Parmer County
Farwell, Parmer County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Created August 21, 1876, from Bexar County. Named for Martin Parmer ("The Ringtailed Panther"), signer of Texas Declaration of Independence. Organized May 7, 1907. The XIT Ranch, extending across nine counties, initially owned most of Parmer. The Capitol Syndicate, which built Texas' Capitol, received in payment 3,050,000 acres of land and established the XIT in 1885. By 1890, population of the county was only 70. But, with syndicate land sales, buyers came on the new railroad in 1904. Brisk settlement began, with many small farms. Farwell is the county seat. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Parmer County was created in 1876 and named for Martin Parmer, the 'Ringtailed Panther' who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. Most of its land was first held by the vast XIT Ranch, granted to the Capitol Syndicate in payment for building the Texas Capitol, and in 1890 the county's population numbered only 70. When the railroad arrived in 1904 and the syndicate began selling land, settlers streamed in to carve out small farms, and Farwell became the county seat.
Why it matters
Parmer County's leap from empty ranchland to farm country captures the breakup of Texas's giant cattle empires and the railroad-driven settlement of the High Plains.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When Parmer County was created in 1876, it existed mostly on paper. It was carved from Bexar County at a time when Texas lawmakers were drawing county lines across the vast High Plains, well ahead of the people who would one day live there. This was flat, windswept grassland at the western edge of the Texas Panhandle, along the New Mexico line.
The mid-1870s were a turning point for the southern plains. The Red River War of 1874-75 ended the ability of the Comanche and their allies to live freely on this land, and the great buffalo herds were being slaughtered by commercial hunters. Within a few years a landscape that had belonged to Native nations and bison was opened to cattle ranching on an enormous scale.
Texas had plenty of land but little cash. When the state decided to build a new capitol in Austin, it paid for it in land instead of money. That decision would shape this county for decades.
At first the result was cattle, not towns. Huge ranches covered the Panhandle, and people were scarce. The marker's figure of just 70 residents in 1890 shows how empty this country still was, even as the rest of the nation industrialized and filled its cities.
People & events
The county is named for Martin Parmer, a colorful frontiersman known as "The Ringtailed Panther." He signed the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836, making him one of the founders of the Republic. The nickname says a lot about how Texans liked to remember their early leaders: tough, fierce, and larger than life.
The county's real landlord, though, was the XIT Ranch. The Capitol Syndicate, a group of investors who agreed to build the new Texas Capitol, received about three million acres of Panhandle land as payment. In 1885 they turned that land into the XIT, a ranch that sprawled across nine counties and at first owned most of Parmer County. It became one of the most famous cattle operations in American history. People have long told stories about how the ranch got its name, but the explanations vary, and it is best treated as legend.
The ranch was built to be sold. After the capitol was finished, the syndicate began selling off its land, and the railroad's arrival in 1904 brought buyers. Farm families came by train, bought parcels, and broke the sod. Small farms replaced open range, and the population that had been counted in dozens began to grow quickly.
The county was formally organized in 1907, and Farwell became its county seat. The town's name honors the Farwell family of Chicago, who were closely tied to the syndicate, a reminder of how much of this frontier was shaped by distant investors.
Its place in the American story
Parmer County's story is part of one of the great changes in the American West: the move from open-range cattle empires to family farms. Across the plains in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, giant ranches gave way to settlers who plowed the grassland and built small towns along the rail lines.
The XIT connection gives the story a remarkable twist. The land here helped pay for one of the grandest statehouses in the nation. In a very real sense, the red granite capitol in Austin and the farm fields of Parmer County are two halves of the same deal.
The railroad was the hinge of the whole story. As in much of the West, tracks decided where towns rose and which places grew, and they connected isolated farmers to national markets for their crops. Parmer County's jump from 70 residents to a farming community is the railroad-driven West in miniature.
The settlement of the High Plains also came at a cost. The land was opened only after Native peoples were forced out and the buffalo destroyed, and later decades brought hard lessons about drought and plowing the dry plains. The county's history holds both the promise and the price of westward expansion.
If you visit
Farwell sits right on the Texas-New Mexico line, and the landscape tells the story the moment you arrive. The land is flat, the horizon runs in every direction, and the sky feels enormous. Look at the fields around you and imagine them as unfenced cattle range just over a century ago.
Notice the railroad. The tracks that brought settlers in 1904 are the reason towns here are where they are. Grain elevators and rail lines are the High Plains' true landmarks, and they tie directly to the marker's story.
This stop fits naturally into a Panhandle road trip, especially one that follows the XIT Ranch story across the region, or any drive between Texas and New Mexico. If your route also takes you through Austin, visit the Texas State Capitol to see what this land paid for.
Families might enjoy doing the math together. Three million acres for one building, and only 70 people in the whole county in 1890. Then look out at the farms and talk about how quickly that changed once the train came.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Martin Parmer
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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