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Ranchers appeared
in Carson County in the early 1880s. The JA Ranch
of Charles Goodnight and John G. Adair
and the Turkey Track Ranch
both grazed large ranges in Carson County by 1880. In 1882
Charles G. Francklyn purchased 637,440 acres of railroad lands
in Gray, Carson, Hutchinson, and Roberts counties, 281,000 of
them in Carson County. The newly formed Francklyn Land and
Cattle Company,
with B. B. Groom
as manager, attempted to ranch and farm on a large scale, but
failed. The lands of the Francklyn Company were sold to the
White Deer Lands Trust of British bondholders in 1886 and
1887. |
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In the later 1880s
the railroads reached Carson County. By 1886 the Southern
Kansas Railway, a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa
Fe, had built from Kiowa, Kansas, to the Texas-Indian
Territory border. The Southern Kansas of Texas Railway was
formed to extend the line into Texas. |
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Panhandle City, a
temporary railhead, was founded in 1887 in anticipation of the
railroad line, which finally reached the town in 1888. The
town grew, and its occupants hoped that another rail line, the
Fort Worth and Denver City, which was building from Fort Worth
across the Panhandle to Colorado, would pass through their
city. As it happened, the Fort Worth and Denver City missed
Panhandle City by fourteen miles to the south, just touching
the southwestern corner of the county. In 1889 the two lines
were finally linked by a fourteen-mile span between Panhandle
City and Washburn, a station on the Fort Worth and Denver
City.
By 1890 Carson
County had a rail network, and its first town, soon known
simply as Panhandle. Water had to be brought to
Panhandle by railroad from the area of Miami in Roberts
County, then carried in barrels on wagons to homesteads. This
problem hindered development until it was found that abundant
underground water could be pumped to the surface by windmills.
That discovery, together with the selling of White Deer lands
to small ranchers and farmers in 1902, greatly increased the
area's attractiveness. During the next thirty years a modern
agricultural economy emerged, based on the production of
livestock, wheat, corn, and grain sorghum. |
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Carson County is named for Samuel Price Carson, the first secretary
of state of the Republic of Texas. Its county seat is Panhandle
Cities and towns
Groom
Panhandle
Skellytown
White Deer
Texas Ghost Town - Conway
Carson County, Texas Panhandle
Interstate 40 (Old Route 66) & Hwy 207
12 miles E of Amarillo
Population: 25 est. (2000) 50 (1990)
This town along the Choctaw Route of the Chicago, Rock Island and
Gulf Railway actually began before the arrival of the railroad. The
Lone Star school, established in 1892 for the children of ranchers
is said to be the first in the Panhandle region. The Fisher
Brothers, Delzell and P. H., platted the town in 1905 and the
one-room schoolhouse was moved there. The town was named in
honor of a former county commissioner (H. B. Conway). A post
office was granted in 1903 and moved into a store run by Edward S.
Carr in 1907. After a consolidation with the Panhandle ISD,
Conway's old brick school building was used as a community center.
The population was a mere 25 in 1925, but by 1939 it had risen to
125. The Handbook of Texas reports Conway had a population of
175 in 1969 but only 50 people in 1970. No explanation is given for
the drastic change. The post office was closed in 1976.
Index of Heirloom Recipes
from Hometowns across America - Conway, TX
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ONLINE DATA |
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Mockingbird
State Bird
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