History of Armstrong County, Volume 1 Page: 40
[273] p. ; 29 cm.View a full description of this book.
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Armstrong County
uIlTULY OF T-E GR OWTH AN-D V
OF
idt STRONG COUNTY
(By Inez Christian IDoshier)
In relating the history of the growth and development of Armstrong
County it is natural and fitting to beg n with Col. Chas. Good-
night's famous entry into the Palo luro Canyon in 1876. His was
t; e first home founded in This New Country so recently inhabited
by the Ied an, and even then oft times explored by him. Good-
r"chts herds were the first to take the place of the thousands of
buffalo in the sheltering Palo Duro and on the clean open range.
In the heart of this Mighty Canyon nestled the first hone, initial
h headquarters for the J. A. Ranch - one of the largest in early
day history. It was also in this same locality a few years previous
that the Indians were captured by Gen, McKenzie and his men and
placed on the reservation in Oklahoma.
The nine hundred and three square miles of fertile land known as
.Armstrong County and organized as such in 190 was created from
Bexar County in 1876 with only thirty ore inhabitants. The in-
habitants were all employed on the Goodnight ranch. The popula-
tion increased with the expansion of the ranch until the era of
settlers - when men brought families and builded homes of their own.
The Goodnight ranch was inown as the J.A. It was owned by Chas.
Loodrigbht and John Adair and managed by oodnight. With the es-
tablishin of this ranch came the birth of civilization in a
New Country, for then it was that men came from other parts
seekinr jobs "Out Where the AeLt begins". "'an of then went back
to their old homes and returned with wives to share the promise
of the 'olden we: t. These women, real pioneers as they were,
never experienced the hardships a d privations known to Miai~y Ann
Goochight, called "The mother of the Panhndle". She served as
teamster in a Cavalcade of wagons bringing her own house hold
goods and possessions over four hundred miles to the Palo Duro
Caryon. '-iss Laura V. H amner, author of "n:o Gun Ian of Texas"
wich depicts the life of Colonel Goodnight, says Mrs. Goodnight
did not come to the Panhandle at this time but at a later date.
Here the contents were unloaded, the wagons taken apart, and
everyt ing carried down to the new home site by hand. She faced
Indians - a whole tribe of then, and learned to make provisions
last for six months periods. The freighting was done from Dodge
City, ansas, or Pueblo Colorado; later from Wichita alls, Texas.
The vast herds wintered in the sheltered Palo Duro Canyon. The
Canyon embraces over four hundred thousand acres, is from five
to ten miles in width, and runs the width of the county. Led
iver originates here, and with side creks and spr-ings it affords
a splendid watering system. The hilly banks grow dense cedar, cotton
wood, oak and hackberry, There is also suificient grass :or
grazing. In the spring the cattle were :ushed up the trails to
the p]eLi s country where the gramima and esquite grass jrew half -
knee hig~h. r. Goodnight did not depend wholly on the manyprairie lakes, but built dirt tanks along all of the draws lead-
inc toward the canyon. The lakes however were krown to have held water
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The Woman's Development Club. History of Armstrong County, Volume 1, book, 1939; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth182365/m1/49/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Armstrong County Museum.