Mobeetie
Mobeetie, Wheeler County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Oldest town in Texas Panhandle. Originally a trading post, 2 mi. south, 1874; moved nearer to Fort Elliott, 1875. Earlier called Sweetwater, was renamed in 1879. Courthouse was completed by Mark Huselby, first county tax assessor, and other citizens. Popular with hunters, cowboys, gamblers - town in1881 became judicial center of 35th District. Temple Houston, son of the hero Sam Houston, was district attorney and the first state senator for this district. After bypass by the Santa Fe Railroad (1888) and a destructive 1898 tornado, Mobeetie declined. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Mobeetie claims to be the oldest town in the Texas Panhandle, beginning as a trading post in 1874 and relocating to sit nearer the protection of Fort Elliott the following year. First called Sweetwater and renamed in 1879, it grew into a rough, lively hub of hunters, cowboys, and gamblers, and in 1881 became the judicial seat of the 35th District — where Temple Houston, son of Sam Houston, served as district attorney and state senator. Bypassed by the Santa Fe Railroad in 1888 and battered by an 1898 tornado, the town faded into decline.
Why it matters
Mobeetie's rise beside a frontier fort and its collapse when the railroad passed it by is the classic life cycle of the Western town, where survival hinged on the choices of the rails.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Temple Houston
- · Sam Houston
- · Mark Huselby
Related events
- · 1898 tornado
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Mobeetie Post Office
Mobeetie, TX
Mail service in Wheeler County began at Fort Elliott before a U.S. post office opened in 1879 in the town of Mobeetie—earlier called Sweetwater—with George A. Montgomery as first postmaster. When the town relocated a mile north to the Santa Fe rail line, a new post office rose here in 1928. Rural routes expanded to reach the region's growing farm families in the 1930s, then contracted as drought and hardship emptied the surrounding land.
Fletcher and Donley Stage Station
Canadian, TX
In the 1870s and '80s, this stop northwest of present-day Canadian offered rest and mail service to wagon trains, buffalo-hide caravans, and cattle herds crossing the Panhandle. Run by former buffalo hunter-scout Ed Fletcher and his partners — all seasoned frontiersmen — the station was a sod-roofed log cabin flanked by a brush arbor and a pump. The area's first election was held here in 1882, on ground that would soon become Hemphill County.
Miami Cemetery
Miami, TX
The town of Miami took shape when the Santa Fe's Southern Kansas branch pushed through in 1887, and its cemetery followed close behind, with pioneer William T. Lard's reinterred grave among the earliest. In 1900 the Scottish-owned Cresswell Ranche & Cattle Company sold Roberts County several acres for a burying ground, deeded to Judge S.G. Carter for a single dollar. Shaded by cedar and cypress in the open Panhandle style, it holds Civil War veterans, soldiers of two world wars and Korea, and two Texas Rangers.
Miami Railroad Depot
Miami, TX
When the Southern Kansas Railway Company of Texas laid track through Roberts County in 1887, the town of Miami sprang up at the end of the line as a workers' camp with a tent hotel and a field kitchen. The railroad sank a public water well and strung telegraph lines to nearby Fort Elliott, and passengers and supplies for the fort and the town of Mobeetie began arriving by rail. This depot was built in 1888, passed to the Santa Fe Railroad in 1899, and stayed in service until 1978.