Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-08
STAKED PLAINS.
The Panhandle and its GrOwth-Ciaude
To be the County Seat
of Armstrong.
PrOsgectors so Well Pleased With the Country
That They are Rapidy Making In
yestmpnts and Locating.

CLAUDE, ION Che staked PIains). TEX,
March 4, 1880.
TO the Gazette
AS the irrepresslble John Howard ''of and
for Texas used to say, ''the earth do move, -
and the Panhandle of Texas is moving faster
than any other part OF the world at the present
writing
This little town of Claude consisted six
months ago of two houses, no depot, and about
a dozen men, women and children. To-day
there is z good passenger and freight depot, tel
egraph office, about seventy-tive houses, four or
five new ones starting every day, and many
others ready to go up rs soon as lumber and car
Peuters can be procured.
What has caused this excitement? The an
swe- is sImpl and reasonable:
Claude is to be declared the county seat of this
ARMSTRONG county next Saturday, the Sth of
March. OF this being the result there can be no
question, as the people OF Washburn. which
was the only rival Claude had In the county seat
race. have withdrawn from the race in favor OF
Claude. This will make Claude the county seat
town Of what is without doubt the finest agri-
cultural county in the Panhandle. Claude is
the Gate City being the first town on the
Fort Worth an. Denver railroad after she
Cends onto that vast body of very fertile land
called the ''Staked Plains
The county is well settled with good class oil
farmers, who are breaking ground as fast as
men and teams can break IL, and Will plant
large acreage of all kinds Of small grain, as the
results shown the newcomers by those who
have farued here for year or two are very en-
COuraging. They show corn. wheat, rye and al
most anything else adapted TO this climate.
Mr.. George -yng, the receiver OF the old
Franklin Land nd Cattle company. who own
several hundred thousand acres ~ land in Car
son, Gray and Al mstrong counties, all on these
plains, told the writer that the l36 acres OF
wheat and rye at his headquarter farm looked
finer than any he had ever seen before at this
season of The year. Last wear he saw one plant
Of wheat on which were i26 good sized heads.
r faH h MIN md hs-rr Tn a
Their pasture 10 the Home Lani and Cattle
company. Last year n sold the wheat ana rye
he grew 10 this Gait company for fodder. Il
averaged three tons to the acre, and SOLD Tor -
a [ Il; ana this Is he Staked Plains country OF
which so many have such poor opinion,
but this idea is fast passing away and before
long viii b thing OF the past, as IL tn, Sc who
see i once are delighted both with the soil and
Innate; they settle and waite for their families
Another ,eason why this town is having such
tremendous boom Is the fact of such men as
ley III Central America and atteTward came TO
Texas with M. MessTs. Curtis, Green, Watt
son. Grant Westmoreland, SeteTly and Others
OF Vernon are largely Interested here. These
men are al men of veal and did much to make
Nern n what she Is to-day, and have
p lifted by her growth. They came here and
the in meme body of wonderfully fertile
soil which was tributary TO Claude, concluded to
build town which would rival Vernon in short
time. an it is safe to predict that they viii
-Four surveyors are in town to-daT, pla ting as
many az 6Itions. New men arrive each day for
the purpose OF going in business.
4 road VIII at once be surveyed south, so that
the me chsnts of C.aude may cater for the trade
Of Brisco, Swisher. Hale, Floyd, Lubbock and
Crosby counties.
The Goodnight addition. OF which Charles
Goodnig i president, E. II. Trice. the foun-
der OF IL hourishi lit e sity, is Vice-presi-
Cent and Charles PetersCn general manager,
sod So, &C. wort of lots in their addition last
week. Most OF the lois sold Will be improved at
once, 4 number of them having been sold 10
wealthy st Texas gentlemen who will erect
summer residences, the climate of these plains
being so extremely delightful during the heat OF
summer.
Gel. Dabbs the well known Sulphur Springs
banker has purchased one hundred acres near
tewn. which are being laid Of into lots
81. J. Lysart. one OF the sold farmers and