DUANE
Get the App
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the voice along for the ride. Now, some men leave their mark on a place by building something tall. Jeff Williams left his mark by measuring everything flat, and friend, on the South Plains, that is no small thing.
W. J. Williams, known to just about everybody as Jeff, was born in Johnson County, Texas.
He came to Hale County in 1896, and somewhere along the way, largely on his own, he taught himself the craft of surveying. By 1902 he was doing it professionally, and Hale County had already put him to work as its official surveyor. Now here is where the story starts to sprawl out across the map, because Jeff Williams did not stay in one place long enough to gather dust.
In 1907 he took on the surveyor's post over in Potter County, and he held that one until 1915. But the job that really speaks to the scale of the man came in 1909, when he worked the resurvey of the XIT Ranch. The XIT.
If you know anything about Texas land, you know that name carries some weight. And somebody had to walk it, measure it, and set it down right. That was part of what Jeff did.
Through all of it, he was dividing ranch lands, plotting roads and townsites, solving boundary disputes, and in doing so, helping open the South Plains for settlement. In 1906 he married Ethel Williams, and together they raised four children. He returned to the Hale County surveyor's post in 1920, and he held it.
He held it all the way to 1973. From 1902 to 1906, and then again from 1920 to 1973, Jeff Williams was the man Hale County called when the lines needed to be right. The South Plains got settled.
The roads got plotted. The boundaries got settled. And a largely self-taught boy from Johnson County turned out to be the one holding the chain.
What the marker says
Born in Johnson County, Texas, Jeff Williams came to Hale County in 1896. Largely self-taught, he began surveying in 1902 and worked on the XIT Ranch resurvey of 1909. He was Potter County surveyor, 1907-15, and held the same post in Hale County, 1902-06 and 1920-73. Dividing ranch lands, plotting roads and townsites, and solving boundary disputes, Williams helped open the South Plains for settlement. He married Ethel Williams in 1906, and they had four children. Recorded - 1975