PETTY, TEXAS

Petty Area Hotels
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History in a Pecan Shell

Now known as a “dispersed rural community,” it wasn’t always so. Petty, which was also known as Lookout or Dowlin, was settled in the late 1860s. The relative height of the topography gave it its first name of Lookout, and the name was changed again with the arrival of the Texas and Pacific Railroad in the 1880s.

No explanation of the name Dowlin is available, but its safe to assume there was some connection to the railroad. Finally the matter was settled when a post office was opened in 1886.

Landowner J. M. Petty, was popular enough to have the post office application filled out with his name – and it has remained so ever since. In 1890 the town had a respectable population of 350 with most essential businesses and a few not-so essential. The population peaked in the early 1930s with 500 residents.

The Great Depression hit the town hard and so did the post war draw of good jobs and better highways. By the mid 1960s there were only 100 residents – the same number that’s been used ever since.