|
This is copied here with permission from The
Weatherford Democrat, July 23, 1956 issue.
Whitt Gets Name from Rich Uncle of Resident
The story of how Whitt, the community on the Parker-Palo Pinto
County line, got its name is an interesting one. The road of the
mail hack between Jacksboro and Weatherford went through the Hopkins
farm. Hopkins thought there should be a post office in that vicinity
so he wrote to the postmaster general in Washington to tell him
about it and to suggest a name for the postoffice. His suggestion
naturally was "Hopkinsville" since the road went through his property.
The Postmaster General in Washington agreed with Mr. Hopkins that
a post office should be established there, but vetoed the name "Hopkinsville" as
there was already one postoffice by the name of "Hopkinsville" as
there was already one postoffice by the name of "hopkinsville" in
Texas. Hopkins wrote the officials again, this time suggesting the
name "Cowboy" but he received no reply concerning this name, so
he discussed the matter with Dr. M.S. Jackson who had moved to Palo
Pinto County in 1876. (He was the father of the late Mrs. Ella Sheppard).
Hopkins suggested that Dr. Jackson submit a name, just any name
for a postoffice and see if it would meet with the approval of the
powers that be in Washington.
Dr. Jackson promised that he would do so and that night by the family
fireside told Ma, that Hopkins wanted him to submit a name for the
postoffice and asked Ma for a suggestion. Ma had none to offer, and
Dr. Jackson thought for a while and then said, "Think I'll just send
in the name of Uncle Clab Whitt, after all he's the richest relative
we have." And he did. To his surprise the name Whitt was accepted
and from that day to this Whitt has been the name of this borderline
county community.
Several years later the nephew of Uncle Clab, who was also named
Clab Whitt after his uncle, came through this section to visit the
Jacksons. He stopped at Whitt, where the postmasster, who also
served meals to the passengers as a side lien. His name was Tulch.
When Clab Whitt arrived at the jackson home, Ma Jackson asked him
if he told them the place was named after his family. Modestly, he
replied, "No, I just couldn't, the place was too pretty to be named
after me."
All this happened before such a place as Mineral Wells existed
and the nearest towns to Whitt were Palo Pinto and Weatherford.
At that time Weatherford was just a log jail, a log schoolhouse
and a few stores.
The Jackson family arrived in this county after the last Indian
raid was reported in 1875. But fresh on the tongues of all the settlers
were the tales of the last killings. A man named Brown was killed
by the Indians just four miles south of Whitt on the Bob Fondrum place.
The Rippetoe family had been killed by the Indians near Garner,
that is all but one little boy about seven years old who had seen
Indians enough to know he should do the disappearing act when he saw
one. He ran down the branch near the house and hid and was spared.
His mother, father, and other children in the family were killed.
Big excitement in the early days was the robbery of Doc Ingram's
store at Oran, Deputy Sheriff Aaron Lasater of Palo Pinto didn't know
who did it but suspicion pointed to one more in particular who was
camped in the vicinity. Following his trail when the Sheriff yelled
halt, the man ran, of course after the Sheriff shot and wounded him
enough to stop him, but he wasn't the robber. However campers were
scarce for awhile in the county.
Later, when Mr. Ham bought a farm in the edge of Jack County, a
farm that he called the dirtiest he ever saw. While he was in the
process of cleaning it up he found under the house, boxes of shoes
and bolts of calico that everyone claimed must have been the loot
from Doc's store.
Early citizens of Whitt:
Wash Hopkins, merchant and first post master
Uncle John Browder
A. Dawes
Stephen Powell
W. M. Churchill
Peter Radford
P.T. Calvert
Martin Potts
Wm Darnell
Wm Blecker
S.B. Sisk
This page was added on February 24,
2003
|
