DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the founding of Bailey County. Now settle in, because this one's got layers. Bailey County was created on August 21, 1876 — and right from the start, it was named for a man who never saw the place.
Peter James Bailey, a Kentucky lawyer, gave his name to this stretch of West Texas plains, having been killed at the Alamo during the Texas War for Independence. A man who fought and fell for a land he'd never settle. That's a particular kind of legacy.
Now, the county existed on paper in 1876, but existing on paper and existing in practice — those are two very different things out here. This was thinly settled cattle country, and for judicial purposes, Bailey County got attached to Baylor County from 1876 all the way through 1891, then handed off to Castro County from 1892 through 1918. For forty-two years, Bailey County was a name without a government.
Then, in November of 1918, Bailey County was finally organized. And when it was, somebody had to step up and run the thing. W.
M. Wilterding came in as judge. H.
A. Douglass took on the combined duties of sheriff and tax assessor-collector — a job description that required a particular kind of personality. C.
C. Mardis served as clerk, G. P.
Kuykendall as treasurer, and E. G. Hoskins held the title of inspector of hides and animals, which tells you something about what the pressing concerns of the day were.
Rounding out the roster, J. B. Diggs, T.
L. Snyder, C. E.
Dotson, and John S. McMurtry served as commissioners. On January 16, 1919, those commissioners held their very first court meeting — not in a courthouse, mind you, because there wasn't one yet — but inside the Blackwater Valley State Bank.
And right there at that first meeting, C. D. Gupton was appointed justice of the peace.
Then came the decisions that shape a county's character. On April 12, 1919, a special election designated Muleshoe as the county seat. In June of 1919, a jail cell was purchased — from neighboring Parmer County, which is the kind of practical, neighborly transaction that doesn't make for legend but absolutely makes for civilization.
And in July, a building contract was let for the first courthouse — a frame structure, erected at a cost of two thousand, four hundred and fifty dollars. From a name on a map to a courthouse on the ground, all of it built on 832 square miles of land with good water resources, shaped by pioneer settlers whose standards, the marker says, are the real reason this county's agricultural economy became what it became. Peter James Bailey never set foot here.
But the people who did made sure the name meant something.
What the marker says
Bailey County was created Aug. 21, 1876, and named for Peter James Bailey, a Kentucky lawyer killed at the Alamo during the Texas War for Independence. This was thinly settled cattle country; Bailey was attached for judicial purposes to Baylor County in 1876-1891, and to Castro County, 1892-1918. In Nov. 1918, Bailey County was finally organized. Its first officials were W. M. Wilterding, judge; H. A. Douglass, sheriff and tax assessor-collector; C. C. Mardis, clerk; G. P. Kuykendall, treasurer; E. G. Hoskins, inspector of hides and animals; J. B. Diggs, T. L. Snyder, C. E. Dotson and John S. McMurtry, commissioners. At the first meeting of the commissioners court, in Blackwater Valley State Bank on Jan. 16, 1919, C. D. Gupton was appointed justice of the peace. Muleshoe was designated county seat in a special election, April 12, 1919. A jail cell was purchased in June 1919 from neighboring Parmer County. In July a building contract was let for first courthouse -- a frame structure soon erected at a cost of $2,450. Since institution of its government, this 832 sq. mi. county, with its good water resources, has developed an outstanding agricultural economy. Its progress is a tribute to the standards of its pioneer settlers. (1968)