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Floyd County is on U.S. Highway 70 northeast of Lubbock
in the High Plains region of the Panhandle.qv The county is bordered on the north by Swisher and Briscoe counties,
on the east by Motley County, on the south by Crosby County, and
on the west by Hale County. The center of the county lies at 34°05'
north latitude and 101°20' west longitude. Floydada is the
county seat and largest town. In addition to U.S. Highway 70 the
county's transportation needs are served by U.S. Highway 62, State
Highway 207, and the Fort Worth and Denver, the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe, and the Quanah, Acme and Pacific railroads.
Floyd County covers 992 square miles. The mostly
flat land is broken on the east by the Caprockqv and Rolling Plains and on the south by the White River and Blanco
Canyon. The elevation ranges from 2,600 to 3,300 feet. The northeast
corner has level to undulating soils, with some clayey subsoils.
The remainder of the county has nearly flat terrain and alkaline
soils with dark loamy surfaces and clayey subsoils. Vegetation
is typical of the High Plains, with moderately short to tall grasses
and plenty of mesquite.qv Between 71 and 80 percent of the land in the county is considered
prime farmland; about 500,000 acres is considered arable.
The climate is arid and mild, with cool winters and
hot summers. Temperatures range in January from an average low
of 24° to an average high of 53°, and in July from 67°
to 94°. The average annual rainfall is nineteen inches, and
the average relative humidity is 73 percent at 6 A.M. and 39 percent
at 6 P.M. The average annual snowfall is eleven inches. The growing
season averages 213 days per year, with the last freeze in early
April and the first freeze in early November.
Evidence of prehistoric hunters has been found in
Floyd County, which was part of the vast domain of the Plains
Apaches and later of the Comanches. Spanish explorer Francisco
Vázquez de Coronadoqv is believed to have come through the area in 1541. Quitaque Peak
was a familiar landmark to José P. Tafoyaqv and other Comancherosqv who came from New Mexico to trade with the warlike "Mongols
of the West"; indeed, it marked the southern boundary of
the notorious Valley of Tears,qv so named because white captives were separated among various Indian
bands or ransomed there by Comancheros. In August 1841 the Texan-Santa
Fe expeditionqv members established Camp Resolution near the junction of Quitaque
and Los Lingos creeks, in the county's northeastern part, and
there made the fateful decision to split into two groups in a
desperate bid to reach their objective.
In 1871 and again in 1874 Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie'sqv Fourth United States Cavalryqv came through Floyd County in pursuit of the hostile Quahadi Comanches.
In their wake came hide hunters operating out of Fort Griffin
and Charles Rath'sqv Teepee City. With the Indians and buffaloqv gone, ranchers entered the area with their free-range cattle
outfits. The Baker brothers and O. J. Wiren established the headquarters
of the Quitaque (Lazy F) Ranch,qv later owned by Charles Goodnightqv and for a time part of the JA Ranch,qv on the banks of Quitaque Creek. The firm of Owens, Marseilles
and Duncan grazed both cattle and sheep on its H Bar L (later
the TM Bar) Ranch in Blanco Canyon. Other pioneer ranches that
had land in Floyd County included the Two-Buckle and the Matador.qqv
On August 21, 1876, the Texas legislature formed
Floyd County, named for the Alamo martyr Dolphin Ward Floyd,qv as one of the fifty-four counties established from the Bexar
and Young territories. In 1884 Arthur B. Duncan and his family
became the county's first settlers when they located in Blanco
Canyon a short distance above Henry Clay (Hank) Smith'sqv ranch in Crosby County. Since Floyd County at that time was attached
to Donley County for administrative purposes, the Duncans and
other settlers who soon followed had to go to Clarendon to file
on state lands for homes. In the spring of 1887, Thomas J. Braidfoot
and his family located on a section of school land that afterward
was platted as the town of Della Plain. There the county's first
school was begun late in 1888.
The move to organize Floyd County produced heated
rivalry among its developing communities for the honor of being
the county seat. Lockney, which became Della Plain's chief rival,
was founded in 1889. In the spring of 1890 J. K. Gwynn appeared
on the scene as a representative of Carolina V. Price, a Missouri
native who owned numerous patented sections in Floyd County. Gwynn
had one of the prize sections platted as Floyd City, another candidate
for county seat. Lockney combined with Floyd City, and in the
organization election on May 28, 1890, Floyd City won by a vote
of 55 to 33. The election was subsequently contested in the district
court and later in the Supreme Court, but its validity was
sustained; Floyd City, renamed Floydada in 1892, remained
the seat of local government, with A. B. Duncan serving as the
first county judge.
Although Floyd County had a population of 529 by
1890, droughts, financial panics, and grasshopper plagues caused
many settlers to vacate the region during the next decade. Some
of the communities, including Della Plain and Mayshaw, were abandoned,
but Lockney was revived in 1894 with the establishment of Lockney
Christian College, which lasted until 1917. A gradual influx of
population resulted in a movement to choose a new county seat
and build a new courthouse, but in the election of 1912 Floydada
was again victorious by a small majority. After that, town and
sectional rivalries waned.
The first railroad to build into the county was the
Santa Fe, which in 1910 built a branch line from Plainview to
Lockney and Floydada. In 1928 the Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway
extended its tracks from McBain, thus connecting Floydada directly
with points east and north. At the same time, the Fort Worth and
Denver constructed its South Plains line from Estelline and Quitaque
to Lockney via Sterley and South Plains. This line, later taken
over by Burlington Northern, is noted for the Quitaque Tunnel,
a remarkable engineering feat that is now the state's only functioning
railway tunnel, located in northeastern Floyd County.
The construction of the railroads brought numerous
new settlers to the area. Between 1900 and 1930 the population
increased six-fold, growing from 2,020 to 12,409. Many of the
new settlers were farmers, lured to the area by abundant land,
and during the first three decades of the twentieth century the
number of farms in the county grew rapidly. In 1900 there were
only 286; by 1930 that figure had grown to 1,671. Corn was the
most important crop in the early years, but after 1900 wheat and
cotton were both introduced on a commercial scale. By 1930 Floyd
County farmers were harvesting more than two million bushels of
wheat annually, making the county one of the leaders in the state
in wheat culture.qv Cotton cultureqv also saw impressive growth, particularly after 1920. By 1930 nearly
one-fifth of the improved land in the county-71,184 of 490,731
acres-was devoted to cotton. Production increased from 430 bales
in 1910 to 42,801 bales in 1926, one of the peak years of the
cotton boom.
The 1920s and 1930s saw other important improvements.
Tractors began to be used on a large scale, and numerous new roads
were laid out and graded. In 1937 paved highways came to
Floyd County with the completion of State Highway 28 (now U.S.
70) through Floydada.
During the early 1930s cotton was the leading cash
crop. Falling prices, droughts, and boll weevilqv infestations, however, combined to drive down cotton production
in the 1930s. Although the amount of land planted in cotton continued
to be quite high, both yields and profits dropped significantly,
especially after 1932. In 1936 Floyd County farmers produced only
11,137 bales, only slightly more than a quarter of the peak figure
for the mid-1920s.
Because of the rapidly growing population, land prices
showed a marked increase during the second and third decade of
the twentieth century, and many new farmers found land impossible
to buy. The number of tenants and share croppers grew rapidly,
particularly in the 1920s, and by 1930 more than half of county
farmers-923 of 1,691-were working someone else's land. In contrast
to those in many other areas of the state, the overwhelming majority
of the tenants were white. The high rate of tenancy had serious
results during the Great Depressionqv of the 1930s. As a result of the poor yields and the reluctance
of banks to extend credit to financially strained farmers, many
of those who made a living from the land, particularly tenants,
found themselves displaced. Numerous farmers were forced to give
up their livelihoods and seek work elsewhere. The population of
the county as a whole fell from 12,409 in 1930 to 10,659 in 1940.
During the late 1940s agricultural prices began to
rebound, but the farming economy did not fully recover until after
World War II.qv Oil, discovered in the county in 1952, helped some cash-strapped
farmers to settle long-standing debts, but oil production in Floyd
County has been modest compared with that of other counties in
the region; between 1952 and 1990 only 123,510 barrels were produced,
with an annual production in the late 1980s of around 3,000 barrels.
Since World War II Floyd County has remained a leader
in agricultural production. In the years after the war, wheat
production continued to grow and cotton made a strong recovery.
In 1950 Floyd County farmers grew 2,758,000 bushels of wheat,
and 47,332 bales of cotton. Alfalfa, corn, popcorn, and sorghum
were also raised in large quantities. Large-scale irrigationqv was introduced after the war, and by the early 1950s some 150,000
acres were irrigated. Subsequently, agricultural production continued
to grow. In the early 1990s more than 220,000 acres was under
irrigation and the county's farmers were earning an average $75
million a year. Most of the receipts came from cotton, wheat,
vegetables, soybeans, corn, sunflowers, beef cattle, and hogs.
Floyd County remained a leading cotton-producing area; twenty-one
cotton gins operated in the county in 1990. Additional sources
of income included the production of farm machinery and race cars,
meat and vegetable processing, and other agribusinesses. Floydada
is the site of the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service.
In 1982, 98 percent of the land in the county was in farms and
ranches, with 70 percent of the land under cultivation and 59
percent irrigated. Floyd County ranked twenty-first in the state
in agricultural receipts, with 75 percent coming from crops. Primary
crops were soybeans, sunflowers, cotton, wheat, sorghum, and corn;
onions, bell peppers, cucumbers, and pecans were also grown in
sizable quantities. The leading livestock products were cattle,
milk, and hogs.
The total number of businesses in the county in the
early 1980s was 189. In 1980, 24 percent of the labor force was
self-employed, 19 percent was employed in professional or related
services, 6 percent in manufacturing, 19 percent in wholesale
and retail trade, 34 percent in agriculture, forestry, fishing,
and mining, and 9 percent in other counties; 894 retired workers
lived in the county. Nonfarm earnings in 1981 totaled $68,652,000.
In the early 1980s Floyd County had four school districts,
with five elementary, two middle, and two high schools. The average
daily attendance in 1981-82 was 2,057, with expenditures per pupil
of $2,494. Twenty-two percent of the 127 high school graduates
planned to attend college. In 1983, 41 percent of the school graduates
were white, 55 percent Hispanic, 5 percent black, and 0.3 percent
Asian.
The first churches in Floyd County were established
shortly after the organization of the county. In the mid-1980s
the county had twenty-eight organized churches, with a estimated
combined membership of 8,997. The largest denominations were Baptist,
Catholic, and United Methodist. Historically Floyd County has
been staunchly Democratic, although Republicans made strong inroads
after 1960, particularly in presidential elections and some statewide
races. Between 1960 and 1988 Republican presidential candidates
received the majority of votes in every race except for Lyndon
B. Johnsonqv in 1968 and Jimmy Carter in 1976. Democratic officials, however,
continued to maintain control of most county offices.
The population of Floyd County grew between 1950
and 1960 from 10,535 to 12,369, but afterward fell steadily as
residents gradually moved away to find jobs. The population was
11,044 in 1970, 9,834 in 1980, and 8,497 in 1990. In 1990, nearly
half of the population lived in Floydada (4,193). Other communities
included Lockney, Aiken, Barwise, Cedar Hill, Dougherty, Lakeview,
Lone Star, McCoy, Mickey, Muncy, Sandhill, South Plains, and Sterley.
In 1990, 65 percent of the population was white, 3.8 percent black,
39.8 percent Hispanic, and 0.2 percent Asian. The largest ancestry
groups are English, Hispanic, and Irish.
The area is popular with hunters and fishermen, particularly
in the fall and winter. The Old Settlers Day Reunion held in Floydada
and the Floyd County Fair in Lockney are among the main tourist
attractions.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Floyd County Historical Museum, History
of Floyd County, 1876-1979 (Dallas: Taylor, 1979). Claude
V. Hall, Early History of Floyd County (Canyon, Texas:
Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, 1947). Pauline D. and R.
L. Robertson, Cowman's Country: Fifty Frontier Ranches in the
Texas Panhandle, 1876-1887 (Amarillo: Paramount, 1981).
H. Allen Anderson and Christopher Long
This information comes from the Texas State Historical Association
Handbook of Texas Online.
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