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NEW
MOORE, TEXAS
AKA NurmooreSouthwestern
Lynn County, Texas
Panhandle
At the intersection of Farm roads 179 and 213
SE
of Brownfield
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New
Moore History
by Regina Crutcher
This information concerning New Moore was taken
from interviews with John Saleh, Ben Moore, Jr., John Crutcher, and the book "New
Moore, Texas, A Collection of Memories and Accounts" by Tom Hoskins and Margaret
McCullough.
In 1892, Samuel F. Singleton and Marion Virgil "Pap" Brownfield
filed on 16 sections of land along the present-day Lynn and Terry County lines
for future cattle, railroad and township purposes. In 1896, Singleton sent his
son, Willie and a cook to the area to set up camp. As with many business propositions,
the men had different ideas about the use of the land. The men decided to part
ways and divided the land. Singleton ended up with the Lynn County territory and
Brownfield, the Terry County land.
Singleton then purchased the nearby
Slash L Ranch, consisting of 30 sections, in 1898. He put more than 5,000 head
of cattle on the land. However, the problem of drought and poor watering holes
forced the rancher to spend $19,000 to dig wells. The most successful and least
tainted water came from present day New Moore.
After Singleton's death
in 1922, the family decided to sell the ranch. W.McCarty Moore from Dallas purchased
approximately 17,000 acres and commissioned G.O. Newman of Newman Bros. Land Development
Co. in Fort Worth to market his purchase. To prove the worth of the land the company
broke and planted 3,000 acres in cotton in 1924. Within the year, the company
sold inexpensive land of 13,240 acres to about 50 farmers who came largely from
the Nolan County area.
As families with the names of Rogers, Bevel,
Crutcher, Strasner, Light, Pharr, Parker, Fails, and Isreal came to western Lynn
County, the company dubbed the settled area New Moore in honor of Newman and Moore.
In 1924, Moore built the Slash L School on the west side of the land
that later came to be known as the Marshall place, about five miles southwest
of New Moore. The school was to take care of the many children of the new farmers.
The school building was a crude, one-room structure, without water or electricity.
It had many windows to let in light, according to Hoskins' New Moore, Texas account.
"Mesquite wood was used in the stove to warm the building. The room held
from five to seven grades with one teacher for all students. Mrs. Ella Walker
from Wolfe City was an early teacher there. Moore personally paid her salary,
as well as the salaries of other teachers out of his own pocket as long as the
school existed," according to Hoskins.
Another school was authorized
by Lynn County Commissioners later in 1924, a wooden structure built at New Moore,
across from the Frank Rogers home, which was the old Singleton Ranch headquarters.
Both the Slash L school and the New Moore school operated until they were consolidated
in 1928.
In the fall of 1928, another school was started one mile north
of New Moore. In 1929, the modern four-room brick building was opened and the
two other schools were closed and consolidated into the new larger school.
Unfortunately this was also the first year of the depression so families
began to move to towns to seek employment. The population continued to dwindle
in subsequent years.
The New Moore school closed in 1953. The last business
to close in New Moore was the cotton gin, which ginned its last bale in 1986.
I hope I have been of some help. Thank you for considering my information.
- Regina Crutcher, June 22, 2003
Forum:
Subject:
New Moore, Texas
I started first grade in the New Moore school and spent
most of my first 8 years in that school. I would like to make a correction to
your statement that it is in the panhandle of Texas. It is in fact in the South
Plains of Texas and people who live there would be a little upset with you panhandle
statement. I knew many people there who were Rogers and and Crutcher. Thank you
for publishing Regina Crutcher's "New Moore History". I hope I have been of help.
Thanks, Joe Cooley, September 20, 2010 |
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