Lubbock Has a History----Part Two

Springtime moves across the Tech Campus in Lubbock.

     Lubbock County was formed as an unorganized county on August 21, 1876.  Forty-seven other Panhandle and South Plains counties were formed by the state legislature that day and Lubbock was attached, for administrative purposes, to Young, then Baylor, and finally to Crosby Counties.

     By 1880, the census of Lubbock County showed twenty-five residents, most of them sheep-herders in Yellow House Canyon.  Ten years later, in 1890, the population had grown to thirty-three full time residents, but a boom was coming later that year. Texas was offering very liberal terms to homesteaders and many had discovered that farming was possible and profitable in Lubbock County.  By late in that year, a heated race was developing for County Seat.

        County Seat was big stuff back then and two factions in Lubbock County worked toward getting their town selected.   The competition was fierce and the rewards were great.  Lots in the County Seat enjoyed large appreciation in value and small fortunes were made overnight, with the potential for more speculative profits for years to come.  One of the towns, “Old” Lubbock, rested north of the Yellow House Canyon in the vicinity of the current Lubbock Country Club.  That town contained about thirty seven buildings and around fifty people.  The other contender, Monterey, was platted south of the canyon and contained about thirty two buildings and about forty people.  A third settlement, Estacado, was located near the eastern edge of the proposed county, where Paris Cox had settled.  It was a small, not very aggressive community, and had no ambition to be the County Seat, but its citizens could vote to help select the winner.

      As the competition heated up, the developers got “high behind” and gave away lots to any settlers willing to build.  Construction continued in both towns, with lumber and other materials brought in by railroad to Amarillo or Colorado City, then shipped by wagon to Lubbock County.  Neither of the warring factions could afford to lose and the odds were too close to call.  They took a tack unheard of in that time. 

     The developers sat down together and worked out a deal.  They would pool their resources, select a third site, acquire it, and move all the buildings to the new township.  After the site was selected, acquired and surveyed, the lots would be parceled out fairly, in a checkerboard fashion, to each party who participated in the agreement.  The existing buildings in each town would be moved to the new location within thirty days, and an election to formally organize the county and name the County Seat would be scheduled as soon as practical after that.  As to travelers and other visitors not being able to find the new town, that was no problem.  It was less than ten miles from either location.  On the High Plains, you could look over there and see it.

     These folks came up with an agreement in December of 1890, and a site very near the center of the county, south of the canyon, was chosen.  The site was acquired for less than $2000.00, surveyed, parceled out, and the buildings were moved.  On March 10^th, 1891, barely three months later, the election was held and the “new” Lubbock was named County Seat.

      This incident speaks volumes about the competence and energy of those pioneers.  It also may speak a page or two about the size and complexity of their early buildings.  If my math is right, they moved sixty eight buildings and about a hundred people in just a few weeks.  They made special provisions for the only two story building—the Nicolette Hotel—to be moved within two months.  All the rest of the buildings were moved within thirty days. 

      The enlightened self-interest and the willingness to compromise as demonstrated in this early agreement permeated the actions of Lubbock’s civic leaders from that day forward.  The ability to act intelligently and decisively has defined the character of the Texan in literature and folklore for as long as there has been a Texas.  These High Plains Texans possess all the characteristic traits of the legendary Texan of folklore in a more concentrated form.  They are truly “Super Texans”.

      By the 1900 census, 293 people resided in Lubbock County.  The City of Lubbock was incorporated in 1909.  Cotton began to replace grain sorghum as the principal crop, railroads came and Lubbock County started to out-grow the neighboring counties.   Texas Technological College opened in 1925.  Meat and dairy processing plants opened.   Hospitals and hotels built high-rise buildings.   Lubbock became “The Hub of the Plains.”   

The Lubbock High School building was built for $650,000.00.  The contractoe ran out of money and finished the project out of his own pocket, in time to open for classes in the fall of 1931.

   

      The unlikely combination of city government, banking institutions and local churches all cooperated for “the good of the city”.  This spirit was established early on in the city and was passed down through the years as the best way to maintain order and insure stability.  The churches wielded a tremendous influence on the affairs of the city, perhaps more so than any other like-sized city in the country.   

       From the very first, the city of Lubbock was bone dry—no liquor stores, no beer joints, no honky-tonks, no saloons, no cocktail lounges.  If you wanted a drink, you dealt with a bootlegger or you drove about a hundred miles in any direction to a “wet” town.  Lubbock’s churches were full every Sunday and most Wednesday nights.  The churches were strong, both morally and financially. Pastors of the larger congregations were as well known and influential as any city politician, and better known than most bankers.  Every protestant belief was represented, along with Catholic and a congregation of Jews.  There was not a lot of animosity or competition between the various congregations; there were plenty of sinners to go around.  They worked together with each other and the city for what was considered the greater good.

       When I came of age, in the mid fifties, the city of Lubbock was only about sixty years old, and was already approaching a population of one hundred thousand people.  It had been among the fastest growing cities in the nation for at least thirty years.  Lubbock had been voted “Cleanest City in Texas” so often that it dropped out of the contest.  Some few failures were offset by one success after another.  The agrarian mindset; hard work, frugality, “make do with what you’ve got” mentality, combined with self reliance and optimism made anything possible.  Progressive attitudes, willingness to take risks and “outside the box” thinking all combined to make progress not only possible but inevitable. 

Modern-day Lubbock at night.  Lake in foreground most likly photoshopped.