Acme

Acme, on U.S. Highway 287 four miles west of Quanah in central Hardeman County, developed around cement and plaster industries established there in the 1890s. In 1890 James Sickler, who operated a gypsum-processing plant in Kansas, discovered a large gypsum bed on Grosbeck Creek and reestablished his milling plant at the Texas site. He and his partners formed the Lone Star Cement Plaster Company, and later other Kansas manufacturers established another gypsum mill about a mile downstream from the first plant. The town's post office was established in 1898, and the Fort Worth and Denver City and Quanah, Acme, and Pacific railroads provided service. The Acme Tap Railroad Company was formed on January 7, 1899, when one of the gypsum plants refused to give its rival rail access. By the early 1900s the town had a hotel, a railway depot, a general store, and a school. Over the years a number of historic objects were discovered as a result of the open-pit gypsum excavations, including the remains of some prehistoric mastodons, which were said to have been sent to museums in St. Louis.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.