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 WICHITA COUNTY. Wichita County (E-14) is in the extreme north
central portion of the state, on the Oklahoma border. Wichita Falls, the largest
city and county seat, is 144 miles northwest of Dallas and 141 miles southwest
of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The center of Wichita County is at 34°00' north
latitude and 98°42' west longitude. The county comprises 606 square miles, most
of which lies in the eastern part of the Central Texas Rolling Red Plains. The
extreme southeastern corner, however, is in the Central Texas Rolling Red
Prairies. The Rolling Plains vegetation includes mid to tall grasses, mesquite
and shinnery oak trees, and cottonwood, elm, hackberry, and pecan trees along
the streams. The county's terrain consists of rolling plains with rounded slopes
and shallow, comparatively broad valleys. The elevation ranges from 900 to 1,200
feet above mean sea level. Wichita County is drained from southwest to northeast
by the Red and the Wichita rivers. The northwest quarter of the county empties
into the Red River, the middle half drains into the Wichita River, and the
southeast quarter drains into the little Wichita River. Sandy loams, black
loams, and clay loams comprise the bulk of the local soils. Mineral resources
include oil, gas, sand, gravel, and stone. Temperatures range from an average
high of 98° F in July to an average low of 28° F in January, combining for an
average annual temperature of 63° F. Rainfall averages twenty-seven inches per
year, and the growing season lasts, on average, 221 days each year.
The area that became Wichita County was home for Caddoan Indians,
principally the Wichitas and Taovayas, who migrated to the area from present
Kansas and Nebraska, in the middle of the eighteenth century. Despite their
mastery of the horse-introduced into the region by Spanish explorers-and
therefore the buffalo,qv these
natives remained heavily dependent upon agriculture. The location of their
lands, in extreme north central Texas, placed them in conflict with the Lipan
Apaches and the Comanches, both of which claimed the area as their own territory
and continued to visit it long after their removal to Oklahoma. The presence of
often aggressive Native Americans caused difficulties for Anglo-American
settlers in the region until after 1850, when the federal troops forced the
Indians to relocate to reservations north of the Red River. A number of
Europeans, beginning with the Spanish Indian trader Athanase de Mézières,qv
visited the area that became Wichita County during the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries. Among these were Pedro Vial and José Mares,qv
who crossed the region in the course of developing trails from San Antonio to
Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1786 and 1787, and members of the Texan Santa Fe
expedition in 1841. Although
local lands had been granted to survivors and heirs of soldiers who fought in
the Texas Revolutionqv as early
as the 1830s, the first surveys of the area that is now Wichita County took
place in 1854 under the direction of the Texan Emigration and Land Company.
Mabel Gilbert,qv a pioneer of
the settlement that became Dallas, became Wichita County's first permanent
Anglo-American settler when he built a house on a bluff above the Red River, ten
miles north of the site of present Wichita Falls, in 1855. Although Native
Americans twice drove him from his isolated farm, in 1855 and 1862, he returned
in 1867 and died there three years later. Wichita County was established by act
of the Texas legislature on February 1, 1858, from the Cooke Land District, and
was attached to Clay County for judicial purposes. The new county was named for
the Wichita Indians, and settlement was hindered by Indian attacks. Most of the
area's Anglo-American pioneers arrived after 1870, when school lands were
purchased to become cattle ranches, which have remained an important part of the
economy.
Wichita County remained unorganized and sparsely inhabited until after
1880, when its population reached 433. On June 7, 1882, Robert E. Huff,qv
a recently arrived attorney, presented a petition bearing 150 signatures-some of
which allegedly were fraudulent-to the Clay County commissioners court seeking
independence for Wichita County. Elections for county officers took place on
June 21 of that year. Wichita County's population increased relatively rapidly
during the decade after its organization, rising to 4,831 in 1890. The
population was predominantly Anglo-American. In 1880 the county only had
seventeen African Americansqv
and in 1890 only 128. This pattern has remained constant throughout the county's
history. Wichita County remained overwhelmingly rural and agricultural during
its first decade, with the number of farms increasing from sixty in 1880 to 326
in 1890. Cattle production dominated the economy, and between 1880 and 1890 the
number of cattle increased 62 percent to 88,683. Corn and hay were the leading
crops raised in the county. The extension of the tracks of a number of rail
lines into the county greatly facilitated growth. The Fort Worth and Denver City
Railroad reached the tiny settlement of Wichita Falls from Fort Worth in
September 1882. This connection ensured the existence of Wichita Falls, which
adopted the date of the arrival of the first train, September 26, 1882, as its
birthday. Additional railroad-building activity resulted, in large measure, from
the efforts of two Wichita Falls businessmen, Joseph A. Kemp and Frank Kell.qv
Between 1884 and 1911 these men, acting independently and in concert, organized
and promoted three rail lines out of Wichita Falls: the Wichita Falls and
Northwestern, the Wichita Falls and Southern, and the Wichita Falls and
Wellington. The construction of these roads, all of which were purchased by the
Missouri, Kansas and Texas line in 1911, established Wichita Falls as a regional
transportation and distribution center. Its population increased from 2,480 at
the turn of the century to 8,200 by 1910. Call Field,qv
an Army Air Corps training facility, was built south of the city during World
War I.qv Wichita Falls
continued to grow; by 1920 it had a population of 40,079 and by 1930 of 60,000,
or 80 percent of the county's total population.
J. A. Kemp also played a pioneering role in the development of the
county's water resources. His efforts toward establishing permanent water
sources for the area resulted in the formation in 1901 of Lake Wichita, which
provided irrigation and drinking water for Wichita Falls and the surrounding
area, and an amendment to the state constitution, which allowed the sale of
municipal bonds to finance water conservation and irrigation districts.
Irrigation and flood control projects in the Wichita River Valley grew from this
amendment and encouraged the increased population and development of county
lands. In addition to rail connections and water improvements, the discovery of
oil played a very important and lasting role in Wichita County's growth. Oil was
found seeping into area water wells as early as 1901, and a small well was
brought into production in 1910. In 1911 the Electra oilfield was opened (see
WICHITA COUNTY REGULAR FIELDS). By 1918, following major discoveries near the
community of Burkburnett, the county found itself in the midst of a full-scale
oil boom. Extensions of the Burkburnett field and other discoveries through the
1950s, but particularly in 1919 and 1920, brought the rapid growth and equally
rapid disappearance of a number of boom towns. More importantly, however, these
later discoveries attracted people, industry, and commerce to the county,
specifically to the county seat. A number of petroleum-related businesses,
including oilfield product manufacturing, crude oil refining, stock sales, and
related endeavors, began operations locally, most often in Wichita Falls, which
had transportation and communication facilities. By 1940 the county had become
Texas's most productive and active oil county, having produced 320,000,000
barrels of oil.
While county growth slowed noticeably around the turn of the century,
between 1910 and 1930 the population increased from 16,094 to 74,416, and the
number of farms rose from 1,039 to 1,432, a high for the county. Although total
acres of land in farms decreased somewhat, the total value of these farms
increased from $12 million to $17.5 million. Cattle, hay, and corn remained of
great importance to the economy, but cotton cultureqv became increasingly important. Farmers planted 24,000
acres in cotton and produced 6,382 bales in 1910. By 1930 almost 61,000 acres
were devoted to cotton and produced 18,595 bales. During the 1930s and 1940s the
dislocations caused by the Great Depression and World War IIqv
brought on a population decrease, and while the number of farms operating
declined only slightly, the total value of these farms fell by 50 percent. The
number of cattle raised declined by 50 percent from 1920 levels, and cotton
production tumbled to 6,500 bales in 1940. The federal government sought to
assist the county through the Wichita Valley Farm project, a ninety-three-unit
farm or relocation facility. The onset of war in Europe in 1939, followed by
American entry into World War II in 1941, reversed the negative trends of the
1930s. The population rose from 73,604 in 1940 to 98,493 in 1950, by which time
the value of farm lands exceeded $20 million, an increase of 49 percent over
1930. Production of cotton, corn, and hay decreased, but production of cattle
tripled. By the end of the war local factories had added 1,300 new workers, paid
$5 million more in wages, and increased the value of products by $8 million over
1940 levels. Oil production, still a major force in the economy, reached
363,251,849 barrels by the early 1950s. An additional benefit of the war years
lay in the decision of the federal government to locate an Army Air Corps
training facility just north of the county seat. Sheppard Field began operations
in June 1941 and at its peak housed 46,000 men. It was used as a pilot-training,
aircraft maintenance-training, and basic training facility. The facility added
hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars into the local economy. Although it was
deactivated in 1946, it reopened in 1950 as Sheppard Air Force Base,qv
and during the Korean War served as a training center for pilots and aircraft
mechanics. The base's contribution to the economy grew from $43 million in the
middle 1950s to $280 million by the 1980s.
The population grew to 123,528 in 1960 and declined to 120,563 in 1970.
The number of cattle raised in 1969 was 16,000, and cotton production stood at
2,398 bales. Corn, once a prominent agricultural product, was cultivated on only
fifty acres. Local factories, which turned out goods including petroleum-related
products, foods, machines, and plastics, employed 7,700 workers by the middle
1970s, up 62 percent from 1940. The value of manufactured products reached $209
million and local employees earned $83 million in 1977. Approximately 27 percent
of the work force held retail jobs, and 22 percent worked in service industries
by 1970. The accumulated oil production reached 430 million barrels by the early
1960s and 440 million barrels ten years later. The county registered 26,024
motor vehicles in 1929, a comparatively large number, likely resulting from the
necessity of trucks to the oil industry and the presence of a truck factory in
Wichita Falls from 1911 to 1932. By 1950 the total number of registered vehicles
stood at 32,339, and it climbed to 81,385 by 1970. Advances in the educational
level of the population also took place during this forty-year period. In 1950
only 19 percent of the residents aged twenty-five years or older held high
school diplomas, while only 3 percent had graduated from college. Twenty years
later, 28 percent were high school graduates, and 5 percent held college
diplomas. Wichita County has supported higher education since 1922, when Wichita
Falls Junior College was established in Wichita Falls. In 1937 the school was
renamed Hardin Junior College, and in 1946 two additional years of college-level
work were added to the curriculum, and it was separated from the local school
district to become Hardin College. Four years later the four-year private school
was renamed Midwestern University, and in 1961 it became Midwestern State
University, a state-supported, four-year institution of higher learning. By the
middle 1970s the school's enrollment reached 4,154, and it enrolled 5,502
students in 1990.
Developments during the 1970s and 1980s reinforced major postwar trends.
The population reached 121,080 by 1980 and 122,378 in 1990. As they had
throughout the county's history, Anglo-Americans accounted for the vast majority
of the local population, 90 percent during these decades. African Americans made
up 8 percent. In 1990 Wichita Falls had 122,378 residents, of which the 96,259
in Wichita County made up 79 percent of the county's total population. The city
continued to serve as the focal point of the local economy, with diversified
manufacturing and commercial activity, Sheppard Air Force Base, and the county
government. While the number of farms continued to decrease, as it had since
1940, the aggregate value of these farms surpassed $172 million by the early
1980s, and then fell slightly by the end of the decade. The county reported 172
manufacturing establishments in 1982. The number of retail workers increased 27
percent between 1970 and 1980 and 12 percent between 1980 and 1987. The number
of jobs available locally in the service occupations increased 49 percent. In
spite of a depression in the oil business in the mid-1980s, oil production
remained an important facet of the economy, with a cumulative total production
of 790 million barrels by 1991. Wichita County voters supported Democratic
presidential candidates consistently until 1976, with the exception of the
elections in 1928 and 1972, when Republicans took the county. The electorate
voted solidly Republican in each presidential election after 1976. The county
maintained 1,114 miles of roads, and four national highways, Interstate 44 and
U.S. highways 82, 277, and 287, provided access to Wichita Falls. Recreational
opportunities were offered by Lake Arrowhead State Recreation Areaqv
and other area lakes, and Wichita Falls featured a major bicycle race and a
variety of local events.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Louise Kelly, Wichita County
Beginnings (Burnet, Texas: Eakin Press, 1982). Wichita Falls Times,
May 12, 1957. |
