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History in a Pecan
Shell
"In
1903 early county settlers Benjamin and Birda May (Kirk) Holt donated seven acres
here to be used as the site of a community schoolhouse and cemetery." See
historical markers: |
Holt
School and historical markers
On FM 281
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson , March 2010 |
Holt
Cemetery Historical Marker
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson , March 2010 |
Historical
Marker TextHolt
CemeteryIn the
late 1890s Texas enacted colonization and homestead laws that significantly quickened
the settlement of the then sparsely populated Panhandle
region of North Texas. Hutchinson County soon recorded the required 150 applications
for land purchases in the county to formally organize in 1901. In 1903 early county
settlers Benjamin and Birda May (Kirk) Holt donated seven acres here to be used
as the site of a community schoolhouse and cemetery. The first person buried here
was Nola Storrs in 1909.
A new schoolhouse was built here in 1916 and
in 1917 the Holts legally recorded their 7-acre donation. Five acres were set
aside for school purposes and two acres for the cemetery, which at that time contained
about 11 gravesites. When Holt School trustees deeded the school's five acres
and vacated schoolhouse to the Holt Cemetery Association in 1948, about an acre
of this property was converted for cemetery use.
In 1907 the cemetery
association established policies governing the use of this site. The cemetery,
which continues to serve the local community, contains the gravesites of many
of this area's first settlers and those of veterans of World
War I, World War II,
and the Korean conflict.
(1993) |
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Holt
School
Texas Historic Landmark
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson , March 2010 |
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Historical
Marker TextHolt
SchoolA county-wide
public school district was established soon after Hutchinson County was created
in 1901. As more people began to settle in the area, regional school districts
were formed.
Common School District No. 8 was established in the northeastern
corner of the county in 1902. The first schoolhouse, located on land owned by
Benjamin Calvin Holt, was a one-room structure built in 1903.
This two-room
schoolhouse was constructed in 1916 with lumber and other building materials hauled
in from Texoma, Oklahoma. The simple
wooden structure exhibits classical revival style detailings, especially in the
gable entrance. Other features include oversized windows and decorative wood shingles.
Regular school classes were held here until 1935, when students began attending
school in Spearman. The building,
however, remained a community gathering place. The site of worship services, weddings
and funerals, it has also hosted community activities such as quilting bees and
local theater productions and continues to serve as an election polling place.
The school buildings and grounds were deeded to the Holt Cemetery Association
in 1949.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1989. |
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Historical
Marker TextDrift
FenceFamed
cattleman Charles
Goodnight established one of the first ranches in the Texas
Panhandle, the J A Ranch, in 1876. Later that year, Thomas S. Bugbee established
the first cattle ranch in Hutchinson County.
As a result of soaring beef
prices cattle ranching proliferated
in this region of the U.S. in the 1880s. The Texas
Panhandle, with its open range and expansive grasslands, became the preferred
winter grazing site for cattle migrating south from Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma,
and Kansas. This seasonal influx of cattle disrupted the practice of area ranchers
who went to great lengths to respect adjacent ranch boundaries.
Members
of the Panhandle Stock Association pooled their resources and in 1882-85 erected
barbed wire barriers
along a 200-mile stretch of the Panhandle
including Hutchinson County to prevent cattle
from drifting south into the fertile Canadian River Valley.
The "drift
fence" worked too well in the winters of 1886 and 1887 when thousands of cattle
moving south ahead of strong storms stalled at the fence line and froze or were
trampled to death. The staggering losses prompted federal and state legislation
which limited fencing on public lands and the "drift fence" was removed or incorporated
into private ranch fencing.
Sesquicentennial
of Texas Statehood 1845-1995. |
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