Communities

All of these sketches are from the Handbook of Texas Online.
AIKEN, TEXAS. Aiken is on U.S. Highway 70 and the Santa Fe Railroad four miles northwest of Lockney in northwest Floyd County. The settlement was named for Frank Aiken, who owned the townsite and secured a post office in August 1922. In 1923 the new Aiken school district replaced an earlier school named Meteor. Aiken had four businesses, a school, and 110 residents by 1947. During the mid-1950s it had two grocery stores, two cafes, two service stations, and a Methodist church. Early residents included the Elam, Marshall, Young, Lucas, Roach, Langfeldt, and Owens families. Most of the services have closed, partly because of changes in agricultural production and farming. Paymaster Seeds, a division of Cargill, Incorporated, once operated a plant at Aiken that shipped an annual average of 300,000 to 400,000 fifty-pound bags of seed worldwide. Cargill also had a research facility three miles north of the community. A Southwestern Grain elevator was located there. North of the town was a community Baptist church. Although some Aiken residents believed the number to be too high, the 1980 census reported a population of 140. In 1990 the population was sixty and in 2000 the population was fifty-seven.

Charles G. Davis
ALCINO, TEXAS. Alcino was two miles northwest of the site of the present community of Cedar Hill in northeast Floyd County. The settlement was named either for a town in New Mexico or for postmaster John Dillard's wife, Alcinie. An Alcino post office existed from March 10, 1917, until August 31, 1923, when services were moved to Lockney. Businesses included Dillard's store and post office and a blacksmith's shop. By the 1940s only the school district of Cedar Hill remained in the area. The Cedar Hill school was consolidated with the Floydada schools in 1950.

Charles G. Davis
ALLMON, TEXAS. Allmon is located at the intersection of Farm roads 54 and 378, seventeen miles southwest of Floydada in extreme southwestern Floyd County. The community was named for the Charles L. Allmon family and evolved around a rural school that had been established by 1909 or 1910. Classes continued until about 1935, when the school was consolidated with the one in Petersburg. A cotton gin was established at Allmon around 1950 or 1951, and a grain storage and elevator was built later in the decade. A general store operated intermittently. In the late 1980s the community consisted of a scattered farm population and a grain elevator, a branch of Barwise Elevator and Fertilizer, with its office located in the old Allmon school building. By 2000 the population reached twenty-four.

Charles G. Davis
BARWISE, TEXAS. Barwise is at the intersection of the Fort Worth and Denver Railway with Farm Road 784, eleven miles west of Floydada in west central Floyd County. The town was laid out in February 1928 after the FW&D had built through the area and was originally named after J. W. Stringer, a local farmer and the owner of the original townsite; the name was changed when it was discovered that another Texas town was named Stringer. Some residents wanted the name Granary, but the final designation became Barwise, after Judge Joseph Hodson Barwise of Wichita Falls, supposedly the first person off the train to register at the local hotel. Originally the town comprised some seven city blocks with streets named for early settlers. By the 1930s it had a hotel, a general store, a fertilizer dealer, a fueling station, a cotton gin, and two grain elevators. A population of about twenty-five was reported during the 1940s. Farm Road 784 reached Barwise in the 1950s. Although about half the original townsite had reverted to farmland by 1986, two businesses continued to operate in the community: Barwise Elevator and Fertilizer, which provided a grain elevator as well as farm supplies, seed, and fuels, and Henricks Barwise Gin, which began operations around 1948 as the Barwise Gin. Although the 1986–87 Texas Almanac listed a population of thirty, local residents stated that nine persons lived within the town limits during that period. The 1990 population was still reported as thirty, but in 2000 it dropped to sixteen.

Charles G. Davis
CEDAR HILL, TEXAS. Cedar Hill is on Farm Road 97 fifteen miles east of Lockney and six miles west of the eastern edge of the Caprock escarpment in northwest Floyd County. Wheat farming is predominant in the area. The community may have been named for the cedars that grew locally or for a town in East Texas. Area settlement began during the late 1880s. A school was built in 1898 and designated a county school district by 1900. The nearby school named Union Bower doubled as a religious meeting hall. A Baptist church was built in 1900. In 1916 John Dillard had a store and post office at Alcino, two miles northwest of Cedar Hill. Dave Dillard built a store at Cedar Hill in the 1920s. During the 1930s and 1940s the town had a brick school, two churches, parsonages, a store, and an icehouse. Later a cafe and beauty shop were established. A grain elevator was built in the early 1960s. The school at Cedar Hill continued in operation until it was consolidated with the Floydada schools in 1950. Businesses in the 1980s included a co-op grain elevator, which processed twenty-five million pounds of wheat in 1985, and an upholstery shop. Assembly of God and Baptist churches are active in the settlement. The population of the community in the 1980s was about ten. By 2000 the population had grown to thirty-six.

Charles G. Davis
DELLA PLAIN, TEXAS. Della Plain was five miles north of Floydada on Highway 207 near the center of Floyd County. It was the first community in what was to become Floyd County and was founded in 1887 by rancher Tom J. Braidfoot and cousins John R. and Jim S. McLain and named for Jim McLain's daughter, Della. A store was built there in 1887, and a post office operated from 1888 to 1893. In 1890 the Della Plain Male and Female Institute opened but moved to Floydada a year later. The Della Plain Review was published from 1889 to 1891, but the loss of the county seat election in 1890 and a poor local water supply finished the community. In 1894 its houses were moved to nearby Lockney, and in the early 1900s the site was planted in cotton. A roadside historical marker indicates the location of the former town.

Alma N. Holmes
DOUGHERTY, TEXAS. Dougherty, on the Fort Worth and Denver Railway and Farm Road 28 in southeastern Floyd County, was established in 1928 and named for Francis M. Dougherty. Grace Garner was the first postmistress, and a school was built in 1929. For a time Dougherty prospered, but when U.S. Highway 62/70 bypassed the town by three miles, the community faltered. In 1948 Dougherty had a church, a post office, three businesses, and 150 people. Conditions remained similar in 1980, when the town had 135 people, a school, a post office, and four businesses. The population was 100 in 1990 and 109 in 2000.

William R. Hunt
FLOYDADA, TEXAS. Floydada, the county seat of Floyd County, is at the junction of U.S. highways 62 and 70, State Highway 207, and Farm roads 784 and 1958 in the south central part of the county. The town, originally named Floyd City, was established in 1890 by M. C. Williams on 640 acres donated by James B. and Caroline Price of Jefferson City, Missouri. The community won the county seat election after a bitter contest with supporters of Della Plain. When a post office was opened, the town's name was changed to Floydada to prevent confusion with Floyd in Hunt County. Some claim the new name was meant to be Floydalia and was garbled in transmission to Washington; others say it was a combination of the county name and that of donor James Price's mother, Ada; still another version is that it was named for Caroline Price's parents, Floyd and Ada. The town's rate of growth was slow in early years, when immediate expectations of a railroad were disappointed. The Pecos and Northern Texas, a division of the Santa Fe, built through in 1910, and the Quanah, Acme and Pacific reached Floydada in 1928, making the community an important rail junction. The town was rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1911 and boomed for several years. A newspaper, the Texas Kicker, was published briefly in 1890, and beginning in 1896 Claude V. Hall published the Floyd County Hesperian.

Aside from setbacks in 1918, when the flu epidemic caused more than fifty deaths, and during the Great Depression, Floydada has shown a steadier prosperity than many West Texas towns. In 1950 it had ninety-two businesses and a population of 3,214. The population was 3,769 in 1960 and reached 4,109 in 1970, when the town had 118 businesses, a hospital, an expanded school system, twenty-two churches, a library, and three parks. The population was 4,193 in 1980 and 3,896 in 1990. In 2000 Floydada had 189 businesses and 3,676 inhabitants. The community no longer had rail service. Much of Floydada's commerce derives from cotton, wheat, vegetables, soybeans, corn, and sunflowers, as well as livestock. Industries include the manufacture of race-cars, sheet metal goods, and oilfield equipment. The Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service is located in Floydada.

William R. Hunt
GREY MULE, TEXAS. Grey Mule was just north of Long Hollow Creek about thirty-five miles northeast of Floydada in northeastern Floyd County below the Caprock. The settlement was on the Fort Worth and Denver Railway. In the early 1900s a community developed around a school that was first called Goodnight. About 1918 the school was moved. Since the new school site was in an area where mules were used for many farming operations, area baseball teams began to call the school Grey Mule. Early businesses in the community included the Keisling cotton gin and a store run by Otis Purcell. The Fort Worth and Denver Railway established the Edgin station there in 1927, supposedly for an "edge in" the Caprock. In 1929 the switch included several maintenance buildings as well as stock pens and a gravel platform. By the early 1930s businesses at Grey Mule included a cotton gin, store, cafe, boardinghouse, blacksmith shop, and gravel pit. The local mail came from Quitaque. The community's population around this time was estimated at 100. The Edgin school, established in the late 1920s, also served as a church and community center. Grey Mule prospered during the 1920s and 1930s, but local business collapsed during the Great Depression, and the community's residents moved away. By the late 1940s Grey Mule was completely abandoned. Nothing remained at the site in the mid- 1980s but the Edgin railroad switch and a cemetery. Stock raising was evident in the area as was cultivation of cotton, wheat, and grain sorghum.

Charles G. Davis
HARMONY, TEXAS. Harmony is on Farm Road 37, thirteen miles southwest of Floydada and two miles east of the Hale county line in southwestern Floyd County. The settlement grew up around a school established about 1905. The name was adopted to depict a close-knit community. After two years the school was moved to a location nearby and continued there until it was replaced with a brick building in the late 1920s. Some ten years later the school was merged with the Petersburg school, which was moved to Floydada in 1947. The Harmony school building became a community center after classes were discontinued. The structure burned in the early 1950s but was rebuilt by local residents. Carr's United Methodist Church, two miles southeast of Harmony, has been in continuous operation since 1905, when it was founded by William Hardy Carr, a native of Tennessee and former Confederate soldier. Services were held in the Harmony school until the present building was erected in 1914. A cemetery to the east of the church contains the graves of many early pioneers, including Carr. In 1986 the population of Harmony was estimated at thirty. Most families lived in a radius of several miles (mostly south and east) of the still-active community center. In 2000 the population was forty-two.

Charles G. Davis
LAKEVIEW, TEXAS. Lakeview is at the junction of Farm roads 651 and 1958, ten miles southeast of Floydada in south central Floyd County. It originated as a school community in 1892. The school was rebuilt in 1900 and in 1919. In 1925 the Lakeview school was in District 11 of the Floydada and Lockney Independent School District. A high school was added in 1930–31 but closed in 1967. In 1936 Lakeview had a church, a school, a cemetery, one business, and a number of scattered dwellings, and in 1942 the population was estimated at fifty. In 1964 the town had a school, a cemetery, a grain elevator, a factory, and one business. The population was estimated at forty-five in 1968, and the same figure was reported up until 1986. In 2000 the population was forty-four.

William R. Hunt
LOCKNEY, TEXAS. Lockney, at the junction of the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe railroads, U.S. Highway 70, and Farm roads 97 and 378, in west central Floyd County, was founded in 1889 by settlers from Della Plain seeking a better water source. A post office was granted in 1890. The community was named for J. H. Lockney, the father of settler J. F. Lockney, by H. C. Knight, the district surveyor. In 1894 J. A. Baker donated land for a new townsite and school one mile to the west. Lockney, which had existed as a store and post office, began to grow. Ranching and grain farming at first formed the economic backbone. A school, Lockney Christian College, founded in 1894 by members of the Church of Christ, encouraged settlers, although the school closed around 1918. The town incorporated in 1908.

Lockney thrived as a center for trade and education in its early years. The Practical Business School was started by A. F. Reagan in 1906. A newspaper, variously named, was published from before 1900 until 1972. By 1911 Judge William McGehee had pioneered an irrigation well, and by the end of the 1940s irrigation made cotton the principal crop of this area. Lockney also became a grain-shipping center and retail point with eighty-five businesses and a population of 1,231 by 1940. By 1950 the population had increased to 1,698. A large elementary school was built in 1964, and other new buildings included a hospital, churches, a city hall, and a fire station. The population was 2,141 in 1960; 2,094 in 1970, when the town had seventy-five businesses; and 2,334 in 1980, when citizens supported seventy-two businesses, five schools, many churches, and a rest home. Plants include a birdhouse manufacturing company and several agricultural implements and oilfield equipment companies, including the only factory for wooden sucker rods in Texas. In 1990 the population was 2,207. The population dropped to 2,056 in 2000.

Kline A. Nall
LONE STAR, TEXAS. Lone Star is on Farm Road 378, eleven miles north of Lockney in northwestern Floyd County. It began in 1892 as a school community. A two-story brick school building was built in 1920; it burned down in 1926 and was replaced the next year. A Church of Christ building was constructed near the school in 1922, and a year later J. A. Van opened a community store. A gas station operated at Lone Star from 1937 to 1976, and gins, a grain elevator, a beauty shop, and a Baptist church were active in l980. The school closed in 1956, when it was merged with the Lockney schools. The population in Lone Star was 125 in 1980. By 2000 the population had decreased to forty-two.

William R. Hunt
MCCOY, TEXAS. McCoy, formerly known as McCoy School, is just west of the junction of Farm roads 54 and 3111, twelve miles southwest of Floydada in southwestern Floyd County. It developed around a school district that was established in 1908 and named for resident A. J. McCoy. By 1925 the school had 100 students, and a brick schoolhouse had been built, which served the area until the school was consolidated with the Floydada school about 1946. During the 1920s the town grew to include a grocery, a general store, and a gin, as well as Methodist and Baptist churches. McCoy in 1936 had a church, a school, and two businesses. In 1979 a grocery, a gin (begun in 1925), a farm supply store, and a grain elevator were active; by 1986 the grocery had closed. In 1980 McCoy had a population of ninety-six; in 1990 no population figures were available for the community. In 2000 the population was two.

Charles G. Davis
MUNCY, TEXAS. Muncy is near the intersection of U.S. Highway 70, Farm Road 786, and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, seven miles northwest of Floydada in west central Floyd County. It was founded in 1897 by Rev. R. E. L. Muncy of Virginia. In 1910 the Santa Fe Railroad built into the area and constructed a switch in Muncy. The postal department granted the community an office in 1911 and appointed Reverend Muncy postmaster, but he resigned the position, and the station was never established. The Mayshaw school was built near the community in 1911 and renamed Muncy the next year. On September 11, 1910, the Muncy Missionary Baptist Church was organized at the school, with Reverend Muncy as pastor. The church remained active until it moved to Lockney in 1926. The school operated until the spring of 1947, then was consolidated (officially in 1949) with the Lockney school. In the 1980s Muncy had a grain elevator built in 1928, several houses, and a Santa Fe Railroad switch.

Charles G. Davis
PROVIDENCE, TEXAS. Providence is at the junction of Farm roads 2301 and 788, twelve miles northwest of Lockney and sixteen miles northeast of Plainview in northwestern Floyd County. W. J. (Uncle Jack) Lovvorn came to the area in 1891 and named the settlement for his hometown in Alabama. Many of the original residents were German Americans. The first school was built about 1910. Trinity Lutheran Church, located one mile south of the community on land given by Ben Quebe, was dedicated in June 1912. The church was expanded and rebuilt in 1949–50. The Providence school, originally the Price district, was founded in 1923 and was one of thirty-two Texas rural county school districts during the 1920s. Although hurt by consolidation and the breakup of small farms, Providence still survives as an agriculturally based community. Crops raised in the vicinity include cotton, milo, wheat, corn, and some vegetables. Businesses in the 1980s were the Providence Farm Supply and Elevator, the Providence gin (a mile west), and the Crume gin and cafe (a mile north). The Trinity Lutheran Church, with a membership of eighty-seven, also served as a community center for the area. Longtime family names included Quebe, Scheele, Brandes, Boedeker, Matthews, Koenig, Sammann, Schreiber, and Rauchenbach.

Charles G. Davis
QUITAQUE, TEXAS. Quitaque is on State Highway 86 in southeastern Briscoe County. The first settler in the area was the Comanchero trader José Piedad Tafoya, who operated a trading post on the site from 1865 to 1867, trading dry goods and ammunition to the Comanches for rustled livestock. In 1877 George Baker drove a herd of about 2,000 cattle to the Quitaque area, where he headquartered the Lazy F Ranch. Charles Goodnight bought the Lazy F in 1880 and introduced the name Quitaque, which he believed was the Indian word for "end of the trail." According to another legend the name was derived from two buttes in the area that resembled piles of horse manure, the real meaning of the Indian word. Another story is that the name was taken from the Quitaca Indians, whose name was translated by white settlers as "whatever one steals." The Quitaque Ranch covered parts of Briscoe, Floyd, and Hall counties. In 1882 a post office was established at ranch headquarters on Quitaque Creek in what is now Floyd County. By 1890 the town reported forty residents. When Briscoe County was organized in 1892 the post office was moved to the current location of Quitaque, and the townsite was surveyed and platted. Settlers had moved into the area by 1890. In 1891 A. R. Jago built a store there and the first cotton crop was harvested. A school was opened southwest of Quitaque in 1894 and moved to the townsite in 1902. In 1907 the Twilla Hotel, a local landmark, opened. By 1914 the town reported seventy-five residents, a bank, and three general stores. In the 1920s Amos Persons, president of the First National Bank of Quitaque, succeeded in getting the Fort Worth and Denver South Plains Railway branch line routed through the town. In 1927 Quitaque was incorporated with P. P. Rumph as mayor, and on November 20, 1928, the first train arrived. By 1940 the town had affiliated schools, three churches, thirty-four businesses, and a population of 763. In 1961 Quitaque reported 586 residents and thirty-three businesses. In 1985 it had two city parks, a community center, and a fire station. Numerous Russian pines had been planted by citizens throughout the town as part of a state beautification program, and a City Homecoming Celebration was held every three years. In 1988 Quitaque had an estimated population of 700 and eleven businesses. In 1990 the population was 513. The population dropped to 432 in 2000.

H. Allen Anderson
SANDHILL, TEXAS. Sandhill is at the junction of Farm roads 784 and 378, nine miles west of Floydada and ten miles southwest of Lockney in southwestern Floyd County. The area was settled before 1900. A school was built in 1892, and the community was designated a voting precinct by 1896. A post office, established in 1902, was known as Mickey for the names of several postmasters. Sandhill was one of thirty-two rural school districts in the 1920s. A school continued in the community until it was consolidated with that of Floydada in the 1950s. The Sandhill store, which was run by Mrs. Louise Shurbet from 1940 to 1984, continued to operate, as did the Sandhill elevator. Regional crops include corn, seed maize, wheat, and cotton. Early settler family names were Miller, Shurbet, Mickey, Fox, Mackey, McLain, Darby, and McClesky. The post office was discontinued in 1943. In the 1980s the population was estimated at forty. By 2000 the population was thirty-three.

Charles G. Davis
SOUTH PLAINS, TEXAS. South Plains is on State Highway 207 and the Fort Worth and Denver Railway, four miles west of the Caprock escarpment in north central Floyd County. J. D. Childress established a store and post office in 1909 at Curlew, at a site one mile north and five miles east of present South Plains. It served as a stage stop. The post office was moved to the home of Mrs. J. W. Simms, three miles from the site of present South Plains, and was moved again in 1927 when the railroad arrived. A school was started in 1928 and was still operating in 1978. The original Curlew store was moved to South Plains in 1929. A hotel was built but burned down in 1934. Two hundred acres was platted and sold as town lots in 1927; some of these were sold for taxes in 1945. The Great Depression and World War II dislocations ended the community's fleeting prosperity. The population was 120 in 1980 and twenty-five in 1990. By 2000 the population was ninety-two.

William R. Hunt
STERLEY, TEXAS. Sterley is on Farm Road 2286 seven miles northeast of Lockney in northwest Floyd County. It began around 1927-28, when the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway was built through the area, and was named for W. F. Sterley, the general agent for the railroad. Early businesses included a post office, established in December 1928, Harvey House restaurant, and a depot. A grocery store was established in 1934 by the Howell family. By 1948 the town had a population of ninety, a post office, a school, railroad shops, and two churches. The community was at the junction of two branches of the Fort Worth and Denver City in a predominantly agricultural region. In 1980 Sterley reported a population of seventy-five. A gin and large elevator were still in operation, although the post office had closed in February 1969. In 1990 the population was estimated at ten.

Charles G. Davis