Rule

Rule is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 380 and State Highway 6, about fifty-five miles north of Abilene in western Haskell County. The community, established in anticipation of the arrival of the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway, was named in honor of William A. Rule, Sr., a railroad official. A post office opened there in May 1903, and the first train arrived in 1905. J. L. Jones, who provided land for the townsite, and A. C. Foster invested in a hotel, gins, and other enterprises to get the town started. Jones organized a bank in 1906, the year the town's first newspaper began publication. Rule was incorporated on August 31, 1909, with a mayor-council form of city government. In 1912 Rule's estimated population was 891. Its population had grown to 1,347 in 1960 and was about 1,015 in 1984. During the 1980s Rule served the surrounding area as an agricultural and oil-oriented trade center. In 1990 the citizens of Rule erected a Veteran's Memorial Monument to honor its war veterans. Chiseled into the monument are the names of more than 800 veterans from the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. In 1991 Rule reported a population of 789, with some twenty-seven businesses. The population dropped to 698 in 2000.