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Texas Ghost
Town
CUTHBERT,
TEXAS
Mitchell County,
Texas Panhandle
FM 1229
14 Miles NW of Colorado
City
40 Miles NW of Big
Spring
Population:
Unkown
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History in
a Pecan Shell
D. T. Bozeman, settled here in the early 1890s and established a
wagon yard and store. He also taught school nearby. When a post
office was set up in the Bozeman store, Emily (first postmistress)
and D.T. submitted the requested name of Cuthbert - to honor their
friend Thomas Cuthbertson.
A school opened in 1893 but closed four years later. The town got
telephone service early (1904) and Emily Bozeman served as operator
on the switchboard placed in her home.
A new county school district came into being in 1907 with Cuthbert
as the hub. Cuthbert had all essential businesses through the teens
and in 1920 the Texas and Pacific (Abrams No. 1) oil well came in
a mile north of the city limits. Despite the discovery, the town
only had 25 residents and two businesses in the mid-1930s. In 1936,
the Cuthbert school merged with Colorado
City schools. Things got worse after WWII when increased mobility
drew off population to Colorado
City (and beyond).
Around 1960 the post office closed, leaving a single business operating
and the population remained at 25 - the 1936 figure.
By the mid 1970s only the town cemetery remained and the population
was scattered to individual area farms.
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Cuthbert,
Texas Forum
Subject: A
forgotten ghost town of Texas
Dear TE, I have just recently found your [magazine] and I love it.
I have kept it in my list of favorites, and will be visiting often.
One fact I didn't find was a ghost town named Cuthbert. My grandfather
bought the property in the late 70's and found oil, ranched a little,
but mostly farmed on it. There is an old cemetery there that my aunt
tries to upkeep, but will be in ruins soon. Cuthbert was a rural community,
near the Abrams No. 1 oil well, that started the oil boom in that
time. Finally in the 40's and 50's the new highways being built bypassed
Cuthbert and she dwindled all together. A few buildings are left and
a community cemetery, not the same one that is on our property (only
a few markers remain), lots of oil wells and farm land and friends....
Thank You.
- Leo del Real, September 27, 2006
Anyone wishing to share history, stories, memories or photos of Cuthbert,
Texas, please contact
us.
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