Temple Lea Houston

Mobeetie, TX

Indiana-born Frank Willis, Sr. came to Texas seeking opportunity and became the first judge of the 35th District, which then covered the entire Panhandle. From 1881 to 1890 his honesty, sharp wit, and sizable frame made him a local legend, and both his sons followed him onto the bench. He helped bring the rule of law to a vast, thinly settled frontier region.

Mobeetie, TX

When Fort Elliott was established in 1875 to secure the Texas Panhandle, teamster-merchant J. J. Long was hired to supply its flagpole. He cut two great cedar trees in the breaks near Antelope Hills, thirty miles away, hauled them by wagon, and fashioned this fifty-foot pole. After the fort closed in 1890 Long bought the pole for his store, and it later stood at the Mobeetie school for two decades before being raised again here in 1949.

Mobeetie, TX

George Washington Arrington (1844–1923) was one of the daring scouts in Colonel John S. Mosby's Confederate guerrilla command during the Civil War before drifting through Mexico and Central America and settling in Texas in 1867. He earned an outstanding record as a Texas Ranger from 1875 to 1882, then served as sheriff of Wheeler and fourteen attached counties, bringing law to the raw early settlements of the Panhandle. His life traces the arc from wartime irregular to the archetypal frontier peace officer.

Mobeetie, TX

Ohio-born Emanuel Dubbs (1843–1929) first came to know Texas as a buffalo hunter and fought in the famous 1874 Battle of Adobe Walls between hunters and Plains Indian warriors. He went on to become the first county judge in the Texas Panhandle and in Wheeler County, earning wide respect when he had a lawless U.S. marshal arrested. Serving on the bench in 1879–80 and 1885–90, he helped establish the rule of law in a region barely emerged from the frontier.