Collingsworth County Publications

Collingsworth County
Publications

The paperback book published by the Wellington Leader in 1925 was the first published history of the county. In 1985 the Collingsworth Chamber of Commerce compiled a county history book that includes both county history and family stories/histories. In 2009 the Collingsworth County Museum published the Collingsworth County History II. "Collingsworth County Churches . . . from settlement 'til now" was published by the Museum in 1996.

Learn More About Texas History

Learn More About Texas
History

This Portal is a guide through Texas History!
You will see interesting facts, historical maps, photos, book and newspaper collections. We invite you to have a look and explore the great Texas History!

The Wise Men Collection

The Wise Men
Collection

Dusty McGuire of Amarillo has been collecting Wise Men for many years.
She has chosen to give some of these Wise Men to The Collingsworth County Museum. The collection includes wise men made from paper, wood, glass, ceramic, Styrofoam, wine bottles, clay flower pots, and metal.
Items from this collection are on exhibit from November to February.

Your Collingsworth County Musuem

The Museum collection is housed in three historic buildings on the square in Wellington, across the street east of the courthouse. The Pruden Building houses the Art Center which features the work of local artists, special exhibits, or works from the permanent collection. The Pruden Building was a gift of Wellington State Bank and previously the Pruden Drug Store. The Sullivan Buildings were the gift of the Sullivan Family and were used by Sullivan Hardware and Furniture from 1934 until the mid-1980s.

Cattle Ranching to Cotton Farming

The last Indians of the Texas Panhandle were on the reservation in Indian Territory by 1875. Very few buffalo roamed the eastern Panhandle in the late 1870s. Collingsworth County was established by the Texas Legislature in 1876 but not organized until 1890.

Cattle ranching started Collingsworth County, cotton farming built it.

Rocking Chair Ranche

John T. Lytle and A. Conkle registered the rocking chair cattle brand in Wheeler County on September 30, 1881. These two men doing business as Conkle & Lytle purchased 235 sections, 150,400 acres, of land in Collingsworth and Wheeler Counties in February 1883. Conkle & Lytle bought small herds of cattle and stocked their ranch with nearly 15,000 cattle. Conkle & Lytle sold the 235 section, 14,745 cattle, 150 horses, and ranch equipment to Earl W. Spencer and J. John Drew shortly after they established it. In late 1883 Spencer & Drew sold the ranch, cattle, horses, equipment and the brand to the Rocking Chair Ranche Company, Ltd., of London, England for $188,000.

Bonnie and Clyde

One Wild Ride

On the evening of June 10, 1933, the Sam Pritchard family, which consisted of Sam and Sallie Pritchard, their daughter and son-in-law Gladys and Alonzo Cartwright, and their son Jack and his wife Irene Pritchard, were visiting together at the Pritchard home, located about six miles north of Wellington, Texas, about a hundred yards from the Salt Fork River. The family made ice cream and Sam and Jack took their bowls outside to sit on the porch. About ten o’clock, they heard a speeding car approaching from the south at a high rate of speed. Jack told his father “the driver must be a darn fool.”