City Directory of Abilene, Texas: Comprising a Census and History, 1905 Page: 2
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Drink COCA-COLA 5 Cents
AT SODA FOUNTAINS AND IN BOTTLES
THE ABILENE COUNTRY
WENTY-FOUR years ago the Abilene Country embraced the
counties of Taylor, Runnels, a part of Coleman, a part of
Callahan and Shackelford, Jones, Haskell, Stonewall, Kent,
Fisher and Nolan. The settlement of the country and the growth
of towns has cut off part of this territory, but while this is so, the
filling up has increased the business of Abilene right along.
When the Texas and Pacific built through this country twenty
four years ago there were not many people in this boundless ter-
ritory. The great free range was dotted here and there with a
cabin or dugout, inhabited by the cowboys who looked after the
vast herds of cattle and horses that fed upon the luxurious
grasses the year round. The country was in fine condition and
the stock lived and thrived without other feed than that which
they rustled for on the range, which was open from Red River to
the Rio Grande, there being no wire fences in this country then.
Land and range was so abundant that the stockman regarded
it a foolish expenditure of money t. buy land and secure a perma-
nent ranch. Only a few of them thought it worth the trouble and
cost to secure enough to build the ranch house, cabin or dugout
on. They could not realize that these fertile lands would so soon
be in demand for homes and farms. They called the man with
the hoe a "nester," and ridiculed him for plowing up the grass
and planting something that would not grow.
This writer came to this country the year before, i. e., in 1880,
with cattle, and was among those blind to the fortune that stared
every man in the face in that day. For twenty-five years we have
watched the transition from a vast range coated with grass to in-
numerable fields of waiving grain, cotton, vines and fruit.
The soil in these counties is of the the same general character,
consisting of black prairie, chocolate, red and sandy, all with a
clay subsoil, and are as rich as the richest in America, and that
means "none richer in the wide, wide world!" These twenty-
five years have convinced us that anything that grows out of the
ground will grow in any of these counties named.
The rivers that run through or by these counties are the Col-
orado and the Clear Fork of the Brazos, and the principal creeks
are the Jim Ned. the two Elms and the two Spring Creeks, Bluff,
Drink COCA-COLA 5 Cents
AT SODA FOUNTAINS AND IN BOTTLES
HARDIN-SIMMON KS 1 i 2
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
ABILENE, TEXAS
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Stephenson, John L. City Directory of Abilene, Texas: Comprising a Census and History, 1905, book, 1905; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth160220/m1/4/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hardin-Simmons University Library.