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FLOMOT, TEXAS

Motley County, Texas Panhandle
Farm Roads 97 and 599
22 miles NW of Matador
14 miles S of Quitaque
106 miles SE of Amarillo

Population: 181 (1990)


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A Very Brief History of Flomot

The name is an amalgam of the two counties Floyd and Motley. The post office originally sat on the county line, but was later moved to a private home.

The town already had a school and store established in the 1890s before the post office opened in 1902.

In 1915 the post office was moved to W. R. Welch's home.

Flomot Landmarks / Images

Flomot as Remembered by Joe Garrett
"A picture taken in 1939 of the Frank Garrett family of Flomot, Texas. Front row: Joe Garrett, Raby Garrett, Calvin Garrett. Back row: Frank Garrett, Dillie Morris Garrett. Picture taken at the farmhouse of Alexander Shakespeare and Lillie Grimes Morris, Flomot pioneers, and my grandparents." - Joe Garrett, January 24, 2005

Flomot as Remembered by Joe Garrett

I was born in Flomot, Texas, at home, on July 4, 1933, about one mile east of town. My parents, Frank and Dillie Garrett, were sharecropper farmers from the time of their marriage in 1927, then ran the in-town mercantile store of Mr. A.J. Hudson from about 1937 until his death in about 1941. They then moved across the street and opened their own dry goods store, which they operated until the end of WW2. Mr. A.J. Hudson had been one of the founders of Flomot.

My Mother is still living today, age 99, at the Prarie House nursing home in Plainview, where we moved in 1945. She is the only survivor of the eleven children of Alexander Shakespeare Morris and Lillie Grimes Morris. A.S. Morris had come to west Texas from Charlotte, N.C., arriving in Flomot around 1905, just two years after the town post office opened. Many Morris descendants still live in the area.

I remember Flomot before electricity or indoor plumbing, with basically two cotton gins, two hardware stores (one with hitching post), three service stations, one blacksmith shop, and three general stores, all offering extensive credit. Flomot also had on school building housing all twelve grades, one barber shop and two or three small restaurants.

During the war, farmers saved gasoline by riding horseback to town and some came with horse and buggy rigs.

Our school was coal heated, with one big stove in the corner of each classroom. Most classrooms housed at least two grades, with multiple subjects taught by the same teacher. Many students at the school came on horseback, simply hitching the horses during the school day. The school fielded six man football teams, and good basketball squads.

My brothers and I attended Flomot schools until the family moved to Plainview in 1945, and our store was sold to Mr. Tom Turner. By this time, I was in seventh grade. Flomot had no paved roads, no medical facilities, and very few amenities of any kind.

Ernest Fletcher, of Turkey, Texas, picked up and delivered Flomot mail several times each week as part of his route on to Matador, then back to Turkey. He drove a carry-all vehicle, and delivered cream and eggs to the Matador or Turkey markets for my father, Frank Garrett, who bought these items from local farmers.

Our family store served local farm families and seasonal Mexican harvest labor. Credit was extended liberally, with payment expected when crops were harvested and sold. My father often bartered groceries for musical instruments, farm equipment, or old cars or trucks.

Flomot was strickly dry-land farming at the time, with cotton and maize the staples. Farmers slaughtered their own pork, beef, and chickens, often as an extended family or community effort. The school would close for at least two weeks in the Fall to allow students to help in harvesting cotton, all pulled by hand.

The disruption of life brought about by WW2 and the end of the depression, plus improvements in transportation and communications, basically brought about the end of Flomot as a necessary, vital community. The school was consolidated with larger communities, and the town's identity was essentially lost.

- Joe Garrett, La Quinta, CA

Flomot Landmarks / Images

Flomot Tx - Closed gas station

Closed gas station
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, February 2007
More Texas Gas Stations

Flomot Tx - Service station Sign
Service station Sign
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, February 2007
See Coca-Cola
Flomot Tx - Church of Christ
Church of Christ
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, February 2007
Flomot Tx - Closed church

Closed church
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, February 2007
More Texas Churches

Flomot Tx - Closed Shop
Closed Shop
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, February 2007
Flomot Tx - Closed Store
Closed Store
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, February 2007
Flomot Tx - Closed Store
Closed Store
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, February 2007
Sheep and sheep dog near Flomot Texas
Sheep and sheep dog near Flomot
Photo courtesy Eric Blackwell, November 2006
Common egret in a field,  Flomot, Texas
Common egret in a field 20 miles west of Flomot
Photo courtesy Eric Blackwell, November 2006
Mule Deer in Flomot Texas
Mule Deer in Flomot
Photo courtesy Eric Blackwell, November 2006
Flomot, Texas Forum
  • Subject: Flomot, Texas
    Dear TE, I have lots of memories of Flomot, I grew up in Quitaque and Flomot and still have family living and working in both towns. My great aunt and uncle own one of the gins there in town as well as an insurance agency. My grandfather was born (1921) and raised there as well as his two sisters. My grandfather has passed away. My great grand parents settled there and we still have a family farm house and cemetery. I went most of my school days at the consolidated school of Valley. I can still see the hazy air of ginnin’ season vividly, but I rarely get to see that site any more. Anyway I am not sure of the year, but I can tell you that my great grandmother was also born there about 1898 or 1899. I can tell you for certain I concur with the other [readers which have made comments], if there is heaven it is there. The hustle and bustle of raising my children in the fast-paced world we live in has made me realize that my life then was indeed simple. It was most pleasurable, but lots of hard work. While I never missed school due to the cotton being harvested (cus we had strippers), I did my fair share of choppin’ cotton, troppin’ cotton, and pickin’ and shellin’ peas, beans, gathering eggs, milkin’ cows, all the things that helped keep a family going in our corner of the world. My children only get small doses of that, now that farming is not a matter of survival any more. Yes I miss it, and I don’t miss it. I like my cell phone, my speedy little car, a Walmart a couple of miles down the road. But I also like the wide open spaces, the smell of Spring coming, and the ever-present chewing gum and bottle of pop my great Uncle always had ready for my sister, my cousins and me anytime we went to the gin, or just anywhere we happened to be with him. - Trisha Appleby, Beaumont, Texas, February 21, 2007

  • The man who ran the little grocery store in the late 50's - early 60's was Harrison George. He is deceased, but his wife Oma Lee still comes back to Flomot for homecoming, which is held July 4 weekend every third year (Next one will be in 2005). I graduated from Flomot High School in 1969. My father and grandfather, Wayne and Horace Hunter, ran a cotton gin there. My mother, Jimmie Speer Hunter, grew up in Flomot and taught school there for a few years. It was a very good place to live. There are fewer people living there now, but they are still the best people you could hope to meet. Mary Ellen ("Dude") Barton still lives there. She was inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Ft. Worth. - Anita Hunter, Lubbock, Texas, October 31, 2004

  • I didn't grow up in Flomot, Texas. However I do have fond memories of going there each fall. If there is a heaven it had to be there. We were cotten pickers and we picked cotton for Mary Barton and her brother, Francis Barton during the late 50's and early 60's. They were some of the nicest people I ever met. I don't remember the name of the man who use to run the small grocery store in Flotmot, near the cotton gin, but he was always very nice to all of us, (always gave us candy). I guess what I remember the most is that the people there were really down to earth, hard working, and honest people. Of all the places in the USA, Flomot is one place I long to go back to. I loved the open spaces, the farms, the cold winters... I hope it hasn't changed, it was perfect...(no I am not just thinking of how a child remembers, my brothers and sisters were older than me and they all agree on how nice it was). Thank you - Linda Merino Foster, July 20, 2004
  • Flomot, Texas Area Hotels > Amarillo Hotels | Lubbock Hotels

    Flomot, Texas
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    Matador
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