HISTORY

Hemphill County lies in the rolling plains on the eastern edge of the Panhandle, east of the Texas High Plains. It is bordered on the east by Oklahoma, on the south by Wheeler County, on the west by Roberts County, and on the north by Lipscomb County. The center point of the county is at 35ƒ50' north latitude and 100ƒ15' west longitude.

Canadian, the county seat, is eight to ten miles northwest of the center of the county and about 120 miles northeast of Amarillo. The county was named for John Hemphill. It comprises 904 square miles of rolling plains and rugged terrain, broken by two major rivers and dozens of creeks. The Canadian River flows easterly across the north central part of the county, and the Washita River flows west to east across the southern part.

The Hemphill County region was originally populated by Apaches, who were pushed out by the early 1800s by the Kiowas and Comanches. During the era of Indian control various European expeditions penetrated the region. That of Francisco V·squez de Coronado possibly crossed the county in 1543 or 1544.

The era of open-range ranching began in Hemphill County even before the end of the buffalo. In 1875, A. G. Springer established a temporary ranch in the eastern part of the county, and a handful of other settlers followed in 1876 and 1877.

Hemphill County was formed by the Texas legislature in 1876. Investors began to purchase lands in the county for large-scale ranching during the late 1870s, when the Cresswell Ranch, headquartered in Roberts County, came to occupy much of western Hemphill County.

The Southern Kansas Railway Company, a Santa Fe subsidiary, began to build a line into the Panhandle in 1886. The tracks crossed Hemphill County during 1887 and reached the town of Panhandle in 1888. The railroad allowed easier access to the outside world and encouraged settlement in the area. It also spawned three townsites, Mendota, Canadian, and Glazier.

Between 1918 and 1921 local boosters attracted construction of the Dallas-to-Denver highway (now U.S. 83) through Canadian. Old Highway 33 (now U.S. 60), from Oklahoma to Amarillo, was built through the county during 1925 and 1926. In the 1940s and 1950s these major routes were paved, and a network of paved rural roads was constructed.

Most of the people in Hemphill County live in Canadian (1990 population, 2,417); Glazier, the county's only other town, had forty-five residents in 1980. The rest of the population lives on farms and ranches.

-- Handbook of Texas Online

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