Lipscomb County History
Source: The Handbook of Texas Online
Lipscomb County (A-11), in the far northeastern corner of the Panhandle, is bounded on the north and east by Oklahoma, on the south by Hemphill County, and on the west by Ochiltree County. It is in the rolling plains part of the Panhandle, east of the Texas High Plains. The center of the county lies at approximately 36°15' north latitude and 100°15' west longitude.
Lipscomb, the county seat, is about one or two miles from the center of the county and 128 miles northeast of Amarillo. The county, named for Abner S. Lipscomb, embraces 934 square miles of level, rolling, and broken countryside. The soils, which range from sandy loam to black, support a variety of native grasses as well as wheat, grain sorghums, corn, and alfalfa.
Wolf Creek, a large perennial stream, flows east across the center of the county to join the Canadian River in Oklahoma. Numerous intermittent tributaries flow into Wolf Creek, including First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Dugout, Skunk, Mammoth, Sand, Plum, and Camp creeks. Horse Creek, Big Timber Creek, and Commission Creek all run from the southern parts of the county directly into the Canadian. Kiowa Creek flows across the northwest corner of the county toward the Beaver River in Oklahoma.
The central and southern
part of the county are either rolling plains or very broken
country. The northern section is flat or slightly rolling. Oil
and gas reserves are found in the county. The elevation ranges
from 2,350 feet to 2,850 feet above sea level. The average annual
rainfall is 22.16 inches. The average minimum temperature is 23°
F in January, and the average maximum is 95° in July. The
growing season lasts 202 days a year. The agricultural economy
produces about $300 million annually, with 65 percent coming from
beef cattle and hog raising and the remainder derived from wheat,
sorghum, corn, and alfalfa. Oil and gas production accounts for
about another $30 million a year.
The region was inhabited by a Puebloan culture in the prehistoric
era, then by Plains Apaches, Apaches, and finally Kiowas and
Comanches in the historic period. The Kiowas and Comanches
dominated the Panhandle until they were defeated in the Red River
War of 1873-74; they were forced onto reservations in Oklahoma in
1875 and 1876, after which ranchers moved in. Lipscomb County was
formed by the Texas legislature in 1876 from the Bexar District.
The county's first
settler was Alex Young, a small-scale rancher who settled on
Kiowa Creek in 1877. Later that same year Henry W. Cresswell's
huge CC Ranch (centered in Roberts and Ochiltree Counties)
spilled into the western portion of Lipscomb County. Soon other
large ranches appeared: the Seven K, the DAY, the Box T, and the
YL all occupied large portions of the county by the end of 1878.
These ranches dominated the county for almost a decade, until the
coming of the railroad in 1887 encouraged settlers to move into
the area. The agricultural census for 1880 shows four ranches in
the county, reporting a total of 5,037 cattle; no crops were
reported. According to the census, there were sixty-nine people
living in the county that year.
In 1887 the Southern Kansas Railway of Texas, a Santa Fe
subsidiary, extended a line from Kiowa, Kansas, to Panhandle,
Texas. It crossed the southeast corner of Lipscomb County, gave
local ranchers access to rail connections, and afforded farmers
and small stockmen access to the farmlands in the county. The
first town in the county, Lipscomb, was platted in 1887 in
anticipation of the arrival of the railroad. When it was learned
that the railroad would miss the site, local residents decided to
protect their town by making it the county seat. As a result, the
populace voted to organize the county in June of 1887 with
Lipscomb as the county seat. When the railroad entered the county
later in the year, land promoters laid out Higgins on the
right-of-way. Higgins soon grew into the county's largest town
and trade center, but Lipscomb remained the county seat.
Settlers continued to arrive throughout the 1880s, and by 1890
sixty-eight farms and ranches encompassing about 51,000 acres had
been established in the county. Almost 19,000 cattle were
reported on local ranches, while less than 2,000 acres was
tilled; about 1,200 acres was planted in corn, the area's most
important crop. The census counted 632 residents that year. A
drought in 1889, coupled with the availability of lands around
Oklahoma City in 1889 and 1890, led to a migration out of the
county, however. By 1893 the population had declined to 1885-87
levels. Lipscomb County entered the twentieth century as a
sparsely settled ranching county with a population of 790 and
little agriculture. Though 117 farms and ranches were counted in
the county in 1900, corn was planted on only 812 acres; 34,279
cattle were reported that year.
The farming frontier arrived in the county in the first decade of
the twentieth century as wheat farmers moved into the area from
the Midwest and Central Texas. By 1910 Lipscomb County had 375
farms and ranches, encompassing almost 472,000 acres. That year
wheat was planted on almost 30,600 acres, corn on 9,000, and
sorghum on 7,500; the population had increased to 2,634. The
construction of a second railroad, the North Texas and Santa Fe,
through the county brought more settlers. This railroad, which
ran from Shattuck, Oklahoma, to Spearman, Texas, crossed into
northern Lipscomb County by 1920 and engendered the farming towns
of Follett and Darrouzett in 1917; another town, Booker, was
established on the line in 1919.
Many Russians of German
origin from Kansas entered the northern part of the county at
this time, adding a distinct ethnic atmosphere to the new towns.
Wheat culture proved profitable between 1900 and 1930. By 1920,
483 farms had been established in Lipscomb County; in 1930 the
county's 525 farms included 476,187 acres, and about 65,300 acres
was planted in wheat, which remained the most important crop.
Poultry production was also beginning to become important to the
local economy. By 1930 almost 51,000 chickens were raised on
county farms, and that year local farmers sold almost 245,000
dozen eggs. The census reported 4,512 people living in the county
that year.
Growth since 1900 was reversed during the 1930s, however, when
the Great Depression and the Dust Bowlq hammered local farmers.
By 1940 only 479 farms remained, and the population of the county
had declined to 3,764. The county did grow in size during this
time, however. A Supreme Court decision in 1930 stated that the
100th meridian, the eastern border of the Texas Panhandle, was
approximately 3,700 feet farther east than previously thought.
This strip, 132 miles long, expanded Lipscomb, Wheeler, Hemphill,
Collingsworth, and Childress counties and diminished Harmon,
Ellis, Beckham, and Roger Mills counties in Oklahoma.
During the mid-twentieth century Lipscomb County began to develop
a modern system of roads. As early as the mid-1920s U.S. Highway
60 (originally State Highway 33) crossed the southeastern corner
of the county via Higgins as it ran from Shattuck, Oklahoma, to
Canadian, Pampa, Panhandle, and Amarillo. Only unpaved county
roads gave access to the rest of the county at that time, but a
network of paved roads emerged during the 1940s and 1950s. State
Highway 15 runs across the northern part of the county, linking
Booker, Follett, and Darrouzett to Spearman and Oklahoma. The
county also has various farm-to-market and county roads that run
north and south.
The first oil well in the county was drilled in 1956; that year
production was 2,280 barrels of crude. A flourishing oil and gas
economy subsequently developed. Production was 2,309,400 barrels
in 1965, 860,121 barrels in 1974, 1,944,544 barrels in 1982, and
1,461,072 barrels in 1990. By January 1991 the county had
produced 48,772,807 barrels of oil since discovery. The voters of
Lipscomb County supported Democratic candidates in almost every
presidential election between 1888 and 1948; the only exceptions
occurred in 1920, when the county supported Republican Warren G.
Harding, and 1928, when they supported Republican Herbert Hoover.
Between 1952 and 1992, however, Lipscomb County voters supported
the Republican candidate in every presidential election.
Since the 1950s Lipscomb
County has had a diversified economy based on ranching, farming,
and petroleum production. Though relatively stable, the
population generally declined after the 1950s. The census counted
3,658 residents in 1950, 3,406 in 1960, 3,486 in 1970, 3,766 in
1980, and 3,143 in 1990. In the early 1990s most of the
population was concentrated in the small farming towns of Booker
(1990 population, 1,236, partly in Ochiltree County), Follett
(441), Darrouzett (343), Higgins (464) and Lipscomb (45);
Lipscomb is still the county seat. The remainder of the
population lives on farms and ranches. Lipscomb hosts a junior
livestock show each March.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A History of Lipscomb County, Texas, 1876-1976
(Lipscomb, Texas: Lipscomb County Historical Survey Committee,
1976). Clinton Leon Paine, The History of Lipscomb County (M.A.
thesis, West Texas State College, 1941).
Donald R. Abbe
This page was last updated August 29, 2003.