City of Brownfield
Brownfield, Terry County, Texas
Marker Inscription
County seat of Terry County. Founded in 1903 by developers W. G. Hardin and A. F. Small. Named for Brownfield family, prominent property owners and ranchers in the area. Measuring with only 100 feet of wire, Hardin and Small laid out a town on this site (then a pasture) and offered a lot to each voter in county. Streets (named for first settlers) were designated and a general store, hotel, and school were built. In 1904 the town vied with Gomez for county seat, winning by slim margin. Present economy is based on farming and oil. (1971)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Brownfield began in 1903 as a promoter's gamble on the open plains of Terry County, laid out by developers W. G. Hardin and A. F. Small—famously using only a hundred feet of wire to measure a townsite out of raw pasture. To draw settlers they offered a free lot to every voter in the county, and a store, hotel, and school quickly followed. In 1904 the fledgling town narrowly beat neighboring Gomez for the county seat, securing its future.
Why it matters
Brownfield's story is the West Texas town-building formula in miniature—speculation, boosterism, and a county-seat rivalry that decided which settlement would live and which would fade.
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Related people
- · W. G. Hardin
- · A. F. Small
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Baptist Church of Brownfield
Brownfield, TX
Before it had a church of its own, Brownfield's early settlers gathered for services led by circuit-riding preachers in a local schoolhouse. In 1906 residents organized a Baptist congregation, and by 1910 they had a sanctuary on West Hill Street — its lumber paid for by the Woman's Missionary Society and the building raised by the men themselves. The growing congregation moved to a new site in the 1920s and expanded its mission work at home and abroad.
A. M. Brownfield Home
Brownfield, TX
A. M. Brownfield arrived in newly settled Terry County as a rancher in 1900 and helped anchor the community that took his family's name, organizing the Brownfield State Bank in 1905. In 1928 he built this Spanish Colonial–style residence of concrete and clay, deliberately fireproofed after an earlier family home burned in 1915. The house was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1985.
Terry County's First Jail
Brownfield, TX
Terry County had no jail at all until 1916, twelve years after it organized, when this small frame structure with two steel cells went up on the courthouse square. A new courthouse jail replaced it in 1926, and the little building passed to farmer A. T. Fowler, who moved it to his land and plastered its walls for storage. Donated to the Terry County Heritage Museum in 1974, it was relocated and restored on this site.
Brownfield Cemetery
Brownfield, TX
Brownfield's first public burial ground began in 1904 with the death of 19-year-old Jessie Hill, on land that soon belonged to M. V. Brownfield. Through two world wars and the Great Depression the cemetery fell into neglect, then reflected a new chapter as Hispanic farm workers settled the area in the 1940s and 1950s. A 1980 reorganization revived it, and by 1999 it held more than 2,000 graves.