Old Farwell
Gruver, Hansford County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established 1886 about 1/2 mile northeast of this site. Intended to be county seat of Hansford County, created 1876, organized in 1889. Lost election to town of Hansford, which served till 1928 but is also now non-existent. Named for early surveyor John V. Farwell and members of his family, Chicago department store executives who operated XIT Ranch in this and 9 other counties - their fee in payment for building of the Texas State Capitol, 1882-86. Stones here are from the casing of a 200 foot well dug by hand to supply water to the town. (1964)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
The rise and disappearance of towns like Old Farwell trace the boom-and-bust pattern of Panhandle settlement, tied to the ranching empires and county-seat rivalries that defined the frontier.
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Related people
- · John V. Farwell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Drift Fence
Stinnett, TX
After Charles Goodnight founded the JA Ranch in 1876 and Thomas Bugbee opened Hutchinson County's first spread the same year, soaring beef prices sent cattle pouring across the Panhandle's open grasslands. To keep herds drifting down from the north out of their winter range, members of the Panhandle Stock Association strung barbed wire along a 200-mile "drift fence" in 1882–85. It worked too well: in the brutal winters of 1886 and 1887, cattle fleeing the storms piled against the wire and froze or were trampled by the thousands, and the staggering losses helped spur laws limiting fences on public land.
Drift Fence
Stinnett, TX
After Charles Goodnight founded the JA Ranch in 1876 and Thomas S. Bugbee established Hutchinson County's first ranch soon after, soaring beef prices sent cattle streaming into the Texas Panhandle's open grasslands. To keep migrating herds from drifting into their winter range, members of the Panhandle Stock Association strung a 200-mile barbed-wire "drift fence" in 1882-85. It worked too well: in the fierce winters of 1886 and 1887 thousands of cattle piling against the wire froze or were trampled, and the staggering losses spurred laws limiting fences on public land.
Site of Historic Drift Fence
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Before the mid-1880s the open Texas Panhandle had no range fences, so winter blizzards drove cattle from Oklahoma, Colorado, and Kansas south onto Texas ranches, overgrazing the Canadian River breaks and mixing herds. To stop the costly spring sorting, ranchers with brands like the Turkey Track, Bar C, and LIT joined to build a single drift fence along their northern lines — a four-strand, four-barb barrier some 200 miles long, running from the Panhandle's corner into New Mexico. Built from roughly 65 carloads of wire and posts hauled from Dodge City, most of it was torn down by 1890 to comply with a state law against fencing public land.
Hutchinson County Courthouse
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