Childress, Texas

= [Mill Iron brand] Born 1840. Came from Illinois to Texas, 1859. During Civil War rose from private, 1st Texas Artillery, to Colonel in 16th Cavalry. Was in bloody battles of Shiloh, Chickamauga, Nashville, Richmond. After war, when "didn't have 2 pairs of pants", taught school and read law in Weatherford. As lawyer, took many land cases. In 7 years became organizer and president, City Bank of Dallas (now 1st National, Dallas). Later, an officer in Exchange Bank, Dallas; Union Trust Co., St. Louis; Continental Trust Co., Denver. In 1880, bought half interest in Mill Iron Ranch. Purchased small holdings from Pease to Red River -- Bridle Bits, DV's, Diamond D's and others. Range lay in Childress, Cottle, Hall, Motley counties. In 1885 added windmills, wells, to run larger herds-up to 50,000. In early years used dugouts, chuckwagons for headquarters. First small ranch house was built at Windmill 62, near Estelline. Bought out Rocking Chair Ranch, Collingsworth County, 1896. Until 1898, ran only longhorns. Was said to have had the largest men, most practical jokers, longest cattle drives, biggest horses in Texas. He sold off the last Mill Iron herd in 1918 -- year of his death. (1965)

In hostile Indian years of 1866-71, route of great cattle drives from Texas to U.S. forts in Colorado and New Mexico. Col. Charles Goodnight, trailblazer, drove thousands of cattle to water here. Site later (1886) became Childress. Cattle watering hole is now lake in Fair Park. (1964)

F.M. Phipps and G.S. Layton opened the Palace Theater in 1926. The theater suffered two fires, the second burning it to the ground in 1936. Phipps' widow, Mable, and Layton's son G.R. hired W. Scott Dunne of Dallas to design a new moviehouse at the site. Built by H.J. Naylor, the Palace reopened in February 1937, and the Palace Barber Shop and City Newsstand also operated from the building. The theater closed in the 1980s. The building's Art Moderne architectural features, including zigzag patterning, and the theater's history are significant reminders of 20th-century Childress. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2005

Childress County, on the eastern edge of the Panhandle , is bounded on the east by Oklahoma, on the south by Cottle County, on the West by Hall County, and on the north by Collingsworth County. The county is named for George C. Childress , author of the Texas Declaration of Independence . The county seat, Childress, is located 116 miles southeast of Amarillo, on the Fort Worth and Denver Railway and U.S. Highway 287. The center of the county lies at approximately 34°35' north latitude and 100°13' west longitude. The county comprises 699 square miles of rolling prairies and rough riverbottoms. Its soils are a mix, usually a sandy loam mixed with alluvial sands from the county's many creeks and rivers. These soils support a variety of native grasses as well as cotton, wheat, and sorghum. Shin oak, mesquite, salt cedar, and hackberry grow in the bottoms. The county has a small yearly production of oil and gas, but minerals do not play a major role in the local economy. The elevation of the county ranges from 1,600 to 1,900 feet above sea level; the annual growing season averages 217 days, and annual precipitation averages 20.67 inches. The average minimum temperature is 26° F in January, and the average maximum is 99° in July. The major water feature of the county is the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River, which bisects the county as it flows eastward towards the main channel of the Red River. This stream and its tributary creeks (Dry Salt Creek, East Salt Creek, and Spiller, or Buck, Creek) render much of the central and northern part of the county unfit for farming. Thus ranching retains a significant role in the local economy. Baylor Lake and Lake Childress, two small bodies of water, lie to the northwest of Childress and provide recreation. Archeological discoveries along the banks of the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River indicate that permanent Indian farming communities existed in the area now known as Childress County between A.D. 1000 and 1600. The Indians lived in half dugouts and used stone and bone tools; they made pottery and supplemented their diet with buffalo, deer, dogs, turtles, and mussels. Apaches occupied the area from about 1600 to about 1700, when the more warlike Comanches entered the region to begin a rule of the Panhandle and South Plains of Texas until they were crushed by the United States Army in the Red River War of 1874. As the Comanches retreated to reservations in Indian Territory during 1875 and 1876, buffalo hunters spread across the area. By the late 1870s the buffalo herds were exterminated and ranchers entered the local picture. The Texas legislature formed Childress County in 1876. In 1879 the OX Ranch , owned by A. Forsythe and Doss D. Swearingen, was established in the southern part of the county. This large ranch occupied the entire southern half of Childress County and parts of Cottle and Motley counties. The Shoe Nail Ranch , owned by Chicago meat packer Gustavus Franklin Swift, was started in 1883 in the northern part of the county, while the Mill Iron Ranch spilled into the northwestern part of the county from Collingsworth County. These ranches dominated the local economy, and the unorganized county remained a sparsely populated ranching area until farmers began to appear in numbers during the early twentieth century. In 1890 the United States Agricultural Census enumerated 3,982 cattle in Childress County; in 1900 the number was almost 25,500. Farms began to be established in the Childress County in the 1880s after the Fort Worth and Denver City extended its tracks into the area. This railroad began construction of its line from Fort Worth to the Texas-New Mexico border in 1881 and crossed into Childress County in April 1887. Organization of the county soon followed. A move to organize the county began even as the rails were being laid across it. A lively competition for the role of county seat developed between two townsites: Childress City, favored by most of the county re

Childress, the county seat of Childress County, is at the junction of U.S. highways 287, 62, and 83, in the central part of the county. The town is named for George C. Childress , author of the Texas Declaration of Independence . It developed out of two separate townsites, Childress City and Henry, which were platted about four miles apart on land previously occupied by the OX Ranch . When Childress County was organized upon the arrival of the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway in February 1887, the two towns contested for the position of county seat. In the first election, held on April 11, 1887, Childress City, which already had three businesses, won the honor. A wooden courthouse was built under the supervision of Amos J. Fires , the "Dean of the Panhandle Lawyers." However, the Donley County Court (to which Childress County was attached for judicial purposes at the time) canvassed the election and declared it illegal. R. E. Montgomery, the railroad's right-of-way and townsite agent, had always favored Henry as the county seat because of the rougher terrain at Childress City, which he claimed would prevent the railroad from building a depot there. Significantly, he had also purchased half the property in Henry. After the court's action, Montgomery proposed that the railroad give those owning lots in Childress City lots in Henry. Furthermore, when Henry was chosen county seat in another election, the company offered to change the name of Henry to Childress. Fires and his associates agreed to this compromise, and the businesses and residences were moved to the new Childress by September 1887. The town then enjoyed a boom from the railroad, which constructed the Dwight Hotel, the section house, and the depot. The Childress Lumber Company opened for business soon afterward. Dr. J. H. Christler became the first physician and one of the town's first businessmen. Fires, who was elected county judge, started the first bank and helped organized the first school system. James S. Harrison began the town's first newspaper, the Childress County Index (later the Childress Index ), in 1888. Four churches, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Church of Christ, were established in Childress by 1889. The city was incorporated in 1890. It had a post office, a livery stable, a boarding house, a restaurant, three stores, a local YMCA, a theater, and a population of 621. There were also several saloons at first, but in 1904 a fatal shooting prompted the citizens to vote the town dry. In 1901, when the Fort Worth and Denver City began considering Childress as a division point, the citizens approved bonds and donated land to build shops, roundhouses, and terminal facilities. These businesses, in addition to the influx of farmers and homesteaders, provided more jobs and resulted in a population increase to 5,003 by 1910. Walter P. Chrysler served as general foreman of the Childress railroad shops in 1905 and 1906 before working as a master mechanic in Iowa and subsequently founding the Chrysler Motor Corporation. After a fire destroyed the first courthouse in 1891, an elaborate stone building was constructed and used until the present courthouse was built in 1939. For years a large windmill in the middle of Main Street served as the city's water source. The railroad continued as the industrial mainstay of Childress into the 1940s. Construction of the Fort Worth and Denver Northern line from Childress to Pampa and increased activity in the railroad shops in Childress helped reduce the economic hardships of the Great Depression in Childress. In 1941 a move on the part of the railroad to discontinue its shops was thwarted by the citizens, in cooperation with the Interstate Commerce Commission. Various social clubs and lodges helped to promote the community, as did Childress Army Air Field during its existence from 1942 to 1945. In the 1920s a brick high school building was completed. In 1929 the town had a second newspaper, the Childress News , which

Amos J. Fires, lawyer, judge, and civic leader, son of Thomas J. and Emeline Fires, was born on June 16, 1860, on a farm in Clay County, Indiana. In May 1886 he received his law degree from the University of Louisville, Kentucky. After accompanying an attorney to San Antonio, Fires decided to move to Texas. On July 15, 1886, he joined the law firm of Matthews and Wood at Lampasas, but a severe drought caused him to move north to Vernon later that year. Hearing that Childress County was going to be organized, Fires and a companion named Upfold drove a covered wagon to the new townsite of Childress City, where they arrived on November 10, 1886, during a heavy snowstorm. Over the next few months Fires built up acquaintances by doing odd jobs for various farmers and ranchers. On April 11, 1887, he was elected the first county judge. During this time he led the fight to elect Childress City county seat. His satirical letters to Robert E. Montgomery, agent for the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway, reflect his combined humor and earnestness in his attempts to get the line to build through the town. In the end Fires and his partisans accepted the railroad's compromise proposal to move their homes and businesses to the nearby depot town of Henry in September 1887, and Henry was renamed Childress. When Fires was first elected county judge, he boarded at a dugout and slept in his courthouse office. After the town moved in 1887 he entered private law practice and filed on a section of land northwest of Childress, on which the town of Carey was later located. Here he was said to have sown the first wheat in the county. From the time of his initial arrival in Texas, Fires kept in touch with his sweetheart, Margaret Warwick, in Bloomfield, Indiana. They were married in Kansas City on May 15, 1889. Afterward they settled on a section southeast of Childress, where Fires built a three-room house; they had a daughter and two sons. During his long career as the leading Panhandle trial lawyer, Fires defended 123 persons charged with murder and lost only four cases. People came from miles around to hear his trials; many camped out in the court towns. Temple Houston worked with him in several cases. Fires helped establish the county's first public school, organized the first bank, built the first brick business house, helped dig the first grave in Childress Cemetery, and did legal work to secure the railroad shops for the city. He also helped to organize Collingsworth, Cottle, Motley, and Floyd counties by preparing their petitions and representing them before the commissioners' court. In 1927 Fires retired as attorney for the FW&D and accepted appointment by Governor Dan Moody as district judge of the 100th Judicial District. He was elected to that office in 1928 and again in 1932. He strongly opposed the Ku Klux Klan as being un-American and became involved in a bitter feud with that organization. Throughout his later years Fires was looked upon as a one-man university by many aspiring young lawyers. In 1936 he retired from active public life to live quietly at his home in Childress. After a lengthy illness he was taken to the home of his daughter, Callie, in Wichita Falls, where he died on April 13, 1941. During his funeral in Childress, the entire town flew flags at half-mast.