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Wheeler County, Texas

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Location: Wheeler County, Texas, USAmap
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Contents

History/Timeline

  • Wheeler County was created 1876, organized 1879 from Bexar, Young districts.[1]
  • Wheeler County, Texas is named for Royall Tyler Wheeler, a chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, was born Royall T. Wheeler in Vermont. He was appointed Attorney of the Fifth Judicial District in 1842; District Judge in 1844. [2]


Wheeler County was the first to be organized in the Panhandle area, and 14 other counties were attached to it for judicial purposes until 1881. Sweetwater was established in 1876 as a trading post. Parent County

1876--Wheeler County was created 21 August 1876 from Bexar .
County seat: Wheeler [1] Boundary Changes

1879, Mobeetie was named the county seat. Mobeetie was then called "Sweetwater," but this name should not be confused with the Sweetwater, which is the seat of Nolan County west of Abilene.[3]
1880 A stone courthouse was erected from locally quarried materials.[3]
1888 This courthouse was replaced by a wooden building. [3]
1908 The town of Wheeler was designated as the county seat. The 1888 wooden courthouse was moved to the current site. [3]
1925 a bond election was held and enabled the county to build the current existing courthouse. The structure was designed by E. H. Eads of Shamrock and built by local contractors Hughes and Campbell. It features Palladian windows and Corinthian columns, characteristic of the Greek revival style of architecture[3]
1925 The 1888 previous courthouse building was sold to the sheriff, Riley Price, who dismantled it and used the wood to build barns on his nearby ranch. [3]

Government

Record Loss
There is no known history of courthouse disasters in this county.

Wheeler County has had three courthouses:1880, 1888, and 1925.. [4]


1st Courthouse, 1880 A stone courthouse was erected from locally quarried materials.[3]ref name=courthouse />

2nd Courthouse, 1888 This courthouse was replaced by a wooden building, 2 story. [3][4]

1888 Courthouse.

1908 The town of Wheeler was designated as the county seat. The 1888 wooden courthouse was moved to the current site in Wheeler. [3][4]

1913 the 1888 courthouse was too small to serve the all of the county's needs. A separate building was erected on the SW corner of the courthouse square that year to house the county clerk's office, which had to be enlarged in 1923.

3rd Courthouse,1925 a bond election was held and enabled the county to build the current existing courthouse. The structure was designed by E. H. Eads of Shamrock and built by local contractors Hughes and Campbell. It features Palladian windows and Corinthian columns, characteristic of the Greek revival style of architecture[3][4]

1925 Courthouse
1925 The 1888 previous courthouse building was sold to the sheriff, Riley Price, who dismantled it and used the wood to build barns on his nearby ranch. [3]

[4]

Geography

Wheeler is located at 35°26′33″N 100°16′27″W (35.442424, -100.274068).[4] The city is three miles northwest of the center of the county and is 100 miles east of Amarillo and 12 miles west of the Texas-Oklahoma line. According to the United States Census Bureau, Wheeler has a total area of 1.5 square miles (4.0 km²), all of it land.

Adjacent counties

  • Beckham County, Oklahoma
  • Roger Mills County, Oklahoma
  • Collingsworth
  • Donley
  • Gray
  • Hemphill
  • Roberts

Protected areas


Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 5,284 people, 2,152 households, and 1,487 families residing in the county. The population density was 6 people per square mile (2/km²). There were 2,687 housing units at an average density of 3 per square mile (1/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 87.83% White, 2.78% Black or African American, 0.78% Native American, 0.55% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 6.64% from other races, and 1.34% from two or more races. 12.57% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 2,152 households out of which 29.60% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.00% were married couples living together, 7.70% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.90% were non-families. 29.10% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.90% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 2.94.

In the county, the population was spread out with 24.90% under the age of 18, 6.50% from 18 to 24, 22.50% from 25 to 44, 25.20% from 45 to 64, and 20.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 92.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.40 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $31,029, and the median income for a family was $36,989. Males had a median income of $26,790 versus $19,091 for females. The per capita income for the county was $16,083. About 11.60% of families and 13.00% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.30% of those under age 18 and 16.80% of those age 65 or over.

Cities

  • Mobeetie a.k.a 'Cantonment Sweetwater' is located in northwestern Wheeler County, Texas, USA, located on Sweetwater Creek and State Highway 152. The population was 102 at the 2010 census, five below the 2000 figure.
  • Shamrock is located in the eastern portion of the Texas Panhandle centered along the crossroads of Interstate 40 (formerly U.S. Route 66) and U.S. Route 83. It is 110 miles (180 km) east of Amarillo, 188 miles (303 km) west of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and 291 miles (468 km) northwest of Dallas. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 2,029.
  • Wheeler (county seat) is situated on the eastern edge of the Texas Panhandle. The population was 1,378 at the 2000 census.
Towns (unincorporated communities)
  • Allison
  • Briscoe
  • Kelton
  • Twitty


Major highways

  • Interstate 40 (Texas)|Interstate 40
  • U.S. Route 83 (Texas)|U.S. Highway 83
  • Texas State Highway 152|State Highway 152

U.S. Route 66 (Texas)|U.S. Highway 66 is no longer officially commissioned or signed, but has special brown historic signage at various points along its former routing.

Formed From

  • 1876--Wheeler County was created 21 August 1876 from Bexar .

Resources

Notables

Both the city of Wheeler and Wheeler County are named for Royall Tyler Wheeler[5] , a chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, was born in Vermont in 1810. Royal T. Wheeler was appointed Attorney of the Fifth Judicial District in 1842; District Judge in 1844.

In 1846, the First Supreme Court of the state was organized with John Hemphill, Chief Justice Abner Smith Lipscomb and Royall T. Wheeler, became Chief Justice in 1857.

On April 9, 1864, Royall committed suicide in Washington County. Wheeler County, organized in 1879, was named for him, as was its county seat.

He is interred in Texas State Cemetery in Austin, Travis County, Texas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheeler,_Texas https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcw07

  • Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon, was born in Wheeler. A street in Wheeler is named in his honor.

Land Grants

After land was transferred to private ownership, subsequent transactions, including deeds and mortgages, have been recorded by the county. You can obtain copies of these land records by writing to the county clerk at the county courthouse. For more information, see Texas Land and Property [2].

The FamilySearch [3] Catalog lists microfilm copies of deeds, trust deeds, and mortgages of many counties.

Original Land Owners of Texas [4]- USGenWeb Archives Project


Cemeteries



Bethlehem Cemetery
Bowers Cemetery
Center Cemetery
Finsterwald Cemetery
Fort Elliott Cemetery , Mobeetie, WC, TX
George Turcotte Family Cemetery
Harden Acres Cemetery, Mobeetie, WC, TX
Kelton Cemetery
Lela Cemetery
Lisle Cemetery
Mobeetie Cemetery, Mobeetie, WC, TX
Mount Zion Cemetery, New Mobeetie, WC, TX
Pakan Cemetery, Pakan, WC, TX
Porter Ranch Cemetery, Wheeler, WC, TX
Rock Cemetery
Schlegel Family Cemetery, Shamrock, Wheeler, WC, TX
Sweetwater Creek Cemetery: see Rock Cemetery
W.T. Reed Cemetery
Wheeler Cemetery, Wheeler, Wheeler, WC, TX


Sources

  1. https://texasalmanac.com/topics/government/wheeler-county
  2. https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcw07
  3. 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheeler_County,_Texas
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasPanhandleTowns/Wheeler-County-Courthouse-Wheeler-Texas.htm#1880
  5. https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcw07
  • WikiPedia, The Free Enclyclopedia, [5]
  • Find-A-Grave The Virtual Cemetery [6]
  • The Portal to Texas History [7]
  • Wheeler County - Texas Genealogy page Family Search [8]




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Darlene, Wheeler county is looking great!~mary
posted by Mary Richardson
Darlene-- Wheeler county is ready for you to work. Ask if you need help..

Your name is on page, and you are PM for the page. Thanks for your assistance. Mary Richardson-7161

posted by Mary Richardson