The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1909-12-15
A FORMER PANHANDLE EDITOR
TELLS OF TIMMs CITY WHICH
is NOW A MEMORY.
WHERE HOPE ONCE BEAT HIGH
On Railway Promises the Village
Prospered, but the Boom Didn't
last and Now It's Sits is Bleak
Waste.

spot in lipscomb county in the Tex .
as Panhandle said l. y. Drummond.
a pioneer editor of NO Mans Land. /
today, yet the hopes of men once .
beat high that on tina. spot would rise .
fl0uishng Timms city. now
q memory and one of the lost towns .
OF the southwest.
In the spring OF 1887 in company .
with George r.. Timms of Liberty. .
Mo, | look , newspaper plant to the /
north part OF the Panhandle The |
contract was that | was to edit and .
publish a newspaper to be sent into /
the wide world and convert the
hea hen into the belieI that the Pan.
handle was a much better country
than the one where the said heather
ivcd, no matter where that country
nigh, be. Mr.. Timmss work was to
be- to furnish the means to push the
enterprise, and the object In view
was build a town.
when we got to the place where
the newspaper was TO be printed, |
| found no town eXcep, large sod
/ house which had been built by Mr.
/ Timm's men. This SOD house was
used as a boarding house. and the
cooking was done by an ola woman
and her daughter, who. with son of
the old woman. had just arrived from
Tennessee. The daughter was the
only unmarried woman within many
miles, and as there were thirty-four
old bachelors and widowers there,
who nearly all wanted board az the
sod house, this made things lively for
the young woman.
The first lumber taken to the site
of the new town was hauled from
Woodward in the Cherokee Strip
eigh'y-siX miles, but by the middle
of June the railroad delivered um.
ber at Higgins. about forty miles
from the proposed new town. As
soon as the first house--a large
double store building-was inclosed,
set up the printing outfit in one
corner of one of the rooms and began
O print and publish a G.column folio
newspaper by this time the people
began to get enthusiastic; mass
meeting was held and by unanimous
yOt, the future city was christened
"rimms city in honor Of the proprie-
tor of the towusi'c.
Everything had been booming from
1851 to 1856. The spring and summer
Of 1887 promised great things. Rail
road building in the southwest never
before nor since looked so promising.
The Santa Fe was building from
Kiowa, Kan, southwest through the
Cherokee strip. The Rock Island
had built southwest from Heringron,
Kan, and in the fan OF 1857 the line
was completed to Liberal. Kan, right
on the border of No Mans Land
This line was TO run southwest
through NO Mans Land on the line
which was completed two or three
years ago The Frisco and the Tn
ion Pacific We're also building lines
along in the same general direction,
ana did complete their roads as far
as the west line OF Kiowa county,
Kansas.
1T was noticeable in the spring OF
1855 that the railroads were not push.
ing out as fast as the people thought
they should. The Rock Island had
stopped at Liberal on the edge of
40 Mans Land, which by this time
had been named the Neutral strip
The Santa Fc apparently had struck
a stump at Englewood and couldn't
get any further. The Kiowa branch
OF the Santa Fc had done better;
had got down into the third county
In the Panhandle We had no rail
roads yet, and the prospects getting
less every day
I'm the winter OF lSNS and 1889
Kansas lands and Kansas town lots
took % great tumble and people be.
gan talking of going back east. II
wasn't much better in the east, but
they thought IL was. Anyway. what
was the use of staying where there
VAS nothing doing and that nothing
fast becoming less? The exodus left
MS no srcl. number OF subscribers
and under the circumstances We
couldn't induce any new settlers to
com" there, so the Texas Tribune
Of Timms city ceased to exist. Mr..
Timms sold the material to persons
in Kansas, sold his holdings at ',he