Halfway
Plainview, Hale County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Settlers came to this area seeking abundant grass, fertile soil, and water. This site, acquired by R. L. Hooper (1872-1952) and his wife Ada Mae (Hughley) (1880-1955) in the 1890s, received its name because it stood "halfway" between Olton and Plainview. It made a good rest stop for ranchers, with a windmill for water and overnight camping. Early pioneers raised enough grain for their stock. Arrival of the railroad in Plainview in 1906 and use of irrigation systems developed a vast agricultural region. In 1908 Hooper provided six acres and helped build a schoolhouse for his seven and the neighbors' children. Hooper donated land in 1910 for Edgar Howard to build the first store where he ran a post office and wagon yard. Methodist and Baptist congregations met in the school building until they erected sanctuaries. The post office closed in 1914 but the settlement boasted a blacksmith shop and a cotton gin. In 1917 Hooper gave one acre for a burial ground. Although population decline caused the Halfway School to consolidate with Plainview in 1952, the community is still prospering. Located here is the High Plains Research Foundation to aid farmers in the surrounding 19-county area. 1979
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On the Texas High Plains, settlers came seeking grass, soil, and water, and in the 1890s R. L. Hooper and his wife Ada Mae acquired the land that became a rest stop "halfway" between Olton and Plainview. With a windmill and camping ground, it drew ranchers, and after the railroad reached Plainview in 1906, irrigation turned the region into rich farm country. Hooper gave land for a school, a store and post office, churches, and a cemetery, seeding a lasting community.
Why it matters
Halfway captures how railroads and irrigation transformed the arid High Plains from open range into one of America's great agricultural regions, one donated acre at a time.
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Related people
- · R. L. Hooper
- · Ada Mae Hooper
- · Edgar Howard
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Running Water Community
Plainview, TX
Drawn by the reliable water of Running Water Draw, the Morrison brothers founded a ranch here in 1881, and cattleman C.C. Slaughter later joined the operation that employed most of the area's early settlers. In 1890 Dennis Rice opened a post office in his dugout and set out to build a town, staging a Fourth of July barbecue in 1892 to sell lots; soon Running Water had a blacksmith, grist mill, store, churches, and school. But when the railroad bypassed it in 1928, the community faded — the post office moved to Edmondson in 1935, and by 1937 the settlement itself had taken that name.
Center Plains Community
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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.
Nils Akeson
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