DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official Blanket marker has to say — and friend, this one's got layers. Now, local tradition holds that back in 1852, a group of surveyors came upon something they weren't quite expecting out on the Texas prairie. A band of Tonkawa Indians had been caught in a rainstorm while hunting buffalo, and they'd spread their wet blankets out on the sumac bushes to dry.
The surveyors took one look at that scene, and they named the stream right then and there: Blanket Creek. That's the tradition, anyway. Make of it what you will.
For a spell after that, permanent settlement was sparse. The land sat quiet. Then in 1873, Pinkney and Sarah Anderson bought land from Almonta Huling and opened a general store just southwest of where the town sits today.
Anderson's store wasn't just a store — by 1875 it was housing the first Blanket post office, and the town had found itself a spot on the stagecoach route running from Brownwood all the way to Fort Worth. Things were moving. A fellow named Robert Dickey showed up as the first schoolteacher, starting in a log building in 1878 before a proper schoolhouse was built — with lumber they hauled all the way from Fort Worth, mind you.
And by the time the 1880 U.S. census rolled around, Blanket had drawn people from eighteen states, plus folks from Jamaica, Norway, and Prussia. Eighteen states and three countries, in a stretch of Brown County, Texas. That's a story all by itself.
Then 1891 brought the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway, and a man named T.A. Wilkinson saw his moment, developing the Blanket townsite company. W.T.
Smith of Rockwell City, Iowa, came on as company president, laid the new townsite out into blocks and lots, and kept right on going — serving as immigration agent for the F.W. and R.G., founding the Lone Star High School and College, and running a mercantile store in Blanket. The residents of the former village packed up their homes and businesses and moved to the new townsite, just like that. Blanket kept growin'.
First bank opened in 1903. Town incorporated in 1912. During the cotton era — the peak of prosperity — three gins were running at once.
Three. And through all of it, through the droughts and the economic downturns, there was David P. Cobb, Blanket's town doctor for more than sixty-two years.
More than sixty-two years tending to one rural community. The marker calls him an example of the perseverance and tradition that's kept Blanket a viable community to this day. Some towns flare up and burn out.
Blanket spread its blankets on the sumac and waited out the rain.
What the marker says
Local tradition states that Blanket Creek received its name in 1852, when a group of surveyors came upon a band of Tonkawa Indians who had been caught in a rainstorm while hunting buffalo. The Tonkawa spread their wet blankets on the sumac bushes to dry, and the surveyors named the stream Blanket Creek. Permanent settlement was sparse until Pinkney and Sarah Anderson bought land from Almonta Huling in 1873, opening a general store just southwest of the present town. Anderson's store housed the first Blanket post office in 1875, and the town became a stop on the stagecoach route from Brownwood to Fort Worth. Robert Dickey was the first schoolteacher, beginning in a log building in 1878 before a permanent schoolhouse was built with lumber hauled from Fort Worth. The 1880 U.S. census documented people from 18 states and the countries of Jamaica, Norway and Prussia living here. In 1891, arrival of the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway led T.A. Wilkinson to develop the Blanket townsite company. W.T. Smith of Rockwell City, Iowa, became company president and laid out a new townsite into blocks and lots; Smith also served as immigration agent for the F.W. & R.G., founded the Lone Star High School and College, and operated a mercantile store in Blanket. Residents of the former village moved their homes and businesses to the new townsite. Blanket continued to grow, with the first bank opening in 1903 and the town incorporating in 1912. During its peak of prosperity during the cotton era, three gins operated here. David P. Cobb was Blanket's town doctor for more than 62 years, an example of the perseverance and tradition of a rural town that has survived droughts and economic downturns to remain a viable community.