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History
in a Pecan ShellDeveloped
by ranchers in the late 19th Century,
things really started moving in 1907 when the Santa Fe Railroad built the Plainview
line through Hale County. This created an influx of new settlers who moved from
East Texas and Oklahoma.
With
settlers came children and with children came schools. Cotton Center jelled as
a community in 1925 when three local schools* merged. It was that same year that
J.C. Brown, local businessman, platted the town and named the community. The naming
may have been influenced by Brown’s ownership of a cotton gin.
It wasn’t
until 1935 when the town got a post office and that same year Cotton Center drilled
the first water well used for irrigation. Many more wells were drilled after WWII
exploiting the resources of the Ogallala aquifer.
The community was struck
by a tornado in June of 1965, causing some damage but sparing the commercial district.
There was one fatality with three residents injured.
Schooling continued
to be the town’s focus since the district covered approximently 130 square miles.
First population figures come from the 1980s when 260 residents were reported.
It has since declined to 205, the figures given for both the 1990 and 2000 census. |
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Cotton
Center Elks
Photo courtesy Eric Turner of Plainview |
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