Lipscomb, Texas

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little Texas lean. Lipscomb, Texas. Out on the Panhandle, where the wind has opinions and the land stretches farther than a man's ambitions, a town was born in 1886.

Settlers planted themselves right there with their eyes on a prize: the proposed Santa Fe Railroad. They figured if the railroad was coming through, they'd better be standing in its path when it did. So they set down roots.

The post office opened that same year, 1886, and the Lipscomb Town Company got to work moving lots at three dollars an acre in 1887. Three dollars an acre. Now, that may sound modest, but somebody was buying, because in the very first month, seven businesses started up.

Seven. In one month. This place wasn't tiptoeing into existence.

It was running. When the county got organized in 1887, Lipscomb became the county seat, named for A. S.

Lipscomb, who had served as secretary of state in the Republic of Texas and as a justice of the state supreme court. That's the kind of name you put on a county seat. And 1887 was a busy year.

The first courthouse was built. And here's a detail that tells you just how hungry this town was to grow: a hotel was moved here from an undeveloped town called Dominion. The whole thing, relocated, 1887.

Somebody in Dominion lost a hotel, and Lipscomb gained one. That's Panhandle arithmetic for you. By 1888, children were sitting in a church that doubled as the first school, twenty-five pupils learning their lessons under a roof that was doing double duty on Sundays.

The town kept building, kept becoming. And in 1916, a new courthouse was erected, standing as proof that what those settlers started in 1886 had lasted long enough to need something sturdier. They came for a railroad that was only proposed.

What they built was a county seat that didn't need anyone's permission to stay.

What the marker says

Established, 1886, by settlers hoping to benefit from proposed Santa Fe Railroad in Panhandle. Post office was opened in 1886; Lipscomb Town Company sold land for $3 an acre in 1887. In first month, seven businesses started. When county was organized in 1887, Lipscomb became seat, named for A. S. Lipscomb, secretary of state in Republic of Texas and justice of state supreme court. Hotel from undeveloped town of Dominion was moved here, 1887. First courthouse was built in 1887. The first school -- in a church -- had 25 pupils, 1888. A new courthouse was erected, 1916. (1968)