History
Polish Settlers of White Deer
In 1854, 100 Polish families (800 persons) came to America in one small sailing ship--a voyage of 9 weeks. None spoke English. From Galveston they walked 200 miles to Panna Maria in South Texas, arriving for Christmas Eve Mass. There they toiled at manual labor. In 1909, in response to White Deer Land Co. offers, they migrated here.
Architecture
Purvines Ranch Home
Built 1906-08 in land of lumber scarcity by Carroll and Kate Purvines, (from Illinois) of cement blocks they made by hand, using local sand. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1964
History
State National Bank
Founded in 1904 as a private bank by John Walter Knorpp (1867-1952), member of an established banking family of Missouri, New Mexico, and Texas, and Eugene Sherwood Blasdel (1878-1930), oil and grain business developer of this region. In 1905 Blasdel sold his interest to Knorpp. A state charter was obtained in 1908, but surrendered in 1926 for national charter.
History
Temple Lea Houston (August 12, 1860-August 15, 1905)
(August 12, 1860 - August 15, 1905) Born in the Texas Governor's Mansion, the eighth and last child of Sam Houston (1793-1863) and his wife Margaret; educated at Baylor University, Texas A&M, and in a law office, Temple Houston came in 1881 to this region as district attorney for the 35th Judicial District. He married Laura Cross of Mobeetie, 1882.
History
Terminus of the Santa Fe Railroad_Panhandle, Texas
Originally "Carson City", town name was changed 1887 when this site appeared to be the future metropolis of the Panhandle: it was to be at the junction of Santa Fe (under name "Southern Kansas") and Fort Worth & Denver City railroads. Plans changed, however, and the F.W. & D.C. took a route 16 mi. south, bypassing Panhandle (Amarillo was soon founded on the F.W. & D.C.).
History
Texan Hotel
Texan Hotel During the height of Carson County's oil boom in the 1920s, the major oil field supply houses headquartered in Panhandle, and lodging was in great demand. In 1926, Clark B. (d. 1946) and Margaret (d. 1967) Downs opened the Downs Hotel to help meet this need. It was renamed the Texan Hotel when the property was conveyed to J. H. Paul (d. 1960) in 1932.
History
Texas Panhandle Pioneers - John F. Weatherlys Family
Among first landowners in area. In 1898 started ranch 25 miles to the north. Ran country store, post office, phone exchange. Moved 1915 to Panhandle. The 1924 discovery of oil on their ranch led to the founding of Borger. They gave land to every church and school, and for a park, there. Weatherly (b. 1865, Tenn.) was a church, civic, Masonic leader; one of organizers of Hutchinson County.
History
Texas Panhandle Pioneers - The Simms Brothers
Permanent citizens, forgers of local civilization. Walter Franklin (1869-1963), George Leonard (born 1875) and Dormer D. Simms (born 1884) moved to Texas in 1886 and to this county in the early 1900's. They arrived later than visiting hunters, soldiers and others who in the 1870's cleared this land of buffalo and hostile Indians, and started ranching.
History
The 33rd Anniversary National Convention
The 33rd Anniversary National Convention, Men's Garden Clubs of America, meeting at Amarillo, June 14-17, 1965, formally recognized and paid tribute to the significance of Thomas Cree's little tree and to the memory of this heroic early gardener of these High Plains. (1967)
Architecture
The Square House
The Niedringhaus brothers of St. Louis sent lumber by ox-cart from Dodge City and built this square house on their "N Bar N" Ranch here in Carson County in the mid-1880s. In 1887 a railroad official occupied the pioneer cottage while the Southern Kansas Railway was being extended from Kiowa, Kansas, to Panhandle City.
History
Thomas Cree Homesite
After serving as a teamster in the Civil War (1861-65), Thadium (Thomas) B. Cree worked for the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1888 he and his wife came to the High Plains. They acquired this land and, with no trees for lumber, they built a dugout home. Cree traveled 35 miles at his wife's request to find a sapling and planted it here.
History
White Deer
Name taken from nearby creek, so called by an Indian legend of White Deer feeding there. Site of county's first water well, drilled at N Bar N Ranch, 1887. Also headquarters for White Deer Land Co. (formerly Francklyn Land and Cattle Co., a British syndicate with 630,000 acres of Panhandle land), which in 1902 sold its acreage for small farms and ranches. Located .
History
White Deer Cemetery
In 1916, Mrs. Beulah V. Tillman, a "femme sole," purchased 155 of the 160 acres that made up Block 7 of Survey 26 of the International and Great Northern Railroad Company. Because the remaining five acres were omitted from the purchase, the site may have already been established as an informal burial ground. It is believed that an employee of the railroad died in an accident ca.
Elsewhere in Texas
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
