Pleasant Lafayette Crawford House
Silverton, Briscoe County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This Queen Anne style home, which features a wraparound porch, was built in 1904 by Civil War veteran Pleasant Lafayette Crawford (1837-1912). After Crawford moved here from Arkansas in the late 1880s, he bought ranch land and opened a mercantile business. Later his family came by covered wagon to join him. One of Silverton's founders, Crawford opened the town's first hotel in 1894. After his death, the family kept the home until 1917. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Civil War veteran Pleasant Lafayette Crawford built this Queen Anne home, with its inviting wraparound porch, in 1904 on the High Plains of the Texas Panhandle. He had come from Arkansas in the late 1880s to buy ranch land and open a mercantile store, and his family followed by covered wagon to join him. One of Silverton's founders, Crawford opened the town's first hotel in 1894, and his family kept the house until 1917.
Why it matters
The home stands for the last chapter of American frontier settlement, when veterans and merchants transformed the open Panhandle into towns within a single generation.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Pleasant Lafayette Crawford
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Colonel C. C. Slaughter
Plainview, TX
Hailed as the first native-born "cattle king" of Texas, C. C. Slaughter worked cattle from boyhood and pushed his herds onto the West Texas frontier by 1856, supplying beef to the Confederacy and riding in a frontier regiment during the Civil War. Afterward he helped rescue the bankrupt state's economy by opening cattle markets, improved the Texas Longhorn with Shorthorn and Hereford bulls, and helped organize the first cattle raisers association. At his height he ranched around a million acres and became a banker and philanthropist.
Charles Goodnight
Goodnight, TX
Charles Goodnight glimpsed the promise of ranching at nineteen while crossing Texas bound for the California gold fields, and turned back to build a cattle empire. During the Civil War he scouted for the Frontier Regiment of Texas cavalry, guarding settlers against raids, and afterward he and partner Oliver Loving blazed the Goodnight-Loving Trail across the arid, Comanche-dominated lands of West Texas and New Mexico to supply distant forts. A legendary cattleman and Indian fighter, he also founded Goodnight College before his death in 1929.
Homesite of W. F. Heller, Pioneer Farmer
Canyon, TX
A native Texan and Civil War veteran, W. F. Heller settled on this land in 1887 and became the first to farm the area successfully—no small feat on the challenging Texas plains. When the county organized in 1889 he was elected its first clerk, and he helped found both the area's first Sunday school and West Texas State Normal College. He married Susan Roberts in 1897.
Randall County
Canyon, TX
Carved from Young and Bexar territories, Randall County was created in 1876 and organized in 1889, with Canyon as its seat. It honors Horace Randall (1821–1864), a Confederate officer who was killed leading his brigade in battle. The naming reflects how Texas, in the decades after the Civil War, memorialized its Confederate dead across the map of the settling Panhandle.