Estacado

Estacado, the first White agricultural settlement on the South Plains, is on Farm Road 1527 on the Crosby county line in northeast Lubbock County. It was established by Paris Cox in 1879. Looking for a suitable location to establish a Quaker colony, Cox had secured railroad land in western Crosby and eastern Lubbock counties in the late 1870s in exchange for his sawmill business in Indiana. In the fall of 1879 the first families (Cox, Stubbs, Spray, and Hayworth) arrived in the area in time to face a severe winter. Cox built a sod house for his family, but the other settlers spent the ordeal in tents and quit the colony the following spring, leaving only the Cox family in residence. After a successful crop was achieved, however, interest in the colony was renewed, and by 1882 ten families had been recruited. The community was named Marietta (or Maryetta) for Cox's wife Mary, but was renamed Estacado, from Llano Estacado, when the post office was established in 1884 with William Hunt as postmaster.

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.