4/12/07

Border Boom Town & County Seat...Farwell, Texas

By Darla Bracken fridarla19@yahoo.com

It started in Texico. New Mexico, then, was still just a territory—it became a state in 1912. As a wide open and often lawless area, Texico, the boom town, had five saloons, three stores and one church near the beginning of the 20th Century. In 1898 when the Pecos Valley and Northern Texas Railroad was expanding their line from Amarillo through to Elida and eventually on to Albuquerque, rumor had it that the Railroad Company might locate their terminal or ‘round house’ for the Belen cutoff at Texico. That was certainly the hope of James D. Hamlin, agent for the Capitol syndicate and F.W. Wilsey, the land commissioner. The XIT had built a fence along the state line to try to help keep the cattle in and the thieves out. This area was patrolled by six Texas Rangers! Eventually, people began to mosey on over to the Texas side including Mr. Hamlin who established his offices there. [The last 39 acres of the XIT Ranchlands were sold here in 1963 by Hamlin Overstreet, James Hamlin’s nephew, although most of the land had been liquidated by December 31, 1950.]

The site was surveyed in 1905 and the 586 acres set aside for a town site was named for John V. and Charles B. Farwell, brothers from Chicago and major partners in the Capitol Syndicate which built the Texas State Capitol building in exchange for just over three million acres of land in the Panhandle of Texas. Thus a ‘twin’ boom town also developed on the Texas side. It was said by surveyor W.D. Howren of Amarillo that ‘it was necessary to burn off grass which was about 4 feet high so that the town site could be surveyed’ in 1905 and that there were antelope and blue quail present. The surveyors were camped at a place called ‘Little Joe’, a mill site just east of Farwell.

Alas, the Railroad boom never materialized for Farwell and Texico because the Pecos Valley and Northern Texas railroad, now the Sante Fe Railway Company, had done some bird dogging of their own and had purchased land near Riley’s Switch west of the area and had mapped their own town site of Clovis, New Mexico where the terminal was then located and still is there today. The twin cities, however, did continue to spring ‘up from the sod’ and soon Farwell had a three story hotel—the Farwell Inn, and several businesses including a lumber yard, a bank and a post office. The Hamlin Bricks were a series of buildings housing the land offices plus other area businesses. The R.H. Kemp Lumber Yard was one of the oldest businesses established in Farwell in 1904 according to the Farwell Times which was established in 1907. The post office was first established in Farwell December 26, 1906. Postal service was interrupted in November 1907 when the bank failed and then was reestablished January 3, 1908. O. R. Oliver’s Livery, Feed and Transfer Barn, the Farwell Ice Plant, Farwell Drug Store and the Farwell First National Bank were just some of the businesses in early Farwell. We are fortunate that there was also a photography studio in Texico—Lloyd’s. Our valuable pictorial records are the work of these early photographers.

Richard C. “Coke” Hopping was elected sheriff in 1910 and in his autobiography “A Sheriff-Ranger in Chuckwagon Days” c. 1952, he mentions that his biggest problem was cattle rustling. Seems it was just too close to the border and too handy to slip over into New Mexico away from the authorities in Texas. He chased them first on horseback and later by automobile. He and his partner Roberson had operated a grocery store, Hopping-Roberson Mercantile Company before he became sheriff. He served Parmer County in this capacity for eight years. After leaving Parmer County in 1918, he was later elected judge in Lamb County and served eight years there. James D. Hamlin, The Flamboyant Judge c. 1972, was elected Parmer County Judge in 1912, an office he held until 1924. Hamlin continued to be an influential citizen until his death in 1950; he is buried in Olivet Cemetery south of Farwell.

After the vote to move the county seat to Farwell in 1907, Hamlin made haste to see that a courthouse was established. The courthouse was first housed in the Hamlin Block on 3rd Street near where the courthouse is today. After a disastrous fire in 1913, the county voted in 1916 to build a courthouse for a budgeted cost of not more than $50,000. W.M. Rice Construction of Amarillo was awarded the contract. Our courthouse was built at a cost of $43,243.65 and was completed in 1917. Judge Hamlin served as the first county judge in the new courthouse; the first commissioners were F. W. Reeve, Frank L. Reed, F.L. Spring and F.W. McElroy. B.N. Grahams was the county clerk, Coke Hopping was the county sheriff and J.C. Temple was the justice of the peace.

Farwell’s first school was held in the old rock Congregational Church building beginning in 1907. Following that year in 1908 several portable buildings were constructed on the public school property and school was held there until 1910 when more permanent structures were built. Besides the Congregational Church, the Christian Church was also organized in 1907. Farwell had the only independent school district in the county in 1908. The State Line Tribune supplanted the Texico-Farwell Times when B. H. Fears began publishing a newspaper in 1910.

Though a challenge by Friona in 1927 failed to have the county seat relocated to Friona, then experiencing its own ‘boom’ and population growth, Parmer County continued to grow and prosper until the Dust Bowl Days as described in “The Worst Hard Time” by Timothy Egan c. 2005. With irrigation and improved management of our second most precious resource—soil, our county has continued to produce cattle and crops in generous proportions. Our dedicated farmers and ranchers have helped to manage our land and water well.

In 2000 the population of Farwell was 1,364 (Texico’s population 1,065). Border Town Days is celebrated jointly with Texico each year in July. Farwell incorporated in 1950 and built a medical clinic in 1955. They shared a fire department with Texico until 1956 when the Farwell volunteer fire department was established. The Parmer County Detention Center was completed in 2005. Today, the Parmer County Courthouse has an elevator and also houses an excellent law library open to the public during regular business hours.