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by Bill Neal

In the winter of 1901, James W. Jarrott led a band of twenty-five homesteader families toward the Llano Estacado in far West Texas, newly opened for settlement by a populist Texas legislature. But frontier cattlemen who had been pasturing their herds on the unfenced prairie land were enraged by the encroachment of these “nesters.” In August 1902 a famous hired assassin, Jim Miller, ambushed and murdered J. W. Jarrott.  "J.W. Jarrott's last "land rush" battle to secure four section claims for his settlers occurred on August 23, 1902. The subject school lands were located in Terry County. However since Terry County was not an organized county in 1902  . . . read more and look inside

by Richard L Ridgway

A dugout located about four miles from the center of Brownfield served as the initial home for my grandfather and his family. Uncle Joe, like other stock farmers that first came to Terry County, worked the land with mules and horses. In 1903 the dugout was replaced with a two-room box-and-strip house built with lumber freighted by wagon from Colorado City, Texas. Corn meal, dried beans, fresh and canned fruits and vegetables, beef, pork, milk  . . . Read more

by Elva Edwards

In May 1951, a car, loaded with bootleg whiskey and traveling without lights, ran a stop sign at a West Texas country crossroads between Tahoka and Brownfield and collided with an ordinary cotton farming family. Five adults died that night, including Elva Edwards’ mother, Pearle, her father, Calvin, and her beloved Granny Rogers. One-year-old Elva and her 3-year-old sister somehow survived. The girls grew up on the farm with their Edwards’ grandparents. One thing after another lead Elva closer to her past until one day life presented a situation where Elva felt compelled to discover what happened that fateful day of May 21, 1951..  . . . Read more Look inside

When Will moves his family to Meadow, Texas, it seems perfect for them. It was supposed to be a new—and bigger—home with which they could continue to build upon their already established happy memories but as the house's past begins to haunt them they realize it is not the dream they first hoped it to be . . . This is the spellbinding, story of a house with demonic visions of the dead and relentless screams of terror, this is the haunted story that will have you at the edge of your seat. After all there's no place like home. Read more Look inside

by Robert Hinkle

From his birth in Brownfield, Texas, to a family so poor “they could only afford a tumbleweed as a pet,” Robert Hinkle went on to gain acclaim in Hollywood. Through it all, he remained the salty, down-to-earth former rodeo cowboy from West Texas who could talk his way into—or out of—most any situation. More than forty photographs, including rare behind-the-scenes glimpses of the stars Hinkle met and befriended along the way, complement this rousing, never-dull memoir . . .  Read more Look inside

"George and his wife, Catherine, set up housekeeping on their tract of land just barely inside of the Yoakum County line. If you asked any of them where they lived, they'd tell you Tokio, twenty miles west of Brownfield, on the road to Plains. Tokio wasn't much more than a name. There was a "sometimes" store: sometimes they were open, sometimes they were closed; sometimes they had stuff to sell, and sometimes they didn't" . . . Read more Look inside

'I want to go home with the Armadillo.''
And you will, too, once you've picked up Gary P. Nunn's new memoir of the life and times of this true Texas original from Brownfield Texas . . . Read more

There is something romantic yet harshly concrete about an abandoned town. Dreams, conflicts, and losses still haunt what remains, so it’s no wonder we call these locales “ghost towns.” A companion volume to his Ghost Towns of Texas, T. Lindsay Baker’s More Ghost Towns of Texas provides readers with histories, maps, and detailed directions to the most interesting ghost towns in Texas.

"Tokio is on U . S . Highway 82 / 380 at the intersection with Terry County Road 121 , 16.5 miles west of Brownfield and 14.8 miles east of Plains . . . Read more Look inside

by Robert Baldwin

This book is the account of an ordinary person whose life experiences were atypical. He was the fifth of seven children born into the home of a rural minister and educator.

Found Inside: "Except for a major crush on Essie Moore in the third grade, I had never had a girlfriend. It was not for lack of interest. Wellman High school had less than seventy students, and my class had only fifteen. There were a few couples going steady, with the rest of us hanging out as a group. On Saturday nights we guys would go to Brownfield, take in a movie and check ... " Read more Look inside

Working cowboys live on as genuine legends who rode through a golden moment in American history. In the 1980s historian/ author Patrick Dearen went looking for the last of these fading icons.

Found Inside: William Earnest Broughton was born May 21, 1901 in Mitchell County, where his father ranched. He took up cowboying as a youngster on his father's ten-section spread near Gomez in Terry County. By age sixteen he . . . Read more

Silas Johnson was on the fast track to becoming a foreman at a local ranch in Brownfield, Texas. However, backing down from a gunfight with a good-for-nothing thug changed everything and ruined . . . Read more

"Ol' Max Evans is a rollicking tale of a powerful, if unconventional, literary figure. From his childhood in West Texas to his adolescence as a cowboy in northeastern New Mexico, from D-Day in World War II to the wild world of Hollywood, Found inside: "When the family lived down the road in Meadow, Texas, the "movie man" come to town once a week and showed a movie in a large tent he pitched there. Max would wait until his parents were asleep on movie night, then slip out of the house, crawl under the tent and watch the film . . . " Read more

"John Wood met the Ranger captain when Wood came to the Lubbock area as a rookie Highway Patrolman in 1942. Being a young officer, Wood had only occasional encounters with Gault. Still, Wood was around the captain enough to form an opinion of him. There was a cattle theft west of Brownfield, where I was stationed, and the captain sent two Rangers down there  . . . " Read more Look inside

From the outside, Don and Nelda Price appear to be the all-American family. Blessed with good jobs, healthy sons, and a happy marriage, everything is as it should be. Even as a judge, Don takes time to serve as president of the PTA and coach his sons’ sports teams, as well as sing in the church choir with his wife. But when their oldest son dies of cancer at the age of seventeen, their perfect life is wrenched from them. Born and raised in Brownfield, Texas, Judge Donald W. Price . . . Read more Look inside

Indigenous Nationalism in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands

In Are We Not Foreigners Here?, Jeffrey M. Schulze explores how the U.S.-Mexico border shaped the concepts of nationhood and survival strategies of three Indigenous tribes who live in this borderland: the Yaqui, Kickapoo, and Tohono O'odham. "While the officer's concerns  may have been valid given the series of red flags, among officials along the border it was evidently common knowledge that the Kickapoo did, in fact, spend part of the year in Utah and part of the year in Brownfield Texas where they manned the cotton harvest" . . . Read more Look inside

The distinctive high mesa straddling West Texas and Eastern New Mexico creates a vista that is equal parts sprawling lore and big blue sky. From Lubbock, the area's informal capital, to the farthest reaches of the staked plains known as the Llano Estacado, the land and its inhabitants trace a tradition of tenacity through numberless cycles of dust storms and drought. In 1887, a bison hunter . . . Read more Look inside

Tracing the struggles of incipient criminal justice in the Southwest through an engaging progression of outlaws and lawmen, plus a host of colorful frontier trial lawyers and judges, Neal reveals how law and society matured together.

"After arresting Milt Good, T&SCRA inspectors Allison and Roberson appeared before grand juries in four West Texas counties (Dawson, Hockley, Lynn, and Terry) and obtained indictments against Good and his cowboys for stealing those 516 head of cattle."  . . .Read more Look inside

"Although it is not certain how Quanah evaded the soldiers, it is likely that he camped for a while at Lagunas Sabinas, or Cedar Lake, between present-day Brownfield and Seminole, Texas. Lagunas Sabinas had long been a favorite camping site for bands of traveling the Comanche war trail . . . " Read more Look inside

Born David Pinkston on November 11, 1913 in Post, Texas, Sloan grew up loving country music through the phonograph records of his parents, friends, and relatives. While David was still very young, the Pinkston family moved to Slaton. After graduating from Slaton High School, David spent time as a journalism major at Texas Tech in Lubbock. Not finding journalism to his liking, David attended Draughon's Business College in Brownfield, Texas, and after graduating, went to work as an accountant and office manager for the Arizona Chemical Company in Brownfield . . . Read more Look inside

The Sunday Parties were always about whoever showed up to pick,” said Sonny Curtis, a multitalented musician from Meadow, Texas, a small town thirty miles south of Lubbock. Anyone who had the tenacity to come across the plains to . . . Read more Look inside

"He swept her off her feet and not long afterward they eloped . They moved to Meadow , Texas , and their first child , Doris Rhea ( Stroud ) was born in 1918 . Kitty taught school again taking Doris with her , going to school in horse and buggy " . . . Read more

"A Brownfield, Texas, native, Sheryl Swoopes started on her way to basketball history in high school, where she made All-State and All-American. She entered Texas Tech University after attending South Plains Junior College. By the time she left Texas . . . Read more Look inside   . . . for more like this please see Black Texans in History

Pioneer Book Publishers, Inc.; 1st Edition edition (1968) . . . Learn more

"I reported to Sgt. Hewey and Sgt Black in Brownfield, under the Auspices of Lubbock Highway Patrol Captain E. L. Posey. I partnered with Amos Egen, who influenced my early law enforcement career more than any other officer. Amos was on in years, had never seen a promotion in the department , and had no ambition other than to be a capable and just servant to the people of Texas. He was also a good husband and father. He was that steady sort who quietly commands respect . . . " Read more Look inside

"By 1920 he had fenced and cross-fenced the ranch into sixteen pastures watered by twenty-three windmills. Yearling calve, generally purchased and driven from ranches that lay to the south or southeast of Mallet, would be placed first in the ranch's south pastures in Terry County near the the headquarters on Sulphur Draw . . .  Read more Look inside

Found Inside: "Part of the following was made possible by a discussion with Jane Blay of the Terry County Heritage Museum. She said that this structure the first jail in the county. In 1925, a new lockup was built on the second floor of the new courthouse, and this calaboose was no longer needed. The last owner returned it to the county ... " Read more Look inside

On the Road to Glory, the fifth volume in the Western Quest Series, follows Aaron Lloyd Turner, his brothers David and Noah, and their brother-in-law, Pinckney Hawkins, through the greatest tragedy in American history, the Civil War. "Aaron was provided round trip train tickets from Brownfield, Texas, to Gettysburg. He stayed the full eight days of the reunion. When he returned, something within him had changed. He was finally able to talk about his war experiences with his" . . . Read more Look inside

"Gary P. Nunn began his musical career as a seventh grader in a garage band in Brownfield, where he was an honor student and all-around athlete. After a couple of stints in college, he ended up in Austin and was part of the progressive country music scene . . . Read more Look inside

Texas sesquicentennial 1836-1986, cookbook dedicated to the past, present and future citizens of Terry County. Contents: beverages, appetizers, sauces, pickles, relishes, salads and soups main dishes . . . Read more

This copy is a soft cover reprint of a previously owned Brownfield High School yearbook. Whether you no longer have your own copy or want to surprise someone with a unique gift, the memories in this yearbook are sure to make someone smile!  . . . Read more

by 1947 Yearbook Staff of Brownfield High School  . . . Read more

Book covers grades 9-12; all students individually pictured. Fairy tale theme. Good photography on glossy pages. Cool ads--vintage tractors and businesses. Jack Webb's at the Regal in D.I., James Craig is in The Persuader at the Rialto . . . Read more

Softcover reprint of a previously owned Wellman Union School yearbook, Wellman Texas  . . . Read more

Resources:

West Texas History & Memories

Early Life in Texas County by County

Books about Texas People and Places

Amazing People from Texas County by County