Winters

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Winters, Texas, out in Runnels County. Now, some towns are born with a plan. Streets laid out in a tidy grid, lots numbered, the whole future mapped before a single nail gets driven.

Winters, Texas, never got that memo, and honestly, that might be exactly why it's still standing. This is a town that grew the way the land itself demanded, and that story starts, as so many do, with two families and a piece of west central Texas prairie. Back in the 1880s, the Currys and the Bells staked claim to land one mile southeast of where the present-day town sits.

Frontier country, wide open, the kind of place that asks more of you than it gives, at least at first. Then in 1889, a schoolhouse went up on land given by a land agent named J.N. Winters.

Now the community needed a name, so they gathered in that very schoolhouse and put it to a vote. Winters won. Already the place had cattle, feed production, cotton coming up strong.

By the first decade of the twentieth century, Winters was doing what small settlement communities on the west central Texas prairie did: working, growing, surviving. Then came the railroad talk. In 1907, residents started lobbying hard for a rail line between Abilene and Ballinger.

Two years later, by 1909, the railway reached Winters. That railway, paired with the rise of blacktop roads and the automobile, ushered in an era of prosperity and expansion. The town never did get that planned grid, no tidy streets numbered out from some surveyor's dream.

Instead, Winters grew in response to agriculture, petroleum exploration, manufacturing, transportation. It followed the work. And the work kept changing.

In 1918, the C.L. Green Milling and Grain Co. was established, handling all types of feeds for customers. Then in 1949, Winters benefited in particular from the findings of the Cree-Sykes Oil Field and the Fort Chadbourn Oil Field.

Oil and gas extraction, the marker tells us, continues to contribute to the local economy right on into the present. A hundred and twenty-five years in, the community is still progressing, still economically viable. No grand design.

No surveyor's perfect grid. Just two families, a schoolhouse vote, a railroad lobby, a milling company, and the patience to grow however the land and the times required. That, right there, is Winters.

What the marker says

WINTERS From its beginning as a west central Texas frontier community winters grew from a retail support center for the surrounding agricultural community to a small-town railroad link to an oil, gas and manufacturing center. Settlement of the area of Winters began in the 1880s when two families, the Currys and the Bells, staked claim to the land one mile southeast of the present-day town. In 1889, a small schoolhouse was built on land that was given by land agent J.N. Winters. The community met in the completed schoolhouse to vote on the town name and Winters won. Winters already had significant cattle and feed production, and cotton added to their growing economy. By the first decade of the 20th century, winters was typical of small settlement communities on the west central Texas prairie. In 1907, residents lobbied to construct a railroad between Abilene and Ballinger. By 1909, the railway reached Winters. This railway, along with the rise of blacktop roads and the automobile, ushered in an era of prosperity and expansion for Winters. In 1949, Winters benefited in particular from the findings of the Cree-Sykes Oil Field and Fort Chadbourn Oil Field. Oil and gas extraction continues to contribute to the local economy. Another Winters industry was the C.L. Green Milling and Grain Co. established in 1918, the business handled all types of feeds for customers. Unlike other railroad towns, the city of Winters was never laid out on a planned grid, but instead grew in response to the importance of agriculture, petroleum exploration, manufacturing and transportation. After 125 years, the community is still progressing and is economically viable. (2014)