Town of Washburn
Claude, Armstrong County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Planned by R. E. Montgomery, son-in-law of Fort Worth & Denver City Railway Builder-President Gen. G. M. Dodge. Named for family friend. Promoted 1887, Washburn for a time was F.W. & D.C. Line's terminus. It had first newspaper on Plains-- "Armstrong County Record". Also had general store, lumber yard, 2 hotels, 2 saloons. Became junction point, branch line connecting F.W. & D.C. with Santa Fe Railway at Panhandle. Remaining as town dwindled: Judge Jas. Logue, donor cemetery site and founder Washburn State Bank, 1908; H. E. White, owner of store, lumber yard and elevators. (1970)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Laid out in 1887 by R.E. Montgomery, a son-in-law of railroad builder Gen. G.M. Dodge, Washburn briefly served as the terminus of the Fort Worth & Denver City line and became a junction connecting it to the Santa Fe. The Panhandle town boasted the plains' first newspaper, along with hotels, saloons, and stores, before it dwindled as rail patterns shifted. A handful of civic founders, including a judge and banker, are remembered as its town faded.
Why it matters
Washburn is a classic railroad boomtown of the Texas Panhandle, whose rise and decline traced the iron logic of where the tracks and junctions ran.
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Related people
- · R.E. Montgomery
- · Gen. G.M. Dodge
- · Judge Jas. Logue
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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