Center Plains Community
Cotton Center, Hale County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Early settlers to Hale County referred to the territory west of Hale Center (9 mi. E) as the Center Plains community. A cemetery and a schoolhouse, established to serve the vast area, were located at this site on property donated by William S. Bolivar who began homesteading the area in 1890. The first post office, listing the settlement as Copenhagen, opened in 1902 in the home of T. H. Miller, the postmaster. When construction of the proposed Panhandle Short Line Railroad from Vega to Lubbock bypassed the community in 1907, the post office and school were moved to the newly platted town of Norfleet (1 mi. W). The town failed by 1910 when plans for the rail line were abandoned, and the school was moved back to Center Plains. The schoolhouse also served as a community center and people of all faiths worshiped in the facility on Sundays. Plans to consolidate with other area schools were rejected in 1925, but officials divided the district in 1937 and transferred the students to Hale Center and Cotton Center schools. Center Plains was once the nucleus of a large rural community, but only the cemetery remains. 1980
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
West of Hale Center, the Center Plains community grew up around a cemetery and schoolhouse on land donated by homesteader William S. Bolivar in 1890, with a post office opening in 1902. When a proposed railroad bypassed the area in 1907 and the line was abandoned by 1910, the nearby boomtown of Norfleet collapsed and the school moved back. Today only the cemetery remains of what was once the hub of a large rural district.
Why it matters
Center Plains is a classic story of how the coming — or absence — of a railroad decided which prairie settlements lived and which vanished.
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Related people
- · William S. Bolivar
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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