Arden Community
Mertzon, Irion County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This ranching community was named for John Arden, a sheep raiser who arrived in 1876. After 1900, small homesteaders moved into the area. Joe Funk gave land for a school and cemetery in 1903. Baptist, Church of Christ, and Methodist congregations shared the schoolhouse for worship. Camp meetings were held at "The Grove" on Rocky Creek. In 1916 the school moved to a brick building at this site. Following a series of droughts, Arden began to decline. The post office closed in 1942 and the school in 1947. A frame polling station replaced the brick schoolhouse here. (1979)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Arden took its name from John Arden, a sheep raiser who reached this west Texas range in 1876, and grew into a ranching community as homesteaders filtered in after 1900. Neighbors shared a schoolhouse for Baptist, Church of Christ, and Methodist worship and gathered for camp meetings at a creekside grove. A string of droughts steadily drained the settlement — the post office closed in 1942 and the school in 1947 — leaving Arden among the many west Texas communities that faded back into open country.
Why it matters
Arden's rise and slow disappearance capture the boom-and-bust arc of the arid western ranching frontier, where drought could erase a whole community within a generation.
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Related people
- · John Arden
- · Joe Funk
Themes & tags
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