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Childress County, Texas

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Formed From

Childress County was created in 1876 from the Bexar and Young districts but was not organized until 1887. It is named for George Campbell Childress, the author of the Texas Declaration of Independence. The county seat is Childress.

Adjacent Counties

  • Collingsworth County (north)
  • Harmon County, Oklahoma (northeast)
  • Hardeman County (east)
  • Cottle County (south)
  • Hall County (west)

History/Timeline

Childress Mural
A.D.1000 - 1600 Archeological discoveries along the banks of the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River show Indians lived in half dugouts and used stone and bone tools; they made pottery and ate food such as buffalo, deer, dogs, turtles, and mussels.[1]
1600-1700 Apaches lived in area. Comanches entered Panhandle, pushing out the Apaches.
1874 defeated by U.S. Army in the Red River War of 1874. [1]
1875-76 -Comanches retreated to reservations in Indian Territory buffalo hunters spread across the area. Buffalo herds exterminated and ranchers entered the county..[1]
1879 the OX Ranch, owned by A. Forsythe and Doss D. Swearingen, was established in S part of the county. This large ranch occupied the entire southern half of Childress County and parts of Cottle and Motley counties. [1]
1883 -Shoe Nail Ranch, started by Chicago meat packer Gustavus Franklin Swift N part of county.[1]
.
1886: Childress City and Henry were two towns only four miles apart.[2]
1887: Childress County was organized and the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad arrived the same year. Childress City was declared county seat, but Henry contested and won. Henry then changed its name to Childress.[2]
April, 1887 Election/Competition for County seat between Henry (favored by railroad) and Childress City (favored by residents). A move to organize the county began even as the rails were being laid across it. The election chose Childress City. [1]
Residents changed their mind when the Railroad threatened not to stop in Childress city. and offered lots to residents in Henry, the railroad town County residents chose Childress City as their county seat.[1]
July 1887,2nd election Henry became the county seat; its name was changed to Childress. The old Childress City disappeared. (all of its buildings were moved to the new town. [1]
1890 Farmers began to move into county, settling on unclaimed or state lands (stock farms) (153 :1900 there were 262 farms/ranches in the county.[1]
1891: courthouse burns[2]
1905-1906: Walter Chrysler was foreman of the railroad roundhouse - he later founded Chrysler Motors.[2]
1910 - 961 farms/ranches operated; cotton culture was 45,000 acres , and wheat planted on 12,000 acres. Local farmers had also planted more than 6,300 peach trees .[1]
World War I all tillable land in the county had been sold to the new farmers. The ranching industry survived, however, since the nonarable portions of the large ranches were sold to smaller ranchers during this same period; the county enumerated almost 12,900 cattle in 1910 and almost 12,000 in 1920.[1]
Plowing painting
World War I, farms expanded again in the 1920s from 861 farms and ranches to ( 1925 the 1,322) , and by (1930 to 1,348). Cotton, became the most important.(1930, almost 135,000 acres cotton cultivation). (40% of acreage was wheat production). Also 71,000 chickens with 289,000 dozen eggs sold.[1]
1927-28 The Railroad gave this county transportation network. Ft Worth and Denver City moved shops from Clarendon to Childress. More Railways were constructed to connect Estelle to Plainview and Lubbock. [1]During the first half of the twentieth century, Childress County emerged as the center of a transportation network. The construction of the railroad through the county gave it an early advantage. Shortly after the turn of the century, the Fort Worth and Denver City moved its division point and shops from Clarendon to Childress, a process that began in 1901 and ended in late 1902. The addition of the railroad facilities boosted an already expanding economy and population. The construction of the Fort Worth and Denver South Plains Railway from Estelline to Plainview and Lubbock in 1927–32. [1]
Childress Tx engine display
1900-1930s, expansion of transportation facilities in Childress increased population from (2,138 people to 9,538) and (1920 to 10,933) , and (1930 to 16,044).[1]
Great Depression, Dust Bowl and farm mechanization, reduced the number of small farmers and farm laborers in Childress County during the 1930s. [1]
1929 -Harvested cropland dropped (183,000 acres in 1929) to (114,467 in 1939); cotton dropped to 57,000 acres, and the # farms dropped from 1,348 to 904. [1]
1930s and 1940s a network of crude farm-to-market roads were present.[1]
1939: new permanent courthouse is built[2]
1942: Childress Army Air Field is opened to train bombardiers and also serves as a prisoner of war camp.[2]
1942-45 Childress Air Field.
1945: Base is deactivated and eventually becomes the municipal airport[2]
1950s and 1960s Highways were paved, enlarged.. By the 1980s U.S. Highway 287 ran through the county, U.S. 83 (from Laredo to Perryton) passed through Childress, and a complex system of paved farm-to-market roads was centered around that city and its larger road systems.[1]
1950 the population declined continuously, to a low of 6,505 in 1970. The loss is related to the great reduction in railroad operations and the unprofitability of small-scale farming. Though the county's population increased slightly to 6,950 in 1980, in 1992 only 5,953 people lived in Childress.[1]
1980s Childress County continued with an economy based on agriculture, both farming and ranching. [1]
2014, however, the population had grown to 7,089.


The Diamond Tail Ranch


The brand "Diamond Tail" brand was used in the late 1860s by Mose Dameron who ran cattle n De Baca and Roosevelt counties, New Mexico. 1870, he sold it and the cattle to Jim C and William R Curtis. The brothers had headquarters in Clay County, . Soon they moved the herd north to Groesbeck Creek near Quanah. They built a headquarters and drove the 13,000 cattle in one herd to this range they drove from the Indian Territory. . Diamond Tail Ranch Curtis had already cast eyes on the Panhandle and its abundant grasslands. In 1879 the first of the Diamond Tail cattle arrived to SE Childress County. He used a rock walled dugout near Gypsum Creek for headquarters- They had to set up a drift Fence 15 miles southward which extended to Parnell in Hall county. After moving again to Buck Creek in Hollingsworth county, he had a dugout with picket shacks for the line camps. They also built the same in Donley , Hall and Greer counties..

There were Six-Shooter Camp or Pistol Palace, (Scott (Six-Shooter) Ferguson. Bob Butterworth served as ranch bookkeeper, and other notable cowboys included John Dodson, Sam Bean, John Maddox, and Jim (Pie-Biter) Baker. Pat Wolfarth, Hall county sheriff, served also as foreman of the Diamond Tail until he shot Eugene de Bauerenfiend, publisher of the Hall County Herald, at Memphis on August 10, 1891. Wolfarth was later tried and given a fifteen-year prison sentence for second-degree murder, but Curtis subsequently obtained a pardon for him from Governor Charles A. Culberson.

This Diamond Tail never sold out to British investors. After the railroad went through in 1887, the stages discontinued. Town of Giles became the Diamond tail's shipping point. the ranch went bankrupt in the 1880's.Then Sam Lazarus took it over and had it on sound footing.. The herd of cattle was saved from the terrible blizzard of 1893 because Curtis cut his fences to allow the cattle to drift southward.. Later Curtis and Atkinson bought more good blood cattle from Charles Goodnight of the JA ranch. During the good years Curtis and partner branded 10,000 to 15,000 calves and rtheir average herd was 60,000 head.

In 1890-1895 "nestors" tried to claim school sections. So the Diamond Tail reduced its operations, sold its cows, began an operation of steer ranch only. Curtis moved much of his cattle to Chavez Co., NM. He only kept 16,000 acres in Hall and Donley counties. Curtis's oldest son moved to NM to manage that ranch. Bill Curtis was accidentally killed Dec 1901. His heirs retained interest in 25 sections until 1905. His heirs sold the land to John M. Browder. Browder, who continued the Diamond Tail brand, later divided the ranch among his children. In the 1970s his heirs were still using the brand.[3]



Government Offices

Childress County has had three courthouses:1887, 1891 and the present 1939 courthouse. [4]

1st Childress County Courthouse, no image [4]
2nd Childress County Courthouse, 1891 this pretty courthouse burned the year after it was built. It was rebuilt.[4]
1892 Courthouse.
3rd Childress County Courthouse is Moderne style, of stone, This courthouse was a Public Works Administration project. It was designed by Amarillo architects Townes & Funk designer several courthouses in the Panhandle. [4]
Childress Courthouse current.

Geography

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcc11

116 miles SE of Amarillo, on the Fort Worth and Denver Railway and U.S. Highway 287.
Center of the county is 34°35' north latitude and 100°13' west longitude.
Size: 699 square miles of rolling prairies and rough riverbottoms.
Soils are a mix, sandy loam mixed with alluvial sands from the county's many creeks and rivers. These soils support native grasses as well as cotton, wheat, and sorghum.
Trees: Shin oak, mesquite, salt cedar, and hackberry grow in the bottoms.
Minerals small yearly production of oil and gas.
Elevation 1,600 to 1,900 feet above sea level.
Growing season averages 217 days
Rainfall : 20.67 inches.
Temperature is 26° F in January, and the average maximum is 99° in July.
Rivers/Creeks -Prairie Dog Town Fork of Red River, flows E towards the main channel of the Red River. This stream and its tributary creeks (Dry Salt Creek, East Salt Creek, and Spiller, or Buck, Creek) drain the central and N and make these parts unfit for farming.
Ranching retains a significant role in the local economy.
Lakes  : Baylor Lake and Lake Childress, two small bodies of water, NW of Childress and provide recreation.

Major Highways

Protected areas

  • Baylor Lake and Lake Childress, two small bodies of water, NW of Childress and provide recreation.

Demographics

George Childress.

In 2000, there were 7,688 people giving a population density of 11 people/sq mi. The racial makeup of the county was 67.70% White, 14.09% Black or African American, 0.33% Native American, 0.30% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 15.70% from other races, and 1.83% from two or more races. 20.47% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.[5]

The median income for a household in the county was $27,457, and the median income for a family was $35,543. Males had a median income of $25,606 versus $20,037 for females. The per capita income for the county was $12,452. About 13.70% of families and 17.60% of the population were below the poverty line, including 28.30% of those under age 18 and 10.30% of those age 65 or over.[6]

former Co. Jail

Politics

In 1888, when Childress County held its first presidential election, Democrat Grover Cleveland and Republican William Henry Harrison tied with 80 votes. For many years afterward, however, the voters of Childress County favored Democratic candidates, who won majorities in the area in virtually every presidential election from 1892 through 1948. After 1952, however, when Republican Dwight Eisenhower carried the county, presidential elections there became more competitive. Democratic presidential candidates took the county in 1956, 1964, and 1968, but by slimmer majorities than before, and Republican Richard Nixon actually carried the county in 1960. After 1972, when Nixon took the county over Democrat George McGovern, the area began to trend Republican. Though Democrat Jimmy Carter won in Childress County in 1976, the area went Republican in every presidential election from 1980 through 2004.[7]

Cities

Towns

  • Carey, Texas
  • Tell, Texas


Hostorical Census

1880 --- 25 —
1890 --- 1,175 4,600.0%
1900 --- 2,138 82.0%
1910 --- 9,538 346.1%
1920 --- 10,933 14.6%
1930 --- 16,044 46.7%
1940 --- 12,149 −24.3%
1950 --- 12,123 −0.2%
1960 --- 8,421 −30.5%
1970 --- 6,605 −21.6%
1980 --- 6,950 5.2%
1990 --- 5,953 −14.3%
2000 --- 7,688 29.1%
2010 --- 7,041 −8.4%
Est. 2015 --- 7,088 0.7%

Notables

County Resources=

former post office
  • Baylor Lake and Lake Childress, two small bodies of water, NW of Childress and provide recreation.

Cemeteries




Sources

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcc11
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasPanhandleTowns/ChildressTexas.htm#history
  3. ↑ Diamond Tail Ranch
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasPanhandleTowns/Childress-County-Courthouse-Texas.htm
  5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childress_County,_Texas
  6. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childress_County,_Texas
  7. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childress_County,_Texas
  8. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childress_County,_Texas




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