe Railway. It was named for Horace Follett, a
locating engineer for the line. The town boomed almost
overnight,
as the citizens of Ivanhoe, Oklahoma, moved their homes and
businesses across the state line to the new railroad. In 1917
Follett acquired a post office, and by 1920, when the town was
incorporated, its population had grown to 550. The Farmer's
Grain
Cooperative soon made Follett a wheat and grain sorghum storage
and distribution center and helped give rise to its nickname,
"Gateway to the Golden Spread." By 1940 the town
reported thirty businesses and a population of 431. During the
1980s the area produced grain and cattle. Beginning in the 1950s
it also produced oil and gas. Modern irrigation techniques aided
agriculture. In 1980 Follett reported thirty-seven businesses
and
a population of 547. In 1990 its population was estimated at
441.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A History of Lipscomb County, Texas, 1876-1976
(Lipscomb, Texas: Lipscomb County Historical Survey Committee,
1976).
H. Allen Anderson
HUNTOON
Huntoon, on State Highway 15 in
northeastern Ochiltree County, was laid out in 1919 on the
Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway and named for Joel M. Huntoon, a
former director of the railway. A general store and a grain
elevator were built in 1927, but by 1933 the store had closed. A
post office operated in Huntoon from 1921 until the 1930s. In
1948 the school was discontinued, when Booker, five miles east,
absorbed part of the school district. In 1984 and 1990 Huntoon
had a population of twenty-one and no businesses.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A History of Lipscomb County, Texas, 1876-1976
(Lipscomb, Texas: Lipscomb County Historical Survey Committee,
1976). Texas Almanac, 1984-85.
H. Allen Anderson
DARROUZETT
Darrouzett, on State Highway 15 in
northern Lipscomb County, began as a station on the Panhandle
and
Santa Fe Railway in 1917. The town was platted at the junction
of
Plummer and Kiowa creeks and was originally named Lourwood after
Opal Lourwood, the first child born there. Upon completion of
the
rail line in 1919-20, the town was renamed in honor of Texas
legislator John Louis Darrouzett, who served as an attorney for
the Santa Fe. Settlers and businesses moved south from the
Sunset
community in Oklahoma to be near the railroad. By 1920, when it
was incorporated, Darrouzett had various businesses, two
churches, a school, a post office, and a population of 425. The
Darrouzett Cooperative Association was formed to make the town a
grain-marketing center. A bank, a high school, and several grain
elevators were added by 1930. During the 1940s and 1950s
Darrouzett became "the best paved town per capita of the
Panhandle," at a cost of some $80,000. In 1972 Darrouzett's
leaders launched the Village Improvement Plan, under which
recreational facilities were improved and expanded and cultural
events like the annual Deutsches Fest were initiated. In 1984
Darrouzett reported twelve businesses and a population of 444.
In
1990 its population was 343.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A History of Lipscomb County, Texas, 1876-1976
(Lipscomb, Texas: Lipscomb County Historical Survey Committee,
1976).
H. Allen Anderson
BOOKER
Booker, at the intersection of State
highways 15 and 23, in northwestern Lipscomb County, originated
seven miles to the northwest in 1909 as La Kemp, Oklahoma. The
town, including the post office, was moved piecemeal from
Oklahoma to Texas in 1919, when the Panhandle and Santa Fe
Railway was extended from Shattuck, Oklahoma, to Spearman,
Texas.
The new townsite was platted in August 1917 by Thomas C.
Spearman
and named for B. F. Booker, a civil engineer with the line. By
1920 the town had grain elevators, cattle-shipping pens, a bank,
a school, three churches, and a population of 600. By 1929
modern
utilities had been installed. Due to the Great Depression and
Dust Bowl,q Booker's population decreased from 495 in 1930 to
386
in 1940. But by 1949 agricultural recovery, new farming
techniques, and oil exploration had caused the population to
increase to 1,500. In 1984 the town had 1,219 residents and
fifty-two businesses. In addition to its farm and ranch economy,
after 1956 Booker greatly benefited from local oil and gas
production. A new sewage plant was completed in 1966, and a new
hospital and clinic were built in 1973. The town is
incorporated.
In 1990 it had a population of 1,236 and reached into Ochiltree
County.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mrs. Lowell Bowdle and Mrs. Mason Lemons, eds.,
Dimensions of Progress: Fiftieth Anniversary of Booker, Texas,
1919-1969 (1969). A History of Lipscomb County, Texas, 1876-1976
(Lipscomb, Texas: Lipscomb County Historical Survey Committee,
1976).
H. Allen Anderson
HIGGINS
Higgins, on U.S. Highway 60 two miles
from the Oklahoma border in southeastern Lipscomb County, is in
the heart of the North Texas grasslands of the early cattle
ranges. The area has been associated with Juan de Padilla, a
Franciscan monk who came with Francisco Vazquez de Coronado,
later returned to work among the Indians, and was martyred in
1544. The actual site of his missionary activity, however, is
unknown. Settlement of the site began in 1886, when the Santa Fe
Railroad made preliminary surveys of the vicinity for extending
its Panhandle branch line, then known as the Southern Kansas,
from Wichita. E. C. Gray and the brothers James and George
Patton
filed claims and built their homes on these survey sections. The
following year B. H. Eldridge and E. B. Purcell laid out the
town, which they named for G. H. Higgins of Massachusetts, a
wealthy stockholder in the Santa Fe. The coming of the railroad
attracted more homesteaders and businessmen, and by 1888 a post
office, a school, a saloon, a hotel, a livery stable, and
several
stores had been erected. Area ranchers soon made the town a
major
cattle-shipping point. In 1898 nineteen-year-old Will Rogers
came
to Higgins and worked for a time on the Ewing family's Little
Robe Ranch. Higgins was incorporated in 1908 and won a
considerable reputation as a progressive-minded community. Its
citizens remodeled its downtown area in 1911 and again in 1929.
Higgins has weathered depressions, dust storms, and cyclones,
its
worst disaster occurring on April 9, 1947, when a tornado
claimed
forty-five lives and devastated several residences and the
business district. The local newspaper, the Higgins News, has
been in operation since 1897; it replaced the earlier Courier,
begun in 1888. The town is a grain and livestock marketing
center
and since 1956 has benefited from oil drilling. In 1984 Higgins
reported a population of 702 and seventeen businesses. In 1962
the town began an annual observance of Will Rogers Day, in honor
of the cowboy philosopher, who remained a close friend of Frank
Ewing, the son of his old employer. In 1990 the population was
464.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Carlos E. Castañeda, Our Catholic Heritage
in
Texas (7 vols., Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1936-1958; rpt.,
New
York: Arno, 1976). A History of Lipscomb County, Texas,
1876-1976
(Lipscomb, Texas: Lipscomb County Historical Survey Committee,
1976).
H. Allen Anderson
GLAZIER
Glazier, on U.S. Highway 60 in north
central Hemphill County, was founded when the Panhandle and
Santa
Fe Railway reached its site. It was named for H. C. Glazier, a
friend of pioneer merchant J. F. Johnson, on whose ranchland the
town was platted in 1887. The location north of the Canadian
River made Glazier an ideal shipping point for area cattlemen,
especially during the rainy season when the river rose. When
farmers settled in that area, they freighted their wheat by
horse
team to the railroad grain elevator at Glazier. By 1915 Glazier
was a thriving town with a bank, a newspaper, and a population
reported at around 300. The extension of the Santa Fe line in
1916 from Shattuck, Oklahoma, to Spearman, Texas, drew away much
of the cattle and wheat trade of Ochiltree and Lipscomb
counties,
on which Glazier had depended. In June 1916 a fire that started
in a feed mill destroyed most of Glazier's business district.
The
town declined by 1920 to a population of 140. A tornado claimed
twelve lives at Glazier in April 1946. By then only the post
office and three businesses remained, and in 1959 the post
office
was closed. By 1984 Glazier reported twenty residents and no
businesses. In 1990 its population was estimated at forty-five.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sallie B. Harris, Cowmen and Ladies: A History of
Hemphill County (Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1977). Glyndon M.
Riley, The History of Hemphill County (M.A. thesis, West Texas
State College, 1939). F. Stanley [Stanley F. L. Crocchiola],
Rodeo Town (Canadian, Texas) (Denver: World, 1953).
H. Allen Anderson
This page was last updated January 9, 2014.