Farwell, Texas

One of the first explorations of North America by Spain, the Coronado Expedition began in Mexico in April of 1540 and crossed into Texas at or near present-day Parmer County. The party, led by Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, was sent to investigate reports of great wealth among the native peoples. In one city, Quivira, the ruler reputedly ate from gold plates. After entering Texas, Coronado and 36 men separated from the main group and journeyed north. In the summer of 1541, on the present Kansas-Nebraska line, Coronado found Quivira -- an ordinary Native American village. After the winter of 1541-1542, the group returned to Mexico. (1969)

James Darlington Hamlin, Texas agent for the Capitol Syndicate ( see XIT RANCH ) and organizer of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society , son of James H. and Mary Jane (Gilman) Hamlin, was born on August 5, 1871, at St. Matthews, Kentucky. He attended Kentucky Wesleyan University and the University of Kentucky and left his native state in 1897 to seek his fortune in Alaska. He ended his journey at Amarillo, Texas, where he found relief from his chronic asthma. During the fall of 1897 he and Willis Day Twichell established Amarillo College; Hamlin was named president of the college and professor of Latin and Greek, positions he held until 1909. He was admitted to the bar about 1898 and practiced law until 1902, when he was elected county attorney for Potter County. He became Texas counsel for the Capitol Free hold Land and Investment Company, Limited , about the same time and was named Texas representative of the firm in 1906. In 1905, as agent for the Capitol Syndicate, he opened XIT Ranch lands to colonization and founded Farwell, Texas; at the same time, in partnership with Lee John Hutson , Hamlin opened the site of Texico, New Mexico, to settlement. From 1907 to 1919 he served as county judge of Parmer County. In 1916 he helped found the short-lived Panhandle-Plains Chamber of Commerce, which a few years later was amalgamated with the West Texas Chamber of Commerce . From 1934 to 1936 Hamlin served as president of the combined organization. In 1921 he, Thomas F. Turner , and several others organized the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, and Hamlin, as a director, was later instrumental in the establishment of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum . In 1940 he retired from all business activities except the position of Texas representative of the John V. Farwell Company (Capitol Syndicate), a position he held until his death. Hamlin was married in 1906 to Katherine Nichols. He died at Clovis, New Mexico, on January 10, 1950, and was interred at Farwell, Texas.

Parmer County, on the western border of the Panhandle of Texas, is bordered on the west by New Mexico, on the north by Deaf Smith County, on the east by Castro County, and on the south by Bailey and Lamb counties. The county is on the High Plains of Texas, and its center is located at 34°33' north latitude and 102°47' west longitude. Farwell, the county seat, is on the Texas-New Mexico border, fifteen miles southwest of the center of the county and eighty-five miles southwest of Amarillo. The county was named for Martin Parmer , an early settler and Texas Revolution veteran. Parmer County occupies 859 square miles of level plains surfaced by sandy, clay, and loam soils. These soils support some native grasses, but now the land is largely cultivated and produces abundant corn, sugar beets, and potatoes, as well as sorghums, cotton, wheat, hay, and soybeans. The elevation ranges from 3,800 to 4,202 feet above sea level, and the county is bisected from northwest to southeast by Running Water Draw, an intermittent but flood-prone creek. Lesser dry arroyos, such as Catfish Draw and Frio Draw, also serve to break the level plains in some areas. Rainfall averages 17.50 inches per year. The average annual minimum temperature is 21° F in January, and the average maximum is 92° F in July. The growing season averages 183 days per year. The region including Parmer County has remained rather isolated throughout its history. It is possible that the José Mares expedition from Santa Fe to San Antonio crossed the northeastern corner of the county in 1787, but for the most part the region remained under the control of its aboriginal inhabitants. Apaches occupied the Panhandle-Plains until they were pushed out around 1700 by the Kiowas and Comanches, who ruled the Texas High Plains between 1700 and the end of the Red River War in 1874. After their defeat and removal to Indian Territory, the Parmer County region was opened for White settlement. In 1876 Parmer County was established by the Texas legislature from lands formerly assigned to the Bexar District. No settlement occurred in the county until 1882. In January of that year the Capitol Syndicate agreed to build a new state capitol in return for 3,000,000 acres of land in West Texas. Parmer County lay entirely within the lands granted to the Chicago syndicate for its huge XIT Ranch . For the rest of the century Parmer County remained unorganized and unpopulated, except for the XIT cowboys. The 1890 population of seven grew only to thirty-four by 1900, and ranching dominated the region. According to the United States agricultural census for 1900, the XIT (the only ranch in the area at the time) extended across 150,000 acres of Parmer County land. The census reported 13,675 cattle in the county that year; only 350 acres were considered to be "improved," and no crops were reported. While the area was solely devoted to cattle in 1900, developments that would reshape the area had already begun to occur. In 1898 the Pecos and Northern Texas Railway Company began construction of a ninety-five-mile branch line from Amarillo to the Texas-New Mexico border. On this line, which was eventually to run from Amarillo to the Santa Fe main line in Belen, New Mexico, grew several communities in Parmer County. Parmerton appeared in 1898 as a Capitol Syndicate townsite, while Black, Friona, and Bovina appeared the same year as switches and townsites on the line. Farwell, established in 1904 and surveyed in 1905, was founded by the syndicate as a central point from which the company could administer the sales of XIT lands. The appearance of Farwell led to the quick demise of Parmerton. In 1904 the Capitol Syndicate launched a campaign to sell the holdings of the XIT Ranch to land speculators, smaller ranchers, and farmers. Between 1904 and 1910 farmers slowly but steadily arrived to establish new operations, and by 1910 there were 161 farms and ranches in the county. About 7,000 acres was planted

Named for John V. Farwell and C. B. Farwell. Builders of the Texas Capitol, 1882-1888, in exchange for three million acres of state land. Founders of the XIT Ranch, 1885. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

The Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Company, which incorporated in England in 1884 to finance the XIT Ranch, deeded land for the Olivet Cemetery to James M. Hamlin in Nov. 1908. One of the earliest burials is that of John Armstrong, XIT manager and shipping agent who was shot by cattle thieves while loading cattle onto rail cars in Bovina. A local tragedy is recalled at the plot of the Hassell family, a mother and eight children who were murdered in 1926. About one hundred interments have been indentified in the ten-acre cemetery, including veterans of military conflicts dating to the Civil War. The site was Farwell's first cemetery, and many prominent names in Parmer Co., Texas and Curry Co., New Mexico are represented here.

Farwell, the county seat of Parmer County, is at the junction of U.S. highways 60 and 84, on the New Mexico state line in the southwestern part of the county. The townsite was located at the point where the Pecos Valley and Northern Texas Railway entered New Mexico, on land originally part of the XIT Ranch . R. H. Kemp established a lumber company nearby in 1904. The site, named for the brothers Charles B. and John V. Farwell , who headed the Capitol Syndicate, was surveyed in 1905. Farwell was made headquarters for the company's resident representative, James D. Hamlin , and its land commissioner, F. W. Wilsey. Almost immediately several substantial buildings were constructed: a large brick warehouse for R. C. Hopping and the Robertson brothers, who operated a grocery store in Texico; a group of brick stores and offices known as the "Hamlin Brick"; and later the Farwell Inn, a three-story brick hotel. A Congregational church built in 1907 doubled as a public school until separate facilities were built in 1910. A post office was established in 1906. Farwell supplanted Parmerton as county seat when Parmer County was organized in 1907; Hamlin was elected county judge. In 1908 the First National Bank of Farwell was chartered, and the Santa Fe Railroad established a freight depot, warehouse, and coalyard on the Texas side. B. F. Fears started publication of the State Line Tribune by 1910, when Farwell's population had grown to more than 800 and the town had begun to rival Texico and Clovis, New Mexico, as a railroad shipping center. The citizens had voted to incorporate in 1907, but Farwell was disincorporated and the bank closed in 1910 when city funds became badly depleted. The bank was rechartered in 1912 as the Texas State Bank of Farwell. Farwell grew while real estate developers continued to parcel off XIT lands and attract more settlers. A permanent courthouse was erected in 1917. That year C. A. Roberson sought to establish an automobile and tire manufacturing plant, but that scheme folded when he was jailed for selling fraudulent stock. By the mid-1920s the town had modern utilities, and further improvements were made on the waterworks by 1930. In 1950, with a population of 1,250, the town voted once again to incorporate and established a mayor-commission government. A medical clinic was built in 1955, and a year later a volunteer fire department was organized. The last thirty-nine acres of XIT Ranch land in Farwell was sold in 1963. The industries that serve modern agriculture in Farwell include a fertilizer plant, an irrigation pipe plant, several feedlot operations, and four grain elevators with a total storage capacity of more than six million bushels. The town has five churches. By 1960 the population was just over 1,000, and by 1967 Farwell supported more than ninety businesses. The annual Border Town Days is held the last weekend in July. The population in Farwell increased from 1,185 in 1970 to 1,354 by 1985 and 1,373 by 1990. In 2000 the population was 1,364.