O'Donnell
O'Donnell, Lynn County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named for Tom J. O'Donnell, promoter of South Plains railroads, including 60 miles of Santa Fe Line from Slaton to Lamesa. On this new railroad (important as freight hauler) town of O'Donnell was founded in 1909 by H. E. Baldridge and Charles H. Doak-- two of the organizers and first officials of Lynn County. Doak built a hotel in projected town of O'Donnell in 1909. L. G. Phillips established the first store. On July 4, 1910, a big picnic was held to celebrate arrival of first Santa Fe train. Old "Central" post office (previously on Dee W. Harris Ranch, 5.5 mi. NW) was moved to new town in 1910 and was officially renamed O'Donnell on Feb. 7, 1911. W. R. Standefer was employed to survey townsite in 1911. H. E. Baldridge offered free building lots to churches. A Methodist church was organized in 1911; Church of Christ and Presbyterian churches in 1912; First Baptist in 1914. Town was incorporated in 1923, with W. R. Sanderson as first mayor. School, improved dramatically since its early wooden building, serves a large area. A graduate is actor Dan Blocker ("Hoss" Cartwright). Now a dryland farming center, O'Donnell in 1961 had what was then the largest cotton gin in the world, ginning 21,000 bales of cotton during that year. (1969)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Named for railroad promoter Tom J. O'Donnell, this Lynn County town sprang up in 1909 when the Santa Fe pushed a new line across the South Plains from Slaton toward Lamesa. Founders built a hotel and store, celebrated the first train with a Fourth of July picnic in 1910, and drew churches with free lots before incorporating in 1923. By the mid-20th century O'Donnell had become a dryland cotton center boasting what was briefly the world's largest gin—and the hometown of actor Dan Blocker.
Why it matters
O'Donnell is a textbook example of how railroad construction conjured whole farming communities out of the open plains of West Texas.
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Related people
- · Tom J. O'Donnell
- · H. E. Baldridge
- · Charles H. Doak
- · Dan Blocker
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Slaton owes its very existence to the Santa Fe Railroad. When the Pecos and Northern Texas branch reached the South Plains in 1911, banker O. L. Slaton — who had helped secure the right-of-way — lent his name to the brand-new townsite, which opened for business only a month after its first lots sold. As a railroad division point complete with a Harvey House, roundhouse, and machine shops, Slaton boomed almost overnight into a farming and ranching hub.
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Tahoka, TX
Lynn County honors G. W. Lynn, remembered among the defenders who fell at the Alamo, but its ground tells a longer story of the South Plains. Its lakes and springs watered Indian, Spanish, army, and cattle trails; it saw the last great buffalo hunts and the U.S. Cavalry's 1874–77 campaign against the Comanches, with the final skirmish at Double Lakes in 1879. Open-range ranchers arrived in the 1880s, the county organized at Tahoka in 1903, the Santa Fe Railroad reached it in 1910, and it grew into one of the nation's leading cotton counties.
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In December 1902, more than a hundred settlers gathered around a bonfire in a ravine near Tahoka Lake and voted to organize a county and lay out a seat, borrowing an Indian word said to mean fresh water. A townsite company surveyed and platted the town in 1903, and stores, churches, a courthouse, a newspaper, and a post office followed in quick order. The Santa Fe line reached Tahoka in 1910, and for years it ranked among the nation's busiest cattle-shipping points.