Towns, Cities and Churches

If you have any information on towns, schools, post offices, historical churches, founding fathers, location, history, etc., please submit the information to me for inclusion on this site.

Box 
Box was four miles southeast of the site of what is now Vernon in central Wilbarger County.
The settlement was named for the surrounding five-mile-square school district. The school, established there about 1893, became the community center for nearby residents. In 1916 the school's name was changed from Box to East Vernon.
A grocery store was built nearby in 1925 but closed in 1931.
The school was divided between the Vernon and Oklaunion school districts in 1949. Reunions were held at the old school building, near the intersections of Farm roads 1949 and 433, until 1981.

Doan

Doan's Store was at the junction of Farm roads 2916 and 924, a mile southwest of the Red River in north central Wilbarger County. Jonathan Doan and his nephew Corwin Doan established a trading post in 1878 to serve the cattle drivers who used the nearby Western Trail to get their herds to market. A post office was established at the store in 1879 with Corwin Doan as postmaster. By the mid-1880s Doans had a school, a hotel, a general store, a saloon, and a population estimated at 300. A wide variety of people came to the town to do business: cowboys, ranchers, Indians, buffalo hunters, peddlers, and itinerant preachers; one of the more famous visitors was Quanah Parker.

Elliott
Elliott is at the intersection of Farm roads 1763 and 370, four miles south of the Oklahoma state line in northeast Wilbarger County. Cotton was the main crop of the region. Many of the first settlers in 1904 came from Williamson County to escape a boll weevil outbreak. These early farmers were successful, although they were told that cotton would not grow in the area. The settlement was first called Waggoner's Colony.
In 1907 the name was changed to honor the first schoolteacher, probably Sarah Elizabeth Elliott, whose husband, J. W. Elliott, had donated the land for a school established in 1906. The community was also known as Bugscuffle.
The Bethel Baptist Church was organized in 1906, and members erected a building the next year. The church remained active in 1986 and also served the communities of Oklaunion and Harrold. A Methodist church existed during the early twentieth century but closed sometime after 1937.
In 1941 the school was consolidated with that of Oklaunion.
Elliott was large enough during the 1920s to support a twenty-five-piece community band, and by 1940 perhaps 250 residents lived there. The town population, however, was consistently reported in census records from the 1930s through 2000 as around fifty.
In 1986 the community had the Elliott Co-op Gin, a combination store and domino parlor, and the Baptist church. The Bugscuffle oilfield is four miles west.

Farmers Valley
Farmers Valley is at the intersection of Farm roads 925 and 392, nine miles west of Vernon and one mile east of the Hardeman county line in west central Wilbarger County.
A small community had been established in the area when a school was built in 1887. By the early 1900s it had grown to include a Methodist congregation established in 1881, a cotton gin, and a combination grocery store and service station. The Methodists built their church building about 1922. The school was renamed Wells Chapel in 1924 and served the area until it was consolidated with the Chillicothe school in 1946. Farmers Valley population was reported at twenty-five during the 1930s and 1940s and fifty in later records. The Methodist church dissolved in the late 1970s, and the gin closed in 1982.
The reported population was fifty in 1990 and again in 2000.

Grayback
Grayback is on Farm Road 1763 just south of its junction with Farm Road 1811, fifteen miles southeast of Vernon in south central Wilbarger County.
Much of the nearby land was bought up by the Waggoner Ranch during the 1880s, when settlement began in the area. Local oil discoveries about 1920 produced a regional boom, prompting oilmen to establish the Grayback post office near Beaver Creek. The community's population reached a reported peak of fifty during the 1950s before leveling off to twenty-five. The Grayback post office was discontinued in the mid-1950s.
This rural community was sometimes referred to as Rock Crossing, a now-extinct oil community located several miles east of Grayback. The Phillips Petroleum Company had a camp at that site and built several houses for employees there in the mid-1920s. A school founded there about 1927 lasted for a short time.
County maps made in the 1980s did not show the Rock Crossing community but indicated two businesses, a church, and a community center at Grayback, where the population was still reported as twenty-five through 2000.

Guyer
Guyer was at the intersection of two local roads some four miles east and two miles north of what is now Elliott in northern Wilbarger County, about two miles south of the Oklahoma state line.
The settlement grew up around a rural school established in 1909 and was named for Henry and Jess Guyer, who owned the school land. Guyer comprised only a school and a church but was known in the region for its annual picnics. In 1927 its school was consolidated with that of Harrold.
No sign of Guyer was shown on the 1980 county highway map.

Harrold
Harrold is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 287, State Highway 240, Farm Road 1763, and the Burlington Northern line, seven miles southeast of Oklaunion in east central Wilbarger County.
It was known as Cottonwood in the early 1880s, when it had a stage station and a store near China Creek. In 1884 the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway, building from the east, reached the area. The community was renamed to honor promoter Ephraim Harrold, who owned the nearby Bar-X Ranch.
As the western terminus for the railroad, Harrold became an overnight boomtown and was officially platted on May 20, 1885. On July 10 of that year a post office was established there.
Prospective settlers were offered train rides from Wichita Falls and were welcomed to the town by a brass band. Within a year some 1,500 people had arrived, and Harrold became known as a spirited frontier town. Churches were established. The town's numerous businesses included sixteen saloons.
Harrold's boom days abruptly ended when the railroad reached Vernon, though Harrold remained a railroad shipping point and agricultural center with a population of several hundred.
A school was established there about 1893, and Methodist, Baptist, and Church of Christ congregations were organized by 1900. The town experienced a second though less spectacular boom when oil was discovered nearby in 1924.
The population of Harrold in 1929 was 349 and by World War II was 375. During the 1950s the post office, eleven businesses, and 375 residents were reported at the town. Later the population slightly decreased. The community's Methodist church was closed in 1951, its Baptist church in 1966, and its Church of Christ in 1974. In 1986 four businesses, the post office, and a population of 320 were reported at Harrold.
Its population remained 320 through 2000.

Haulk
Haulk, about two miles from the site of what is now Odell in extreme northwestern Wilbarger County, received a post office in 1902, with Starling C. Kelly as postmaster. This post office was discontinued and moved to Chillicothe in 1907. During the early 1900s the community had a school (established in 1908), a store, and a cotton gin.
When the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway bypassed Haulk in 1908, most of the town moved to the new community of Odell, on the railroad. Haulk remained a school district until 1919, when it was enlarged and renamed Haulk Hill. In 1935 the old district was absorbed by the Northside School.
Haulk was not shown on the 1984 county highway map.

Lockett
Lockett is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 70 and Farm Road 433, six miles southwest of Vernon and seven miles west of the Foard county line in west central Wilbarger County.
A settlement has existed at the site from the early 1880s, and a school was established in 1885.
In 1888 the community was named for local residents T. J. and J. B. Lockett.
A Methodist group had been present since 1887, and in 1898 its members built Wesley Chapel. A Baptist church organized in Lockett in 1909, and the Lutherans were established by 1910. Around 1918 a Church of Christ was organized.
In the early twentieth century the Streit family from Switzerland founded a twenty-five-piece community band. By 1918 Lockett had a gin, two general stores, and several other businesses.
The population between 1940 and 1960 was 125. The Lockett school was consolidated with that of Vernon in 1969.
In the mid-1980s through 2000 the town reported a population of 200. The Zion Lutheran and Lockett Baptist churches remained active.

Mack
The site of Mack is near present U.S. Highway 183/283 eighteen miles southeast of Vernon in south central Wilbarger County.
The community evolved in the 1880s and became a gathering place for ranchers and farmers. A post office established in 1889 with George W. McCollum as postmaster was discontinued and moved to Pinta in 1894. About 1893 a school was started. It served the area until it was consolidated with the Grapevine school in 1932.
Early settlers of Mack included the Boyle, Reed, Schaub, and Ferebee families.
Nothing remained of the community by the 1980s except a cemetery just east of the highway near Minnos Creek.

Odell
Odell is at the intersection of Farm roads 2379, 91, and 432 and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, fifteen miles northwest of Vernon in extreme northwestern Wilbarger County. Wanderers Creek borders the town on the west.
The settlement, which began as a railroad station when the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway built into the area in 1908, was named for J. T. Odell, a New York civil engineer. Much of the town's initial population lived in Haulk, two miles away, but moved to land donated by T. H. Holloway when the railroad came.
Charles W. Stults built the first store in the new town, which was granted a post office on April 27, 1909. By 1919 the town had thirty businesses, including two banks and a picture show. The first newspaper was the Odell News, which began in the early 1900s. Five churches were eventually built.
The peak years came in the late 1920s, when the town reported over 800 residents. Incorporation occurred in 1928. Within a short time, however, a gradual decline began.
In 1934 a number of fires destroyed several businesses, and by 1945 only eight businesses and 301 citizens were reported. The population fell to about 130 from 1960 through the 1980s. Odell lost its incorporated status in the 1970s.
In 1986 the town consisted of a combination post office and store, two Baptist churches, and a county maintenance building. The local economy was based on cotton, cattle, grain, and oil.
In 2000 the population was 131.

Oklaunion
Oklaunion is on U.S. highways 183, 283, and 70 and the Burlington Northern line, nine miles east of Vernon and fourteen miles northwest of Electra in northeastern Wilbarger County.
A settlement called Mayflower was renamed Oklaunion about 1888 by "Buckskin Joe" Works in the hope that the Frisco line would connect there with the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway. Although the proposed linkage occurred in Vernon, Oklaunion prospered as a station on the Fort Worth and Denver.
A post office was established at the community in 1889, when its population was sixty-five. The town's first school opened about 1893.
By 1930 Oklaunion had grown to include a Baptist church, a bank, a hotel, and several other businesses. With a population of 400, the town voted to incorporate on June 6, 1928. Oklaunion had a population of 223 in 1945, but it declined to around 130 in the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1967 the town's school was consolidated with the Vernon schools, and Oklaunion dissolved its incorporation in the 1970s. The Oklaunion Baptist Church, organized in 1908, was disbanded in November 1984.
In 1986 the town had the post office, a gin, two grain elevators, and a store and gas station. Located nearby was the West Texas Utilities Company, established in 1982, which maintained a spur railroad line to its plant south of town.
In 1990 and again in 2000 the population of Oklaunion was reported as 138.

Parsley Hill
Parsley Hill is at the intersection of Farm roads 1207 and 2074, eleven miles southwest of Vernon in southwestern Wilbarger County. It developed around a school that began in 1911, and was named after landowner J. N. Parsley.
A gin and a blacksmith shop were built later.
In 1929 the school was consolidated with the Antelope, Haney, Guggisberg, and Kincheloe districts to form the Five-In-One School.
During the 1940s the Parsley Hill population was 180, and the community had two businesses. From 1950 through the 1980s, however, forty residents were reported there. Parsley Hill was shown on the 1984 county highway map with two businesses. In 2000 the population was again reported at forty.

Ronda
Ronda was on Farm Road 2326 just north of Beaver Creek and ten miles southeast of Harrold in southeastern Wilbarger County.
The community developed in the early 1880s, and a cemetery had been established by 1881. A post office opened in 1889 with Alfred T. Bailey as postmaster. By the time a school opened in 1893, the settlement of about seventy-five people had the post office, a store, and scattered houses. The post office was moved to Harrold in 1907, and the store closed. The school served a large district until it was consolidated with the Harrold school in 1929.
In 1986 nothing remained of the settlement except the cemetery.

Sherwood
Sherwood was a school community thirteen miles north of Vernon in northwest Wilbarger County. It evolved during the mid-1880s, when settlers began to move into the area.
In 1893 a rural school, which became Sherwood, was established to serve a small district north of Fargo. No businesses were founded. The mail came through Doan's.
Early residents of Sherwood included the Hamilton, Sanderson, Hull, and Rogers families.
In 1935 the Sherwood district was absorbed by the new Northside school.
No evidence of the former community appeared on 1980 county maps.

Tolbert
Tolbert, on U.S. Highway 287 and the Burlington Northern line in northwestern Wilbarger County, was originally established in the late 1880s as a shipping point by the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway.
It was first named Wheatland for the abundance of wheat in the area, but in 1890 the postal department rejected the name Wheatland, and the town became Tolbert instead, in honor of county judge J. R. Tolbert. The new post office was granted on June 30 of that year.
Between 1910 and 1930 the town grew to comprise as many as 1,000 people and numerous businesses, including a theater, a telephone office, and three churches. By 1930, however, it had greatly declined, due largely to the lack of an adequate water source. The post office was discontinued in the early 1930s, and by 1940 the population was only seventy-five. Between the 1950s and the 1980s it fell to thirty. The population remained at thirty in 2000. The Tolbert school, first established about 1893, consolidated with the Vernon and Odell schools in 1954.
By 1986 only a few families and the cemetery were left.
Tolbert was the home of state treasurer John W. Robbins, who served from 1899 to 1907.

Shortly after the Doans settled in the north part of the county, a trading post was located at Condon Springs, which is now the site of Hillcrest Country Club, and a community was established there as Eagle Flat, in recognition of the many eagles nesting in the area. Though there may be others, two prominent theories abound as to how Vernon got its name, though history has not substantiated one over the other. The first is that the town was first called Eagle Flats, due to the local eagle nesting population. The name was rejected by postal authorities due to other offices with "Eagle" in the name. So, the town named itself after George Washington's Mount Vernon. The second theory is that the town was named after Vernon Brown, a whisky drummer, the first to call on the new town site, and who promised free samples of his wares if the then-new town was named after him. It likely that the first theory is correct, however nobody really knows for sure. What we do know is that the name was changed by U.S. Postal authorities to Vernon after several other names were given consideration.
The original town-site was laid out on a half-section of land in 1880.
The first school in Vernon was a one room, sod covered dugout. L. N. Perkins was the teacher in 1880. Mrs. A. T. Boger taught the first public school in a dug-out east of Vernon, a term that last four months. Her salary was $12.50 a month. Subsequent teachers were: Prof. Nye, Judge J. R. Tolbert, Miss Hattie Farrell (identified as Mrs. J. L. Swartwood), and Prof. E. L. Witty. A succession of superintendents of schools: Judge Tolbert, Joe Eagle, Prof. Johnson, T. S. Cox, and W. T. Potter.
Founded 1882 in a dugout, Vernon drugstore was to be noted as the oldest drugstore in the county. The present building was erected 1901. In 1958, store filled its 1,000,000th prescription
The first actual building in the county was build in 1884 and housed the office of Dr. H. H. Rhoads, Vernon county's health officer for 40 years. Dr. Rhoads co-owned the building.
The first newspaper in the county, the "Vernon Hornet," had its shop in the store building.
The city was incorporated in an election on April 3, 1889. The first meeting of the City Council after incorporation was later that month. A special election was called to elect officers for the town. The first officers were:

One of the early ordinances decreed it "unlawful to ride or drive faster than a slow lope through the streets of said city." Speeders... even then.
Occupation taxes of $2.50 were levied against those who had a trade or profession. Among others, those made to pay were land agents, lawyers, physicians and dentists.
In April, 1916, the City Commission form was adopted. The following officers were elected:

 
Mayors of the City of Vernon 1889-1931:

Vernon City secretaries 1890-1931:

Today Vernon remains the administrative, manufacturing, and educational center of the county. Industries are agricultural supplies and processing, seed propagation, textiles, meat packing, cottonseed, and alfalfa milling.
Population 11,660 (2000) 12,001 (1990)
 
White City
White City is on Farm Road 924 ten miles north of Vernon in northwestern Wilbarger County. It took its name from James Franklin White, who came with his family to the area in 1890. The Crescent Cove School had been established there a year before.
By the early 1900s the town had a peach orchard, a gin, a Baptist church, a school, and a store. Crescent Cove School was consolidated with the Northside district in 1940. The White City Gin, founded in 1908, remained active in 1986.
The population was reported at forty from the 1930s through 1990. County maps of the 1980s indicated three businesses in the community. The population was forty in 2000.

Wildcat
Wildcat is on a local road just north of Wildcat Creek and three miles north of Vernon in north central Wilbarger County.
A school was established near the creek in 1889 and became the meeting place for area settlers. In 1911 a Sunday school was started at the school, and a Methodist church was organized in 1915. The school served a sizable district north of the Pease River until it was consolidated with the Vernon schools in 1948.
County maps of the 1980s indicated a church and a small community at the site.

West Vernon
Located along the western border of what is now Vernon in north central Wilbarger County, West Vernon grew up around the first rural school district established in the county in 1893.
It voted to incorporate on February 21, 1927, and by the 1930s had grown to include twelve businesses and a population of 955.
In 1944 Vernon annexed West Vernon. The schools officially merged in 1945. A population figure of 955 was listed separately for West Vernon through the 1960s.
No evidence of the former town was indicated on 1980 county maps.

Maps of Wilbarger County