Texas Panhandle Pioneers - Panhandle, TX
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 35° 20.748 W 101° 22.795
14S E 283725 N 3913991
Memorial in the Square House Museum grounds
Waymark Code: WMTW60
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/13/2017
Views: 4
County of memorial: Carson County
Loction of memorial: 5th St. & Elsie St., Square House Museum, Panhandle
Memorial erected by: State Historics Survey Committee
Date memorial erected: 1968
Plaque Text:
Texas Panhandle Pioneers
THE SIMMS BROTHERS
Permanent citizens, forgers of local civilization. Walter Franklin (1869-1963), George Leonard (born 1875) and Dormer D. Simms (born 1884) moved to Texas in 1886 and to this county in the early 1900's. They arrived later than visiting hunters, soldiers and others who in the 1870's cleared this land of buffalo and hostile Indians, and started ranching. But unlike the early ranchers who ran cattle on state-owned range, these pioneers bought land and worked to pay for it. (To tide them over drouths, such settlers sold buffalo bones and earned bounties for wolf-scalps.)
In the 1905-1906 winter, the Simms Brothers used mule-drawn plows and walked from Washburn (18 mi. SW) to Higgins (115.4 mi. NE), constructing a 4-furrow railway fireguard. John Sparks, an early local teacher and a Simms brother-in-law, worked with them and led the group in gospel singing at nightly campfires. Also in the crew were Jim Calhoun and John Sterling.
Family land ownership was preserved. Years later, oil and industry brought great prosperity to this region. A fourth generation now lives on the land.
Frank Simms married Minnie Pugh Williams; George married Alice Jane King; and Dormer married Gertrude Talbot. Descendants are leaders in Texas business.