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| | Prairie
Dog Fork of the Red River
Photo courtesy Ken Rudine, July 2006 |
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| | The
road to Estelline
Photo courtesy Ken Rudine, July 2006 |
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History
in a Pecan Shell
Originally part of the Diamond Tail Ranch, Estelline
was named after the daughter of a local resident (Estelle de Shields) and founded
by the Wright Brothers (Elam and Math) in 1892. With the arrival of the Fort Worth
and Denver City Railway Estelline became a shipping point for cattle driven in
from Paducah and Silverton.
A post office was opened that same year (1892) and within two years the town had
a school, two hotels and a cotton gin. An improved school (two stories) was built
in 1909 and the town incorporated three years later when the population had reached
1,000.
In 1927 a branch of the railroad was built from Estelline to Plainview,
but with the onset of the Great Depression the population decreased to about 600
by 1940 - the year that the city suffered fire damage. The 1980 population was
258 which has since declined to 168 people. |
| | Estelline
City Limits
Photo courtesy Ken Rudine, July 2006 |
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