Fowlkes

Fowlkes is on State Highway 477 two miles southeast of Electra in western Wichita County. It was established in the early 1880s as a loading station on the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway and was originally called Day, or Day Station, after James Monroe Day, founder of the Day Land and Cattle Company. South of the railroad tracks, Day laid out a main street, along which were constructed several false-fronted buildings, some houses, and a school. While the community apparently remained little more than a loading station, a post office operated there under the name Day from 1890 to 1894, and in 1905 its one-teacher school registered eighteen students. During the early twentieth century Day sold his holdings in Wichita County, including the land for the settlement, to I. L. Fowlkes, an area landowner, cotton gin owner, and real estate investor, and the name of the community was changed. With the discovery of oil in and around nearby Electra in 1911, and more particularly following several small discoveries near Fowlkes, additional people began moving into the area. From 1911 to 1915 a post office operated there under the name Fowlkes. Despite the oil discoveries Fowlkes remained a small settlement. In 1940 it had a service station, a school, and scattered residences. In 1947 the Fowlkes school was consolidated with the Electra Independent School District. By the 1980s only the railroad siding marked the community on county highway maps.