FRANKEL CITY, TEXAS
 

Frankel City,
at the junction of Farm roads 181 and 1967 in western Andrews
County, began with the county's oil boom. It was established
as Fullerton in 1941 with the drilling of a discovery well by
the Fullerton Oil Company. During World War II other wells were
drilled, and by 1945 there were reportedly 100 rigs drilling
in a five-by-eight-mile area. Several companies opened oilfield
supply stores and built camps on the sand hills in the area for
about 750 workers and their families. Students were bused to
Andrews, which had the only school in the county. A post office
opened in 1948 with G. W. Blanchard as postmaster, and the town
was renamed Frankel City after the Frankel Brothers Oil Company.
Skeet Morris was the community's first and only mayor. As drilling
was completed in the area the town began to decline, and on March
12, 1976, its post office closed. At one time the town had several
stores and filling stations, two cafés, two churches,
and a telephone exchange. By the 1980s Frankel City comprised
a café, a house, a mobile home, and an estimated population
of eleven. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Andrews County History,
1876-1978 (Andrews, Texas: Andrews County Heritage Committee,
1978). Tracey L. Compton |