R. M. Wheeler Home
Lorenzo, Crosby County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built 1915. Replaced half dugout. Family continues to occupy as ranch headquarters. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1915, the R. M. Wheeler home replaced an earlier half-dugout—the kind of crude, half-buried shelter that first sheltered families breaking ground on the West Texas plains. That the family long continued to occupy it as a ranch headquarters speaks to the endurance of the ranching life here. It is recognized as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
Why it matters
The leap from dugout to permanent house captures, in one family's home, the maturing of the South Plains from raw frontier to settled ranch country.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · R. M. Wheeler
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Slaton Volunteer Fire Department
Slaton, TX
The Santa Fe Railroad laid out Slaton on the West Texas plains in 1911, and by 1919 residents had organized a bucket brigade to fight fires, drawing water from wells to fill chemical tanks and pails. Chief Alex DeLong led the early volunteers until the city built a water system and fire mains and bought its first fire truck in 1922. The department grew from a corner of City Hall into its own station by 1928.
Slaton
Slaton, TX
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.
Emma Cemetery
Ralls vicinity, TX
Emma Cemetery was established in 1891 on land donated by J. W. Holt for the grave of his brother-in-law, Levi Jones, and grew to hold Crosby County's first settlers, including H. C. and Elizabeth Smith. Twelve Civil War veterans rest here as well, a reminder that the men who opened the West Texas plains had often first marched in the nation's great war. Deeded to the county in 1917, the cemetery remains a cornerstone of local pioneer history.
Englewood Cemetery
Slaton, TX
Representing the Santa Fe Railroad, W.B. Storey, Jr. bought the future townsite of Slaton on April 15, 1911, with plans for a roundhouse, switch lines, depot, and Harvey House that would make it a hub of West Texas rail traffic. Rail workers and settlers filled the town so quickly that it incorporated in 1912, the same year residents opened this cemetery with the burial of an infant. Among its thousands of graves are unmarked burials in a potter's field and veterans of wars dating to the Civil War.