County Line Community
Shallowater, Lubbock County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1901, W.G. Murray, John H. Pettit and the J.G. Hardy family purchased land in this area. These early farming families started a local school, built with lumber hauled from the nearest railhead at Canyon City. In 1903, Hale and Lubbock county commissioners officially established the school district. Murray donated a five-acre tract to Lubbock County in May 1906 for a school, church and cemetery. The multi-room schoolhouse was also a place of worship for Baptist, Methodist and Church of Christ congregations and further served as a community center. Although the community would ultimately be named for its proximity to the Lubbock and Hale county boundary, both it and the school were known by several names throughout the early 20th century, including Murray, Pettit and Harral, all prominent neighbors. The Murrays founded a cattle and sheep enterprise, J.H. Pettit established a ranch, and L.A. Harral was a charter member of the Baptist church and a school board member. Joe Ed Hart built the first cotton gin in the area in the 1920s. The County Line Community Club, organized in 1924, was the first of several social groups. Orville Vaughn built the first store, and by 1940, several grocery stores, blacksmith shops and garages opened in County Line. After the discovery of the nearby Anton-Irish Clearfork Field in 1945, oil became an important part of the economy. A 1936 court case regarding boundaries and elections was ruled in the school's favor, but in 1940 County Line School consolidated with Abernathy. Even after the school closed, the community continued to function for another fifty years until modernization resulted in a dwindling local population. Social clubs and a few businesses including two cotton gins continued through the early 1990s. Now only the church and cemetery remain as physical evidence of a once vibrant community. (2019)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Beginning in 1901, farming families like the Murrays, Pettits, and Hardys settled this stretch of the South Plains, hauling lumber from the nearest railhead to build a school that doubled as church and community center. Named for its perch on the Lubbock–Hale county line, the settlement gained cotton gins, stores, and social clubs, and after the 1945 discovery of a nearby oil field, petroleum joined farming in its economy. The school consolidated with Abernathy in 1940, and though the community carried on for another fifty years, only the church and cemetery remain today.
Why it matters
The rise and quiet fading of County Line captures the whole life cycle of the rural farm communities that once knit the Great Plains together before modernization emptied them out.
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Related people
- · W. G. Murray
- · John H. Pettit
- · J. G. Hardy family
- · L. A. Harral
Themes & tags
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