Audubon
Alvord, Wise County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A vanished town which was important in this area in the 19th century. It was settled by southerners and named for naturalist John J. Audubon (1785-1851). Earliest settler, D. D. Shirey, platted town out of his farm land in 1865. He and his wife, "Aunt Polly", expanded their log house into a stagecoach inn that grew famous for a lavish table. Their excellent food was set out on a lazy Susan, which was the wonder of the countryside. In the late 1860s and following decades, trail crews detoured from the cattle trail that ran to the east of here and bought supplies in the town. Audubon had a post office from June 25, 1874, to July 20, 1904. Local social and fraternal bodies included Woodmen of the World and a Masonic Lodge active from 1879 to 1886. There were three churches, a school, a telephone office, two cotton gins, several mercantile stores, several lawyers and physicians, and two blacksmiths. The noted Dr. W. B. Palmer, had a beautiful country home, "Gynndome". Bypassed by the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad in 1883, Audubon gradually declined. Post office closed in 1904; school consolidated with Alvord in 1930. Among outstanding native sons was the Reverend M. M. Barnett of the California Baptist Foundation.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Platted in 1865 out of D. D. Shirey's farmland and named for the naturalist John James Audubon, this Wise County town thrived for a generation on the edge of the cattle country. Shirey's stagecoach inn grew famous for its lavish table and its wondrous lazy Susan, and by the 1870s the town had churches, a school, cotton gins, stores, and professional men. When the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad bypassed it in 1883, Audubon slowly faded, its post office closing in 1904.
Why it matters
Audubon's rise and disappearance is a classic tale of the railroad age, when a new rail line could make one town and doom another almost overnight.
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Related people
- · D. D. Shirey
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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