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Collingsworth County, on the eastern edge of the Texas
Panhandle, is bordered on the east by Oklahoma, on the north by
Wheeler County, on the west by Donley County, and on the south
by Childress and Hall counties. The county is named for James
Collinsworth,qv the first chief justice of the Republic of Texas,qv whose name was misspelled in the legislation that established
the county. The center of Collingsworth County is located at approximately
100°15' north longitude and 34°57' west latitude, about
five miles north-northwest of Wellington, the county seat. Wellington
is ninety miles east-southeast of Amarillo. Collingsworth County
occupies 894 square miles of rolling prairie and riverbreaks located
to the east of the Texas High Plains. The county terrain is such
that about half of its area is not suitable for farming. Therefore
ranching remains strong in the county, balanced but not displaced
by farms. The county's sandy and loam soils support a variety
of native grasses as well as cotton, wheat, and grain sorghums.
A small amount of oil and gas is produced in the northern part
of the county. The land is broken by the Salt Fork of the Red
River, which meanders eastward across the central portion of the
county, as well as by its many tributaries, including Elm, Wolf,
Spiller (or Buck), and Sand creeks. The elevation of the county
ranges from 1,800 to 2,600 feet above sea level, the average annual
maximum temperature is 99° F in July, the average annual
minimum is 26° F in January, the average annual precipitation
is 22.03 inches, and the growing season averages 212 days per
year.
The area that is now Collingsworth County was occupied
by Apaches from prehistoric times until about 1700, when Comanches
and Kiowas moved in. These tribes dominated the Panhandleqv until they were crushed by the United States Army in the Red River
Warqv of 1874 and removed permanently to reservations in Indian Territory.
The Panhandle was thus opened for settlement. In 1876 the Texas
legislature formed Collingsworth County of land previously assigned
to Bexar and Young counties.
Buffalo hunters who occupied the area during and
just after the Indian wars slaughtered the great herds and opened
the frontier for cattlemen. Ranchers first appeared within the
borders of Collingsworth County during the late 1870s; the Rowe
Brothers Ranch established its large holdings in southwestern
Collingsworth county during 1878. In 1880 the United States census
reported six people (three white and three black) living in Collingsworth
County.
During the early 1880s a few huge ranches were formed
and controlled most of the land in the county. In 1880 William
and James Curtis claimed the southeastern part of the county for
their Diamond Tail Ranch.qv During 1883 the Rocking Chair Ranch,qv an English venture like that of the Rowe brothers, bought alternate
sections of most of the remaining land in the northeastern part
of the county, as a means of controlling twice as much land as
it actually owned.
During the late 1880s and early 1890s, however, great
changes occurred in the ranching industry. The severe drought
of 1885-87 and the even more destructive blizzard of 1886 wiped
out many large ranches, while changes in Texas land laws made
it more difficult for ranchers to control state lands desired
by settlers. As a result the large ranches began to break up in
the late 1880s and early 1890s and smaller spreads were established
by newcomers, some of whom began farming on a limited scale. In
1890 there were eighty-nine farms and ranches in the county, eighty-seven
of them 500 acres or smaller. About 19,800 cattle were counted
in the area that year, while about 335 acres were devoted to the
cultivation of wheat, corn, oats, and cotton. The census counted
357 people living in the county that year.
Immigration and economic development led to the county's
political organization in 1890, when the growing population felt
the need for local political control. In August of that year a
petition of organization was circulated, and in September an election
was held to choose county officers and a county seat. The site
of a proposed town, Wellington, was elected over its competitors
as the county seat. In 1891 the new city was platted, and the
construction of a courthouse began.
Good wheat crops in 1889 and 1890 had indicated the
land's agricultural potential, and newly arriving farmers and
stock farmers eagerly purchased lands in Collingsworth County.
By 1900 there were 218 farms in the area encompassing 584,692
acres (with 21,494 acres classified as "improved"),
and the population had increased to 1,233. In the first years
of the twentieth century agricultural development accelerated,
and by 1910 the county had developed a mixed ranching and farming
economy based on small and medium-sized ranches and cotton, corn,
milo, and wheat farms. That year the census counted 806 farms
in the county. Corn cultureqv occupied more than 26,000 acres, and cotton cultureqv took up almost 17,500; improved acres on the farms totalled almost
105,000 acres. The population of the county, 5,224, was quadruple
that of 1900. By 1920 the county had 1,139 farms and ranches,
with more than 49,500 acres planted in cotton and 80,200 acres
devoted to various cereals, especially corn. By the late 1920s,
all the land in the county suitable for farming was occupied,
and in 1930 Collingsworth County maintained a mixed agricultural
economy, with numerous cattle ranches and over 246,000 acres of
farmland. Almost 26,400 cattle were counted in Collingsworth County
that year, while local farmers planted corn, wheat, oats, alfalfa,
milo, and, especially, cotton; about 162,000 acres was devoted
to cotton production alone. In 1930 the census enumerated 2,112
farms and 14,461 residents in the county.
During the 1920s a dispute arose between Texas and
Oklahoma over the actual location of the eastern boundary of the
Texas Panhandle. After resurveying, and after a United States
Supreme Court decision, the line was moved 3,800 feet to the east.
Thus Lipscomb, Hemphill, Wheeler, Collingsworth, and Childress
counties of Texas all grew slightly, at the expense of Harmon,
Beckham, Ellis, and Roger Mills counties of Oklahoma (see
BOUNDARIES).
Rail and highway systems that developed during the
first half of the twentieth century helped to tie the area to
national markets and to encourage economic development. In 1910
the Wichita Falls and Wellington Railway Company of Texas (which
a year later became a Missouri, Kansas and Texas subsidiary) built
a line from the Oklahoma-Texas border to Wellington. In 1932 the
Fort Worth and Denver City Northern Railway Company built a line
from Childress to Pampa via Wellington and Shamrock. Following
the Federal Highway Aid Act of 1916 and the establishment of the
State Highway Commission in 1917, many Texas counties began to
build auto routes. Collingsworth County began its first road projects
in 1917 by building unpaved roads. By the mid-1920s, good roads
linked Wellington to Childress, Shamrock, Clarendon, and Memphis,
while lesser routes tied the outlying towns and ranches to the
major road system. During the 1930s and 1940s, paving and upgrading
of the system began. Today a network of federal, state, and farm
roads crisscrosses the county (see HIGHWAY DEVELOPMENT).
The Great Depression and Dust Bowlqqv interrupted Collingsworth County's expansion during the 1930s.
The number of farms in the county fell from 2,112 to 1,358 between
1929 and 1940, and the population of the county dropped from 14,461
to 10,331 during the same period.
Since World War IIqv the population of the county has continued to decline steadily,
partly due to the mechanization and consolidation of agriculture.
Collingsworth County's population dropped to 9,139 in 1950, 6,276
in 1960, 4,755 in 1970, and 4,648 in 1980. It was estimated to
be 3,573 in 1992.
Oil and gas reserves were discovered in the county
in 1936, but only modest production resulted: in 1956 petroleum
production totalled only 795 barrels, and in 1960, 779 barrels.
Since the 1970s production has been more impressive but still
quite limited. In 1978 about 19,120 barrels of oil were pumped
from Collingsworth County lands, and 13,106 in 1982; in 1990 the
county produced 8,595 barrels. By that year, almost 1,169,500
barrels of oil had been produced in Collingsworth County since
1936.
By 1982 the number of cultivated acres in Collingsworth
County had declined to 156,000, as marginal lands were returned
to ranching. During the 1980s agricultural production in Collingsworth
County averaged around $28 million annually, with a healthy mix
of cotton, grain, and beef production. Oil production, worth almost
$650,000 a year, supplemented the economy. County communities
include Dodson (1980 population 185), Dozier (30), Samnorwood
(110), and Quail (92). The bulk of the county's population resides
in Wellington, the county seat, which had an estimated population
of 2,456 in 1992.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Clyde Chestnut Brown, A Survey History
of Collingsworth County, Texas (M.A. thesis, University of Colorado,
1934). A History of Collingsworth County and Other Stories
(Wellington, Texas: Leader Printing, 1925). Estelle D.
Tinkler, "Nobility's Ranche: A History of the Rocking Chair
Ranche," Panhandle-Plains Historical Review 15 (1942).
Donald R. Abbe
This information comes from the Texas State Historical Association
Handbook of Texas Online.
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