Goforth

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Goforth, Hays County, Texas. Now settle in, because this one's got a rise and a fall worth knowing. The community of Goforth — once the beating heart of cotton-producing activity in all of Hays County — became a ghost town during the 1920s.

And the way it happened, well, you couldn't write it much sadder if you tried. James Taylor Goforth was born in 1849, and sometime in the 1870s he planted himself right here and opened a general store. That store wasn't just a place to buy flour and nails.

It was the social center of the community. It served as a banking facility for the farm families scattered across the area. People came to Goforth's store the way people come to town — because that's where life happened.

And life was good. Business activity in Goforth hit its height between 1880 and 1906. Think about what that means.

This place had a drugstore. A doctor's office. A meat market, a stable, a blacksmith shop.

In 1890, a United States Post Office opened right here, and J. T. Goforth himself served as postmaster.

The town didn't just survive — it flourished, and it did all of that without a single rail line running through it. The railroads bypassed Goforth entirely, and folks kept going anyway. Now, along the way, in 1894, a man named J.

M. Butterworth purchased Goforth's store. He ran it for three years, then closed it when the Goforth Supply Company was organized to take things over.

James Taylor Goforth himself went on to form a gin and milling company that operated one of the largest cotton gins in the area. The man who started with a general store in the 1870s ended up running one of the biggest cotton gins around. He died in 1915, before the worst of what was coming.

Maybe that's a mercy. Because 1925 arrived, and with it came something quiet and devastating — soil erosion and worn-out farmland combined to bring extensive crop failure. The land itself had given out.

And then, as if the county needed one more punch, 1926 brought a worm infestation so severe that area farms were totally abandoned. Every last one of them. The Goforth Supply Company closed that same year.

And here's the detail that'll stay with you: when they closed the doors, the stock was still on the shelves. Nobody came to buy it out. Nobody hauled it away.

They just locked up and left. A town that had buzzed with a drugstore and a doctor and a blacksmith and a post office, a town that had outlasted the railroads by sheer grit and good cotton — ended with shelves full of goods and nobody left to need them. Little evidence remains of the townsite today.

But Goforth is an important part of Hays County history, and that marker standing out there on the road makes sure of it.

What the marker says

Once the center of cotton-producing activity in Hays County. Goforth became a ghost town during the 1920s. The community was established in the 1870s by James Taylor Goforth (1849-1915), who operated a general store at this site. Goforth's store served as a social center and as a banking facility for many of the farm families in the area. Business activity in Goforth was at its height between 1880 and 1906. The town boasted a drugstore, doctor's office, meat market, stable, and blacksmith shop. A U. S. Post Office opened in 1890, with J. T. Goforth as postmaster. In 1894, J. M. Butterworth purchased Goforth's store, but closed it three years later when the Goforth Supply Company was organized. The town's founder later formed a gin and milling company that operated one of the largest cotton gins in the area. Despite the fact that rail lines had bypassed Goforth, the community flourished until soil erosion and worn out farmland combined to bring extensive crop failure in 1925. A worm infestation in 1926 caused total abandonment of area farms. The supply company closed that year with stock still on the shelves. Although little evidence remains of the townsite, Goforth is an important part of Hays County history.