Groom

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Carson County, there's a town with a story that starts the way a lot of good Texas stories start: with a railroad pushing west and a man who saw his moment. The year was 1902, and when the Rock Island Railroad built west through that stretch of the Plains, a local landowner by the name of W.

S. Wilkerson founded what would become the town of Groom. Now, Wilkerson put his name on the founding, but the town itself got its name from somebody else entirely.

Somebody who'd already left a mark on that land a good couple of decades before the rails ever arrived. That would be Colonel B. B.

Groom, who in the 1880s served as agent for the Franklyn Land and Cattle Company out in those parts. And here's the detail that sticks with you about the Colonel: he was the first to try power farming on the Plains. The first.

On land that most folks were still figuring out, Colonel Groom was already pushing it further than anyone had gone before. So when Wilkerson founded that town and the time came to give it a name, well, the Colonel's legacy was already written into the soil. Today, Groom stands as the hub of a rich farming and ranching area, which tells you something.

The land Colonel Groom was first to push, and the town W. S. Wilkerson was first to plant, they both took root just fine.

What the marker says

Founded 1902 by W. S. Wilkerson, local landowner, when Rock Island Railroad built west; named for Col. B. B. Groom, 1880s agent of Franklyn Land & Cattle Co. Col. Groom was first to try power farming on Plains. Town is today hub of rich farming and ranching area.