A history of Deaf Smith County, featuring pioneer families Page: 63 of 174
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History
Deaf Smith County
Pioneersbehind him and did something you shouldn't, he'd see
your'
Although Overstreet was strict, his pupils respected
him. He did what he thought best for his pupils, making
rules and expecting their parents to see that they were
carried out. Boys and girls who attended his school were
allowed to date one week-end a month. The rules were
suspended from Friday evening to Monday morning. During
that time the venerated teacher and his wife, who
taught the smaller children, attended parties and gettogethers
with his pupils and seemed to have as much
fun as they did. Mrs. Overstreet died here, and he returned
to Fort Worth after the close of school in 1901.
Members of the Overstreet class have held reunions
regularly during the annual Pioneer Reunion here, and an
effort was being made to have every member present
in 1964.
R. H. (Rube) Norton was born in Johnson County, Tex.,
on Feb. 7, 1860, and died in Amarillo in 1944. Alice Lou
Corbett was born Jan. 22, 1867, in Stephens County, Tex.,
and was married to R.H. Norton there. She died at Hereford
on April 6, 1915.
Ezra Norton is the only one of the children of that family
to make Hereford his life-long home. He continued in the
ranching business on his ranch 35 miles north-west of
town. The Norton herds were prominent throughout the
development of the cattle industry here and continue to
be among the best in the county.
Born on Jan. 17, 1888, in Stephens Co., Ezra Norton
was married to Avis Palmer, also a member of a pioneer
Hereford family, here on Oct. 28, 1908. She had been
born in Montague Co., Tex., onMay21, 1888, and died here
on Dec. 30, 1959.
Norton operated the Norton Motor Company here from
1925-1941. Although he has sold his ranching interests
to their son, Palmer, the pioneer stockman still maintains
his home here and goes to the ranch almost every
day. Palmer Norton operates extensive farming interests
as well. He is a past president of the Deaf Smith County
Chamber of Commerce, and he and his wife are active in
club, school, and church circles. Palmer Norton was
married to Opal Caraway of Tulia in 1940. They have one
son and one daughter.
Other members of the R. H. Norton family are: Claude
(married Mrs. Lola Bodiford), Weatherford; Dick (Inez
Hodges, deceased 1963), Monett, Mo.; Ruby (Mrs. J.E.)
Urschel, Mexia, Tex.; and Mrs. Una Hutcheons and Miss
Alma Norton, Amarillo.
T. M. PALMER, 1899
Children Missed Trees
Della, Avis, and Walter Palmer probably had their
small noses pressed to the rain-streaked window of the
train bringing them to Hereford with their parents, Mr.
and Mrs. T. M. Palmer, on April 7, 1899. They had come
from Wichita Falls, and all the track from Canyon to
Hereford was under water.
"You can hardly believe such. It rained and rained,
until we thought this to be the wettest. country we ever
beheld," Mrs. Palmer reminisced in 1938. "The children
couldn't understand what had become of the trees
and just why they had been cut down."
It rained, too, when the Palmers went in a covered
wagon to Canyon that same year of 1899 to attend the
old settlers' reunion, where tents were stretched in
rows like streets are laid. Mrs. Palmer commented that
the rain could not dampen the tall tales of the "old days"circulating at the reunion.
The pioneer mother experienced all modes of travel in
her lifetime, including the airplane, but she said her
biggest thrill came with her first ride in the Metz auto-One
of the hundreds of covered wagons which
brought pioneers to Deaf Smith County from the
1880's until as late as 1915. This is one of two
covered wagons bringing the T. M. Palmer and
F. M. Avis families in 1899.
Hereford's second car--Palmer bought in 1912.
"The children were somewhat reluctant to ride, but were
amused at its going without a mule or a horse pulling it,"
she said.
The Palmer family always had enjoyed adequate transportation,
including the fashionable surrey in which the
family traveled to attend services of the Presbyterian
Church in the old court house at Hereford each Sunday.
The sight of Palmer traveling about the county in a little
cart drawn by his mule became so familiar that the pair
was referred to as "Si and Maud (the mule)." Mrs.
Palmer had her buggy, and the childrenhad horses to ride.
The Palmers and her brother, Frank Avis, and family
had bought an improved section about two and a half miles
south-west of Hereford and filed on 16 sections farther
out in 1899. They drew straws to see who would live on
the improved section. The Avises won; so the Palmers
took up residence in a "shanty" on the ranch seven and
a half miles south-west of Hereford. After living there
a year or two they built a new house closer to town.
"Everything we stuck in the groundgrew," Mrs. Palmer
said. "We stocked our land with cattle and broke out a small
farm...Our gardens were good. We raised everything."
The Palmers moved to town in 1906 and built a new
house, using lumber he acquired when he bought a lumber
yard at auction. He operated the lumber yard here until
1916.
Thomas Marcelles Palmer was born Oct. 7, 1854 inThe Pioneers proved that lush fruit crops could
be grown in the county in favorable years. Here
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Patterson, Bessie. A history of Deaf Smith County, featuring pioneer families, book, 1964; Hereford, Tex.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth16011/m1/63/: accessed May 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Deaf Smith County Library.