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Books About Lipscomb County Texas People and Places
What's Your Favorite Book about a Lipscomb County Texas Person, Place or Event? Here are some of our favorites from Lipscomb, Higgins, Darrouzett, Follett and Booker Texas.

 

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Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters

Found Inside: Kemp, David Lyle (b. March 1, 1862, Hamilton County Texas, d. January 4, 1935, Higgins Texas. Farmer, rancher, butcher, cattle rustler, gambler, law officer.)

As a youth in Hamilton, Texas, Kemp killed a man named Smith. Kemp was sentenced to be hanged, and in panic he tore away from his guards and jumped out of a second-story courthouse window. He broke both ankles in the fall, but somehow clambered onto a horse . . . Read more

Memory Cups of the Texas Panhandle

by Ruth Rogers Beasley

“...by turning our memory cups this way and that as we gaze into their depths, we might catch glimpses of things that were, back when the Panhandle was young.” —Millie Jones Porter.

Found Inside: "We moved from Mobeetie to Lipscomb County near the 7K Ranch. On a visit to my sister Estell, I met and married Rev. E. C. Harper, a minister of the M. E. Church ... " Read more Look inside

High Plains Rebel

Growing Up in the Texas Panhandle During the 1930s and 1940s. This is an action-packed, fast-paced account of the early life experiences of Darline Gay Nation who was born in 1927 and grew up in the High Plains town of Higgins, Texas.   The story follows Darline as she travels from one side of the Panhandle to the other, never far from action, whether it is in the small town of Higgins and its surrounding area, centrally located Amarillo, or out at the ranch, working in various capacities  . . . Read more

The Modern Cowboy: Second Edition

“The American cowboy is a mythical character who refuses to die,” says author John R. Erickson. On the one hand he is a common man: a laborer, a hired hand who works for wages. Yet in his lonely struggle against nature and animal cunning, he becomes larger than life. Who is this cowboy? Where did he come from and where is he today? The book showcases Lipscomb County Cowboys Dan Cockrell, Lane Hill, Lance Bussard, Merl Kraft, Jim Bussard and legendary Lipscomb County cowboy and fiddle player Frankie McWhorter . . . Read more Look inside

A History of Lipscomb County, Texas 1876-1976

by Lipscomb County Historical Society

History of people and places in Lipscomb County, Texas from 1876-1976. Lots of BW plates and history of people and places.

Will Rogers: A Biography

Will Rogers was a true American icon. His newspaper column was read daily by 40 million people, and as radio entertainer, lecturer, movies star, and homespun sage, he was one of our most popular entertainers.

Found Inside: Will probably expected to step off the train in Higgins and onto the Ewing Ranch. It turned out, however the the ranch was actually across the border in Oklahoma Territory, ten miles or so outside of town, and there was no way to get to it other than on foot . . . Read more Look inside

Cowboy Justice: Tale of a Texas Lawman

In the badlands of Oklahoma and Texas in the late nineteenth century, Jim Gober―cowboy, lawman, gambler, saloon keeper, homesteader, horse-race promoter, private detective, both hunter and hunted―was a real-life hero ...

Found Inside: These men were from the Cherokee Strip, or No Man's Land, and they were talking about a dance that was to be held at the Higgns Hotel at Higgins, Texas, the next night. Higgins was nineteen miles up the Santa Fe, just over the Texas line, and known as a wild old cattle town . . . Read more Look inside

Will Rogers: His Wife's Story

Of the many books written about Will Rogers, none can have the immediacy, firsthand knowledge, and personal perspective of this account by his wife, Betty Blake Rogers. Her story is of Will Rogers, from wayward youth to international celebrity.

Found Inside: "All I know is that it was a cold winter and Old Man Ewing's ranch on the Canadian River near Higgins, Texas, wasn't any too warm when I dragged in there.” Young Frank Ewing, about Will's age, was a friend of Billy Johnston's. Also, Mr. Ewing . . . Read more Look inside

The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing and Other Songs Cowboys Sing

Found Inside: According to Thorp , he was working as a cowboy trailing a herd of cattle from Chimney Lake , New Mexico to Higgins, Texas, when one night by campfire he wrote “ Little Joe , ” using a pencil stub on a paper bag and the tune of . . . Read more Look inside

Taming the Land: The Lost Postcard Photographs of the Texas High Plains

Found Inside: A pharmacist and philanthropic soul, James Kelo Mugg moved to Higgins around 1908. Together with his wife, Myrtle, he opened, sold, and reopened the Mugg Drugstore on Main street. Kelo Mugg quickly entered into the business life of Higgins. During the sever winter of 1912, as reports arrived of settlers freezing and starving, he organized a town meeting gin his drustore. Mugg was also an avid camera buff. In Higgins he acquired a find camera and soon delighted in taking photos of town life . . . Read more Look inside

The Texas Hamburger: History of a Lone Star Icon

Found Inside: A hand painted sign on the front of the building boasted, “The Best Little Donut Shop in Higgins, Texas.” The building itself screamed, “HELP!” Obviously, the owner and the other 424 residents of this Lipscomb County community ignored the . . . Read more Look inside

Historic Texas Gyms: A Tribute to Vanishing Traditions

Nowadays, the three hundred or so folks who live in Darrouzett, Texas, have heard all the joke. In fact, the citizens themselves are quite proud and boast that their town is "the best paved town per capita of the Panhandle." The more poetic souls like to note that Darrousett is "an island in a sea of grass>' While that all may or may not be so, Darrouzett is the home of the Longhorns and home to one of the coolest gyms in Texas . . . Read more Look inside

Cowboy Spurs and Their Makers

Cowboy spurs are a pure form of American folk art. Like the cowboy himself, the way spurs developed was molded by their use and the environment of the range, along with a generous dose of individualism and pride. Cowboy Spurs and Their Makers tells the fascinating story of this western art and the artisans and provides a valuable reference for identifying spurs used by riders of Texas and the Southwest. Found Inside: Isaac Stephenson, Darrouzett, Texas . . . Read more Look inside

More Ghost Towns of Texas

There is something romantic yet harshly concrete about an abandoned town. Dreams, conflicts, and losses still haunt what remains, so it’s no wonder we call these locales “ghost towns.”

Found Inside: Founded in 1886 and still the seat of Lipscomb County, the unincorporated community of Lipscomb clings to a tenuous life . . . Read more Look inside

The Goddess of War, A True Story of Passion, Betrayal and Murder in the Old West

Found Inside: David L. Kemp, a fellow convict in Huntsville at the time Hardin was incarcerated there, ... moved to New Mexico, became a friend of Martin Mrose, and was the firs sheriff of Eddy County. He relocated to Lipscomb County Texas. Among Dave Kemp's neighbors was Dillon Bridges, whose wife Annie... Dave Kemp died of a heart attack. He is buried at the Heart Cemetery, south of Booker . . . Read more Look inside

Hometown Texas

Found Inside: One morning a few years ago, I flew to Amarillo, rented a car and drove to Lipscomb, Texas (pop. 44), to interview the county judge. As we shook hands, he told me I had just missed a deer that had wandered in through the front door of the . . . Read more Look inside

Put up or shut up

by Millie Jones Porter

Found Inside: "I came to Lipscomb and ran a hotel six years before I married John Douglas. I was a widow with two children. One, a son lives with me now, and a daughter who married Chestor Bryon of Borger . . .

Light 'n hitch;: A collection of historical writing depicting life on the High Plains

by Laura Vernon Hamner

Found Inside: That summer, the summer of 1886, there was a stampede toward Lipscomb County, most of the people being from near Medicine Lodge, Kansas, brought by the news that a railroad was being built toward Lipscomb . . . Read more

C.C. Slaughter: Rancher, Banker, Baptist

A pioneer in West Texas ranching, Slaughter increased his holdings from 1877 to 1905 to include more than half a million acres of land and 40,000 head of cattle. At one time “Slaughter country” stretched from a few miles north of Big Spring, Texas, northwestward two hundred miles to the New Mexico border west of Lubbock ... also acquired Lipscomb County's 17,712 acres in June 1900. His father, brothers, and sons rode the crest of his popularity, and the Slaughter name became a household word in the Southwest . . . Read more Look inside

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones.

"The families in the heart of the black blizzards were further west, in towns like Guymon and Boise City in Oklahoma, or Dalhart and Follett in Texas . . . " Read more Look inside

Lost, Texas: Photographs of Forgotten Buildings

Bronson Dorsey takes us on a tour of old, abandoned buildings in Texas that evoke the mystique of bygone days and shifting population patterns. With a skilled photographer’s eye, he captures the character of these buildings, mostly tucked away in the far corners of rural Texas .... " a rarity amoung Texas county seats, Lipscomb is the smallest town in Lipscomb is the smallest town in Lipscomb County, is not located on a main highway, and never had railroad service . . .  Read more Look inside

Resources:

West Texas History & Memories (Face Book Group)

Early Life in Texas County by County

Books about Texas People and Places

Famous People from Texas County by County

Texas History in the 19th Century (Amazon)

Texas History by Category and Event

 

What's your Favorite Book about a Texas County, Town, Person or Place? Here's our best reads list County by County

 

Mysterious TexasTrue Stories of Amazing People and Places in Texcas
 Loneliest, Least Populated Counties in Texas
Texas Cowboy HistoryBooks about Texas People County by County