DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the ghost town of Clara, out in Wichita County. Now, every ghost town has a beginning, and this one begins with a man named Herman Specht stepping off a boat in Galveston in 1870, all the way from Germany. He's got ambition, and he's got patience — the kind of patience that builds things slowly and watches them carefully.
By 1884, he married Clara M. Vogel Lange, a wealthy widow, born in 1853. And with that union came resources, and with those resources came vision.
Specht had already been accumulating property in Galveston, but his eyes drifted north — way north, up into Wichita County, where he began buying land. Tract by tract, acre by acre, until he was sitting on twenty-one thousand acres of north Texas ground. Twenty-one thousand.
You let that number sit with you for a moment. In 1886, he platted a town on that land. He called it Clara, for his wife.
He laid out the streets and named them for Texas heroes. He donated the very site where The Trinity Lutheran Church would stand. Then he advertised — actively advertised — for German colonists from other states to come and settle in Clara.
He was building something. A community. A legacy.
By 1890, Specht built his home over in Iowa Park and ran his ranch at Clara, growing wheat. And north of that church site, he planted something remarkable — a large experimental nursery for unusual plants. You can almost picture it: rows of strange, rare things reaching up out of the north Texas soil, tended carefully, a man's curiosity made green and growing.
Then 1891 arrived, and with it, drought. The nursery — gone. His crops — gone.
Wiped out. The land that had produced so much promise turned hard and quiet. But Specht still had Galveston.
Until 1900. That was the year the great Galveston storm came through, and it destroyed the remainder of their vast holdings. Two catastrophes, one decade apart.
The experimental nursery and the wheat, then the coastal fortune. Between those two blows, much of what Specht had built was simply... taken. Still, Clara the town kept going for a while.
It had a church, schools, a store, a garage, a post office — the bones of a real community. But the trouble was water. An inadequate water supply hampered the town, and when the school consolidated with the Burkburnett schools, people started drifting.
Then the oil boom of the 1920s pulled many of the remaining residents toward Wichita Falls. And once good roads and cars came along, well — folks could shop elsewhere. Didn't need Clara for that anymore.
And so, one by one, the reasons to stay disappeared. The town finally vanished. What's left standing is the church, the rectory, and the cemetery — which is its own kind of testimony.
The streets named for Texas heroes, the wheat fields, the experimental nursery full of unusual plants, the twenty-one thousand acres — all of it gone back to quiet. Clara. Named for a woman.
Outlasted by a churchyard.
What the marker says
Herman Specht migrated in 1870 to Galveston from Germany. In 1884 he married Clara M. Vogel Lange (1853-1912), a wealthy widow. Adding to earlier property holdings in Galveston, he began buying extensive tracts of land in northern Wichita County, which eventually totaled 21,000 acres. In 1886 he platted the town of Clara which he named for his wife. The streets were named for Texas heroes. He donated this site for The Trinity Lutheran Church. Specht advertised for German colonists from other states to settle here. Specht built his home in Iowa Park in 1890 and ran a ranch at Clara where he grew wheat. North of the church site, he had a large experimental nursery for unusual plants. The 1891 drought wiped out the nursery and Specht's crops. The 1900 Galveston storm destroyed the remainder of their vast holdings. Clara included a church, schools, store, garage and post office. Hampered by an inadequate water supply, the town began to decline with the consolidation of the school with the Burkburnett schools. During the oil boom of the 1920s, many residents moved to Wichita Falls. Good roads and cars made it possible to shop elsewhere. The town finally vanished except for the church, rectory and cemetery. (1978)