Iowa Park (33°57′13″N 98°40′16″W) is located in Wichita County, west of Wichita Falls. It was founded in the 1880s by General Grenville M. Dodge. At that time, it was mostly miles of prairie grassland growing on what appeared to be miles of sandy loam. These conditions and the accessibility of surface water caused Dodge to feel that the location would be favorable for farming. The area was reached by the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway and first named Dagger Switch, becoming a recognized township in about 1882 . Shortly thereafter, the Texas Panhandle Company organized immigration trains to encourage settlers to relocate to the area, many coming from Iowa.
Tag: texas
Special Event – Interurban Fans – 9/13/16
transcribed from Railspot’s Facebook announcement of 8/25/2016:
The official premiere of the new TEXAS ELECTRIC RAILWAY program is Tuesday evening, September 13th at the EVENT 1013 center located at 1013 E. 15th Street in historic Plano, Texas. The premiere starts at 7:30 pm and will feature 31 minutes of color and 20 minutes of rare B&W movies from the collection of Johnnie J. Myers.
Junius Peak (1845-1934)
Junius W. Peak was one of the more charismatic individuals in Texas history. His family moved to Texas from Kentucky in 1855. The family was large, with many brothers and sisters. Jefferson and Martha Reser Peak bought 229 acres of farmland close to the small Dallas settlement. Peak would recall that his father Jefferson paid $110 for the land.
J. Riely Gordon, architect
James Riely Gordon was a practicing architect during what has been called the Golden Age of Texas Courthouses, the 1880s and 1890s. By then, almost all of the 254 Texas counties now in existence had been established. The Texas legislature allowed counties to issue bonds for courthouse construction and many counties did, leading to construction projects all over the state.
Pictured: Ellis County Courthouse in Waxahachie (2015)
Irion County, Texas
Irion County is situated west of San Angelo (Tom Green County) in West Texas. Its county seat is Mertzon. It is sparsely populated but the origin of its name extends back to the early days of the Republic of Texas. It was founded in 1889 and was named for Robert Anderson Irion, a medical doctor. Dr. Irion was a friend and personal physician of Sam Houston.
Texas History Notebook 