Homesite of W. F. Heller, Pioneer Farmer
Canyon, Randall County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Native Texan, Civil War veteran (1861-65); settled here in 1887. Was first to farm area successfully. Was elected first clerk when county organized 1889. Also, helped organize first Sunday School, 1890. Married Susan Roberts, September 1897. Helped start West Texas State Normal College. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A native Texan and Civil War veteran, W. F. Heller settled on this land in 1887 and became the first to farm the area successfully—no small feat on the challenging Texas plains. When the county organized in 1889 he was elected its first clerk, and he helped found both the area's first Sunday school and West Texas State Normal College. He married Susan Roberts in 1897.
Why it matters
Heller embodies the pioneer farmers who proved the Texas Panhandle could be cultivated and then built the county governments, churches, and schools that turned frontier into settled community.
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Related people
- · W. F. Heller
- · Susan Roberts Heller
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Randall County
Canyon, TX
Carved from Young and Bexar territories, Randall County was created in 1876 and organized in 1889, with Canyon as its seat. It honors Horace Randall (1821–1864), a Confederate officer who was killed leading his brigade in battle. The naming reflects how Texas, in the decades after the Civil War, memorialized its Confederate dead across the map of the settling Panhandle.
Randall County
Canyon, TX
Created in 1876 and named for Confederate general Horace Randall, this Panhandle county was settled in 1877 by rancher Leigh Dyer, brother-in-law of the famed cattleman Charles Goodnight, who brought the first cattle to the region. Organized in 1889 with Canyon as its seat, it later became home to West Texas State University and the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. Its founding weaves together open-range ranching and the memory of the Civil War.
Site of Conner Dugout
Canyon, TX
On land he claimed on Christmas Day of 1887, L. G. Conner dug a half-dugout—a dwelling cut partly into the earth with windows at ground level—that became the first home in what would grow into Canyon, Texas. The little dugout doubled as the town's first post office and hosted the 1889 election that organized Randall County. It was also the birthplace of Mamie Conner, recorded as the first white child born in the county.
L. T. Lester Home
Canyon, TX
Buffalo hunter turned cattleman L. T. Lester settled the high plains near Canyon in 1889 and opened its first bank in 1900. In 1904 he built this comfortable home—its fireplace mantels and marble lavatories hauled from Kansas City—which became a hub of political, social, and church gatherings. Active in civic life, Lester helped bring what became West Texas State University to Canyon in 1910.