Parsons Station
Weatherford, Parker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
For more than 100 years, this was the site of the Parsons community, which developed around the homestead and ranch of Amsley Parsons, who came to the area with his family in 1854. Another early settler was Sam B. Kutch; the Kutch and Parsons families intermarried, and it was on Kutch's property that the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe rail line crossed on its way from Weatherford to Cresson and Cleburne. The rail line was built through the area in the 1880s. In addition to being a rail stop, Parsons community had a rail switching station and offices for telegraph, Western Union and Wells Fargo services. A post office opened in 1888 under the name Parsons after the originally requested name, Woodstock, was denied by Postal Service officials. The rail stop featured cattle pens for loading livestock of area ranchers onto rail cars that shipped them to Cleburne, from which they could be taken to other markets. Prominent ranch families in the vicinity were McFarland, Eddleman, Woodhouse and Buck, as well as Kutch, Parsons and others. Longtime area residents also remember a school named Paradise and a grocery store. The train that made the trip from Weatherford to Cleburne was known as Old Nancy Hanks, or Old Nancy, reportedly for a famous horse belonging to Abraham Lincoln's mother. Old Nancy was a cattle train, although passengers often hopped aboard for rides. In 1931, the county began construction on what became State Highway 171. The road's completion led to a decline in rail use and the ultimate end to Old Nancy's route, and few relics of the once vital area shipping point and community around Parsons Station remain. (2006)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Parsons was a ranching hamlet that coalesced in 1854 around Amsley Parsons's homestead and boomed once the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe pushed its Weatherford-to-Cleburne line through in the 1880s. With cattle pens, a switching station, and telegraph, Western Union, and Wells Fargo offices, it was a vital shipping point where ranchers loaded livestock onto the cattle train locals nicknamed 'Old Nancy.' The 1931 arrival of State Highway 171 siphoned off the rail traffic, and the community faded until only scattered relics remained.
Why it matters
Parsons captures the classic arc of the American rail town — born of the railroad, bound to it for a livelihood, and quietly abandoned once the automobile highway replaced the tracks.
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Related people
- · Amsley Parsons
- · Sam B. Kutch
Themes & tags
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