Hansford County Sheriff Robert E. (Bob) Martin
Spearman, Hansford County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1868 - 1911) Killed while assisting United States marshal making arrest in boundary line dispute in the northwestern part of county. Like many frontier sheriffs, he was a cowboy and farmer chosen for office out of regard for his standing as a good citizen. Came to Hansford, 1906, bought a section of land. Eager to see area develop, he ran a livery stable. This provided for land prospectors from the north and east the only means of travel to seek out and buy property. He married Sophia Snowden; had 10 children. Was sheriff form 1908 until his untimely death. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Bob Martin came to newly settling Hansford County in 1906, bought land, and ran a livery stable that gave land-seekers from the north and east their only real way to travel the raw Panhandle. Chosen sheriff in 1908 for his standing as a good citizen — as many frontier lawmen were — he was, like his neighbors, a cowboy and farmer. In 1911 he was killed while helping a U.S. marshal make an arrest in a boundary dispute.
Why it matters
His life and violent death capture the precariousness of law and order on the last American frontier, where the men who kept the peace were often ordinary settlers themselves.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Robert E. (Bob) Martin
- · Sophia Snowden
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Hansford County
Spearman, TX
Carved from earlier territorial claims and created in 1876, Hansford County took its name from John M. Hansford, a Republic of Texas figure who arrived in 1837, served in the Texas Congress, and sat as a judge of the Seventh Judicial District. Formal organization did not come until 1889, a reminder of how sparsely settled the Texas Panhandle remained decades after the county lines were drawn on paper.
Spearman
Spearman, TX
Spearman rose where the Santa Fe Railway pushed its line across the Hansford County plains, reaching the townsite in 1920 and making it the county's first rail shipping point. Named for a railway land officer, the town drew the county seat in 1929 and built its courthouse two years later, anchoring a country of wheat, cattle, and later oil. A burst of growth in the early 1960s and its distinctive brick-paved streets marked it as a thriving Panhandle farm town.
Hansford Cemetery
Spearman, TX
This was the first burial ground set aside in Hansford County, its earliest grave that of Mrs. Alfie P. Magee, wife of the first sheriff, in 1890. Among those interred are the Cator brothers, founders of the Zulu Stockade, and the Wright brothers, early ranchers of the Texas Panhandle. It served as the county's only official cemetery until 1928 and remains in use today.
Old Farwell
Gruver, TX
Established in 1886, Old Farwell was meant to be the seat of Hansford County but lost the election to a rival town that has itself since vanished. It took its name from John V. Farwell and his family, Chicago department-store magnates who received three million acres, the vast XIT Ranch spread across ten Panhandle counties, as payment for building the Texas State Capitol. All that survives here are stones from the casing of a 200-foot well, dug by hand to bring water to a town now gone.