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BLANKET,
TEXAS
Brown County, Texas
Panhandle
Highway 67 / 377
15 miles NE of Brownwood
47 miles S of Cisco
47 miles SW of Stephenville
113 miles SW of Fort Worth
Population:
402 (2000)
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The
Hitchin' Post
September 2003 Photo Courtesy Teri Brown historictexas.net
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Methodist
Church in Blanket
September 2003 Photo Courtesy Teri Brown, historictexas.net
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History
in a Pecan Shell
The simple and (slightly) colorful account of the name comes from
1852. Blanket Creek was supposedly named by surveyors who happened
upon some Tonkawa Indians. The account says the Indians had been caught
in a storm and had spread their blankets over bushes for protection.
It's entirely possible that they were simply drying their laundry
- that's the trouble with historians - they usually feel a need to
include dramatic elements like storms.
As a community took shape on the banks of Blanket Creek, the name
was kept. A post office was established in 1875 in the existing store
of one Pinkney Anderson.
In 1891 the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad extended its
tracks from Comanche
to Brownwood
and Blanket left the creek banks to move to the rails.
In 1904 Blanket had a population of 304 which swelled to 472 by 1929.
During the Great Depression the population leveled off at 300 - a
figure it kept until the 1970s. Growth has been at a snail's pace,
but the town is happy to be adding people rather than subtracting
like most towns its size. |
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Blanket
Community Center
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, December 2005 |
FAMOUS
SON
Harold Osman Kelly
Blanket's most famous resident was painter Harold Osman Kelly, who
moved from the Panhandle (near Dalhart) to Blanket in 1939. Having
been a shepherd, cowboy, sharecropper, and occasional rodeo rider,
he had a wealth of experience to paint from. His talent for sketching
was developed at an early age and he once illustrated his favorite
Charles Dicken's book, The Pickwick Papers. ... more
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