The Land and Its People, 1876-1981: Deaf Smith County, Texas Page: 79
652 p.: ill., map, ports. ; 29 cm.View a full description of this book.
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XIT Ranch; its eastern line practically halves
what is now the Westway community. First
settlement of any kind in the community was
the Tierra Blanca Camp of the XIT, a short
distance southwest of present Westway. It
was built over 90 years ago. When this land
was thrown open for settlement many cowboys
filed claims on the land. Many stayed
some did not.
Lewis Arnold was working for the XIT. He
filed on the section two miles west and one
north of present Westway, held it and continued
to work for the Syndicate. He traded a
horse for a house near Hereford, moved it to
his claim and became the first settler in
Westway community. Then Squire Burnum
built a dugout on his claim on the draw a mile
south and one west. However, he left it and
was gone so long that W.B. Boyd, the county
judge in 1902, jumped his claim. Judge Boyd
also owned the section north and the one east
of the present community building.
Kelly Gray, who was the oldest settler in
the community in 1939, built the next dugout,
about three miles southwest of Burnum's.
Kelly had ridden the range several years; he
and his brother Tom both worked for the
XIT. Kelly bought the section where Tierra
Blanca Camp was located.
"Hogs were unknown here then," he related,
"and antelope were usually killed for
meat. There was never a day that one couldn't
go out and kill an antelope
usually more if
wanted. Antelope meat was hung on the
windmills just as beef was later." The first
hogs were shipped from Denton County by
Bud Moreman in 1898 and 1899 and sold over
the county. R.H. Norton raised hogs, also
alfalfa, on his place on Tierra Blanca Draw a
few miles west of Hereford. W.W. Locker,
south of LaPlata, brought pigs from Cook
County. Fed on corn, they were undersized
until he noticed them following the walking
plow he was using, eating the worms turned
up in the furrows. They gained weight fast
and he learned that hogs did not thrive without
some protein food. The first windmill was
built at Lewis Arnold's place and the next at
Burnum's. A piece of pipe in the draw just
east of the Burnum dugout marked the location
of that windmill.
North of present Westway, Wallace English
settled on several sections. D.W. Hawkins
of Hereford bought out English in 1902
and leased five sections. Going out to look at
the land in the summer of 1901 he rode
horseback across the prairie. It was a wet year
and so muddy he could not gallop his horse.
There was more loco weed and more locoed
cattle that year than has been known since.
Hawkins' home place was two and a half
miles northeast of Westway. Neighbors were
Henry Weems on the north, Montgomerys on
the east. The great Mounts pasture on the
south extended from three miles west of
Hereford to the corner of Arnold's land seven
miles farther west. Dow Mercer, who lived on
north of Hawkins, was a great antelope chaser.
He and Hawkins with five other men went
hunting. Dow rode an old gray horse. The six
companions took their stand on a hill in Tierra
Blanca draw while Dow spied an antelope
herd near Summerfield and drove them as he
would a bunch of cattle straight to the line ofhunters, who with guns and dogs got plenty of
meat that day. Hawkins moved to Hereford
after two years and became superintendent of
schools.
In 1906 came the first road, Six-Mile Lane
from Hereford to the O.G. Hill corner. It wasWestway School and buses, 1927. Teachers:
Estelle Slaton, Jewel Porter, Fern High
fenced then, but not graded for several years.
In 1923 it was named for E. W. Harrison, who
had it graded and extended to the New
Mexico line so wheat raised in the west part of
the county could be moved to his elevator in
Hereford. The A.C. Pierce family came from
Midlothian in 1906 and ranched on land
adjoining the Carr sheep ranch. It was later
bought by William Ponder. When the big
prairie fire came in 1906 six sections of the
Pierce land were burned off. Pierce, on his
way home from Hereford, picked his way
around burned spots at the present site of
Westway, anxious to find whether his cattle
had been burned. When he reached his windmill
he found all 500 of them safely huddled
together in a bare spot. He had 90 acres of
sorghum as tall as he could reach and it all
burned, leaving only 40 acres of stalks for
cattle feed. In 1908 Pierce bought a halfsection
of the Hawkins' land. The last prairie
fire was in 1923. It did not burn at Westway
but smoke darkened the day and parents
feared for the safety of their children at
school.
In 1877 the Texas Legislature had given
two leagues (a Spanish measurement) of land
to each county for a permanent school fund.
The leagues for Deaf Smith County schools
were in Bailey County and the Gregg County
school land was in Deaf Smith and Parmer
Counties. The one completely located in this
county had its north boundary a mile south of
Westway and was 2.6 miles square. A league
contained 4,228 acres or 25 labors of 177-1/7
acres each, or 1,000 varas square (more
Spanish measures.) In 1911 J.J. Perkins of
Wichita Falls bought the entire league and
tried irrigation, which was not successful.
He sold 13 labors to Dr. J.G. Hendricks of
Wascom at $10 an acre. Subsequent owners
were Mr. Shaffer, Mr. Cornett, J.L. Fuqua,
J.G. Evans, who bought 15 labors on the east
side of the league, and George Fraser. Fraser's
son Alton eventually held the equity in
his father's labors and later bought more for
a total of 1,778 acres. The Jim Bookout and
Leroy Hickman families lived on Labor No.
9 during the 1940's and 50's and acted as
managers. Fraser sold part of the land to
Albert Lamb and Wilburn Axe, leased some
to W.A. Estes and Gene Vasek. California
investors have set up a dairy on Labor No. 10.
J.W. and A.C. Stengel and Mrs. R.E. Hargis
of Clarendon own land on the south boundary.
In 1981 Fraser sold four labors to the City
of Hereford for water.
The first school in the community was
taught by Watsie Thomas at Tierra Blanca
Camp, in the camp house. The community
grew to the north and the Syndicate gave the
"Schneider house" for school use. Later it
was moved to a place owned by O.J. Christy,
later owned by Grady Wilson. For two years
the Christy family lived in one part and school
was held in the other. In 1919 a little schoolhouse
was built just west of the Christy place
and called Tierra Blanca. Four terms of
school were taught there. The community
then included the families of Bill Gilbreath,
Autrey, Charley Bell, Luther Gore, Merrill,
McDermott, Pierce, Christy, Walter Craig,
Walter Simmons, L.C. Ferris and L.C. Crisswell.
Children attended school in buggies and
on horseback, some coming as far as 10 miles.
Clara Davis was the teacher. Some of those
who attended Tierra Blanca School were
Agnes Gordon, Harvey Moore, Sue Carrie
Alley, Aileen and Edith Chandler, Dee and
Nannie Walton, Harold Gilbreath and his
sister, Florence Meyers, Ulys and Raymond
Pierce, Charles and Oliver Christy. Trustees
were Kelly Gray, Grady Wilson and Shade
Moore. A Christmas program was held in
1921. The building was full, and after the
program was over a cowboy, Bill Durham,
wanting to do his part to celebrate Christmas,
whipped out his pistol and shot some holes in
the ceiling.
Judge Slaton had bought land from the
Mounts pasture east of Judge Boyd's section.
It was on the high point of four sections; from
the schoolhouse the water will flow in all
directions. So in 1923 Tierra Blanca school
was moved to Westway. Arthur Brooks, a
road contractor, put the little building up on
rollers but two teams couldn't move it. Mr.
Woods, a house mover, used block and tackles
and moved it with a team of bay ponies. Judge
Slaton named the school West Way, the
purpose being to show the direction from
town. The one word, Westway, is now used.
First board members were Mrs. Bess Turrentine
(Werner), Fred Curtis and Shade
Moore. The two south rooms were added to
the building shortly after it was moved, and in
four or five years the north part was added. In
1939, 50 students were enrolled, but at one
time there were more than that. Students
were taught from first through ninth grades.
First teachers at Westway, Lela Wester
and Fern High, taught there two years. In
1924 the school bought a Model-T bus to haul
the children on the east route, and Mr. Johnson
was hired to furnish his own bus and haul
those on the west route. Teachers since 1923
have been Estelle Slaton, Oren Sharp, Jewell
Porter, Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Franklin, Mr.
and Mrs. B. M. Keys, Thelma Myers, Mr.
and Mrs. S.J. Lovell; Sena Mae Mounts, who
taught expression; Ruth Hanna, Frances
Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Early Joiner, Ina Mae
Hastings, Miss Barnard, Martha Ellen Dodson,
Louise Walthall, Emily Minter, Mrs.
Merlin Kaul, Mr. and Mrs. F.W. Dodson,
Carolyn Beall, Helen Gilmire, Elma Smith,
Ellen Bryant, Gladys Bryant Carter, Vesta
Mae Nunley, Marcia Robbins Little, Annie
Byrd and Viola Norman. The school was
consolidated with Hereford Independent
School District in 1947.
In 1919 a Sunday School was organized at
Tierra Blanca School. Mrs. Grady Wilson
taught, Grandma Gray (Kelly's mother)
would pray and Mrs. A.C. Pierce helped with
the singing. They took up money and bought
an organ which Mrs. Pierce could play. It was
used later at Westway, and finally when the
Sunday School bought a piano, it was given to
Mrs. Pierce who later gave it to Mrs. Ponder.
Union Sunday School was held until 1930,when R.A. Kelley helped organize the Baptist
Church. Rev. Boyer was the first minister. He
was followed by Benny Harrison, Ray Ste-
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Deaf Smith County Historical Society. The Land and Its People, 1876-1981: Deaf Smith County, Texas, book, 1982; Deaf Smith County, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth16010/m1/83/: accessed May 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Deaf Smith County Library.