Continued from page 34 the community of Whitt began to form . Some 20 miles northwest of Weatherford , the unincorporated community is still alive , but it is only a shadow of its former self .
Located on the Weatherford- Jacksboro stage line , due to its midway location between the two towns , Whitt became a retail and social center for farmers gathering in the area . The post office opened in 1877 . ( In modern times the U . S . Postal Service tried to close the doors on the rural office , but folks in the area — one feisty lady in particular whose name I do not recall — had different ideas about the tiny community ’ s postal needs and fought successfully to keep it open .)
On July 2 , 1877 , according to Smythe , Texas Gov . Richard B . Hubbard issued a proclamation stating that “ Parker County is no longer a frontier county , and is not now liable to incursions of hostile Indians .” The last recorded Indian raid in Parker County came in 1874 . The Bluecoat cavalry , led by men like Gen . Ranald “ Bad Hand ” McKenzie , had finally broken the back of Native American resistance in Texas . Even the formidable Comanche had fallen before the cultural tsunami of Manifest Destiny , in the end straggling into Fort Sill and reservation life a vanquished people , beyond any hope of continuing their nomadic traditions upon the wide open plains . The Indian threat gone , thousands of land-hungry settlers flooded into the area . By 1880 , Parker County boasted 1,865 farms and ranches . County population rose to 15,870 .
Back in Whitt , in 1881 , a Mr . and Mrs . Bales opened Parker Institute , the first school in the county to offer students college-level courses . Three years later , the Northwest Texas Methodist Conference chose the institute as its flagship college in North Texas . Less than a decade after the Indians had been corralled , students in Whitt were studying Greek and Latin and other classical subjects once considered the stuff of a proper higher education . Of course , Parker Institute was not the only college to pop up on the former frontier . By the early 1890s , so many other schools were vying for students that the Institute just could not compete . It surrendered its charter in 1893 , becoming a simple public school .
Some 150 souls called Whitt home in the mid-1880s , and the community had about 20 businesses . The faithful worshiped in three churches and the Whitt Moon published all the news fit to print every week . Farmers brought their crops to one of two steam-powered gristmills for processing . In 1885 , the census recorded 400 people in the small town . Five years later the population was 500 .
Also in 1881 , Whitt Seminary , the community school , opened in a two-story rock building which is extant . According to the school ’ s state marker , elders of the Christian Church at Whitt bought the five acres and had the rock building constructed . And : “ Seminary enrollment was between 175 and 200 students who came from local and surrounding communities and from as far away as the Oklahoma Territory . The Seminary educated elementary through high school students and included an academic department , a music department , and a commercial school . Music courses offered included piano , organ , guitar , violin , and voice . Other courses included bookkeeping , commercial law , writing , spelling , typing , trigonometry , history , English literature , astronomy , chemistry , and Latin .”
The school educated the community ’ s young for about nine years , until 1900 . After that , until 1937 , the structure continued to
Whitt Seminary Photo by Mel W Rhodes
be used as a church . Post school and church days the facility served Whitt as a venue for family reunions , homecomings and other community functions . In 1976 , the deed for the acreage , building and quaint old-time tabernacle passed to the Whitt Cemetery Association . ( Just as an aside , my maternal grandparents , Walkers , are interred in the Whitt Cemetery , as are my mother and father and other kith and kin . Old-time tabernacle revivals and running wild as only night and cousins could make me run are among my memories of Whitt .)
Whitt began to shrivel up when the railroad routed its tracks elsewhere . In the opening years of the 1900s , the community began to see serious decline and the Great Depression finished off most of what was left . The 2000 census listed 38 people in Whitt . You might say Whitt counts for but a whit of the county ’ s present-day population .
Writer ’ s note : When writing about history , one is conscious of the fact that readers , at least some of them , might actually think one knows what one is talking about . Anyone who has tried to corral historical facts knows “ the devil is in the details ” — it is not uncommon to encounter discrepancies between sources . These stories are not the stuff of textbooks , though some of the historical information related likely came from such books . Bottom line : though I once served on the Palo Pinto County Historical Commission , I ’ m no historian . If you take issue with any date , name or fact , I ’ m sure you ’ re right .
MAY 2017 PARKER COUNTY TODAY
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