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Texas Ghost
Town
WALTHALL, TEXAS
Runnels County,
Panhandle / West Texas |
A
stage line connecting Camp Colorado in Coleman County with Fort Concho
in Tom Green County had a station at the crossing of the Colorado
River, four miles southeast of present Ballinger.
A settlement grew up here which at first consisted of one store, a
house, and a dugout. Later a school was built across the river. The
settlement acquired the name of Walthall.
Nathaniel T. Guest, who had settled at the site in 1869, built the
first wood house in 1876. A post office was established on June 6,
1877 with William G. Hightower as the fist postmaster; he also ran
the general store. The Walthall Methodist Church was organized in
the Archibald Beniah Hutchison home in 1879. The Colorado Baptist
Church was organized on December 29, 1878. The latter group worshipped
in the Walthall schoolhouse with the Rev. J. T. Averetta being the
first pastor. In 1879 Rev. Thomas Wadlington Cotton was chosen pastor
and remained with the church until 1884. On January 12, 1880 a petition
was signed by 158 qualified voters of the area to organize a new county.
On January 12, 1880 the Coleman County Commissioners Court approved
the petition, sectioned the new Runnels County into four precincts,
and ordered an election of county officials to be held on February
16, 1880. The first commissioners were William Moses Guest, W. G.
Preston, P. M. Pemberton and P. S. Turner , with W. W.Copeland as
clerk. Sylvester Adams was made county judge; John McEwen Formwalt
was made the first sheriff; and Jacob Benjamin Cotten was made the
tax assessor-collector.
The Commissioners Court met for the first time on March 10, 1880 and
selected Walthall as the temporary county seat with the home of Rev.
Thomas Wadlington Cotton as a temporary courthouse. Later, an election
on April 14, 1880 made Runnels City the new county seat. The first
schoolmaster at Walthall was John Nichols Winters. The last postmaster
was Nathaniel T. Guest who closed the office in 1881. When Camp Colorado
was closed, there was no need for the telegraph station and Walthall
declined. In a few years it was a ghost town. All that remains today
is the cemetery.
From "Eighteen
Ghost Towns of Runnels County" by Alton O'Neil Jr. |
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