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PROCTOR,
TEXAS
Comanche
County, North Central Texas
Highway 377
12 Miles NE of Comanche
Population: 101 (est)
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Proctor
Community Center
Photo Courtesy Jim and Lou Kinsey |
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The gym in
Proctor
Photo Courtesy Jim and Lou Kinsey
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Proctor,
Texas History
From the Handbook
of Texas Online:
Thomas O. Moore established it in 1872 when he came west for his health.
He decided to open a store, bought a small tract of land, and returned
to Galveston to move his family. He found them all ill and realized
there would be a delay in moving. Moore formed a partnership with
his friend Alexander Watson Proctor, after whom the town was named,
and sent him ahead to start the mercantile building. Moore purchased
a stock of merchandise, sent it to Waco by rail, and freighted it
by wagon to the place soon known locally as Mooresville. The family
occupied three rooms built for them on the back of the store. A building
erected in 1876 near Moore's store was used as a community center
and school. It was probably the source of the often published claim
that A. W. Proctor donated land for a school campus. Deed records
do not show a property for a school. A post office was established
in 1874 but discontinued in 1881. The community was moved in the early
1890s, when the route of the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad missed
the old town by a mile. The old Proctor subsequently disappeared when
Alex Chisholm bought the site to use as ranchland.
The point where the railroad stopped was at first called Camden and
later renamed Proctor. A new townsite with some thirty-eight blocks
was surveyed there, and the sale of lots began in 1891, one year after
the Proctor post office reopened. Proctor became a shipping center
and was even at one time considered for the county seat. By 1915 the
town had its own bank, a population of 300, two drugstores, three
mercantile stores, two gins, four grocery stores, two barbershops,
a lumberyard, a livery stable, a hotel, two blacksmith shops, three
doctor's offices, three lodges, and a newspaper. Although it was consolidated
with the Comanche schools after World War II, the Proctor school once
served over 400 students and occupied an imposing two-story building.
Proctor began to decline around 1930, after U.S. 377 was paved and
the route passed north of town.
After the boll weevil wiped out cotton as an important crop around
Proctor, peanut cultivation and dairying became important in agriculture.
Proctor Reservoir, a federal flood-control lake, was impounded by
a dam finished in 1963 on the Leon River. It provides water for nearby
towns and for irrigation and serves as a recreation area. Stores for
sportsmen, campers, and travelers have sprung up nearby. The Methodist
and Baptist churches continued to function in the 1980s. The community
reunion and meeting of the strong cemetery association were still
held in June. From the mid-1970s through 1990 the population was 220.
A historical marker at the site of the old town well on U.S. highway
377 honors Mary Evelyn Moore Davis, a Texas author and sister of Proctor's
first postmaster, T. O. Moore; she often enjoyed visiting the family
at Proctor.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Comanche County Bicentennial
Committee, Patchwork of Memories: Historical Sketches of Comanche
County, Texas (Brownwood, Texas: Banner Printing, 1976). Kathleen
E. and Clifton R. St. Clair, eds., Little Towns of Texas (Jacksonville,
Texas: Jayroe Graphic Arts, 1982).
- Margaret Tate Waring
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