Progressive & Modern Era

The Thompson House

Hereford, Deaf Smith County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Land developer S. S. Evants built this home in 1906. The following year Alex Thompson (1883-1956) bought the house and then sold it to his mother Jennie Thompson in 1908. Thompson, his wife Audrey (Argo), and their two daughters lived here with his mother and her sister Jessie Morris. "Aunt Jennie" and "Aunt Jessie" nursed patients and helped deliver babies in this home until a hospital was erected in 1924. District judges, court reporters, students, Baptist preachers and singers boarded here. The Thompson family were leaders in church and community affairs. (1979)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Built in 1906 on the developing plains of the Texas Panhandle, this Hereford home passed in 1908 to the Thompson family, where "Aunt Jennie" and "Aunt Jessie" nursed the sick and helped deliver babies until a hospital opened in 1924. The house doubled as a boarding place for judges, court reporters, students, and traveling preachers and singers. Its rooms held together much of the young town's social, medical, and religious life.

Why it matters

Before hospitals reached the rural West, homes like this served as informal clinics and community hubs—often sustained by the caregiving labor of women.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

In the early 1900s, Hereford was a young town on the Texas High Plains. This was flat, wide-open country that had only recently changed from open range to farms, railroad towns and county seats. Land developers were busy selling lots and farms to newcomers, and houses like this one went up while the town was still taking shape.

Life in towns like this was short on institutions. There were few or no hospitals, and doctors could be scarce and far away. In much of rural America, most babies were still born at home in the early twentieth century. Illness and injury were often handled by family and neighbors, and especially by experienced local women.

As a county seat, Hereford also drew a steady stream of visitors on official business. District courts traveled their circuits, and judges and court reporters needed somewhere to stay. Traveling preachers and gospel singers came through for church services and revivals. In a small town without many hotels, a large family home that took in boarders filled a real need.

People & events

Land developer S. S. Evants built the house in 1906. The next year Alex Thompson bought it, and in 1908 he sold it to his mother, Jennie Thompson. The household soon grew to three generations. Alex, his wife Audrey (Argo), and their two daughters lived here alongside Jennie and her sister, Jessie Morris.

The town called the two sisters 'Aunt Jennie' and 'Aunt Jessie.' Those titles of affection usually went to women who had earned a place in many families' lives. They nursed the sick and helped deliver babies here in the house, and they kept doing it until a hospital was built in 1924. For about sixteen years, this home did part of the work of a clinic and a maternity ward. That work rested on the skill, stamina and willingness of two women.

The house was busy in other ways too. District judges and court reporters, students, Baptist preachers and singers all boarded under its roof. Picture a supper table that might seat a judge on circuit, a student far from home and a visiting preacher at the same meal. The Thompsons were also leaders in their church and community, and the house sat at the heart of much of Hereford's daily life.

Its place in the American story

The Thompson House reflects a part of American history that rarely makes the textbooks: the unpaid or lightly paid caregiving women did before modern health care reached small towns. Across the rural West and South, women like Aunt Jennie and Aunt Jessie attended births, nursed fevers and sat with the dying. Many of their names were never written down. This marker is one of the places where they were.

The opening of Hereford's hospital in 1924 marks a national shift as well. Over the early twentieth century, childbirth and medical care moved from the home into hospitals, and professional medicine replaced neighborly know-how. That change saved lives, but it also ended a long tradition of community-based care, much of it run by women.

The boarding house tells its own national story. Before motels and highways, travelers in small towns often depended on private homes. Circuit-riding judges, itinerant preachers and students away at school relied on households like this one to keep courts, churches and schools running across a scattered rural country.

If you visit

This is a historic home, so view it from the street and respect the privacy of anyone who lives or works there. The marker is the place to stop, read and imagine.

As you look at the house, try to picture it at its fullest. Children are underfoot, boarders come and go, and a knock at the door at any hour might mean a baby on the way. The building looks like an ordinary family home, which is exactly the point. For years it was also the closest thing the town had to a hospital.

Hereford sits in the heart of the Texas Panhandle, and a stop here fits well into a drive across the High Plains. Take a moment to notice the sweep of the land and the big sky. They help explain why a town this far from anywhere had to depend on its own people for so much.

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

· Alex Thompson
· Jennie Thompson
· Jessie Morris

Themes & tags

Women's HistoryHome

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