Town of Dawn
Dawn, Deaf Smith County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Had second post office in county, in 1889. Named by pioneers who saw here the "dawning of a new country." Santa Fe Railroad station house (a box car) was first building on site, 1905. Town was developed by W.E. Neal and sons in 1914, with lumber yard, hotel, bank and store. Now center of farming industry. (1970)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Named by hopeful pioneers who saw in it "the dawning of a new country," Dawn gained the county's second post office in 1889. Its first building was a Santa Fe Railroad boxcar pressed into service as a station house in 1905, and W.E. Neal and his sons developed the townsite in earnest in 1914 with a lumber yard, hotel, bank, and store. It settled into life as a center of the surrounding farming country.
Why it matters
Dawn is a small monument to the optimism of High Plains settlement, when the railroad's arrival turned open range into farm towns almost overnight.
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Related people
- · W.E. Neal
Themes & tags
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