Landmarks

Sherman County Towns

STRATFORD, TEXAS

Stratford, the county seat of Sherman County, is at the intersection of U.S. highways 54 and 287 in the western part of the county. The site was settled around 1885, when Aaron Norton bought 100 sections of land from the railroads, and was named by Walter Colton, Norton's hired manager, after Stratford, Virginia, the boyhood home of Robert E. Lee. Colton, a native of Kentucky, had been an admirer of Lee.

In 1900 the site that Colton and his associates platted became a shipping point and post office on the Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railway. An election resulted in Stratford's replacing Coldwater as county seat in July 1901.

During the following decade small businessmen and homesteaders were attracted to the vicinity by the advertisements of the Standard Land Company, a Rock Island immigration agency based in Kansas City, which established a branch office in Stratford. George M. Kerr began a new county newspaper, the Stratford Star, in 1901, replacing the Sherman County Banner of Coldwater.

By 1910 Stratford had three churches, a school, two banks, and a population of 600. The town grew more in 1928, when the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway arrived. During the 1930s Stratford became noted for its high school band program.

Although the Dust Bowl posed a threat to the local economy, programs of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration and the Work Projects Administration, and later the introduction of irrigation wells, enabled Stratford to continue as a center of Panhandle agriculture.

In the 1980s, in addition to several large feedlots and feed-production plants, the town had a tannery, a steel-fabrication plant, a bank, a library, an airport, seven churches, enlarged public schools, an exhibit and livestock-show barn, and a nursing home with updated facilities.

Stratford was incorporated before 1940, when it reported a population of 877. In 1950 the population was 1,376. It was 2,139 in 1970, 1,917 in 1980, and 1,781 in 1990.

STEVENS, TEXAS

Stevens, in northern Sherman County, was established as a switch on the Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf in 1900 and was named for Steve Stevens, a conductor on that railway. Classes were held in the railroad section house before a one-room school was built on land donated by George Brady in 1910.

Later a general store was built, and in 1920 the Riffe brothers built a grain elevator. A post office was established at the community in April 1929. In 1940 the school was consolidated with the Stratford district; the building was sold to Harry Sears of Stratford and its lumber was subsequently used for a house there.

During the 1940s Stevens reported a population of twenty, but the improved highways in the area led to the demise of the town. Its post office was discontinued in 1943, and the store, which had a filling station, remained in business for only a few years beyond that.

In 1987 only the grain elevator remained at the Stevens townsite, on U.S. Highway 54 between Stratford and Texhoma.

TEXHOMA, TEXAS

Texhoma is on U.S. Highway 54 and the Texas-Oklahoma state line, in northeastern Sherman County. It was a stop on the Chicago, Rock Island and Mexico Railway in 1901. The community that developed there was platted and dedicated in 1906.

In 1910 it had a school, a boarding house, a bank, three churches, at least one grain elevator, stores, and a population of 300. Until the introduction of steam tractors, wagonyards provided the mainstay of the town's income.

A. Y. Ingham's short-lived post office, on the Texas side, lasted only from December 11, 1909, to April 30, 1910. Now the banks, the post office, and most of the business section and grain elevators are on the Oklahoma side. This resulted from a 1932 survey which moved the state line about 465 feet south of the original State Line Road.

Ranching and grain production remain the leading industry in Texhoma; there is also significant production of natural gas. The town is incorporated and reported 358 persons in Texas and 1,142 in Oklahoma in 1984. In 1990 the Texas figure was 291.

Sherman County Streams

COLDWATER CREEK

Coldwater Creek rises in Cimarron County, Oklahoma (at 36°30' N, 102°52' W), and runs through northwest Dallam County, Texas, east across central Sherman County, and northeast across northwestern Hansford County, into Texas County, Oklahoma, where it proceeds northwest to its mouth on the North Canadian River (at 36°40' N, 101°07' W).

It crosses flat to rolling hills surfaced by clay and sandy loam that supports hardwoods, brush, and grasses. The stream is sometimes known as Rabbit Ears Creek, after the two peaks called the Rabbit Ears near Clayton, New Mexico. These peaks were an important landmark and campsite on the Cimarron Cutoff section of the Santa Fe Trail.

NORTH CANADIAN RIVER

The North Canadian River heads as the Corrumpa River in Union County, New Mexico (at 36°30' N, 102°09' W), and runs east across the Oklahoma Panhandle, dipping southward into Texas only in northwestern Sherman County for six miles.

The stream continues its southeasterly course to join the main Canadian in McIntosh County, Oklahoma (at 36°30' N, 101°55' W). The North Canadian, also known as the Beaver River, gave its name to Beaver County, Oklahoma. The stream crosses flat to rolling terrain with local escarpments, surfaced by mostly deep, fine sandy loams, which support brush and grasses.

The Corrumpa Valley is famous as the area where Ernest Thompson Seton tracked, and finally captured, the legendary wolf known as Old Lobo in January 1894.

FRISCO CREEK

Frisco Creek rises near Stratford in northwestern Sherman County (at 36°22' N, 102°09' W) and runs northeast for thirteen miles, across Sherman County and the northwestern corner of Hansford County, into Texas County, Oklahoma, where it drains into the North Canadian River (at 36°34' N, 101°23' W).

The stream crosses flat to rolling terrain with local escarpments, surfaced by deep, fine sandy loams that support brush and grasses.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sherman County Historical Survey Committee, God, Grass, and Grit (2 vols., Seagraves, Texas: Pioneer, 1971, 1975).

H. Allen Anderson