Estelline, Texas, Hall County. (original) (raw)

History in a Pecan Shell

Originally part of the Diamond Tail Ranch, Estelline was named after the daughter of a local resident (Estelle de Shields) and founded by the Wright Brothers (Elam and Math) in 1892. With the arrival of the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway Estelline became a shipping point for cattle driven in from Paducah and Silverton.

A post office was opened that same year (1892) and within two years the town had a school, two hotels and a cotton gin. An improved school (two stories) was built in 1909 and the town incorporated three years later when the population had reached 1,000.

In 1927 a branch of the railroad was built from Estelline to Plainview, but with the onset of the Great Depression the population decreased to about 600 by 1940 - the year that the city suffered fire damage. The 1980 population was 258 which has since declined to 145 people.

Estelline First Baptist Church
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, July 2009

Estelline City Limits Population 168
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, July 2009

Estelline City Limits Population 194
Photo courtesy Ken Rudine, July 2006

The road to Estelline
Photo courtesy Ken Rudine, July 2006

Prairie Dog Fork of the Red River
Photo courtesy Ken Rudine, July 2006

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