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| Photo
courtesy Rhonda Aveni |
History
in a Pecan Shell
Stockton P. Donley was a Texas Supreme Court
Judge.
Clarendon has nearly as interesting a founding as Post,
Texas. While Post was founded on matters of health, so was Clarendon - in
a way. It was originally set up to be a town where cowboys could "dry out". L.
H. Carhart, a Methodist Minister, envisioned Clarendon to be what he called a
"sobriety settlement." |
History
of Clarendon
by Lou Ann Herda
From "Donley
County Courthouse":
"If you're like me, when you hear
the name Texas Panhandle, you
probably think blue northers and the Palo
Duro Canyon. It gets cold, cold in the Panhandle
where there's hardly anything but barbed
wire fence to keep out the brisk Arctic wind in the winter.
Donley
County is one of the squared counties located in the Panhandle.
Formerly the domain of Plains Apaches and later the Comanches and Kiowas, this
region was once overrun with buffalo
until White men settled in the latter 1870s. Many battles ensued between the tribes
and the Whites, including the decisive Red River War of 1874-75. Thereafter, the
Indians were put on reservations in Indian Territory, and the buffalo
were slaughtered. With the buffalo
gone, vast cattle ranches could
be established.
This is about when Methodist preacher Lewis Carhart established
"Saints Roost" up in those parts. Actually, Carhart called his no-liquor, no-gambling
Christian colony "Clarendon" after his wife, Clara. But local rowdies gave it
its nickname since they weren't allowed to be rowdy there. Carhart's motto, "Christianity,
Education, Temperance, Civilization - Westward," set high expectations for the
townspeople. Nevertheless, a saloon and dance hall were going to be erected by
some outsiders at one point. This didn't set well with several local cowboys,
who offered to scalp them if they didn't leave. It took legendary cattle driver
Charles Goodnight
to persuade the business owners to pack up and leave. He gave them ten hours to
go, and, by golly, they were gone before that. By the early 1880s, Clarendon
was one of only three towns in the Panhandle.
Saints Roost is now like Atlantis, under water (the Greenbelt Reservoir, to be
exact). Clarendon has been the county seat since
1882.
Incidentally, the August 2, 1879, edition of the Clarendon News,
which claimed that there was to be "no whisky forever in Clarendon,"
made comment on the Sunday law. This so-called law extended between the hours
of midnight on Saturday until midnight on Sunday, during which time no shopping
or trading was allowed. It appears that a drought had laid siege on the land and
that "to many old guzzlers, it seem[ed] an eternity between drinks." I guess they
were guzzling lemonade since whisky wasn't allowed."... more |
Clarendon Attractions Donley
County Courthouse
-
The 1894 courthouse restored to its former glory.
Saints
Roost Museum - Hwy
70 South of town. In former Hospital founded by Cornelia Adair. The name Saint's
Roost was bestowed upon Clarendon by cowboys who were mildly chiding the founder's
intentions.
S.W.
Lowe House
Clarendon Hotels
Book Your Hotel Here & Save |
S.W.
Lowe House
National Register of Historic Places
Recorded
Texas Historic Landmark |
St. John Baptist Episcopal Church
Oldest church continuously in use in the
Texas Panhandle
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark
On 3rd & Parks Street
Photo
courtesy Barclay
Gibson, July 2009 |
Clarendon
College
1913 postcard courtesy www.rootsweb.com/ %7Etxpstcrd/ |
Clarendon
Tourist Information Clarendon/Donley
County Chamber of Commerce
PO BOX 730 Clarendon, Texas 79226
806-874-2421
www.clarendonedc.org |
Centennial
Marker Text
Donley
County
Formed
from Young and Bexar territories; Created August 21, 1876; Organized March 22,
1882; Named in honor of Stockton P. Donley 1821-1871; a Confederate officer elected
to the Texas Supreme Bench in 1866; Clarendon, the County Seat. |
Clarendon Texas
Forum Subject:
Clarendon History
Dear Editor - I am doing some genealogical history and
am wondering if you have suggestions as to a local person with whom I might communicate.
I am researching a fellow named Rev. Richard Allen Hall who was a minister in
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was Presiding Elder of the Clarendon
District for four years in the 1893-1899 period. Supposedly he helped to found
or did found Clarendon College and was on the Board of Trustees. He married a
woman named Alice Texanna Neely from that area in 1881. If you have any suggestions
as to someone who might be familiar with area Methodist preachers in that period
or the founding of Clarendon, I would be very interested in communicating with
them. Thank you. - Kalmin Smith, May 28, 2006, KalminSmith@aol.com
Clarendon
Hotels Book Your Hotel Here & Save |
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Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
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photos of their town, please contact
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