True Stories of Amazing People and Places in Texas

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Plant My Feet

By Duane Griffith from Lockney Texas

When the Old West was new and unsettled . . . The Comanche Indians had been forced onto the reservation . . . This is the story of twenty-one-year-old Clay Long when he left his home and family near Waco, Texas to establish a homestead northeast of Lockney. The author goes into great detail about the people and places he encountered  .  . .  Look inside and search for Lockney, Floyd City or Della Plain.

In Chapter 8, Dr Langston B. Williams, Jr tells his story of growing up in Floydada Texas. Langston attended North Ward School in Floydada and graduated from Floydada High School in 1972. A graduate of Wayland Baptist University in Plainview in 1976 he served served as a teacher, coach and administrator in Lubbock, Waco, Seguin and San Antonio Texas.

Within the pages of this book these genuine legends who rode through a golden moment in American history live on. Found inside: "Frank Yeary was born November 3, 1909, in Floyd County, where he cut his cowboy teeth at age twelve or thirteen for the Lewis and Letts operation . . . Read more

Loneliness pervaded the lives of pioneers on the American plains, including the empty expanses of West Texas. Most settlers lived in isolation broken only by occasional community gatherings such as funerals and religious. Louis Fairchild mines the letters and journals of West Texas settlers.

"Mrs. Scott suppressed her longing for family and her aversion to the new country. She understood that life would be difficult, there was now one thing that rooted her forever to these desolate plains. She would never forsake the tiny, freshly dug grave in the small Floydada cemetery . . . "  Read more, Look inside

In 1540 Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, the governor of Nueva Galicia in western Mexico, led an expedition of reconnaissance and expansion to a place called Cíbola, far to the north in what is now New Mexico. "Much speculation surrounds the route they took from Pecos Pueblo to the Llano. The only places in which archeological indicators of the route have been found are Pecos Pueblo, New Mexico, and Blanco Canyon, near Floydada, Texas" . . . Read more Look inside

Found Inside: I was born in the lazy little town of Lockney, Texas, one hot, August morning. It was August 3, 1911. My mother and father, Gaither and Glenn Gaddy, had moved there two years before from Stanford, Texas. They were both 24 years old and had one other child, a little girl named Lyndell who was three and a half years old.  ... Read more Look inside

Tracing the struggles of incipient criminal justice in the Southwest through an engaging progression of outlaws and lawmen, plus a host of colorful frontier trial lawyers and judges, Neal reveals how law and society matured together.

"In the argument that follows, both pull pistols and would each other. Beckham's would is slight, Boone, however dies from his wound on June 23, 1892. Beckham is indicted and tried for Boone's murder in Floydada where he is"  . . .Read more Look inside

Robert Goldthwaite Carter was a US Cavalry officer who participated in the American Civil War and Indian Wars thereafter. Carter would participate in a number of expeditions against the Comanche and other tribes in the Texas-area. It was during one of these campaigns in 1869 that he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his "most distinguished gallantry" against the Comanche in Blanco Canyon in present day Floyd and Crosby Counties . . . Read more Look inside

Paul Carlson engagingly chronicles the development of the range sheep and goat industry from Spanish times to about 1930, when widespread use of mesh-wire fences brought an end to the open-range management of sheep and goat ranches in Texas.

"Grazing circuits extended into the Red River drainage system as far southeast a Tule and Quitaque canyons and beyond into the Brazos River basin. Jesus Perea herded his flocks of thirty thousand sheep to Tahoka Lake, Yellowhouse Canyon, and Blanco Canyon . . . " Read more Look inside

 by Bob Holt from Lockney Texas

The second son of a hard-as-nails Texas rancher is drafted out of college for the Vietnam war. Assigned to the Pentagon, he observes the great March on Washington protesting the war and questions why his peers are marching outside and he’s inside the walls of the citadel. After his discharge, he enrolls at the University of Connecticut where he hopes to catch up with his generation. There, he meets and falls in love with a beautiful Woodstock flowerchild, a beguiling, free-loving, Tinker Bell in blue jeans . . read more and Look inside

The "Great American Novel" was a concept illustrating the essence of a generation and its defining influences. Jim Doucette represents an American dream realized, although his journey to the 'Great American' ideal was at times, simply, 'Not-So-Great.' Jim invites us to look at this Dream through an era of post-war time, arising commerce, and the technology boom of cable television. In his entertaining memoir, he shares his journey . . . Read more

by Nellie Witt Spikes

Nellie settled with her family in Emma (the once-thriving county seat) in Crosby County. At 18, she moved to a farm in the Cone community south of Floydada with her husband, Jeff Spikes, where they raised wheat, cotton and other crops for 43 years. In twenty-five years of syndicated columns in small-town Texas newspapers between 1930 and 1960, Nellie Witt Spikes described her life on the High Plains, harking back to earlier times and reminiscing about pioneer settlement, farm and small-town culture, women’s work, and the natural history of the flatlands and canyons  . . . Read more

by Blanche Scott Rutherford from Floydada Texas

Preface: THE PURPOSE IN WRITING this book is two-fold. First, to preserve the history of this part of the country and its people as it has actually been lived since the white settlers first carne. The author paints a word picture of daily life as she and her loved ones, and her neighbors have lived it. She presents the mode of living on the Great Texas Plains during the last seventy-six years, up to  1964. She believes the stories herein are typical of many families throughout this great area . . . Read more

In the mid 1930s, North America's Great Plains faced one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in world history.

"There were sharecroppers and tenants, mules and gins, in Childress, Floyd, Hale and Bailey counties of the Texas Plains. Up north, in the wheat and cattle country, many of the residents had also come out of eastern Oklahoma or Arkansas, and their background was largely Southern poor white. Woody Guthrie is a case in point . . .  Read more Look inside

It’s a walk of faith--and it also involves a “faith of inconvenience”...Join Coy Reece Holley as he takes you through a "walking tour" of his life in this unique "memoir with a twist"

Lockney - Where for me it it all began. Being Raised as a "Black Sheep"

Lockney Main Street - How I began to Listen to Mr. Armstrong

Lockney High School - The Long Wait until Graduation

Lockney W. Locust Street - Going Back to Siberia - My Siberian Exile / Great Tribulation Period

. . . Look inside and Read more

Set for the most part in Louisiana and Texas, the 12 stories gathered here, in Jewel Mogan's memorable debut collection, offer a wide, richly varied range of experience. In "See Ya Later, Floydada," a displaced, divorced schoolteacher in a lonely West Texas town finds herself enamored of the local disk jockey . . . Read more

Folklorist Jim Harris discovered through writing his own column that newspaper readers were hungry for articles about their past, but they did not want dry historical facts. They wanted lively and personal stories about such topics as the Native Americans who once roamed the plains, settlers who came from the east, the formation of early twentieth-century communities, abandoned school houses, ghost towns, old-fashioned ranch dances, or life in the oil camps. Includes articles about folklore in  Floydada, Levelland, Seminole and Lamesa . . . Read more Look inside

The Sons of the Republic of Texas tells the story of the Republic of Texas beginning with its birth on April 21, 1836. ".. lived there 14 years. In 1891, Moved to Floyd County on the plains." Confederate Pension application dated 1901. Lockney, Floyd County, Texas, a sworn statement says that Jesse served as Quartermaster in the beef department, CSA. He enlisted in the service of CSA at Belton, Texas, in July 1862 and drove and delivered beeves for the Confederacy "  . . . Read more Look inside

by Donald E Green

The scarcity of surface water which has so marked the Great Plains is even more characteristic of its subdivision, the Texas High Plains. Settlers on the plateau were forced to use pump technology to tap the vast ground water resources—the underground rain—beneath its flat surface . . . Read more

by Floyd County History Book Committee

History of Floyd County, plus family sketches.

Page 132 "According to folklore, the old Commercial Hotel (Lamplighter) in Floydada, built in 1912, is home to tow ghosts, Floyd and Ada. A pair of man's legs has been seen running up the stairs, and a woman dressed in 1930s-era clothing also has been seen, the story goes. According to legend, a past owner got up one morning to find a table had set itself for lunch. Others have reported feeling cold breezes when there was no wind outside" . . .  Check it out

The Iron Horse forever changed the American West, from a wild frontier to a network of scattered settlements tied together by steel rails. Behind the romantic image of the galloping Iron Horse, however, lies a rich history of American business activity. Railway giants have dominated this history, but small companies such as the Quanah, Acme & Pacific Railway Company (QA&P), a short line that operated in Hardeman, Motley, Floyd and Cottle Counties in northwestern Texas from near the turn of the century into the 1980s, had just as great an impact in their areas of operation as the giants did on the national scene . . . Read more

Lela Belle's Christian beliefs supported Prohibition. Joe Callaway's ambivalence toward faith shocks his family. But when Lela and Joe meet, their love is instantaneous.

CHAPTER 25 - FLOYDADA

"I do remember living in Floydada. I was two and a half and it was early spring. Across the street lived a physician who grew flowers in his front yard. He owned a nice automobile and each afternoon when he came home he would jump out of his car, lock it ceremoniously, and start working in his flower beds" . . . Read more

Stories of Redemption and the Healing Power of Jesus

by Ricky Carstensen and James E. Doucette

"Ricky Carstensen currently serves as pastor to the First United Methodist Church of Lockney, Texas. In Witnesses to the Crucifixion, Ricky Carstensen retells the death and resurrection of the Messiah through six stand-alone stories that portray perceptions of the key elements physically closest to Jesus during His trial, death, burial, and resurrection: the crown of thorns, the purple robe, the three nails, the spear, the burial shroud, and the stone that covered the entrance to Jesus’ tomb.. . . Read more Look inside.

The second child of Ira and Alice Simpson was Ruth Farris, born 28 May, 1892. When she was eight years old, the family moved to their new home in Lockney, Texas. It was there she attended school, church and made her friends, including the young man she would marry . . . Iwana Simpson, first child of Charles Oliver and Norma Thomas Simpson, was born in Lockney Texas, 20 February, 1920 . . . His first shop was in Lockney , Texas

His first job was in a cotton gin at the age of nine. As an octogenarian, A. L. Vandergriff still had not lost his commitment to advancing technology in the industry he loved. Ginning Cotton: An Entrepreneur's Story offers an opportunity to follow the technological advancements in the ginning and processing industry made by a cotton legend. "The Anderson Clayton plant was located at Aiken, Texas, a few miles out of Plainview. The plant had a turn-out valve in the lint flue so that either a standard flat-bed bale or a round bale could be produced. A standard bale at that time was" . . . Read more

Marsha Sharp was the coach of the Texas Tech Lady Raiders basketball team for over twenty years. This book traces Sharp's basketball journey from her beginnings in Tulia, Plainview, Lockney and Canyon Texas through her twenty-third season with the Lady Raiders. A 2003 inductee into the national Women's Basketball Hall of Fame . . . Read more

by Kelley Litsch

"This book gives great examples of faith, constant prayer, leadership, and tenacity. Mainly it tells the story of what God can do with a willing believer using that person's personality. Kelley Litsch was raised on a farm near Lockney, Texas . . . " Read more

"We're having trouble again with that fellow who runs around impersonating the Lord. This cad, claiming to be God, told the Rodriquez family of Floydada, Texas, last month that if they didn't get naked, get in their car, and drive to Louisiana, he, God, would destroy Floydada . . . " Read more Look inside

Found Inside: "John Adair died unexpectedly in 1885, and Cornelia Adair became Goodnight's partner. Most commentators assert that Cornelia would become more engaged in JA affairs than John had ever been. Cornelia's partnership with Goodnight would end in 1887, and she would continue as sole owner of the ranch for the next thirty-three years. By 1887 the ranch had grown to over six hundred thousand acres and covered portions of Armstrong, Randall, Donley, Briscoe, Swisher, Floyd and Hall Counties" . . . Read more Look inside

"Roy Orbison was born April 23, 1936 in Vernon, Texas. Roy's father, Orbie Lee Orbison, an oilfield worker, moved the family frequently to follow the available work. He moved to Vernon from Floydada, Texas . . . " Read more Look inside

"Anyone who believes that a “perfect world” would require Lockney, Texas (population: 2,056) to produce its own iPads or sugar has a very distorted grasp of economic principles. In a perfect world, everything that was sold, everything that was . . ." Read more Look inside

"What was the State of Texas thinking? I regret not being able to drive a standard ... I think my first ticket was for doing 75 on my way to cover the Floydada-Lockney football game in Floydada in the fall of 1967. Highway Patrolman Bud Rainey . . . " Read more Look inside

"Van Cleef as Sabata , a mysterious stranger , has to kill hordes of outlaws and mercenaries who work for a powerful landowner in Dougherty, Texas. Lots of money at stake , but the real issue seems to be the effort itself - shooting , dynamiting" . . . Read more

Selections From CQ Researcher

"Parents in the small north Texas town of Lockney raised alarms in fall 1998 when authorities indicted 11 people for cocaine dealing. Even though none of the suspects was a student, the Lockney school board responded by instituting a program of mandatory drug testing for students in grades six through 12" . . . Read more Look inside

Max Crawford

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James E (Jim) Doucette

Coy Reece Holley

. . . see them all

Panhandle Residents Ponder Polygamist’s Move

Floyd County Judge Arrested for Shooting Husband