DUANE
Duane's take
The marker tells it this way, and I'm just the man passin' it along. Now, the Panhandle will humble you if you let it. Wide, flat, wind-scraped country that doesn't apologize for a thing.
And into that country, in 1886, came three brothers — Walter Franklin Simms, born in 1869, George Leonard, born in 1875, and Dormer D., born in 1884. They moved to Texas that year, and by the early 1900s they'd settled themselves right here in Carson County. They weren't the first ones out here, not by a long shot.
In the 1870s, hunters, soldiers, and others had already moved through this land — clearing it, as the marker puts it, of buffalo and hostile Indians — and the early ranchers had followed, running cattle on state-owned range. But here's the thing about those early ranchers: they didn't own the land. The Simms brothers did something different.
They bought their land. And then they worked to pay for it. Now, the Panhandle has a way of testing a man's patience, and drought was never far off.
To tide themselves over in the dry years, settlers like the Simms brothers sold buffalo bones — the great scattered remnants of those vanished herds — and earned bounties for wolf scalps. You do what the land demands. But nothing the marker records quite captures the sheer stubbornness of what these men did in the winter of 1905 to 1906.
The Simms Brothers took mule-drawn plows, pointed them northeast, and walked — on foot, behind mules, in a Panhandle winter — from Washburn, eighteen miles to the southwest, all the way to Higgins, one hundred fifteen point four miles to the northeast. They were constructing a four-furrow railway fireguard, a long straight scar in the earth meant to stop the kind of fires that could swallow a county whole. And they weren't alone.
Jim Calhoun and John Sterling were in that crew. And there was John Sparks — an early local teacher, and a Simms brother-in-law — who worked alongside them every day. Every night, when the mules were rested and the cold had settled in good, Sparks led the group in gospel singing around the campfire.
A hundred and fifteen miles of hard prairie, and somewhere out in the middle of all that open nothing, men singing hymns by firelight. I'll let that sit a moment. The family land held.
Frank Simms married Minnie Pugh Williams. George married Alice Jane King. Dormer married Gertrude Talbot.
The roots went down deep. Years later, oil and industry brought great prosperity to the region — and by the time this story was being told, a fourth generation was living on that same land the brothers had bought and plowed and paid for. Permanent citizens, forgers of local civilization — that's what the marker calls them.
Not the first ones here. Just the ones who stayed, bought the ground beneath their feet, and walked a hundred and fifteen miles to protect it. That's a particular kind of Texas arithmetic, and it adds up just fine.
What the marker says
Permanent citizens, forgers of local civilization. Walter Franklin (1869-1963), George Leonard (born 1875) and Dormer D. Simms (born 1884) moved to Texas in 1886 and to this county in the early 1900's. They arrived later than visiting hunters, soldiers and others who in the 1870's cleared this land of buffalo and hostile Indians, and started ranching. But unlike the early ranchers who ran cattle on state-owned range, these pioneers bought land and worked to pay for it. (To tide them over drouths, such settlers sold buffalo bones and earned bounties for wolf-scalps.) In the 1905-1906 winter, the Simms Brothers used mule-drawn plows and walked from Washburn (18 mi. SW) to Higgins (115.4 mi. NE), constructing a 4-furrow railway fireguard. John Sparks, an early local teacher and a Simms brother-in-law, worked with them and led the group in gospel singing at nightly campfires. Also in the crew were Jim Calhoun and John Sterling. Family land ownership was preserved. Years later, oil and industry brought great prosperity to this region. A fourth generation now lives on the land. Frank Simms married Minnie Pugh Williams; George married Alice Jane King; and Dormer married Gertrude Talbot. Descendants are leaders in Texas business.