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November / December 2009
Volume 21, Number 6

History of a Texas County

Cottle County Organized After Locals Demanded
Justice System to Try Suspect in Border Killing

Cottle County, in the rolling prairieland of Northwest Texas below the High Plains, is bordered on the north by Childress County, on the west by Motley County, on the south by King County, and on the east by Foard and Hardeman counties. U .S. highways 62/70 (east to west) and 62/83 (north to south) are its main roads.

The county was named for George Cottle, who died at the battle of the Alamo. Cottle had been one of the messengers sent to gather reinforcements when Mexican troops arrived south of Gonzales in September 1835. He returned to fight in the battle of Gonzales on October 2. In February 1836, he lent a yoke of oxen to Capt. Mathew Caldwell’s company. He enlisted in the Gonzales Company under Lt. George C. Kimbell on February 24 and rode with 32 others to the Alamo on March 1. Cottle was killed on March 6, 1836, alongside his brother-in-law, Thomas Jackson.

The Texas Legislature established Cottle County in 1876 and attached it for administrative purposes to Fannin County until 1887, when it became attached to Childress County.

In the 15 years between the county’s inception and its formal organization, it remained largely a grazing area. Some cattle were apparently brought in from New Mexico, and ranches such as the OX, SMS, and Matador established their headquarters in the area. The census of 1880 showed only twenty-four persons living in Cottle County. Between that year and 1890 the pace of growth quickened with the arrival of such settlers as J. J. McAdams, who had his headquarters at the site of present Paducah, and J. H. Cansler, who had a dugout on Buck Creek. In 1886 a post office was established at Otta Springs, near the present site of Paducah.

A killing on the county line in 1889 induced residents to petition for county organization so that the suspect’s trial could be held in the county. Cottle County was organized in 1892, with Paducah as county seat; four public school districts were established that year. Cottle County voters supported the Democratic candidate for president in 1892 and continued to support Democrats in national races through 1992, with the single exception of 1928. In 1893 the county’s first newspaper, the Paducah Post, began to print, and the state legislature authorized a $12,000 bond to build a county jail.

Droughts held back early settlers; pioneer H. P. Cook remembered that “it didn’t rain enough in 1892, ‘93, and ‘94 to wet my shirt.” Public-works projects such as the building of a new courthouse and the construction of roads to Crowell, Childress, and Kirkland helped sustain the community. By 1900, 122 farms and ranches were operating in the county and the population had increased to 1,002.

The economic development of the county during the early 20th century was aided and encouraged by a growing transportation network. Auto roads between Paducah, Childress, and Matador were completed by 1910, making the movement of people and products easier. Prospects for the county were enhanced in 1909, when the Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railroad reached the county. The county’s first hard-surfaced road was built in 1913 from Paducah to Dunlap.

The population rose from 1,002 in 1900 to 4,396 in 1910, 6,901 in 1920, and 9,395 in 1930. This trend was reversed during the 1930s by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Cotton production in the county plunged; by 1940, only about 59,000 acres was devoted to the crop. About one-third of the county’s farmers were forced out of business during this period, and by 1940 only 700 farms remained in Cottle County. U nfortunates sometimes sought shelter in the county jail, and everyone deplored the dust storms. Lyrical tributes to “The Beautiful Dust” appeared in the Paducah Post: “The dust, the dust, the beautiful dust; on the evil and on the just, From the North and from the South; in the eyes, the nose, the mouth...Bear it calmly since you must...Wear it bravely as a crown. Ope’ your mouth and gulp it down.”

After the 1940s the mechanization of agriculture combined with other factors, such as the severe droughts of the 1950s, to continue depopulating the area. Despite this decline, however, the county was moderately prosperous in the late 1980s. Paducah, the county’s only sizable town, is still the county seat. In cooperation with King County, Cottle County holds a rodeo and livestock show every April; in January a Cottle County calf and pig show is held.

The information above is excerpted from the Handbook of Texas, an encyclopedia
published by the Texas State Historical Association. The Handbook can be accessed online. Copies of the two-volume set may be obtained by contacting the TSHA at (512) 232-1513.