Historical Articles
Lubbock County TXGenWeb
Historical Articles
   These excerpts are copied with permission from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

By R.C. BURNS
(EDITOR'S NOTE Ð The following article appeared in the Dec. 2, 1923, edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche as part of the ''Early Days on the Plains'' series and was written by Lubbock pioneer R.C. Burns. This is the first in a series of 25 articles that will appear each Monday in The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.)
 
Cattle, farms led to Lubbock's birth click here for the full article
By JOHN B. MOBLEY
(EDITOR'S NOTE Ð The following article appeared in the Dec. 8, 1923, edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche as part of the ''Early Days on the Plains'' series and was written by Lubbock pioneer John B. Mobley, who arrived on the Llano Estacado as a cowboy in 1885. In this condensed version of the article, the second installment of a 25-part series, Mobley describes the early commercial bustle that would eventually become the town of Lubbock).
 
By TEMPLE H. ELLIS
(EDITOR'S NOTE Ð The following article appeared in the Dec. 16, 1923, edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche as part of the ''Early Days on the Plains'' series and was written by Lubbock pioneer Temple H. Ellis, who arrived in the Lubbock area in 1887 and went into the mercantile business in 1907. In this, the third installment of a 25-part series, Ellis reflects on his life's journey to and in early Lubbock).
 
Pioneers molded town from Texas soil click here for the full article
By MRS. MABEL M. THORP
(EDITOR'S NOTE Ð The following article appeared in the Dec. 23, 1923, edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche as part of the ''Early Days on the Plains'' series and was written by Mrs. Mabel M. Thorp, who arrived in Lubbock with her husband in early 1913. In this, the fourth installment of a 25-part series, she recounts the strides made by Lubbock by 1923).
 
Woman's home evolved into modern city click here for the full article
By MRS. J.L. COLEMAN
EDITOR'S NOTE ­ The following article appeared in the Dec. 30, 1923, edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche as part of the ''Early Days on the Plains'' series and was written by Mrs. J.L. Coleman, who arrived in Lubbock in 1911. In this, the fifth installment of a 25-part series, she reflects on the young bustling community known as Lubbock).
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By MRS. W.N. COPELAND
(EDITOR'S NOTE Ð The following article appeared in the Jan. 6, 1924, edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche as part of the ''Early Days on the Plains'' series and was written by Mrs. W.N. Copeland, whose family arrived on the South Plains in 1901. In this, the sixth installment of a 25-part series, she reflects on her family's days in early Terry County as well as some of the technological advancements that had been made by 1924).
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By MRS. IDA LEE COWAN
(EDITOR'S NOTE - The following article appeared in the Jan. 13, 1924, edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche as part of the "Early Days on the Plains" series and was written by Mrs. Ida Lee Cowan. In this, the seventh installment of a 25-part series, she looks back at her family's trip to early Hockley County).

By JAMES J. DILLARD
Founder of the Lubbock Avalanche
(EDITOR'S NOTE The following article appeared in the Feb. 3, 1924, edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche as part of the "Early Days on the Plains" series and was written by James J. Dillard, founder of the newspaper. In this, the eighth installment of a 25-part series, he reflects on his early South Plains travels in the 1890s).
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Growth began before railroad came to Lubbock click here for the full article
By JAMES J. DILLARD
Founder of the Lubbock Avalanche
(EDITOR'S NOTE The following article appeared in the Feb. 17, 1924, edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche as part of the "Early Days on the Plains" series and was written by James J. Dillard, founder of the newspaper. In this, the 10th installment of a 25-part series, he offers a look at some of the city's pioneers and the beginnings of the cotton business on the South Plains).
 
Publisher finds education, politics comic click here for the full article
By JAMES J. DILLARD
Founder of the Lubbock Avalanche
(EDITOR'S NOTE The following article appeared in the Feb. 10, 1924, edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche as part of the "Early Days on the Plains" series and was written by James J. Dillard, founder of the newspaper. In this, the ninth installment of a 25-part series, he offers a somewhat humorous anecdote of his experiences as a teacher at the old Groves School in Lubbock, as well as incidents in Lubbock during and after the election campaigns, both regional and national, of 1896).
By JAMES J. DILLARD
Founder of the Lubbock Avalanche
(EDITOR'S NOTE) The following article appeared in the Feb. 24, 1924, edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche as part of the "Early Days on the Plains" series and was written by James J. Dillard, founder of the newspaper. In this, the 11th installment of a 25-part series, he offers a look at some of the successful agricultural enterprises of the time).
 
By JAMES J. DILLARD
Founder of the Lubbok Avalanch
(EDITOR'S NOTE The following article appeared in the March 2, 1924, edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche as part of the "Early Days on the Plains" series and was written by James J. Dillard, founder of the newspaper. In this, the 12th installment of a 25-part series, he reflects on some of the pioneer farming families on the South Plains).
 
By JAMES J. DILLARD
Founder of the Lubbock Avalanche
(EDITOR'S NOTE The following article appeared in the March 9, 1924, edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche as part of the "Early Days on the Plains" series and was written by James J. Dillard, founder of the newspaper. In this, the 13th installment of a 25-part series, he looks back on the contributions made by some of the pioneer cowboys on the South Plains).

Traveling court spanned 175 miles of West Texas click here for the full article
By JAMES J. DILLARD
Founder of the Lubbock Avalanche
(EDITOR'S NOTE The following article appeared in the March 16, 1924, edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche as part of the "Early Days on the Plains" series and was written by James J. Dillard, founder of the newspaper. In this, the 14th installment of a 25-part series, he reflects on pioneer attorneys on the South Plains).
 
Promises of fortune lured migrants Mexicans came to Lubbock in search of work click here for the full article
ANDRES TIJERINA
A-J Special Contributor
Lubbock is one of those Texas towns not already established by Mexicans before the Anglo-Americans settled. Lubbock was settled by Anglo-American pioneers, many of them Quakers. By 1891, Lubbock was already a small town. But there were few Mexican-Americans.

Frontier spirit brought mayhem to civil courts click here for the full article
By JAMES J. DILLARD
Founder of the Lubbock Avalanche
When I located in Lubbock, more than 28 years ago, the mode of travel was by buggy and team wagon or by the mail hack. It took two days to reach Big Spring or Colorado City, thence we traveled by the way of the Texas & Pacific Railway.
 
By JAMES J. DILLARD
Founder of the Lubbock Avalanche
Among the early blacksmiths to locate and follow their trade in Lubbock was Jack Johnson, who operated a shop on the lot occupied by Jons, the sign painter. When the railroad was built from Amarillo to Roswell, N.M., then Portales got on a boom, and several of the earliest citizens of Lubbock moved to that place and among them was Jack Johnson and Joe Lang and his son-in-law, Chas. P. Mitchell. I am informed that Johnson lives at Portales at this time, but Lang and Mitchell are both dead.

By JAMES J. DILLARD
Founder of the Lubbock Avalanche
(EDITOR'S NOTE The following article appeared in the April 6, 1924, edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche as part of the "Early Days on the Plains" series and was written by James J. Dillard, founder of the newspaper. In this, the 17th installment of a 25-part series, he reflects on the contributions of civic-minded pioneer W.D. Crump).
By JAMES J. DILLIARD
Founder of the Lubbock Avalanche
In one of my articles, I paid tribute to the early blacksmiths, but I recall two who followed their profession in Lubbock in the early days who I forgot to mention.

By JAMES J. DILLARD
Founder of the Lubbock Avalanche
The convening of district court recently at Lubbock brings to my mind the first district court held in Lubbock County after its organization on March 10, 1891.
By JAMES J. DILLARD
Founder of the Lubbock Avalanche
(EDITOR'S NOTE The following article appeared in the June 22, 1924, edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche as part of the "Early Days on the Plains" series and was written by James J. Dillard, founder of the newspaper. In this, the 20th installment of a 25-part series, he pays tribute to the early teachers and their important work).
Recently in discussing old times, I was informed that the first school taught in Lubbock County was a subscription school, the tuition paid by various individuals, and many of the subscribers were old bachelors, who would agree to pay one dollar and 50 cents per month, and the informer tells me that he remembers that E.C. Knight and Frank Bowles were subscribers to the school fund.

By KATIE PARKS
A-J Special Contributor
On a desolate farm in Alief, a small community east of Houston, there lived a family of six: the father, Jake White; stepmother Mahalia White; and four children, Claudell, Norma, Oma and Oscar. It was very hard for Jake to earn a living for his family because his sharecropping salary was very small and all of it went to the farmer for feeding Jake and his family all winter.
Then the news reached Alief that there was a town in West Texas named Lubbock, that cotton was plentiful and the pay for pulling bolls was three times more than the pay for picking cotton in Alief. The salary for picking cotton in East Texas at that time (1919-21) was 25 cents per hundred pounds, and areas around Lubbock had began to pay 75 cents to $1.20.
By JAMES J. DILLARD
Founder of the Lubbock Avalanche
Observing the many beautiful and substantial brick buildings in Lubbock now under construction, I recall the first brick freighted in to Lubbock, which was used in building flues in a house on block 236 in old town; also sufficient number were purchased to build flues in the Avalanche office on lot 6, block 104, which is now occupied by the Security State Bank and Trust Company.
By James J. Dilliard
Founder of the Lubbock Avalanche
One of the abstractors of Lubbock was extolling the beauties and opportunities of the South Plains to a prospector a few days since in my presence, and he referred to a section of land located in the southwest corner of Lubbock County which was purchased from the state of Texas by Jesse Dalton and later of boots, which transaction was consummated about 24 years ago, and that the land had increased in value more than two dollars per acre each year as its value at this time was conservatively estimated at $50 per acre.
 
Namesake of Wayland Baptist offered medical services to Lubbock residents from Plainview
By JAMES J. DILLARD
Founder of the Lubbock Avalanche
Referring to the hardships among the early settlers of this country, I remember that one evening about sundown in the month of February, 1898, that J.B. LeGette asked me to go to Plainview and get Dr. J.H. Wayland to come and see his brother-in-law, Bolin Hall, who was seriously sick.

  The Lubbock Avalanche  is being transcribed from microfilm.
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