Norton

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Norton, out there in Runnels County. Now, every good Texas town has got a story, and Norton's starts with a man from Kentucky. George W.

Norton came along about 1882, bought up the divide between Oak and Valley creeks, and later got to work developing it. A Kentucky man, a Texas divide, and a little patience. That's a beginning.

For a while, though, things stayed quiet out on that land. Then 1894 rolls around, and Norton gets a post office. Now, the post office wasn't in any grand building in the center of town.

It was sitting in the home of postmaster Marion A. Wilkerson, a mile and a half to the northeast. The mail came to you, more or less.

But here's how these things tend to go. Once you've got a post office, people start clustering. Stores showed up.

Cotton gins. Blacksmith shops. A few country businesses of one kind and another.

And slowly, all of it got drawn in, pulled toward a center like iron filings toward a magnet. In 1903, O. C.

Bivins made it official and platted the town. Norton was on the map. The first homes, so the story goes, were built by Dr.

W. W. Mitchell and Les Trimmier.

By 1906 there was a high school. Churches took root. A Masonic Lodge came together.

The whole fabric of a community, stitched together one institution at a time, all of it growing out of one Kentucky man's decision to buy a stretch of Texas divide and see what might come of it.

What the marker says

Named for George W. Norton of Kentucky, who about 1882 bought and later developed the divide between Oak and Valley creeks. Post office, established in 1894, was at first in home (1.5 miles northeast) of postmaster Marion A. Wilkerson. This facility and a few country businesses - including stores, cotton gins, blacksmith shops -- were drawn into town, which was platted by O. C. Bivins in 1903. First homes are said to have been built by Dr. W. W. Mitchell and Les Trimmier. High school was established in 1906. Early institutions included several churches and a Masonic Lodge.