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The
Issac McCormick Cottage
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, March 2008 |
Stinnett
History in a Pecan Shell The
town got a late start as far as most county seats go. It wasn’t until the summer
of 1926 when town builder “Ace” Borger (namesake of Borger,
Texas) and his partner J.T. Peyton sold lots in the fledgling community. The
town’s namesake was Amarillo
resident Albert Sydney Stinnett, who
bought the right-of-way for the the Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railway (Amarillo
Branch).
The population soared from almost zero to 2,500, making it the
largest town in the county. The former seat of government in Plemons
was forced to relinquish that title when a special election was held in September
of 1926.
The community managed to profit from the mid-1920s oil boom, but
without gaining a reputation for lawlessness, even though a bootlegger was shot
to death in the county jail. Illegal liquor seems to have been the town’s major
vice during Prohibition with just about any business in town supplying it.
The
boom was over when oil prices bottomed out with the onset of the Great Depression.
From a population nearing 3,000, Stinnett fell to just 500 residents. Seventy-five
businesses shrank to fewer than twenty. As the new decade began, 635 people were
counted for the 1940 Census. By 1960 it had grown to 2,695. The Census of 1990
reported 2,260 residents, the 2000 Census counted 1,936 and the 2010 Census had
just over 1,800 residents calling Stinnett home.
Stinnett
NamesakeAlbert
Sidney Stinnett was born in 1863 and named after Confederate General Albert
Sydney Johnston (who had died the previous year). Born in Belton
(Bell County), he moved his family to Amarillo
from Fort Worth in 1905 and became
a tireless promoter of Amarillo
and the entire region. He sold his business to devote his time exclusively to
development and spent two years getting the Rock Island Railroad to connect their
existing lines to Amarillo,
even financing part of construction costs to Kansas. He died in Amarillo
in January of 1935 and was buried in that city’s Llano Cemetery. |
 |
Issac
McCormick Cottage historical marker
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, March 2008 |
Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories, and vintage/historic
photos of their town, please contact
us.
Stinnett,
Texas Area Hotels
Amarillo
Hotels | Borger Hotels |
Recommended
Books
Detailed accounts of the Battles of Adobe Walls
can be found in Frederick
W. Rathjen’s The Texas Panhandle Frontier and
Adobe Walls: The History and Archeology of the 1874 Trading Post by T. Lindsay
Baker and Billy R. Harrison. | |
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