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The
former depot in Lubbock's Ranching Heritage Center
TE Photo, September 2009.
More Texas Depots |
History in a Pecan
Shell
Ropesville was Hockley County's first community, formed when
the Spade Ranch opened for development. Settlers shepherded by one Jim Jarrott
began arriving in 1901. When the South Plains and Santa Fe Railroad Company laid
tracks from Lubbock to Seagraves,
Isaac Ellwood donated land for a railroad depot.
Ropesville was platted
in 1917 and when the time came (1920) to name a post office, the ranch cowboys
suggested the name Ropes for the rope corrals they had built to pen outgoing cattle.
That names was submitted, however, postal authorities thought mail might
be misdirected to Ropers, Texas, so the application was rejected. They trotted
out the old standby "ville" - tacked it on and resubmitted. The rest is history.
Ropes, Texas lives on. The former depot was moved to Lubbock
and is now part of the Ranching Heritage Center.
The town blossomed
with most of the businesses essential for a town. Soon the town had a cotton gin,
hotel, bank, cafe, and even a theater. The town's first school also served as
a church and in 1925 a high school was built. Four churches were built in short
order. In 1926 the town got its first newspaper - The Ropesville Hustler.
It later became the Ropes Plainsman and finally it became the Lubbock
Plainsman when it was bought in the 1960s.
Ropesville had a population
of 500 when the Great Depression began. As it worsened, the Ropesville Resettlement
Project began with federal funding. Thousands of acres of Hockley County were
parceled into farms of 140 to 160 acres. During WWII,
the funds went to the war effort and farmers were able to buy the land.
In 1965 Ropesville reached its zenith with nearly a thousand citizens. By the
late 1980s it had declined by half and the figure given on the 2004 state map
was 517. |
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