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Welcome to Texas Genealogy Trails!
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The area was named for James Gibson Swisher, a veteran of the Texas
Revolution. Swisher County occupies 896 square miles of level plains
broken only by Tule Creek and its three branches, North, Middle, and
South Tule draws. The area that is now Swisher County was long
the homeland of Apachean cultures, who were displaced by the more
warlike Comanches by around 1700. The Comanches ruled the High
Plains until they were crushed by the United States Army in the Red
River War of 1874. |
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In 1876 the Texas state
legislature carved Swisher County from lands previously assigned to
the Young and Bexar districts. In 1880 four people were reported
living in the area. Ranching came to the county as the buffalo were
eliminated. Swisher County remained largely unsettled until the JA
Ranch of Charles Goodnight expanded into the county in 1883. This
activity led to Goodnight's Tule Ranch, which occupied the entire
eastern part of the county.
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By the late 1880s the
scattered residents of the county perceived a need for a local
government, and a petition for organization was circulated in June
1890. An election held on July 17 formally organized the county with
Tulia, a tiny settlement, chosen as county seat. Swisher County
remained wholly a ranching county almost until the beginning of the
twentieth century.
A Santa Fe Railroad
branch line from Amarillo reached Swisher County in 1906 and later
connected the county to Plainview in Hale County. When the line was
completed to Lubbock in 1910, Tulia and Swisher County were on a
major north-south rail line. Railroad construction also led to the
establishment of two Swisher County towns, Happy and Kress, which
became new population centers on the railroad. |
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Cities and towns
Kress
Tulia
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ONLINE DATA |
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State Bird
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