Audubon

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker on this spot tells it: and it's a tale worth tellin'. There was a town here once. A real town, with churches and lawyers and a school and two cotton gins humming away.

You'd never know it now, but let me take you back. The place was called Audubon, named for the naturalist John J. Audubon himself, the man who lived from 1785 to 1851 and spent his years cataloguing the wild things of this continent.

Settlers from the South came up into Wise County and thought this ground worth naming after him. That alone tells you something about the ambitions of the people who put down roots here. The earliest of them was a man named D.

D. Shirey. In 1865, Shirey took his own farmland and platted a town right out of it.

Just drew the lines and said: here. This is a place. He and his wife (everybody called her Aunt Polly) started with a log house and kept going.

That log house became a stagecoach inn, and that inn grew famous. Famous for a lavish table, the marker says, and I believe every word of it. Their food was set out on a lazy Susan, and that lazy Susan was, no joke, the wonder of the countryside.

Folks in this part of Wise County had not seen anything quite like it. The inn kept growing, the reputation kept spreading, and Audubon kept building itself up around the Shireys' table. Then came the trail crews.

In the late 1860s and the decades that followed, cattle outfits working the trail that ran to the east of here would detour; detour, on purpose, out of their way; to come into Audubon and buy supplies. That's how good this town's business was. They had a post office starting June 25, 1874.

They had the Woodmen of the World. They had a Masonic Lodge that ran active from 1879 to 1886. Three churches.

A school. A telephone office. Two cotton gins.

Several mercantile stores. Several lawyers. Several physicians.

Two blacksmiths. And among the physicians, there was the noted Dr. W.

B. Palmer, who kept a beautiful country home he called Gynndome. Audubon had weight to it.

It had permanence; or so it seemed. Then came 1883, and the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad laid its tracks, and those tracks did not come through Audubon. The railroad was bypassed around this town, and when a railroad goes around you in 1883, you feel it.

Gradually, Audubon declined. The post office hung on until July 20, 1904, and then it closed. The school kept going until 1930, when it consolidated with Alvord.

And then the town was gone; vanished, is the word the marker uses, and vanished is exactly right. One of Audubon's own, the Reverend M. M.

Barnett, went on to serve with the California Baptist Foundation, carrying something of this place out into the wider world. But the town itself? It stayed here, fading into the grass of Wise County.

All that's left now is the story; Aunt Polly's table, the lazy Susan that was the wonder of the countryside, and the memory of a place that trail crews rode out of their way just to reach.

What the marker says

A vanished town which was important in this area in the 19th century. It was settled by southerners and named for naturalist John J. Audubon (1785-1851). Earliest settler, D. D. Shirey, platted town out of his farm land in 1865. He and his wife, "Aunt Polly", expanded their log house into a stagecoach inn that grew famous for a lavish table. Their excellent food was set out on a lazy Susan, which was the wonder of the countryside. In the late 1860s and following decades, trail crews detoured from the cattle trail that ran to the east of here and bought supplies in the town. Audubon had a post office from June 25, 1874, to July 20, 1904. Local social and fraternal bodies included Woodmen of the World and a Masonic Lodge active from 1879 to 1886. There were three churches, a school, a telephone office, two cotton gins, several mercantile stores, several lawyers and physicians, and two blacksmiths. The noted Dr. W. B. Palmer, had a beautiful country home, "Gynndome". Bypassed by the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad in 1883, Audubon gradually declined. Post office closed in 1904; school consolidated with Alvord in 1930. Among outstanding native sons was the Reverend M. M. Barnett of the California Baptist Foundation.