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From 1833 to 1875, in a theater of action extending from Kansas to Mexico, the strife was almost uninterrupted. The U.S. Army, Kansas militia, Texas Rangers, and white pioneers and traders were arrayed against the fierce and heroic bands of the Kiowas, Comanches, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Kiowa-Apaches. "McClellan located Kicking Bird at 10 o'clock on the morning of July12, 1870 several miles east of the site of Seymour, Texas, and commenced an attack. He quickly changed to the defensive when he saw that he was outnumbered and that the Indian leader was throwing out flanking parties  . . " 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.

On May 27, 1895, former Motley County sheriff Joe Beckham ambushes and kills the present Motley County Sheriff, George Cook, at the train station in Seymour, Texas. Cook who had previously ambushed Becham at the Childress Train station (but missed his shot), had come to . . .Read more Look inside

On August 8, 1916, an African-American prisoner succeeded in overpowering and murdering Baylor County, Texas Sheriff W. L. Ellis. A posse ran down and captured the prisoner the same day. That night a lynch mob, including all of . . . Read more Look inside

"... not least the burgeoning body of evidence on the cattlemen with whom he claims to have worked, the "hash-knife" cowboys'. In July 1882 the first herd of cattle to complete the 1,200-mile journey from Seymour, Texas . . . Read more Look inside

by Bob Balch

"I remembered back to my days growing up in Seymour, Texas, the cross-roads of five major highways, and the home of over fifty gas stations over the years. Seymour is a small North Texas town located on the Brazos river with a population of about 3,000 folks whose local economy depends primarily on farming, ranching, and . . . Read more Look inside

Everyday Music

Ulius Vita was born January 25, 1918, in Bomarton, Texas, about ten miles due west of Seymour. His parents had emigrated from Czechoslovakia through Galveston to the town of East in Central Texas before buying a farm in 1928 in in Bomarton, a small farming community of mostly Czech immigrants in Baylor  County. Tim Orsak a local historian who works as an operation manager at the ... Read more Look inside

The chilling secret life of Faryion Wardrip, the Texas Sunday school teacher who was sent to death row for his brutal crimes. "Joe Shephard, chief of police of Seymour, Texas, approached the witness stand as the State's second witness. The stocky, former Wichita Falls police officer with thinning hair and thick mustache swore to tell the truth in a loud voice with a ... " Read more Look inside

by Carolyn Bomberger and the Baylor County Historical Commission

Baylor County Texas was not organized until 1879. The depletion of the buffalo herds in the mid-1870s and the defeat of the Comanche in 1874 by the US Army opened the county for settlement. It became a major supply area for the Western Trail, and the population and economy boomed. The legacy of the Western Trail was historic ranches and a cattle industry that became the cornerstone of the county's economic system. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the ranchers were joined by farmers and their families . . . Read more

by Bob Balch

When the paleontologist who serves as the curator of the Whiteside Museum of Natural History makes a great discovery in the Permian Bone Beds just north of Seymour, the curiosity of the world is centered on this small North Texas town when a strange turn of events leads to an unexpected conclusion involving some very interesting critters. Bob Balch is a native of Seymour, Baylor County, Texas, where he was born in 1947 . . . Read more Look inside

A crack shot, expert skinner and tanner, seamstress, sculptor, and later writer—a list that only hints at her intelligence and abilities—Ella Elgar Bird Dumont was one of those remarkable women who helped tame the Texas frontier. First married at sixteen to a Texas Ranger, she followed her husband to Comanche Indian country in King County, where they lived in a tepee while participating in the final slaughter of the buffalo. Living off the land . . . Read more Look inside 13 reverences to Baylor County

Life And Times of Alice Fay Joy Young-Bennett-Eldridge

This is a true account of my life as it unfolded day after day month after month and year after year. This is not a pretty story, but never the less a true one. "The kids and I finished putting things in the car and we were off for Seymour Texas to live with Beth. I hurried up and drove off in that 1953 blue and white Fairlane Ford as fast as I could go. Fords are good cars. It didn't get reverse or . . . Read more Look inside

DeArment has tracked down stories of gunmen from throughout the West—characters you won’t find in any of today’s western history encyclopedias but whose careers are colorfully described here.

"One of the horses the outlaws had stolen belonged to a tough customer named Watt Perry. Perry trailed the outlaws more than 150 miles, past Fort Griffin, in Shackelford County, on north to the Millett range in Baylor County . . ." Read more Look inside

"The next spring, this outfit wanted me to cut the trail for them (or for Him rather) as it belonged only to one man. So I went up the Brazos near Seymour and cut trail herds for about six weeks. Then I went  . .  Read more Look inside

The Covered Wagon Trail From Oklahoma City, OK to Hollywood, CA is about Nellie Mae Strickland. She couldn’t drive a car, so she hooked up six horses to the covered wagon that Frank McCallough built for her in 1944.

"Nellie's hoping that Bomarton is a big town, she needed to do laundry and everyone needs a bath, but when she got there at 3:00 ..." Read more Look inside

The murder of Baylor County farmer and rancher, Jones Bowie, by an unknown assailant using a bow and arrow as the murder weapon, is an intriguing story which leads Sheriff Bob Elliott’s investigation into the distant past to uncover the motive for this crime of retribution.

Found inside: "The indictment by the Baylor County Grand Jury alleged that the estate was the rightful owner of the silver which was unlawfully taken by the four young Indians named in the indictment.... An appraisal of the silver put its current value at 4.5 million dollars ... " Read more Look inside

"Bomarton maintained a population of about 600 through 1940, but then it began a decline from which it never recovered. By 1960 the town dwindled to only 150 people, and today it is virtually totally deserted... View of the sanctuary of the now empty St. John Catholic Church in Bomarton. Much of this wreckage provides habitation for rattlesnakes and other desert animals . . .  Read more Look inside

"She started school in Westover Texas, ten miles from the Stevens Ranch. She went to school in Westover for five years until her family took her out of school to help with the four youngest children – some of them still in diapers. When Mom was about 20 years old, my Dad wanted to date her, but Grandmother Powell wouldn't let her as she blamed Granddaddy Stevens for the death of her brother ... ' Read more Look inside

"My father had set up a service for me with a pastor he knew in Seymour, Texas. I brought more people with me than the little church could muster for themselves. Four school friends went along to provide music. Mom went to drive the car . . . " Read more Look inside . . . for more like this please see Texas Church History

Latchstrings, A Cross-Section of Baylor County Homes

by Patsy Stout Cooper and Patsy Jones Hall

171 pages. Approximately 150 photos.

The History of Baylor County, Texas From 1878 to 1930

by Baylor County Historical Society. Illustrated by Mark Tucker

Found inside: "First time visitors to Seymour could be in for a mild shock. Once a year, folks padlock just about every business in town, hang out a Gone Fishing sign and head en masse to a nearby lake. And there they spend the weekend chasing ". . . Read more Look Inside

1968 Yearbook: Seymour High School, Seymour, Texas

1921 Yearbook: Seymour High School, Seymour, Texas

1959 Yearbook: Seymour High School, Seymour, Texas

. . . see all available Seymour Yearbooks

West Texas History & Memories (Face Book Group)

Texas History in the 19th Century (Amazon)

Vintage Texas Photos (eBay Ads)

Famous People from Texas County by County

Early Life in Texas County by County

Books about Texas People and Places

Baylor County Treasures

See More Baylor County Treasures (eBay)