Whiteflat

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it right along to you. Way out in Motley County, there's a stretch of flat prairie that once held a whole world in it. The name that world went by was Whiteflat, and that name came straight from what you'd have seen if you'd ridden through: tall white needlegrass, spread out across the land as far as the eye could carry.

In 1890, a man named W. R. Tilson made a request, and just like that, Whiteflat had itself a post office.

A settlement was putting down roots. That same year, volunteers (neighbors working side by side) built a one-room schoolhouse, and the Whiteflat School opened its doors. Now when a community is finding its stride, things tend to multiply.

And Whiteflat found its stride. At its height, this little spot on the Texas map was running four grocery stores, three service stations, three garages, two cafes, a hardware store, two cotton gins, and three churches. Three churches.

That's a town with opinions and convictions both. By 1908, that original one-room schoolhouse had been replaced by a four-room building; the children of Whiteflat had outgrown their first home. Then in 1922, something that must have made the whole community stand a little straighter: a new two-story brick structure went up.

A real school. The kind that says we're staying. It wasn't just a school, either; it served as the gathering place for the whole community.

But here's where the road bends, friend. Whiteflat's economy ran on agriculture, on small family farms, on the kind of work that depends on rain and reasonable skies. And then came the 1930s (the Depression and the dust bowl years) and that ground started shifting under everybody's feet.

The decline set in slow, the way those things do, and then it didn't stop. The Whiteflat School closed in 1946, consolidated into the Matador Schools. The churches disbanded in the 1960s.

The post office held on; held on through everything; until 1966, when it closed following the death of the last postmaster, a woman named Ida Morris. And the last remaining retail business, a grocery store and service station, closed in 1968. What had once been four grocers and three garages and two cafes came down, in the end, to one store.

And then none. The tall white needlegrass had covered that flat prairie long before W. R.

Tilson ever made his request. After 1968, the land had a little more quiet to grow in again.

What the marker says

This area of Motley County was first called "Whiteflat" due to the tall white needlegrass which covered the flat prairie land. A post office, named Whiteflat, was established for the rural settlement in 1890 at the request of W. R. Tilson. At its height, the community boasted four grocery stores, three service stations, three garages, two cafes, a hardware store, two gins, and three churches. A school, first housed in a one-room schoolhouse built by volunteers, opened in 1890. It was replaced by a four-room school in 1908, and in 1922 a new two-story brick structure was erected. It also served as a community gathering place. Dependent on an economy based on agriculture and small family farms, the community began to decline as a result of the Depression and dust bowl years of the 1930s. The Whiteflat School closed in 1946, when it was consolidated with Matador Schools. The local churches disbanded in the 1960s; the post office closed in 1966 following the death of the last postmaster, Ida Morris; and the last remaining retail business, a grocery store and service station, closed in 1968. (1991)