our history: PLACES IN PARKER COUNTY’S PAST - Part 5
On the trail of tumbleweed
towns and a few rabbits
WARNING: The style adopted for these tales lends itself to
tangents, i.e., going off on them, with little or no notice. In
short: from time to time, “rabbits” will be chased.
BY MEL W RHODES
DELPHINE —
50
I bet you’ve never heard of a Parker
County town called Delphine. (Oh, OK. If you’re some
history buff who scans the Internet or old materials for
fun, you may have heard of Delphine. The rest of us have
not.)
While I cannot tell you where Delphine stood, it
seems clear a post office opened there in March 1858,
and equally clear that it closed eight months later in
November, 1858, “and S. Olinger was forced to seek
other employment.”
Some names just “ring a bell,” don’t they? Olinger
… Olinger. (Rabbit!) Now, I don’t know if there was any
relation, but a Deputy Bob Olinger went down in history
out New Mexico way in 1881. (Before a common mistake
is made, it should be plainly put that there is absolutely
no evidence that S. Olinger of Delphine, Parker County,
Texas, moved west, changed his first name or initial and
pinned on a tin star.)
Purportedly, Bob Olinger was one of those heavy-
handed lawdog-types who wielded authority in a bullish
way, or, to say it plain, he was a bully. William Bonney
didn’t care for him, but then outlaws generally take a dim
view of those hired to interfere with their outlawry. Bob
Olinger’s tangle with Bonney, a.k.a., Billy the Kid, is the
stuff of legend, the lore of the Old West.
At the time of their run-in, Billy, having been found
guilty of a Sheriff Brady’s mu