3/29/07
Parmerton - More than just a switch
By Darla Bracken fridarla19@yahoo.com
The townsite of Parmerton is the highest elevation in our county at 4,202 and has been called Parmerton “Hill”. It is also very near the exact center of the county. It began, as did all of our towns, as passing switches on the Pecos Valley and Northern Texas Railroad in1898 when the railroad was built to connect Amarillo with Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was designated the county seat when the county was organized in an election in May 1907. Our first judge, sheriff and commissioners were elected at that time also even though there were still very few people in the county at that time. W.L. Townsen, a former Texas Ranger, was the first county judge. E.T. Stevens was the first sheriff and tax collector. J.F. McKay served as our first county and district clerk while Norman Wilson served as county treasurer. The first County tax assessor was J.B. McMinn. The first taxes levied were for property owned since Jan. 1, 1906 and were 10 cents per $100 valuation, except in District 9 where taxes were 20 cents per $100 valuation. A poll tax of 25 cents per year was levied on all males 21 to 60 years of age. ‘Special occupation’ taxes were set equal to one-half the sum levied by the state of Texas.
Can’t you just feel the excitement they must have felt at their being the first people in a new place? Everything was ahead of them and the future looked very bright. The Parmerton townsite Company had purchased 200 acres from the Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Company and J.S. McClearey had filed the mapped survey of the townsite on May 11, 1907 with Deaf Smith County officials. Parmer and Deaf Smith were originally under Oldham County which was part of the gigantic Bexar District of Texas. Officers of the Parmerton townsite were Wallace Good, President, Norman Wilson, Vice-President and W.L. Townsen, Secretary. The streets running north and south in the new prairie town were named for Texas heroes: Austin, Travis, Crockett, Bowie, Houston, Ross, Cabel, Reagan and Mills. Parmerton Plat was laid out in a public or town square design, the only one of our towns to be so designed. It had 74 blocks with 1st through 11th streets running east and west. Most towns are designed around a main street not a town square although the main street design can accommodate space for a courthouse also.
Parmerton was also the site of the Model Farm established by the Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Company of Chicago which tested the Campbell Dry Farming method. This method, overseen by B.H. Campbell the farm manager, consisted of deep plowing to a depth of 12 inches and then packing the subsoil at the base of the furrow with packer wheels to try to hold what natural moisture did fall according to Frank Hastings. These wheels were known as camel packers. A lush wheat crop was harvested using this method in 1906. This was all way before any irrigation took place although another experiment with fruit trees near Black was also done.
County Officials elected in May of 1907 and having received ‘a majority of vote’ included as aforementioned: County Judge-W.L. Townsen, a multiple hat wearer in the new county; Sheriff and Tax Collector–E. T. Stevens; County & District Clerk—J.F. McKay and Tax Assessor—J. B. McMinn. County Judges were W.P. McMinn, Precinct 1; C.W. Arthur, Precinct 2; Norman Wilson, Precinct 3; and J.F. rush, Precinct 4. County Commissioners elected were W.P. McMinn Precinct 1; F.L. Spring, Precinct 2; Tom Hoghland, Precinct 3 and C.A. Woodford, Precinct 4. It was during this same election ‘having received a majority vote’ that Parmerton was officially named the county seat.
A Post Office was established on September 14, 1907 with William Lyles ‘Uncle Bill’ Townsen as postmaster (Ex. many hats—he also owned and operated the Bovina Hotel). It operated until August 15, 1908. A temporary courthouse building 28 by 30 feet was built to house our first courthouse and the post office was also housed in this building. In October, the order came to build a new courthouse building: a one story 30 feet by 40 feet structure at a cost of $1,380 plus an adobe vault which was to cost no more than $360. A cook shack to serve residents and those passing through was across the road from the courthouse.
The first marriage license issued in Parmer County was to Henry Curtis and Grace Haynes who were married at the Farwell Inn March 1, 1908. According to Mr. Curtis in an interview with Hugh Moseley in 1970, he remembered riding the train to Parmerton to get the license and that it was some distance about a quarter mile from the railroad to walk to the courthouse in the tall grass. The tracks were moved 121 feet further south in 1909.
Parmerton’s fame as the county seat was short-lived when Bovina businessmen began to worry that nothing would develop there since Farwell, although a border town, was already established. The movement to change the location was on and in December 1907 another election was held to determine where the courthouse should be. The results were:
Precinct___Voting For Parmerton_____ For Friona____ For Farwell
1 ______________4___________________ 0_____________ 0
2______________1____________________1_____________11
3______________9____________________0_____________ 0
4______________12___________________ 0____________ 15
5______________0____________________ 0____________ 67
6______________0____________________ 0_____________ 6
Totals _________26___________________ 1____________ 99
Approximately 5 months later in May 1907, the records were move to the ‘Hamlin Brick’ in Farwell as the first marriage license was issued to W. H. Butler and Mrs. Sallie Cress on May 9, 1908. The first commissioner’s court meeting was held in the Hamlin Brick location on Monday, May 11, 1908. Evidently, not only the records but also, the people, the buildings—everything was moved. The temporary courthouse building was moved into Friona on the west side of main (in the space between where Suds ‘n Scissors and Unique Image beauty shops now stand.) It was Dr.Rohrbaugh’s drug store, the first home of the First Baptist Church and Scott Wier’s Used Furniture store which burned down in 1957 killing one—a sad end to the historic building. The Hamlin Brick was also destroyed by fire in 1913 and the current courthouse was constructed in 1916 at a cost of some $43,000.