Ochiltree Townsite

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just here to pass it along. Now, out here on the Texas Panhandle, the wind doesn't ask permission and neither did the people who built a county out of raw prairie. This county was created in 1876, and it was named for William Beck Ochiltree, a noted Texas jurist who lived from 1811 to 1867.

The county bearing his name, though — that came after him, carved out of the high plains in that same year of 1876. For a while it wasn't much more than a name on a map. The county was attached for judicial purposes first to Clay, then later to Wheeler County.

The land was there. The law, more or less, was somewhere else. Then came 1886.

Pioneers started showing up — not in houses, mind you, but in dugouts. Holes in the earth near Wolf Creek, out on those wide open prairies. And when folks asked where they lived, they'd say, straightfaced and proud, "I live in Ochiltree." In the ground.

In Ochiltree. By 1889 they'd had enough of borrowing another county's courthouse. They organized their own county, made their little village the county seat, and elected themselves some officials.

William J. Todd stepped up as county judge. Dave C.

Kettell took on the combined honor of sheriff and tax collector — a man kept busy, you can be sure of that. George M. Perry became county clerk.

And Myrtle L. Daily was named treasurer. First elected officials, every one of them.

Two years later, in 1891, they built themselves a two-story courthouse — a hundred yards east of where you're standing right now. Lumber hauled all the way from Dodge City, Kansas. That building wasn't just a courthouse either.

It was the church. The schoolhouse. The social hall.

One building doing the work of a whole civilization, out there on the prairie. And it worked. By 1903, Ochiltree had six hundred people.

Churches. A high school. A newspaper.

A bank. A flour mill. The whole apparatus of a town that intended to stay.

Then came 1919, and here's where the story takes its turn. The Santa Fe Railway decided to found a new town — right between Ochiltree and Gray, Oklahoma. And the railroad made an offer that was hard to argue with: free lots.

Just pick up and come. In 1919, steam engines and heavy equipment hauled the improvements — the buildings, the businesses, the life of the place — eight miles north to the new site. They called the new town Perryton.

Named in honor of George M. Perry — that same county clerk who'd been among the first elected officials back when Ochiltree was just getting started. And so the town that dugout pioneers built with their own hands, board by freighted board, quietly followed the railroad north.

What's left is the townsite, and this marker, and the story of a place that picked itself up and moved — leaving the name Ochiltree to the county, the creek, and the memory.

What the marker says

(Bordering this highway) This county was created in 1876 and named for noted Texas jurist William Beck Ochiltree (1811-1867). In 1876 it was attached for judicial purposes to Clay and later to Wheeler County. In 1886 pioneers began to settle in dugouts here on the prairies near Wolf Creek, saying they lived "in Ochiltree." For convenience in making land and tax transactions, and establishing law and order, they organized the county in 1889, making their village the county seat. First elected officials were William J. Todd, county judge; Dave C. Kettell, sheriff and tax collector; George M. Perry, county clerk; Myrtle L. Daily, treasurer. In 1891 a 2-story courthouse was built (100 yds E) of lumber freighted from Dodge City, Kans. This also served as church, schoolhouse, and social hall for the town. By 1903, Ochiltree had 600 people, churches, a high school, a newspaper, bank, flour mill, and other facilities. In 1919, the Santa Fe Railway founded a new town between Ochiltree and Gray, Okla., and induced people from both places to relocate by offering free lots. In 1919 steam engines and heavy equipment hauled the improvements from Ochiltree to the new site (8 mi. N), called Perryton, in honor of veteran county official George M. Perry. (1976)