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A restored Skelly
Oil Filling Station
Photo courtesy Roy Saffel, September 2006 |
History
in an Oil Can:
The town was named for Oklahoman William Grove Skelly,
oil speculator and founder of the Skelly Oil Company. The Skelly Company
tapped into the rich Roxana field - under land that had been leased
from rancher Henry Schafer. Schafer in the mid 1920s platted a town
that was sandwiched between the two oil camps of Roxana
(north) and Noelette (east). Growth was limited and the people who
tried to settle here had no existing infrastructure. Water had to
be hauled in.
The Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway built a branch line from White
Deer and built a depot just north of Skelly. The railroad's arrival
spurred all three camps/ towns to converge around the depot and before
long the Skellytown Townsite Company was formed. Skellytown had over
100 working wells and two refineries working - all within a four month
period.
In addition
to the Skelly shops, storage warehouses and lumberyards nearly outnumbered
residences. The town also had seven groceries, three drugstores, and
entertainment was provided by a dance hall, movie, and at least one
pool hall. For the transient population there was a hotel and many
rooming houses.
1927 began with the opening of the Skellytown post office in January
of that year and a weekly newspaper began publication. A small emergency
hospital was opened by Dr. F. S. Coolen and an elementary school opened
all within the same year.
From a respectable population of 450 in 1931, it declined to only
154 in just two years. During the war the machine shops retooled for
the war effort and the population rose to nearly 700 by 1943. The
town incorporated in the late 1950s and a modern water/ sewer infrastructure
was installed. The population was nearly 900 by the mid 1980s, 664
for the 1990 census, 610 in 2000, and 473 in 2010.
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Former Skellytown
Jail (?)
Photo courtesy Roy Saffel, September 2006 |
| 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
us. |
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