CANADIAN, TEXAS
CLEAR CREEK, TEXAS
MIDWAY, TEXAS
GEM, TEXAS
CATALINE, TEXAS
GAGEBY, TEXAS
MENDOTA, TEXAS
GLAZIER, TEXAS
DREYFOOS, TEXAS
ZYBACH, TEXAS

CANADIAN ACADEMY

CANADIAN, TEXAS

Canadian, on U.S. highways 60 and 83 in western Hemphill County, has been the county seat since its founding in 1887. In the spring of that year E. P. Purcell and O. H. Nelson, who headed the Kansas Railway Townsite Company, laid out the 240-acre townsite, which is on the south bank of the Canadian River near its junction with Red Deer Creek.

By summer the Southern Kansas Railway had completed a bridge across the river from the settlement of Clear Creek, or Hogtown. As a result, residents of Hogtown moved their homes and businesses to Canadian. Soon the temporary tent city gave way to more permanent structures, as the townsite company's advertisements attracted more prospective settlers and businesses. Nelson Peet established the first hotel, the Log Cabin, and a post office was opened in August.

On July 4, 1888, Canadian's reputation as a rodeo town began when the annual Cowboys' Reunion staged a commercial rodeo, one of the first in Texas. The event has been an annual custom ever since. Baptists, Methodists, Disciples of Christ, and other Christian communions soon established churches in Canadian.

By 1900 the incorporated town was a major shipping center with railroad division headquarters and roundhouses, cotton gins, elevators, banks, a public school, and a private academy, as well as various stores and other small businesses.

Canadian also had as many as thirteen saloons before the county voted to go dry in 1903. Since then, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union has had an active chapter in Canadian; the old WCTU building also houses the city library.

Canadian has had seven newspapers: the Free Press (1887-88), the Crescent (1888-93), the Record (1893-), the Enterprise (1891-1912), the Advertiser (which later became the Hemphill County News, 1938-71), the Sand Burr (1933-49), and the short-lived Monday Morning News (1916).

Among the prominent businessmen and civic leaders, some of whose descendants still make Canadian their home, were George and John J. Gerlach, Harvey E. Hoover, Edward H. Brainard, and Nahim Abraham, who immigrated from Lebanon. Temple Lea Houston lived for a time in Canadian, as did the colorful rancher and lawman George W. Arrington.

In the early 1950s Canadian lost its railroad roundhouses and division headquarters as a result of reorganization by the Santa Fe. Nevertheless, it continued to thrive on ranching and farming, as well as oil and gas production.

The population increased from 2,671 in 1950 to 3,491 in 1980. In 1990 it was 2,417. In addition to the annual rodeo, the annual Midsummer Music Festival in August and the Autumn Foliage Tour in October attract visitors.

The Pioneer Museum is housed in the old Moody Hotel, which dates from 1906. Lake Marvin and the Gene Howe Wildlife Management area are located east of town.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. Stanley [Stanley F. L. Crocchiola], The Canadian, Texas, Story (Nazareth, Texas, 1975). F. Stanley [Stanley F. L. Crocchiola], Rodeo Town (Canadian, Texas) (Denver: World, 1953).

H. Allen Anderson



CLEAR CREEK, TEXAS

Clear Creek, or Hogtown, was Hemphill County's first settlement and the forerunner of the county seat, Canadian. It rose on the north bank of the Canadian River, near its junction with Clear Creek, late in 1886 as a camp for the construction crews of the Southern Kansas (Panhandle and Santa Fe) Railroad. Soon the town won considerable notoriety as a "desperado city."

Saloons, gambling dens, and stores were erected, and tents were pitched for temporary sleeping quarters. Sam Pollard, a local rancher, constructed a hotel and restaurant. The brothers John J. and George Gerlach, who had operated a mercantile store for ranchers on Horse Creek since 1884, moved their one-room establishment to Hogtown.

The name Hogtown was supposedly derived from the town's generally shabby appearance and seamy atmosphere. One former resident, however, later stated that the town was so named because everyone was subject to the imperative "root, hog, or die."

A dispute between Pollard and the railroad company over the price of town lots, along with the founding of Canadian on the south bank after completion of a bridge in 1887, led to Hogtown's rapid demise. Only a few settlers remained at the site, which was renamed Clear Creek. A schoolhouse, which doubled as a church, was in use until 1913. For years thereafter, a siding and flag station for the Santa Fe line retained the name.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Canadian Record, September 9, 1937. Sallie B. Harris, Cowmen and Ladies: A History of Hemphill County (Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1977). Glyndon M. Riley, The History of Hemphill County (M.A. thesis, West Texas State College, 1939). F. Stanley [Stanley F. L. Crocchiola], Rodeo Town (Canadian, Texas) (Denver: World, 1953).

H. Allen Anderson



MIDWAY, TEXAS

Midway was in western Hemphill County and so named because it was halfway between Canadian and Mobeetie.

It was founded by the pioneer rancher and merchant J. F. Johnson and was more of a trading center than a village.

The dominant structure was Johnson's general store, which he later moved to Canadian. When he moved, the town died.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sallie B. Harris, Cowmen and Ladies: A History of Hemphill County (Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1977). F. Stanley, Rodeo Town (Canadian, Texas) (Denver: World, 1953).

H. Allen Anderson



GEM, TEXAS

Gem was on the divide between the Washita and Canadian rivers near State Highway 33 in east central Hemphill County.

The community, built on land owned by the Moody Land Company, was named by rancher Thomas F. Moody for his wife, Gem Hibbard Moody. In 1909 the site was surveyed, and town lots were sold on July 4. That year also a post office opened there.

Though Gem was meant to be a trading point for the farmers and ranchers of southern Hemphill County, the community eventually died because of other nearby settlements and the advent of faster transportation in the area.

In the mid-1920s Gem had five businesses and an estimated population of seventy-five, a number which it continued to report through the early 1960s.

The community's post office was closed in March 1954, and sometime thereafter Gem was abandoned. Only a church remained at the site in 1984.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sallie B. Harris, Cowmen and Ladies: A History of Hemphill County (Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1977). Glyndon M. Riley, The History of Hemphill County (M.A. thesis, West Texas State College, 1939).

H. Allen Anderson



CATALINE, TEXAS

Cataline, at the mouth of Gageby Creek on the Washita River in southeastern Hemphill County, was established in 1890 on the Houston and Great Northern Railroad survey.

The town, located on the Alexander Ranch, was allegedly named by Lucy Alexander for the ancient Roman politician Catiline, about whom she had read and whose name she misspelled.

One historian, however, states that a Kansas land promoter named Cataline named the community after himself.

Although it had a post office and a combination school and church building, the town failed when the railroad changed plans. Cataline was too remote to prosper.

The post office remained in operation until 1912. In 1990 only the community cemetery remained.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sallie B. Harris, Cowmen and Ladies: A History of Hemphill County (Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1977). Glyndon M. Riley, The History of Hemphill County (M.A. thesis, West Texas State College, 1939). F. Stanley [Stanley F. L. Crocchiola], Story of the Texas Panhandle Railroads (Borger, Texas: Hess, 1976).

H. Allen Anderson



GAGEBY, TEXAS

Gageby, near the Hemphill county line in northern Wheeler County, was named for nearby Gageby Creek. The community's original site was in southern Hemphill County.

A rural school and church had been built on the site as early as 1900, but the town was not actually founded until 1907. In 1910 a post office was opened for the benefit of area farmers and ranchers at the home of A. A. Hennington, who also established a general store.

From 1910 to 1920 the town had a barbershop, a service station, a blacksmith shop, a cotton gin, and an average population of ten. From 1930 to 1950 the population of Gageby ranged between twenty and fifty.

The general store and post office were moved to U.S. Highway 83, two miles away, in 1945. The post office closed in 1954, though the community's population was still listed as fifty as late as 1960.

By the 1970s all that remained of the original town was the G. C. Barker home and the community cemetery.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sallie B. Harris, Cowmen and Ladies: A History of Hemphill County (Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1977).

H. Allen Anderson



MENDOTA, TEXAS

Mendota, on Red Deer Creek in western Hemphill county, was established in 1887 and moved twenty years later to its present site on the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railroad route.

Initially, it was laid out by the St. Louis Land Company and named after Mendota, Illinois, hometown of the promoter. Through the company's advertisements, farmers from Missouri were attracted to the townsite.

At its peak, Mendota had a post office, a school and church, a lumberyard, a general store, and a population of 100.

Since most of the populace did their trading at nearby Canadian, the town remained little more than a grain marketplace and stock-loading center for area ranchers and farmers.

Since sandy soil and flash floods often made the vicinity impassable for automobiles, people began moving away. The post office was discontinued in 1944.

By 1948 only a rural school and a loading switch for cattle remained on the site. Today, Mendota is a ghost town.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sallie B. Harris, Cowmen and Ladies: A History of Hemphill County (Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1977). Glyndon M. Riley, The History of Hemphill County (M.A. thesis, West Texas State College, 1939).

H. Allen Anderson



GLAZIER, TEXAS

Glazier, on U.S. Highway 60 in north central Hemphill County, was founded when the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway reached its site. It was named for H. C. Glazier, a friend of pioneer merchant J. F. Johnson, on whose ranchland the town was platted in 1887.

The location north of the Canadian River made Glazier an ideal shipping point for area cattlemen, especially during the rainy season when the river rose. When farmers settled in that area, they freighted their wheat by horse team to the railroad grain elevator at Glazier.

By 1915 Glazier was a thriving town with a bank, a newspaper, and a population reported at around 300. The extension of the Santa Fe line in 1916 from Shattuck, Oklahoma, to Spearman, Texas, drew away much of the cattle and wheat trade of Ochiltree and Lipscomb counties, on which Glazier had depended.

In June 1916 a fire that started in a feed mill destroyed most of Glazier's business district. The town declined by 1920 to a population of 140.

A tornado claimed twelve lives at Glazier in April 1946. By then only the post office and three businesses remained, and in 1959 the post office was closed.

By 1984 Glazier reported twenty residents and no businesses. In 1990 its population was estimated at forty-five.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sallie B. Harris, Cowmen and Ladies: A History of Hemphill County (Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1977). Glyndon M. Riley, The History of Hemphill County (M.A. thesis, West Texas State College, 1939). F. Stanley [Stanley F. L. Crocchiola], Rodeo Town (Canadian, Texas) (Denver: World, 1953).

H. Allen Anderson



DREYFOOS, TEXAS

Dreyfoos, in northern Hemphill County, was established in 1928, when the Cities Service Gas Company built a compressor station on land purchased from Dick Cann, a pioneer rancher.

Between April and October 1929 a post office named Cann Station was located at the site. During the same time a two-year high school was built on land purchased from Ben Dreyfoos, and the community was called Dreyfoos, even though the official name was Patton.

During this time the town had a population of about forty. The population had decreased to thirteen by 1966, when the inhabitants were ranchers, farmers, or employees of Cities Service Gas Company.

In 1966 the school was still in use and had only one teacher. In 1970 the county school board voted to consolidate the Patton school with that of Canadian.

Although the gas plant was still in operation in 1984, most of its employees lived then in Canadian.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sallie B. Harris, Cowmen and Ladies: A History of Hemphill County (Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1977).

H. Allen Anderson



ZYBACH, TEXAS

Zybach, on a mail route from Briscoe in northern Wheeler County, was named for John B. Zybach, who brought his family of Swiss immigrants from Kansas to farm the area in 1909. He also opened a general store. In 1910 he established a post office and sought to attract other homesteaders.

During its peak, from 1910 to 1920, the town had two grocery stores, a service station and garage, a cafe, a gristmill, a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, two churches, and several residences. The population reached as high as 120.

After the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway built south of Zybach in 1929, the town experienced a rapid decline. Only ten residents were reported in 1930, and around 1931 the post office was closed.

Although there were two houses and a repair shop in Zybach in 1976, the community as such has ceased to exist.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sallie B. Harris, Cowmen and Ladies: A History of Hemphill County (Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1977). F. Stanley, Rodeo Town (Canadian, Texas) (Denver: World, 1953).

H. Allen Anderson



CANADIAN ACADEMY

Canadian Academy, a Baptist coeducational institution at Canadian, was established in 1901 and opened in 1903, in a building constructed and equipped in 1900 for the use of the local school system.

It opened with a faculty of four and a student body of twenty-seven. The second year the faculty numbered seven and the student enrollment 117. Over the next few years a dining hall and two dormitories were added.

The school was divided into departments of literature and composition, music, education, and physical culture.

A highlight of the academy's brief history came in the spring of 1907, when the twelve-member science class traveled to dig and examine artifacts on the recently discovered, buried Indian-city site south of Perryton in Ochiltree County.

Because it was sustained wholly by contributions, fees, and tuition, Canadian Academy could not compete with tax-supported schools when the latter began to offer more educational opportunities.

The academy was closed in 1913. Presidents of the school were J. F. McDonald, O. N. McBride, and R. E. L. Farmer.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sallie B. Harris, Cowmen and Ladies: A History of Hemphill County (Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1977). F. Stanley [Stanley F. L. Crocchiola], The Canadian, Texas, Story (Nazareth, Texas, 1975). F. Stanley [Stanley F. L. Crocchiola], Rodeo Town (Canadian, Texas) (Denver: World, 1953). Winifred Morris Stoker, History of Canadian Academy (MS, Canadian Public Library, Canadian, Texas). Winifred Morris Stoker, A Pictorial History of Early Higher Education in the Texas Panhandle (Canyon: West Texas State University, 1976).

J. W. Sanders

(information from The Handbook of Texas Online --
a multidisciplinary encyclopedia of Texas history, geography, and culture.)

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This page was last updated February 2, 2000.