DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says, a quarter mile north of where you're rollin' right now. Now, most towns in Texas have a story. But not every town has the audacity to name itself Chicago.
Let me tell you about a place that did exactly that — and then, just as boldly, vanished clean off the map. It started around 1887, out here on the wide, spare land of Dawson County. Two men came together to build something.
W. C. Bishop had traveled down from Chicago, Illinois.
George N. Fletcher was a wealthy lumberman with extensive landholdings already spread across this county. Together, they established the OTO ranch — later known as the Bar TO — right here on Fletcher's ground.
Now, a ranch that size needs a post office. And on May 15, 1889, one opened at the ranch headquarters. They needed a name.
So they called it Chicago. Partly in honor of Bishop's hometown back in Illinois. And partly — and this is the part I love — as a humorous reference to the sparse population of the area.
You've got to appreciate a place that names itself after one of the great cities of the world and then winks at you about it. That little post office out on the plains served other big outfits nearby, including C. C.
Slaughter's Long S ranch. Life moved slow and deliberate, the way life tends to do when the nearest city of any size is entirely fictional. Then things started shifting.
In the 1890s, Fletcher left the ranching venture. A. F.
Crowley and W. H. Godair came in as Bishop's partners.
And somewhere in all that change, a village had begun to grow up around that post office. Chicago, Texas, was becoming a real place. A man named B.
A. Oden served as OTO ranch foreman and postmaster of Chicago from 1894 to 1903, holding both jobs steady for nearly a decade. In 1904, Walter Stemmons replaced him in both positions.
And right about then, the first shadow fell across Chicago. Because when Stemmons took over, the settlement was renamed Stemmons. Just like that, Chicago disappeared in name.
But the community was still there, still breathing. That same year — 1904 — a post office opened in a brand new town called Lamesa, sitting two miles to the south. Then came 1905.
Dawson County was organized. And with organization comes one burning question: where does the county seat go? Chicago — or Stemmons, as it was called by then — entered that contest.
So did Lamesa. Lamesa won. And here is where the story takes a turn that you just could not make up.
The residents of Chicago did not grieve. They did not petition. They did not write letters to the editor.
They picked up their homes and their businesses and they moved — to Lamesa. The school moved. The Baptist church moved.
The Methodist church moved. Within days — days — the community of Chicago had disappeared. Not burned.
Not flooded. Not swept away by any act of nature or tragedy. It simply got up and left.
One of the more polite exits a town has ever made. A quarter mile north of where you're sitting right now, that's where Chicago, Texas once stood — big name, dry wit, and all. Now there's nothing there but the marker and the wind, and the memory of a town that named itself after one of the world's great cities and then quietly walked off into the history books.
What the marker says
(1/4 mi. N) W.C. Bishop of Chicago, Ill., and wealthy lumberman George N. Fletcher established the OTO (later Bar TO) ranch about 1887 on Fletcher's extensive landholdings in Dawson County. A post office was opened at the ranch headquarters on May 15, 1889, and named Chicago, both in honor of Bishop's home town and in humorous reference to the sparse population of the area. The postal facility served other large ranches in this vicinity, such as C. C. Slaughter's Long S. In the 1890s, Fletcher left the ranching venture, and A. F. Crowley and W. H. Godair became Bishop's partners. By that time, a village had begun to grow up around the post office. B. A. Oden served as OTO ranch foreman and postmaster of Chicago from 1894 to 1903. When Walter Stemmons replaced him in both positions in 1904, the settlement was renamed Stemmons. The same year, a post office was established in the new town of Lamesa, two miles south of Chicago. Dawson County was organized in 1905, and both towns entered the contest for county seat. When Lamesa won, residents of Chicago quickly relocated their homes and businesses there. The school and Baptist and Methodist churches also moved to Lamesa, within days, the community of Chicago had disappeared. (1977)