Wylie, Texas

Wylie is a city once solely located in Collin County, but now extends into neighboring Dallas and Rockwall Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located on State Route 78 about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of central Dallas and centrally located[4] between nearby Lavon Lake and Lake Ray Hubbard.

Originally called Nickelville, reportedly after the name of the first store, it was organized in the early 1870s. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway laid tracks a half mile north of the original townsite in 1886. The businesses of Nickelville moved to take advantage of the railroad within the following year, and the City of Wylie was incorporated in 1887 along the right-of-way. It was named for Lt. Colonel William D. Wylie,[5] a right-of-way agent for the railroad[6] and Civil War veteran.

That same year, Wylie had given itself its name, established a post office branch, and incorporated, choosing an alderman form of government. Two years later, the St. Louis Southwestern Railway reached the town. The two railroads and the rich agricultural region of the Blackland Prairies contributed to the town's growth. In 1890, Wylie had a population of 400 and the first one-room school house was built. By 1900, it had grown to 773. In the next decade, the population tripled. Before 1920, the community had over 35 businesses, including two banks, a school, and a weekly newspaper.

Yoakum County, Texas

Yoakum County is a county located in the far western portion of the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 7,879.[1] Its county seat is Plains.[2] The county was created in 1876 and later organized in 1907.[3] It is named for Henderson King Yoakum, a Texas historian.

Until the passage of a liquor sales referendum held on May 11, 2013, Yoakum had been one of nineteen remaining prohibition or entirely dry counties within the state of Texas.[4] Voters in Denver City also approved a separate referendum to permit liquor sales within that community.[5]

Until after 1900, the county contained primarily nomadic buffalo hunters and a few scattered ranchers. Yoakum County was organized in 1907, and the population increased to 602 because of the sale of state land deeds.[7]

Whitesboro, Texas

The area was once known as "Wolfpath". The first settler in the area was Robert Diamond, but the settlement of Wolfpath began with the arrival of Ambrose B. White and his family in 1848. The Butterfield Overland Mail route used White's Westview Inn as the "Diamond Station" on its trail from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Coast from 1858 to 1861. A post office, under the name "Whitesborough", began operations there in 1860.

After the Civil War, Whitesborough grew into a frontier town where female residents were prohibited from leaving their homes on Saturday nights because shootings were so common. Whitesborough had a population of 500, saloons, several stores, and other businesses when it was incorporated on June 2, 1873. By 1879, it had a bank, a newspaper, and train service from Denison on a line from the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. In 1887, it altered the spelling of its name to "Whitesboro".[4]

Whitesboro is located in western Grayson County at 33°39′35″N 96°54′22″W / 33.65972°N 96.90611°W / 33.65972; -96.90611 (33.659612, -96.905999).[5]U.S. Route 82 passes through the north side of the city, and U.S. Route 377 passes through the east side. US 82 leads east 17 miles (27 km) to Sherman, the county seat, and west 13 miles (21 km) to Gainesville, while US 377 leads north 15 miles (24 km) to the Oklahoma border on the Red River and south 41 miles (66 km) to Denton.

Zapata, Texas

Zapata is a census-designated place (CDP) in and the county seat of Zapata County, Texas, United States.[3] The population was 5,089 at the 2010 census. As an unincorporated community, Zapata has no municipal government but like all 254 Texas counties has four elected county commissioners chosen by single-member districts and a countywide elected administrative judge.

Zapata was named for José Antonio de Zapata (died 1839), the revolutionary commander who served in the cavalry of the Republic of the Rio Grande, of which the town was a part.[4] The town was relocated to higher ground in 1953 prior to the completion of Falcon Dam, which left the original town center beneath the waters of Falcon Lake.

At the 2010 census,[1] there were 5,089 people, 4,328 households[citation needed] and 1,265 families[citation needed] residing in the CDP. The population density was 629.9 per square mile (243.2/km2).[citation needed] There were 2,239 housing units at an average density of 290.4 per square mile (112.1/km2). The racial makeup of the CDP was 92.38% White, 0.02% African American, 0.06% Native American, 0.18% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 6.82% from other races, and 0.55% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 94.99% of the population.

Whitewright, Texas

Whitewright is located in eastern Grayson County at 33°30′40″N 96°23′36″W / 33.51111°N 96.39333°W / 33.51111; -96.39333 (33.511136, -96.393400),[6] with a small portion extending east into Fannin County. U.S. Route 69 passes through the southern and western parts of the city, leading northwest 20 miles (32 km) to Denison and southeast 33 miles (53 km) to Greenville. Texas State Highway 11 crosses the southern part of Whitewright with US 69, leading southeast 36 miles (58 km) to Commerce and northwest 17 miles (27 km) to Sherman.

The settlement was established in 1878, when New York investor and financier William Whitewright Jr. (b. 1815 - d. 1898), after which the community was named, purchased a tract of land in the path of the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad, which was then extending its tracks across the county from Sherman to Greenville. Whitewright had the land surveyed as a townsite and left two of his agents, Jim Reeves and Jim Batsell, to sell lots in the new community. Likely due to the combination of its rail connection and its location in the center of perhaps the richest farmland in the county near the headwaters of Bois d' Arc Creek, Whitewright soon attracted settlers and businesses.

Within ten years of its founding, the community had incorporated and supported a private school, Grayson College, a public school, a newspaper, and several businesses, including three hotels, two cotton gins, and two banks. Jas. A. Batsell served as the first postmaster beginning on April 8, 1878. In 1885, Peter McKenna took over as postmaster, and the facility was officially commissioned as the Whitewright post office on December 7, 1888.

Whitharral, Texas

Whitharral was founded in 1924 after the sale of the Littlefield ranchlands.[2] The town was named for John Whitfield Harral, a trustee of the Yellow House Land Company, which was tasked with selling the Littlefield ranchlands to farmers.[3]

Tornadoes have hit the town twice.[2] The first occurred on Easter Sunday of 1957, causing some residential damage. Late in the evening on April 17, 1970, a violent tornado caused heavy damage to parts of the city and flattened the school's gym just minutes after fans and players had left the facility.[4]

Lake Whitney (Texas)

Lake Whitney is a flood control reservoir on the main stem of the Brazos River in Texas. It is located on River Mile Marker 442 and controls drainage for 17,656 square miles (45,730 km2) of Texas and parts of New Mexico. The reservoir encompasses a surface area of more than 23,500 acres and 225 miles (362 km) of shoreline. The area consists of rolling, tallgrass prairies; cedar trees; hardwood timber; and 100 ft (30 m) bluffs and rock points. Lake Whitney is also part of the Texas Lakes Trail Region of North Texas.

1940s: The plan to create the Whitney Reservoir (Lake Whitney) on the Brazos River for flood control and other purposes, such as hydro-electric power development, was approved and authorized by Congress in 1944. The dam construction started in 1947 and lasted four years.

1950s: In 1951, the lake was impounded. The dam's power plant was under construction from 1951 to 1953. After a record-breaking drought in Texas during the 1950s, there was an emphasis on reservoirs serving a secondary purpose, with the primary one being flood control, as water storage facilities for Texas residents, communities, businesses, agriculture, and others.

Wichita Falls, Texas

Wichita Falls (/ˈwɪtʃɪtɑː/ WITCH-i-taw) is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States.[5] It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita Counties. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 104,553, making it the 35th-most populous city in Texas. In addition, its central business district is 5 miles (8 km) from Sheppard Air Force Base, which is home to the Air Force's largest technical training wing and the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program, the world's only multinationally staffed and managed flying training program chartered to produce combat pilots for both USAF and NATO.

The Choctaw Native Americans settled the area in the early 19th century from their native Mississippi area once Americans negotiated to relocate them after the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek.[6] American settlers arrived in the 1860s to form cattle ranches. The city was officially titled Wichita Falls on September 27, 1872. On that day, a sale of town lots was held at what is now the corner of Seventh and Ohio Streets – the birthplace of the city.[7] The Fort Worth & Denver City Railway arrived in September 1882, the same year the city became the county seat of Wichita County.[6] The city grew westwards from the original FW&DC train depot which was located at the northwest corner of Seventh Street and the FW&DC.[7] This area is now referred to as the Depot Square Historic District,[8][9] which has been declared a Texas Historic Landmark.[10]

The early history of Wichita Falls well into the 20th century also rests on the work of two entrepreneurs, Joseph A. Kemp[11] and his brother-in-law, Frank Kell. Kemp and Kell were pioneers in food processing and retailing, flour milling, railroads, cattle, banking, and oil.[12]

Willis, Texas

Willis is a city in Montgomery County, Texas, United States, located eight miles north of Conroe in north central Montgomery County. The city began to develop in 1870 after what is now a Union Pacific Railroad was built through the area. As a part of the Piney Woods, The Willis economy has historically been driven by lumber, agriculture, and the manufacture of lumber and agriculture equipment.

Before the founding of Willis, most residents in the area lived in a settlement known as Danville, formed four miles west of present-day New Waverly in the 1830s.[5] A few Danville residents in the 1850s settled south of Danville in what is now Willis.[6] Several of these early Danville residents were large slave plantation owners.[6] About 600 of the estimated 1,000 early Danville residents in the 1850s were slaves.[5] After the Civil War, many recently freed slaves lived in the Willis area, establishing Thomas Chapel United Methodist Church in 1867, the oldest church in Willis.[6]

In 1870, The Houston and Great Northern Railroad (now the Union Pacific Railroad) decided to build a railroad through Montgomery County. After residents of Danville refused to allow the railroad to be built through their town, Peter J. and Richard S. Willis donated a parcel of their landholdings in Montgomery County so that the railroad could travel through it, founding the town of Willis in the process.[5][6][7] Upon the railroad's completion in 1872, many residents of the surrounding communities of Danville, Old Waverly, and Montgomery moved to the new town of Willis.[7][6]

Wills Point, Texas

Founded in 1873, Wills Point gets its name from an early American settler, William Wills, who had arrived in the area circa 1848.[3] Wills eventually purchased a cabin from Adam Sullivan in 1852 [citation needed]. The name 'point' may also derive from the shape of the original timberline near the cabin, though there have been unsubstantiated arguments that the name relates to the area's elevation. The layout of the city was the work of engineer General Grenville M. Dodge of the California Construction Company. The downtown streets were laid with red bricks upon packed sand in the 1920s by locals and remain in use. Downtown Wills Point has many of its original buildings that are over one hundred years old including the Wills cabin, a drug store, a dry good store, and a law office. Governor George W. Bush officially named Wills Point the Bluebird Capital of Texas in 1995.

The Majestic Movie theater was opened in 1926 by Karl C. LyBrand and was still family operated by Karl C. Lybrand III until its closure on October 4, 2010. It had been the oldest continuously operated movie theater in Texas run by a single family. The Bruce & Human Drug Company, located on the corner of 4th Street and James, was built in 1879 and is the oldest family owned drug store in Texas.

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Wills Point has a humid subtropical climate, Cfa on climate maps.[5]