Lipscomb, Texas
Lipscomb, Lipscomb County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established, 1886, by settlers hoping to benefit from proposed Santa Fe Railroad in Panhandle. Post office was opened in 1886; Lipscomb Town Company sold land for $3 an acre in 1887. In first month, seven businesses started. When county was organized in 1887, Lipscomb became seat, named for A. S. Lipscomb, secretary of state in Republic of Texas and justice of state supreme court. Hotel from undeveloped town of Dominion was moved here, 1887. First courthouse was built in 1887. The first school -- in a church -- had 25 pupils, 1888. A new courthouse was erected, 1916. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1886 by settlers betting on a proposed Santa Fe railroad across the Panhandle, Lipscomb boomed almost overnight—seven businesses opened in its first month, and it became the seat of the newly organized county in 1887. It was named for Abner S. Lipscomb, a jurist and secretary of state of the Republic of Texas. A hotel, courthouse, school, and stores soon filled the young town, whose fortunes always hinged on the rails.
Why it matters
Lipscomb's rise embodies the railroad-driven settlement that populated the Great Plains in the late 19th century.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Abner S. Lipscomb
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Glazier Cemetery
Glazier, TX
Glazier sprang up in 1887 when the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway reached the site, becoming a handy cattle-shipping point north of the flood-prone Canadian River. The Glazier Cemetery Association bought its ground in 1910, though the earliest burials date to 1906. The town endured hard blows—a 1916 fire that leveled its business district and a 1947 tornado that killed twelve—yet the cemetery still marks the community's history.
Darrouzett Cemetery
Darrouzett, TX
Darrouzett began in 1917 as a station on the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway, first called Lourwood and then renamed by the railroad for a Galveston legislator. By its 1920 incorporation more than four hundred people lived there, supporting stores, a school, two churches, and a post office. When the community finally opened its own cemetery in 1939, families reinterred loved ones from older graveyards, and its ground now holds many veterans, including two men killed in Vietnam.
Follett
Follett, TX
Follett started life as "Ivanhoe" just across the line in Oklahoma, then chased the railroad, moving twice before settling on the Texas side in 1917. Renamed for a railroad surveyor, it became a gateway to the Panhandle's wheat-and-cattle "Golden Spread." Farming and ranching carried the town until oil and gas arrived in the 1950s.
Higgins Cemetery
Higgins, TX
Higgins was platted in 1887 by E. C. Gray and the Patton brothers, who had bought land betting the Santa Fe Railroad would build through it—and it did, growing the town into a farming, ranching, and oil community named for a railroad stockholder. Gray deeded its cemetery in 1900, though burials had begun earlier, the oldest marked graves those of two children who died in 1889. Among the interred are a pioneer dentist-sheriff, early friends of humorist Will Rogers, and the forty-five townspeople killed when a tornado destroyed much of Higgins on April 9, 1947.