DUANE
Duane's take
Now, I'm tellin' this one straight from the official marker — so let's talk about a town that had to be born twice before it stuck. In 1890, out on the Texas South Plains, Lubbock County needed a county seat. Three factions wanted to be the ones to plant that flag, and they were not shy about it.
W.D. Crump, W.E. Rayner, and Frank Wheelock each had their own vision, their own backers, and their own ambitions.
Now, here's the twist that makes this story a little different from every other county seat war in Texas history — and there were plenty of those — none of these men had a long-established town to fight over. Their main interest was in organizin' the county itself. They were building from scratch, on open ground, and they were still itching for a fight.
In the course of the rivalry, the groups founded not one but two settlements. The Crump faction, later joined by the Wheelock group and several financial backers, staked out a site they called Old Lubbock. It sat north of Yellow House Canyon, which earned it the nickname North Town.
The ground it occupied was section 7, block A — bounded by what are now Quirt, Ash, Erskine, and Kent streets. Before long, the place had a population of around 50 souls and a reported 37 buildings going up. Among them stood what the marker calls the most historic building in the county: the Nicolett Hotel.
Meanwhile, down south of the canyon, Rayner's faction was building their own answer. They called it Monterey, though folks around there just called it South Town. Two settlements.
One county. And the kind of tension that, in most of Texas, curdled into something permanent and ugly. But here's where the story turns.
On December 19, 1890, something happened that was called unique in West Texas history — and that is not a phrase you throw around lightly in a land full of hard men and harder grudges. The factions came together. They reached a compromise.
North Town, South Town, all that rivalry — set aside. And as a result of that compromise, the city of Lubbock was founded on the site where it stands to this day. Old Lubbock, right here at this spot, didn't survive.
But what came out of its rivalry did. Sometimes the place that wins isn't the one that fought the hardest — it's the one that got everybody to finally stop.
What the marker says
A predecessor of present Lubbock, this area was, in 1890, a subject of heated dispute by three factions (led by W.D. Crump, W.E. Rayner, and Frank Wheelock) that vied in the founding of the county seat. Unlike most county seat debaters in Texas, though, these men had no long-established towns to support. Their main interest was in organizing the county. In the course of the rivalry, the groups founded two settlements. The Crump faction, later joined by the Wheelock group and several financial backers, started "Old Lubbock" at this site. Called "North Town" because it was located north of Yellow House Canyon, the site took in section 7, block A, bounded by the present streets of Quirt, Ash, Erskine, and Kent. The site soon attained a population of about 50 and boasted a reported 37 buildings, including the most historic one in the county: the Nicolett Hotel. Rayner's rival settlement south of the canyon was named "Monterey" and was popularly called "South Town". Surprisingly, though, the factions did not reach the permanent hostility common to such disputes. On December 19, 1890, they united in a compromise unique in West Texas history; and as a result, the city of Lubbock was founded on the site where it now stands. (1968)