Texas picture
Deafsmith County 
County News Articles

 

Deaf Smith is the queer name of a new county in the northwest portion of Texas—a name not likely to catch the ear pleasantly.
[Times Picayune – 30 Nov 1878; Submitted by:
  Frances Cooley]


A Texas Resolution
Texas has as many political freaks as Kansas every had, and a fool break is made now and then, which being worse than many others, is noted by the press.

Down at Austin the other day a cantankerous member from Deaf Smith County, concluding that Congressman Roberts was bounced only because he was a Democrat, introduced a resolution declaring that the action was steen kinds of shame, and that surely congress was full of men who were worse than Roberts, and that he was a hero for sticking to all his alleged wives. But if a man should remove into the county from which this member hails and attempt to run branch households he would be pretty apt to have to ride a rail and the gentleman from Deaf Smith County would probably be holding one end of it. Being a Democrat may, in the eyes of a Texas, cover a multitude of sins, but it does not cover the offense of polygamy, except at long range view.
[New Mexican – 29 Jan 1900; Submitted by:  Frances Cooley]



Fort Worth, Texas - News has been received here of a very extensive prairie fire in Deaf Smith and Randall Counties. Several hundred square miles of territory was burned.
[Wilkes-Barre Times - March 6, 1901; Submitted by Frances Cooley]


Steam Plows Being Used
Citizens of Deaf Smith County Tells of That Section's Progress
Austin, Texas, November 19 - Prairies surrounding Hereford now nightly present and unusual spectacle to the view of the visitor to that section of the State, according to information brought to the Capital today by S. J. Dodson, County Attorney of Deaf Smith County.

Fourteen big steam plows are being run under full headway night and day so strenuous have farming operations in those parts become, says Mr. Dodson. The lights of all may be seen on any clear night from the town, and the heavy puffs from the iron monsters at work on nearly every quarter section for a distance of several miles out produce an effect not all together unlike the commotion raised in a big railway traffic center. The plows each have a capacity for turning under from twenty-five to fifty acres a day, and combined they are working wonders toward converting Deaf Smith County from a cattle range into a big farming area.
"To the visitor out our way just now the activity in a farming way must seem something uncanny and strange to a degree," said Mr. Dodson.
A few months ago the prairies were alive with browsing herds of cattle and their lowing was in strange contrast to the commotion now raised by the steam plows. Hundreds of acres are being turned over daily by the steam plows and next spring will see the newly plowed acreage green with vegetation.
Experiments of the last two years show no area of Texas is superior to Deaf Smith County as a wheat growing region. Several hundred acres were grown this year and the average yield was about thirty-three bushels to the acre and in some instances as much as sixty bushels to the acre. We have made but little effort to grow cotton, feed crops of all kinds, however, is produced in quality as fine as those of any section of the State. Sorghum grows abundantly from seed sown broadcast on the prairie and turned under with a common turning plow. Cane planted in this manner grows so high often the reels of a common binder can not be raised high enough to overtop it.
Immigration this winter promises to be heavy. The progressive business men of Hereford have organized and will at regular intervals during the winter run special excursion trains from Kansas City and other points north in the endeavor to settle up the country with farmers. The first of these excursionists will arrive the latter part of this week.
"The big ranches are being fast cut up and in a very short while we will be prepared to lay claim to the honors of being strictly a farming people."
Mr. Dodson is here conferring with the Attorney General in regard to some land matters in Deaf Smith County.
[Dallas Morning News - 20 Nov 1908; Submitted by Frances Cooley]


Deaf-Smith County Gets Quota
Hereford, Texas, May 20. - With the assistance of Captain David Fallon of the Redpath Chautauqua, the Deaf-Smith County oversubscribed its quota in the second Red Cross drive Saturday.
[Fort Worth Star-Telegram - 20 May 1918 - Submitted by Frances Cooley]



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