Foard County
Crowell, Foard County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Formed from Hardeman, King, Cottle, and Knox counties; created March 3, 1891, organized April 27, 1891. Named in honor of Robert L. Foard 1831-1898. A Confederate officer prominent lawyer of Columbus, Texas. Crowell, the county seat traversed by a railroad inn 1908.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Foard County was assembled in 1891 from pieces of four neighboring counties as settlement thickened across northwest Texas. It honors Robert L. Foard (1831–1898), a Confederate officer and prominent Columbus lawyer. The county seat of Crowell grew after a railroad reached it in 1908, tying this ranching country into the wider Texas economy.
Why it matters
The county's creation reflects the steady subdivision and organization of the Texas frontier in the late nineteenth century, when railroads determined which crossroads would become towns.
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Related people
- · Robert L. Foard
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Old Pease City
Crowell, TX
Founded in 1880 by early settlers Benjamin E. Lower and the Wesley family, Pease City grew around a stone post office and trading post that served some 3,500 square miles of thinly settled North Texas country, with mail carried by stage or horseback. Named for the Pease River and Governor E. M. Pease, the town faded when its post office closed in 1885 and the county seat shifted to Margaret. The site later became part of Foard County.
Medicine Mound Community
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Trinity Church of Quanah
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Episcopal worship came to Quanah in 1887, when missionary bishop Alexander C. Garrett preached to a handful of the faithful in a schoolroom. The congregation gained land in 1890 from railroad developer G. M. Dodge, whose Fort Worth & Denver City line was bringing the frontier town to life. The frame Victorian Gothic church was finally consecrated in 1913. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1976.
Hardeman County Courthouse
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Hardeman County was created in 1858 but not organized until 1884, when growth allowed a formal government; the county seat moved from Margaret to Quanah in 1890 after the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway laid out the new townsite. A 1906 bond funded a grand replacement courthouse, designed by architect R. H. Stuckey with a domed cupola, Ionic columns, and glazed tan brick over an Indiana-limestone basement. Completed in 1908, the Neoclassical building has anchored county government and downtown Quanah ever since.