Texas Panhandle Pioneers - The Simms Brothers

Permanent citizens, forgers of local civilization. Walter Franklin (1869-1963), George Leonard (born 1875) and Dormer D. Simms (born 1884) moved to Texas in 1886 and to this county in the early 1900's. They arrived later than visiting hunters, soldiers and others who in the 1870's cleared this land of buffalo and hostile Indians, and started ranching. But unlike the early ranchers who ran cattle on state-owned range, these pioneers bought land and worked to pay for it. (To tide them over drouths, such settlers sold buffalo bones and earned bounties for wolf-scalps.) In the 1905-1906 winter, the Simms Brothers used mule-drawn plows and walked from Washburn (18 mi. SW) to Higgins (115.4 mi. NE), constructing a 4-furrow railway fireguard. John Sparks, an early local teacher and a Simms brother-in-law, worked with them and led the group in gospel singing at nightly campfires. Also in the crew were Jim Calhoun and John Sterling. Family land ownership was preserved. Years later, oil and industry brought great prosperity to this region. A fourth generation now lives on the land. Frank Simms married Minnie Pugh Williams; George married Alice Jane King; and Dormer married Gertrude Talbot. Descendants are leaders in Texas business.

Texas Panhandle Pioneers - The Simms Brothers is a historical marker in Panhandle, Carson County, dedicated in 1968. It is one of 42 historical markers documented in Carson County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 46 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 35.3461, -101.3802 near Panhandle. The nearest cataloged historic site is Purvines Ranch Home (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Pioneer Dugout, The Square House, and Old County Bookmobile.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5065004702. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.