|
Mobeetie street
scene in the early 1900s
Photo courtesy texasoldphotos.com |
History
in a Pecan Shell
"Mobeetie"
is supposed to mean "Sweetwater" in one Indian dialect or
another. According to T. Lindsay Baker's Ghost Town's of Texas,
when the application for a Post Office was rejected because Sweetwater
was already taken, they got the idea to submit it as an Indian word.
So a man was sent to the Fort (Elliott) to ask for a translation
from an Indian Scout.
He came back
with the name Mobeetie, which might mean Sweetwater or "Why do you
want to know?" or "Buy me a drink and I'll tell you." If the scout
misheard, it might even mean "Beetwater." Anyway, it's too late
now. By the way, the Fort was Fort
Elliott, not the guy who went to get the translation.
It's original
name was Hidetown in 1874, when it was a supply center for
buffalo
hunters.
It was a wild
and wooly place. The gamblers, soldiers and buffalo hunters made
it wild, the Buffalo made it wooly. Bat Masterson paid the
town a visit as well as Pat
Garrett. Masterson bought a Buffalo robe and Garrett bought
a T-shirt for his pal Billy the Kid that said: "I've just
been shot by stupid."
A jail was built in the early 1880s and a Texas
Ranger Captain Arrington became the sheriff. Temple
Houston, son of Sam,
served a term here as District Attorney before he became a State
Senator.
In 1878, the
town moved a little closer to the
Fort. Evidently
the Fort didn't like to be crowded, because the soldiers packed
up and left in 1890. There was a mass conversion during an 1893
religious revival and just when everyone saw the light and closed
the saloons, the town's future was dimming.
They failed
to get the railroad to pass through, then they got hit with a tornado
in 1898.
In 1907, the
city of Wheeler
was made County Seat and people started wearing T-Shirts
saying: "I'm from Mobeetie, kick me!"
1929 finally
brought a railroad, sort of. It was two miles away and once again
the town moved. Some stayed and Mobeetie became "Old" and "New."
1940 found the town with a population of 400, equal to the 1890
census. It had dipped as low as 128 in 1900. Now it's less that
200 according to the Texas Almanac.
The flagpole
from Fort Elliott
remains to this day, and the old stone
jail is a museum.
- Editor
Mobeetie Stories ›
People ›
|
 |
Historical Marker:
Old Wheeler
County Jail:
First
jail in Panhandle of Texas.
Central holding place for badmen. Built at cost of $18,500, including
$1200 for a hangman's device put in to meet state requirement. Stone
quarried on farm of Emanuel Dubbs,
first county judge.
(Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1965) |
"Near the
jail museum are several buildings from Old Mobeetie along with a wooden
flagpole, the last surviving remnant from Fort
Elliott."
- Terry
Jeanson, September 2007 |
Mobeetie United
Methodist Church
Historical Marker
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, December 2008 |
Mobeetie Stories
A
Bald-Headed Whiskey Town
by Clay Coppedge
"... Mobeetie was as rank a place as any fancier of rankness
could ever want. Gamblers, prostitutes and gunfighters turned Mobeetie
from Hidetown into a frontier Sodom and Gomorra. Pioneer Panhandle
cattleman Charles Goodnight described the town as "patronized by
outlaws, thieves, cut-throats and buffalo hunters, with a large
percentage of prostitutes." Temple Lea Houston, Sam Houston's youngest
son, wrote his wife that Mobeetie was "a baldheaded whiskey town
with few virtuous women."... more
Judge
Vs Marshal in Old Mobeetie by Mike Cox
Townsend’s stay at Fort Elliott in the fall of 1878 would be brief,
but not dull. In fact, for a time it looked like violence might
erupt in nearby Mobeetie... more
|
Temple Lea Houston
historical marker
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, December 2008 |
Emanuel Dubbs
historical marker
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, December 2008 |
Frank Willis.
Sr. historical marker
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, December 2008 |
Captain G. W.
Arrington historical marker
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, December 2008 |
 |
Mobeetie, Texas
Forum
Subject:
Mobeetie, Texas
I very much appreciate the work you do. I lived in Mobeetie in 1948-51
when Daddy was the pastor of the Methodist church there, and heard
all the stories about the naming of the town that I see in your
magazine. By the way, Mobeetie is 31 miles east of Pampa, not 20.
My sister-in-law was a Totty, one of the homesteading families there...
Her home was built of lumber from Fort Elliott when it was torn
down. The Mobeetie kids still have reunions on the first Saturday
in September every year. Oh, and I lived at Oklahoma Lane too....
Best wishes - David Willard, January 09, 2007
Subject:
Mobeetie Texas
In 1963 I met Jimmy L. Simpson in Abilene. He was from Mobeetie.
He told me it was the oldest town in the panhandle. He took me there
and we worked in the hay fields for a week. His dad, Byron Simpson,
owned the gas station. He took me to where the old fort stood. We
found relics, bullets, and an old knife. It is now 2006, I talked
to Byron Simpson last year. His son lives somewhere in the Carolinas.
Thank you for great memories of a lost time in the past. - Gene
Long, N. Richland Hills, Texas, June 16, 2006
Subject: The
Naming of Mobeetie
I grew up
in Pampa, Texas,
about 20 miles from Mobeetie in the 1950s and 60s. I seem to recall
many years ago hearing a story told by Texas writer, free speech
hero, and humorist, John Henry Faulk, about how Mobeetie was named.
In the story as told by John Henry, the citizens wanted to name
the town Sweetwater but the name was already taken by another
Texas town. Efforts to name the town Sweetwater in Spanish were
to no avail because 'Agua Dulce' was already a town down in the
Texas Coastal Bend. The citizens decided to name the town Sweetwater
in the Cheyene language because Cheyene Indians worked and lived
at Fort Elliott.
So a man was sent to Fort
Elliott to ask what is the Cheyene word for Sweetwater. The
Indian, who was a Cheyene Indian Scout chuckled and said, "Mobeetie."
It was about two years later when the citizens of Mobeetie found
out why the Indian had chuckled when providing the translation.
According to the story told John Henry, it turns out that "Mobeetie"
in Cheyene means "buffalo dung". Anyway, that is how I remember
the story.
Work for the Lord---the retirement is out of this world! - Rev.
Carl W. Clark Driftwood United Methodist Church, Driftwood, Texas,
January 24, 2006
Hi, I just
finished reading the piece on Mobeetie and wanted to comment on
the translation of the name. While I was living in Borger,
I was told by numerous Panhandle
citizens that the Indians decided to play a joke on the white settlers
and the word the settlers thought was "sweet water" was really buffalo
piss. I noticed that you didn't mention that translation in your
suggestions! :-) - G. Thomas, March 07, 2001
|
Book:
"Ghost Towns of Texas"
by T. Lindsey Baker
features Mobeetie and 87 other "Ghost" towns - Editor |
|
Wheeler
County TX 1907 postal map showing Mobeetie
Courtesy Texas General Land Office |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
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