Primrose

Meadow is on U.S. highways 62 and 82 twenty-five miles southwest of Lubbock in northeast Terry County. The town is now in its third location; it was originally called Primrose and situated in the northeast corner of the county. It was moved in the early 1900s to a site three miles east of present Meadow. By 1910 its population was estimated at twenty-five. W. N. Copeland opened a post office and a small store, which he operated in addition to his farm and ranch work. The mail came via Plainview or Canyon; at that time the Primrose post office was the farthest post office from a railroad in the United States. The post office in Primrose, or Old Meadow, as it is now called, was moved to the present site of Meadow in 1917. In 1990 it was the oldest post office in the county. The school in Old Meadow was established in 1904, one of four newly established common-school districts in Terry County. When the South Plains and Santa Fe Railway was built from Lubbock to Seagraves in 1917, the town was moved to its present site on the rail line. J. W. Peeler and his family moved to Meadow in 1917. Peeler, who bought Copeland's store from T. S. Jackson, had the first store, post office, and residence in new Meadow. He named the town and served as its first postmaster. In 1920 a twelve-foot-square concrete tank was built in the middle of the main street and was used to water horses, cool radiators, and wade in on hot days. George T. Mitchell and his family arrived in December of that year. Mitchell opened a gas station, and his wife opened a cafe. In 1923 Mitchell built a two-story, fourteen-room hotel. A man named Nettles built a gristmill, and a Mattox put in a blacksmith shop in 1921. The town was incorporated on March 22, 1926. The Pool, Meadow, and Needmore school districts were consolidated in 1941, the Old Meadow school having been consolidated with the present school in the 1930s. Meadow hosts a country music festival once a month for its citizens and the surrounding area. The festival began in the home of Mayor George Ashburn as part of a project in 1973 to keep and attract residents. Meadow has grown from a population of 324 in 1939 to 491 in 1974 and 571 in 1982. The town is in one of the leading cotton-producing counties, where it is second in population to the county seat, Brownfield. In 1990 the population was 547. The population grew to 658 by 2000.