DUANE
Duane's take
Here's what the marker out here in Randall County has to say, and I'll do my best to tell it right. Now, way back in 1891, the Hugh Currie family built themselves a home out on the rolling plains of the Texas Panhandle. They called it Happy Hollow.
And for a good long while, that one house — just that one — was the only structure standing along the entire Amarillo-to-Tulia freight and stage lines. Think about that. You're a settler, you're a freighter, you're rattling across that wide open country in a wagon, and the only roof you're going to see for miles and miles belongs to the Currie family.
Settlers came to Happy Hollow to get their mail. They came for freight. It was the spot on the map, even when the map barely had anything else on it.
Now, when the U.S. Postal Department decided to put a proper post office out here, they looked at that name — Happy Hollow — and, well, the government being what it is, they trimmed it down. Cut it clean to just Happy.
That's what it became. And then 1906 rolled around, and the Santa Fe Line came through — two miles to the west of here. So the town of Happy picked itself up and moved.
Two miles west, to meet the railroad. Just like that. Happy Hollow stood its ground here for years, the lonesome anchor of the whole stretch between Amarillo and Tulia, and then the future called from a slightly different direction.
That's the Panhandle for you — blink, and the town's moved.
What the marker says
The Hugh Currie family home, "Happy Hollow" (built 1891, near this site), was for many years only house on Amarillo-Tulia freight and stage lines. Settlers got mail and freight here. The U.S. Postal Department cut name to "Happy" for the post office. The town moved (2 miles west) to Santa Fe Line, 1906. (1973)