Della Plain
Floydada, Floyd County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A severe drought in the mid-1880s brought Baylor County rancher T. J. Braidfoot to this area in search of better conditions for his cattle. In 1887, with the support of J. R. McLain of Seymour, he founded the settlement of Della Plain at this site. Other early contributors to the town's development included Seymour residents I. R. Darnell and Dr. L. T. Wilson. Named for J. S. McLain's daughter Della and for the surrounding terrain, it was hoped the town would become the county seat when Floyd County was formally organized. Della Plain became an early agricultural center for the region and was soon the site of a school, church, post office, stores and a newspaper, the "Della Plain Review." Growth, however, was limited by an inadequate water supply and by the establishment of the nearby towns of Lockney (1889) and Floydada (1890). Rapid decline began after Floydada was named the seat of Floyd County in 1890. Four years later the community cemetery was all that remained of Della Plain. Despite its brief history, the pioneer town had a dramatic impact on the region. Its residents led in the later development of the county and nearby cities. Their descendants still live in the area. (1982, 1987)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Della Plain sprang up in 1887 when a Baylor County rancher, driven by drought, founded a settlement here on the South Plains and named it for a benefactor's daughter. It quickly gained a school, church, post office, stores, and even a newspaper, hoping to become the county seat—but a poor water supply and the rise of nearby Lockney and Floydada doomed it, and by 1894 only the cemetery remained.
Why it matters
The rapid rise and fall of Della Plain captures the boom-and-bust reality of settling the arid Texas plains, where water and the county-seat race decided which towns lived or died.
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Related people
- · T. J. Braidfoot
- · J. R. McLain
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Organization of Floyd County
Floydada, TX
Floyd County was carved out by the Texas Legislature in 1876, but which town would rule it was anything but settled. As railroad construction pushed westward from Wichita Falls and homesteaders poured in, rival townsites — Della Plain, Lockney, and finally Floyd City — jockeyed to become county seat. Voters settled the contest in May 1890 by choosing Floyd City, whose name changed to Floydada when its post office opened that September, and elected the county's first slate of officers.
First National Bank of Floydada
Floydada, TX
Rooted in the James B. Posey Bank of the 1890s, this institution became the Floyd County Bank in 1900 and, after winning a federal charter in 1903, the First National Bank. Its early stockholders were a roll call of Floyd County's founding businessmen, and it has stood on this site since 1912. Through boom and drought it helped finance the growth of the surrounding High Plains farm country.
Floydada Lodge No. 712, A. F. & A. M.
Floydada, TX
Just a year after Floyd City — later renamed Floydada — became the seat of Floyd County, eighteen men organized this Masonic lodge in April 1891, receiving their charter that December. Early meetings gathered above a general store while the town found its feet on the South Plains. Over the decades lodge members filled county offices and civic organizations, growing right alongside the community.
First Methodist Church of Floydada
Floydada, TX
Methodism reached Floyd County in the 1880s, when circuit-riding preachers served scattered settlers at Della Plain and held services in J.S. McLain's general store — years before Floydada or the county itself was formally organized. After the county's 1890 organization made Floydada the seat, a Methodist congregation formed, worshiping first in the schoolhouse, then in a 1902 church that was moved to this site in 1913 and replaced by brick in 1918. The congregation has served the community for more than a century.