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I am Rebecca Maloney, Webmistress and Coordinator for Wilbarger County, TXGenWeb. I hope you enjoy your visit. Please email me if you have any suggestions or contributions you would like to make. If you would like to be a county coordinator check our list of counties for TXGenWeb.
Wilbarger County is in the north central region of Texas and the county seat is Vernon. As of the
2010 census, the population was 13,535. The county was created in 1858 from part of Bexar County and
organized in 1881. Wilbarger is named for Josiah Pugh Wilbarger and Mathias Wilbarger, two early
settlers. However, these brothers settled near Bastrop (in Bastrop County)
around 1830, and the family never lived in Wilbarger County. Seated in northeastern Texas against the Oklahoma border is
Wilbarger County. Its rolling plains are
surfaced by sandy, loam, and waxy soils that support tall grasses,
mesquite, and oak trees. Wilbarger is bordered by the Texas counties of
Archer, Wichita, Baylor, Foard and Hardeman, and the Oklahoma counties
of Jackson and Tillman. Until the 1870s, the area that is now Wilbarger
County was part of the buffalo hunting ground of the Wanderers Band of
Comanche. The first Great Western Trail drives came through the county
and crossed the Red River near Doan's Crossing. Wilbarger County
is located on the Red River near the base of the Texas panhandle.
Though the area was within the boundary of the Peters colony, because
of Indian hostilities it attracted no settlers until 1878, when the
first settlement was made and the county was attached to Clay County
for judicial purposes. Wilbarger County was organized in 1881 with 50
settlers, and the town of Vernon was designated the county seat.
Located in the Central Time Zone
I hope you find my efforts helpful in your research of Wilbarger County roots. I am unable to do additional research on your family as I live in Colorado and do not have direct access to records. I post everything I have for all to use.
Make sure you check the "Research Resources" section!
I am gathering helpful links, look up volunteers and local researchers to help you out.
Some interesting facts :
Ned Green drove the first car in Texas
on October 5, 1899. It took five hours to make the trip from Dallas to
Terrell, a 6-mph average.
On March 7, 1901 the bluebonnet became
the state flower.
As the herds were drive north the vicinity of
Wilbarger was regarded as an ideal resting place for the stockman and
cowboy. The fine grasses and abundance of pure water made it a favorite
place in the progress of cattle from Texas to the northern pastures or
the northern markets.
In 1882 the county's taxable property was
assessed at $582,283; in 1903 values had risen to $3,815,973, and in
1913 to $11,466,140.
In 1885, Wilbarger County, in one of its most
prosperous years saw 300,000 head of cattle, 200,000 head of sheep and
192,000 head of horses pass through Doan's Crossing on the Great
Western cattle trail.
Before 1890, the Fort Worth & Denver City
Railway ran across the northern half of the county.
During the '90s
a branch of the Frisco Railway was constructed across Red River into
Wilbarger County, with Vernon as its terminus.
In 1905 the Kansas
City, Mexico & Orient Railway was opened from Sweetwater to the Red
River, passing through the northwest corner of this county.
The 1910
census showed that Wilbarger had a larger proportion of cultivated land
than many of the older counties of the state. The total area is 593,920
acres, of which 411,936 acres were reported in farms or ranches. Of
this amount about 202,000 acres were classified as "improved land," as
compared with 116,000 acres in 1900. There were 1,435 farms in 1910,
against 636 in 1900. The stock interests at the last census were:
cattle, 17,325; horses and mules, about 10,400; hogs, 10,504, and
poultry, 53,110. The largest crop was corn, to which 62,550 acres were
planted in 1909; 55,077 acres in cotton; 19,625 acres in wheat; 10,997
acres in oats; 6,122 acres in hay and forage crops; 2,185 acres in
kafir corn and milo maize; about 750 acres in potatoes, sweet potatoes
and other vegetables; while about 18,000 orchard fruit trees were
enumerated. In comparison with many other counties of the state
Wilbarger had a high rank as an agricultural country.
And just
because...
Did you know? A ten-gallon hat holds three-quarters of a
gallon.
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We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us.". How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am, and why I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying - I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before."
by Della M. Cummings Wright; Rewritten by her granddaughter Dell Jo Ann McGinnis Johnson; Edited and Reworded by Tom Dunn, 1943."
Josiah Wilbarger
Wilbarger County's first courthouse built in 1890
Corwin Doan's store, built in 1878
If you have questions, contributions, or problems with this site, email:
County Coordinator - Rebecca Maloney
State Coordinator: Gina Hefferman
Asst. State Coordinators: Jane Keppler, Laura Gregory Roberts and Carla Clifton
If you have questions or problems with this site, email the County Coordinator. Please to not ask for specfic research on your family. I am unable to do your personal research. I do not live in Texas and do not have access to additional records.
