Landmarks

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History of Swisher County

Swisher County was formed from Young and Bexar territories August 21, 1876 and organized July 17, 1890. It was named in honor of James Gibson SWISHER (1794-1864). Neither James nor his family had ever lived in the territory which became Swisher County.

A monument at the Swisher County Courthouse says he was “conspicuous for gallantry at the storming of Bexar, 1835, Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, 1836.”

At the Swisher County Museum, there is a photograph of a man who is said to be James Gibson Swisher, however, some years ago, a man brought in a pamphlet to the museum claiming that photograph is NOT James Gibson Swisher. The pamphlet contained the following photograph with the caption “James Gibson Swisher, for whom Swisher County was named.”

The county seat is Tulia, Texas.

Click on photo to read the marker.

From The Handbook Of Texas Online
The Handbook of Texas Online is a joint project of The General Libraries at the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas State Historical Association.

SWISHER COUNTY. Swisher County is in the transition area between the South Plains and the Panhandle, bordered on the east by Briscoe County, on the south by Hale and Floyd counties, on the west by Castro County, and on the north by Randall and Armstrong counties. The center of the county lies at 34°33′ north latitude and 100°47′ west longitude. Tulia, the county seat, is near the center of the county, seventy miles north of Lubbock and forty-five miles south of Amarillo. The area was named for James Gibson Swisher, a veteran of the Texas Revolution. Swisher County occupies 896 square miles of level plains broken only by Tule Creek and its three branches, North, Middle, and South Tule draws. These intermittent streams have no appreciable effect on the terrain until they converge into Tule Creek in the eastern part of the county.  In the 1940s North Tule Draw was dammed to impound a small earthen reservoir; in 1974 Mackenzie Dam was completed on Tule Creek in the eastern part of the county, and Mackenzie Reservoir began to form. This lake, made to provide a municipal water supply for Silverton, Lockney, Tulia, and Floydada, became a major recreational facility as well. The soils of Swisher County range from alluvial silts to sandy types mixed with disintegrated rock to form an easily worked earth rich in humus. This soil supports an abundant variety of native grasses as well as wheat, corn, grain sorghum, and cotton crops. The county ranges in elevation from 3,000 to 3,600 feet above sea level, averages 18.94 inches of rain per year, and has an annual growing season averaging 205 days. The average minimum temperature is 24° F in January, and the average maximum is 93° in July. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Texas, -23° F, occurred in Tulia on February 12, 1899.

The area that is now Swisher County was long the homeland of Apachean cultures, who were displaced by the more warlike Comanches by around 1700. The Comanches ruled the High Plainsqv until they were crushed by the United States Army in the Red River War of 1874. During this war army troops crisscrossed Swisher County in pursuit of the Comanches, but no significant combat occurred in the county. However, after the battle of Palo Duro Canyonqv in late September 1874, the power of the Comanches was broken, and by the mid-1870s buffalo hunters were in the county exterminating the herds. In 1876 the Texas state legislature carved Swisher County from lands previously assigned to the Young and Bexar districts. In 1880 four people were reported living in the area. Ranching came to the county as the buffalo were eliminated. Swisher County remained largely unsettled until the JA Ranch of Charles Goodnight expanded into the county in 1883. This activity led to Goodnight’s Tule Ranch, which occupied the entire eastern part of the county. By the late 1880s the scattered residents of the county perceived a need for a local government, and a petition for organization was circulated in June 1890. An election held on July 17 formally organized the county with Tulia, a tiny settlement, chosen as county seat. Swisher County remained wholly a ranching county almost until the beginning of the twentieth century; as late as 1890 there were only 535 “improved” acres on the county’s seventeen ranches, and only 100 people lived in the area. By the late 1890s, however, a trickle of settlers began to take up school lands and begin stock-farming operations. The availability of good underground water at shallow depths meant that windmills could make any stock-farmer successful. By 1900 there were 186 ranches and farms in the area, and the population had increased to 1,227. More than 34,000 cattle were reported in the county that year. Few crops were grown in the area at that time—only twenty-five acres were planted in cotton—but farming grew steadily during the early twentieth century, especially after the introduction of rail service to the area. A Santa Fe Railroad branch line from Amarillo reached Swisher County in 1906 and later connected the county to Plainview in Hale County. When the line was completed to Lubbock in 1910, Tulia and Swisher County were on a major north-south rail line. Railroad construction also led to the establishment of two Swisher County towns, Happy and Kress, which became new population centers on the railroad.

By tying the area to national markets and easing immigration, the new railroad encouraged economic development. By 1910 there were 510 farms and ranches in the county, and crop farming had become firmly established; almost 11,000 acres of sorghum, 2,700 acres of corn, and 4,200 acres of wheat was planted that year. By 1920, when there were 572 farms and ranches, 60,000 acres was planted in wheat, the county’s most important crop, and 35,000 acres was devoted to sorghum. Poultry raising was also becoming a significant facet of the local economy. More than 44,000 chickens were reported in 1920, and local farmers sold 178,500 eggs. Meanwhile, cattle had declined both in numbers and in relative importance; about 26,200 cattle were reported that year. The county population grew from 4,012 in 1910 to 4,388 in 1920. These trends continued into the 1920s. While the number of cattle in the county declined to 20,600 between 1920 and 1930, the number of acres under cultivation tripled. By 1930, 194,000 acres was planted in wheat, still the biggest crop; production of sorghum, cotton, and other crops also expanded. By 1930 there were 1,021 farms and ranches in the county, and the population had increased to 7,343. As the economy and population grew, so did the need for a useful road system. This was especially true after the automobile proved itself in the years before World War I. Until nearly 1920 roads in Swisher County consisted of crude paths scraped in the earth. In 1920 the Ozark Trail, a highway network from Arkansas and Missouri through Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas, to New Mexico, came to the plains of Texas. Collingsworth, Childress, Hall, Briscoe, Swisher, Castro, and Parmer counties, along with Curry and Roosevelt counties in New Mexico, cooperated in raising $10,000 in 1920 to erect markers along already existing roads to mark the Ozark Trail from Oklahoma across Texas to New Mexico. The trail, made up of graded and “improved” roads in Texas, eventually evolved into a sophisticated road network. By the mid-1920s Tulia was linked to Nazareth, Dimmitt, and Bovina by State Highway 86, to Canyon and Amarillo by U.S. Highway 385 (now U.S. 87 or Interstate Highway 27), to Silverton by State Highway 80, and to Plainview and Lubbock by U.S. 385. The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s dealt harshly with plains agriculture. Cropland harvested in Swisher County dropped from 268,000 acres in 1930 to 195,000 acres by 1940; wheat production declined significantly, dropping to 113,000 acres. The population dropped to only 6,528 by 1940. The effects of the depression were somewhat alleviated by road work, which provided jobs and improved the county’s road network; these improvements continued into the 1940s. The stimulus of World War II demand and, particularly, the development of large-scale irrigation in the area, led to the revival of the county’s economy. The first successful extensive local use of underground water from the Ogallala formation came in 1936. After World War II this activity increased dramatically; by the 1980s over 225,000 acres in Swisher County were irrigated.

During the late 1950s and 1960s many feedlot operations were established to utilize the county’s abundant grain crops and to diversify the local agricultural economy. A comprehensive network of paved farm roads was also constructed during this period to replace the old dirt trails that led from farm to farm. As a result of the agricultural development in the immediate post-war era, the population of the county rose to 8,249 by 1950 and to 10,607 in 1960. Increased mechanization and agricultural consolidation later led to a continuing decline in the population, however, from 10,373 residents in 1970 to 9,723 in 1980 and to 8,133 in 1990. The census counted 8,378 people living in the county in 2000. By the 1990s Swisher County had developed an agricultural economy based on a mix of cotton, wheat, grain sorghum, corn, oats, barley, and soybean production, balanced by cattle, hog, and sheep raising, especially in feedlots. The county produced $150 million per year in agricultural commodities in the early 1980s, with 60 percent of this income from animal raising and finishing in the county’s feedlots. Over 400,000 acres of the county (70 percent) was cultivated in the 1980s, making Swisher County one of the state’s most heavily farmed areas. In 2002 the county had 578 farms and ranches covering 566,429 acres, 69 percent of which were devoted to crops and 30 percent to pasture. In that year farmers and ranchers in the area earned $296,789,000; livestock sales accounted for $265,586,000 of the total. Stocker cattle and feedlots produced most of the county’s agricultural income; crops, including cotton, corn, wheat, and sorghum, were also raised. During the 1980s U.S. 87 was rebuilt as Interstate 27 from Lubbock to Amarillo, and this vital transportation link serves Tulia. In national politics, a majority of the voters of Swisher County supported the Democratic candidate in almost every presidential election between 1892 and 1988. The only exceptions occurred in 1928, when they supported Republican Herbert Hoover; in 1952, when they supported Dwight D. Eisenhower; and in 1972, when the county went to Richard Nixon. In 1992, a plurality of voters supported Democrat Bill Clinton over Republican George Bush and the independent candidate, Ross Perot. After 1996, when Republican Bob Dole won a plurality of the county’s votes, however, the area began to trend more consistently Republican. George W. Bush won solid majorities in the county in 2000 and 2004. The population of the county is concentrated mostly in the small towns, which include Tulia (2000 population, 5,117), the county seat; Happy (647, partly in Randall County); Kress (826); Claytonville (116), and Vigo Park (31). The remainder of the population resides on farms and ranches.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Grace Moran Evans, Swisher County History (Wichita Falls: Nortex, 1977). Swisher County Historical Commission, Windmilling: 101 Years of Swisher County History (Dallas: Taylor, 1978).

Donald R. Abbe and John Leffler

More Coming Soon

Historical Markers, Buildings & Sites

 

Historical &
Memorial Marker Photos

Marker Title: Elm Tree Inn

Marker Location: 200 West Broadway

City: Tulia

County: Swisher

Year Marker Erected: 1962

Designations: Recorded Texas Historic Landmark

Marker Size: Medallion Only

Marker Title: First Baptist Church of Claytonville

Marker Location: SH 146, about .4 mi. W of Claytonville

City: Claytonville

County: Swisher

Year Marker Erected: 1975

Marker Text: Organized as New Hope Baptist Church of Christ
in 1891, this congregation changed its name in 1912 to Whitfield
Baptist Church. It acquired a good church plant, a parsonage,
and a cabin site at Plains Baptist Assembly Grounds. Steps
began in 1960 to relocate on the paved highway in this new
business community growing up around the cotton gin built
in the 1950s by M. C. Clayton (1899-1963). The new church
building — first in the town — was erected in 1962-63.
The present name was adopted in 1964. Peak membership for
the congregation has been 206. (1975)Marker Title: First Methodist Church of Tulia

Marker Location: 119 N. Briscoe St.

City: Tulia

County: Swisher

Year Marker Erected: 1991

Marker Text: The Reverend R. M. Morris, area presiding elder
Jerome Harelson, and seventeen charter members organized
this congregation in 1891. Early worship services, held
on alternate Sundays in conjunction with the local Baptist
and Presbyterian congregations, were conducted in the town’s
one-room schoolhouse.  With financial and labor assistance
from the entire community, the Methodists built the town’s
first church building in 1897 with lumber hauled from Amarillo.
The tradition of shared services continued, and the
Baptist and Presbyterian congregations also worshiped in
the Methodist church building until their own facilities
were built. Church membership grew steadily, closely paralleling
Tulia’s population growth. A new sanctuary was completed
in 1929, and by the early 1960s additional facilities were
required to meet the congregation’s needs. After a denominational
name change in 1968, it became known as First United Methodist
Church. In 1979, the congregation welcomed the membership
of Trinity United Methodist Church in a merger of the two
congregations. First United Church continues to serve the
citizens of Tulia with a variety of worship, educational,
and outreach programs. (1991)Marker Title: First United Methodist Church of Happy

Marker Location: 114 N. Floyd Ave.

City: Happy

County: Swisher

Year Marker Erected: 1976

Marker Text: Meetings held in early settlers’ homes led
to the formation of a Methodist fellowship in Happy in 1905.
Services were first held in a schoolhouse and then in a
small, frame church constructed by carpenter J. F. White.
The structure stood on land donated by Tom Gilliland about
4 miles northeast of the present site of Happy. The Methodists
shared their building with other congregations, including

the Baptists, Christians, and Presbyterians. A Union Sunday
School was organized with P. J. Neff as the

first superintendent. In 1906, Happy moved to its present
location along the Santa Fe line. The Methodist
church building was hauled to the new townsite by wagon
in 1909. The Rev. B. F. Sharp, a circuit rider,
reorganized the 15-member church at its new location. Happy
remained on a circuit with 4 other congregations until 1919.
The original church building was remodeled in 1920, during
the pastorate of the Rev. C. W. McNeely.  The present
sanctuary was constructed in 1930-31, under the direction
of the Rev. H. C. Smith. Two years later, a fire gutted
the interior, forcing services to be held in the basement.
After repairs, the structure was dedicated on October 18,
1942. Recent renovation occurred in 1974, when the Rev.
Carl Oglesby was pastor. (1976)Marker Text: Flynt Building

Marker Location: 136 S. Maxwell

City: Tulia

County: Swisher

Year Marker Erected: 1969

Designations: Recorded Texas Historic Landmark

Marker Text: Built 1909 of red brick with frosted glass
above wood awning. First housed a confectionary.  Has
ornate marble counter and back bar. Exterior remodeled 1950.
Is oldest retail firm in town at original location. First
owner was E. W. Flynt (1888-1968). Recorded Texas Historical
Landmark-1969Marker Title: Happy Cemetery

Year Marker Erected: 1991

Marker Location: from Happy, take SH 1075 west about .5
mile to cemetery; marker located in center of cemetery

County: Swisher

Marker Text: The Happy Cemetery Association, organized on
March 18, 1912. Purchased five acres of land for two adjacent
cemeteries (one specifically for Catholics) from local businessman
James F. White. The oldest recorded grave is that of William
T. King (1871-1913).  The association built a small
frame house which was used as a gathering place for annual
decoration day activities from 1915 to 1985 when it was
razed to make more room for plots. Numerous local pioneers
and veterans are buried here, including both Confederate
and Union Civil War veterans. (1991)Marker Text: Harmon-Toles Elevator

Marker Location: on US 87 at county line, Happy marker is
attached to a small windmill on the west side of the road

City: Happy

County: Swisher

Year Marker Erected: 1974

Marker Text: Holland E. Toles (1894-1941) opened a grain
elevator in this area in 1926, and was joined by Vernon Harman in 1938.
After Toles’ death, Harman formed a new partnership with John F. and
Holl Ed Toles. World War II, increased irrigation, and a federal grain
program created a need for larger storage facilities. On March 1, 1945,
construction was begun on this six-unit concrete elevator. Labor was
provided by the U.S. government, utilizing 50 Italian prisoners of war
from a camp near Hereford, under Geneva Convention provisions. The
project was completed on July 10, 1945. (1974)Marker Title: JA Ranch Cabin

Address: 127 SW Main St.

City: Tulia

County: Swisher

Year Marker Erected: 1969

Marker Location: 127 S.W. Main Street at Swisher County
Museum

Marker Text: Built about 1883, near a natural watering hole,
as one of many line camps on the huge JA Ranch. Cowboys
lived in these cabins year-round to ride range and keep
100 miles of fence in repair. A floor and new roof have
been added. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1969

Palo Duro CanyonMarker Title: Mackenzie Horse Kill

Site Date: 1874

County: Swisher

Files at the THC: Topo maps, sketch maps, site data forms,
field trip notes, copy of historical marker

inscription

Photographs: Slides

Site Description: Site where Mackenzie’s troops slaughtered
Indian horses during so-called Red River War.Marker Title: Ozark Trails Association

Marker Location: Maxwell and Broadway streets

City: Tulia

County: Swisher

Year Marker Erected: 2001

Marker Text: Founded in 1913 to mark and promote an automobile
route across several states, the Ozark Trails Association
was the brainchild of William Hope Harvey of Arkansas, who
wanted to improve roads to his Ozark mountain retreat. Thousands
of members from Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas
and Missouri attended annual meetings of the association,
which also

sought to promote tourism and educate the public to the
need for better highways and roads. The southern route of
the Ozark Trail extended across the Texas panhandle through
Collingsworth, Childress, Hall, Briscoe, Swisher, Castro
and Parmer counties. In 1920, members from these Texas counties
and two New Mexico counties met and voted to follow the
lead of the national group in placing reinforced concrete
signposts along the route in their counties. James E. Swepston
of Tulia led this effort and was elected president of the
national association at its 1920 annual meeting. The concrete
obelisk placed in Tulia (85 feet northwest) originally denoted
the distance from Tulia to various towns on the trail. It
retains its identity as a local landmark, and in 2000, the
Texas Historical Commission designated the Ozark Trail marker
as a State Archeological Landmark.  The obelisk also
is a reminder of the Ozark Trails Assoc. (disbanded in 1924),
one of many private highway associations to sponsor automobile
routes before the federal government began numbering and
marking such highways after World War I. (2001)Marker Title: Palo Duro Canyon

Address: 17 mi. E on SH 86

City: Tulia

County: Swisher

Year Marker Erected: 1936

Marker Location: from Tulia, take SH 86 east about 17 miles
to marker site near county line on south side of highway

Marker Text: Two miles north of here General Ranald S. Mackenzie,
41st U.S. Cavalry, ordered shot the 1450 horses captured
from Indians in battle in Palo Duro Canyon, September 28,
1874, to prevent their possible recovery by the Indians
to return to their reservations on foot.

Swisher CountyIndex Entry: Rose Hill Cemetery

Marker Location: from Tulia, follow east service road of
US 87 south about one mile to cemetery

City: Tulia

County: Swisher

Year Marker Erected: 1994

Marker Size: 27″ x 42″

Marker Text: The history of this community cemetery dates
to October 1890, just three months after
Swisher County was organized and Tulia was named county
seat. The first recorded burial here is that
of 18-year old Louis H. Harral, who died on October 17,
1890. His parents, L. J. & N. J. Harral, obtained permission
from landowner T. W. Adams to bury their son on this hillside
south of the Middle Tule Creek. Twelve days later, 4-year
old Robert Alonzo Hutchinson, son of W.B. & Virginia
Hutchinson, died and was buried on the hill near Louis.
In 1906 five acres of land surrounding the graves were officially
set aside for a community cemetery. A cemetery association
was formed in 1916 under the leadership of Lula B. Tomlinson,
who named the cemetery Rose Hill. The association was officially
chartered by the state in 1937, and continues to maintain
the site. Among those interred here are
numerous city and county elected officials, including two
law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty: John
Mosley (d. 1933) and Robert (Bob) Potter (d. Christmas Day,
1960). Also buried here are veterans of the Civil War, the
Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korea and
Vietnam. (1994)Marker Title:
Swisher
County

Address: Austin & 2nd St.

City: Tulia

County: Swisher

Year Marker Erected: 1936

Marker Location: S.E. corner of Courthouse Square, Austin
& 2nd Street, Tulia.

Marker Text: Formed from Young and Bexar territories. Created:
August 21, 1876. Organized: July 17, 1890. Named in honor
of James Gibson Swisher, 1794-1864. Conspicuous for gallantry
at the storming of Bexar, 1835. Signer of the Texas Declaration
of Independence, 1836. County seat, Tulia.

Swisher County Archives and MuseumMarker Title: Swisher County Hospital

Marker Location: 105 Hospital Street, Tulia

City: Tulia

County: Swisher

Year Marker Erected: 1981

Marker Text: The earliest medical care for Swisher County
residents was provided by local doctors or in

Amarillo hospitals (49 miles north). As the area population
increased during the 1920s, it became

necessary to build a general health care facility here.
Approved by the voters in a 1926 bond election, this
hospital was completed two years later. The original section
was comprised of two floors and a basement area, providing
beds for 12 patients. Enlarged by a major addition in 1946,
the structure served as the county hospital until 1969 when
a new facility was built.  (1981)Marker Title: Tulia First National Bank

Marker Location: at intersection of West Broadway &
Briscoe, Tulia

City: Tulia

County: Swisher

Year Marker Erected: 1965

Designations: Recorded Texas Historic Landmark

Marker Size: Medallion Only

Marker Text: Application: The Texas Historical BuildingTulia Railroad DepotHistorical
Building Survey
Marker Title: United Methodist Church

Marker Location: 201 East 2nd Street

City: Kress

County: Swisher

Year Marker Erected: 1975

Marker Size: 18″ x 28″

Marker Text: Organized 1906 at Wright (4 miles NE), the
church was relocated in 1907 when the Santa Fe Railway bypassed
Wright, founding Kress. With their own hands, members built
the first section of this sanctuary (1908), sharing its
use with other faiths.  The bell on the lawn originally
hung in a steeple, and rang for special events as well as
worship. The church structure — remodeled, greatly enlarged,
and enhanced by memorial windows — now forms a local landmark.
Lay leaders and four ministers have come from this congregation.
(1977)Marker Title: Vigo Park Methodist Church

Marker Location: from Tulia, take SH 146 north, then continue
on SH 146 after road turns east; about 24 miles total to
Vigo Park; church located on north side of road

County: Swisher

Year Marker Erected: 1976

Marker Size: 27″ x 42″

Marker Text: The Indiana-Texas Land Company planted a town
at this site in 1906, naming it for adjoining counties in
western Indiana. It was to be a shipping point on a new
railroad line. C. R. Gardner and J. C. Stitt of Terre Haute,
Indiana, built a 2-story hotel and store for the firm, and
then decided to settle here.  Other settlers soon arrived
to join them. Methodist minister G. R. Fort crossed Tule
Canyon and drove 22 miles to welcome the settlers. In June,
1907, he held a revival in a tent and organized this church.
Charter members included the Crawley, Derr, Doughty, Gardner,
Hay, Hedges, Hunt, Hyatt, Montgomery, Merrill, Pietzscht,
Webster, and Welker families. Gardner, John Welker, and
the minister visited the neighboring ranches and secured
donations of money and labor to erect a church building.
Trustees W. B. Doughty, Joe Hastings, and Jim Montgomery
bought two lots at this site and hauled building materials
from Tulia, while volunteers helped Gardner and Stitt with
the construction. The church was the town’s second building.
For many years it was the only church in a 20-mile radius.
It helped sustain Vigo Park when the railroad failed to
materialize, and is still important in the life of the community.
(1976)

Historical and Memorial Markers

(Click on the images for a larger view)
SWISHER COUNTY CENTENNIAL MARKER




 

Swisher County
1890 – 1990

Faith and Courage

Endurance and Success

Established in 1876 by the Texas Legislature from Bexar District

Named for James Gibson Swisher, Hero of the Texas Revolution

Organized July 17, 1890

Pioneers who settled Swisher County

endured hardships and adversity with unwavering courage

Tulia was named the county seat. Other towns are Happy and Kress

Rural communities and schools of the county were

Adair, Alexander, Auburn, Center Plains,Childress, Claytonville, Elkins,

Fanchon, Flynt, Houston, Price, Red Hill, Sunny Slope, Taylor, Union Hill,

Valley View, Vigo Park, Whitfield, Word, Wright

Agriculture is the predominant industry in Swisher County

Law order education and Cristian principles have sustained

Swisher County People for 100 Years

Dedicated July 21, 1990
County Judge, Jay Mohasoit

Commisioners F. L. McGavock, Harvey Foster

R. G. House W. C. Weatherred


Ozark Trail Marker – Tulia


The Ozark Trail Marker at the intersection of Maxwell and Broadway
Streets in Tulia. An International Association marked the Ozark Trail
coming from the west through Clovis, New Mexico, Dimmitt, Nazareth,
and on to Tulia. On the west side of the marker on the square was inscribed
the towns with mileage going east of Tulia to and through the following
towns: Silverton 32 miles; Quitaque 53 miles; Turkey 65 miles; Estelline
100 miles; Memphis 107 miles; Wellington 132 miles; Hollis, Okla. 145
miles; Chandler, Okla. 378 miles; Stroud, Okla. 392 miles; Tulsa, Okla.
450 miles; Monte Ne, Ark. 534 miles; Joplin, Mo. 588 miles; Springfield,
Mo. 609 miles, Kansas City, Mo. 720 miles; St. Louis, Mo. 928 miles;
Pittsburg, Kan. 595 miles. Mr. Emmett Elkins, whose father was a commissioner
in 1906, said that the road for the Ozark Trail was made as a cutoff
to go to Fort Worth. Before that, people had to go to Amarillo to go
to Fort Worth.Photo courtesy of the Swisher County Museum

 


SWISHER COUNTY HISTORICAL MARKER


Located on the Southwest corner of the courthouse square sits the Swisher
County Historical Marker. On the front of the marker is a plaque embeded in
the rock. It reads “Texas Highway Department, 1936.”


The Inscription:


Swisher County
Formed from Young and Bexar Territories

Created August 21, 1876

Organized July 17, 1890

Named in Honor of James Gibson Swisher

17-94-1864

Conspicuous for Gallantry at the Storming of Bexas, 1835

Signer of the Texas

Declaration of Independence 1836

County Seat, Tulia


VETERANS MEMORIAL MARKER


A flag waves above the Swisher County Veterans Memorial Marker which is located
between the VFW and American Legion halls in Tulia.


A closer view shows the brick sitting area where relatives and friends of
the deceased can sit while honoring their loved ones.


The inscription: (Click on the image to enlarge the photo or read below)

In Memory of Swisher County Men who paid the supreme sacrifice for their
country

Earlis O’Neal

Elmer H. Zoeller

John Finck

Watkins Mayo

Edfred G. Shearer

Robert Sharrock

Jack E. Hall

Wilson Miller

H. C. Crow

Ralph Spicer

Archi B. Caraway

Billy B. Borchardt

Stanley B. byrnes

C. Kirby Musick

Paul M. Mobly

Earl H. Cloer

Liston S. Moore

R. Mack Young

Noble Barror

Robert E. Anderson

Willis H. Alexander

Bill Freeman

F. Dean King

Robert L. Bradley

Johnnie M. Johnson

Cecil I. Cook

Thomas B. Maynard

Howard Hutchinson

Willard R. Priest

Warren Currie

The inscription:

In Memory of All Veterans who have so nobly served their country in all it’s
wars and who by offering their full measure of devotion have purchased freedom
for our beloved Nation.

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