Whiteley

Whiteley, on the edge of the Llano Estacado in southwestern Briscoe County, was begun in 1901 when James Clark Whiteley arrived with his wife and eight children by covered wagon from Bell County. Whiteley purchased a section of land in the Lakeview community, nine miles southwest of Silverton. The property included a house, which the family expanded from three rooms to nine, and several acres in cultivation. The Whiteley children attended the Lakeview school, and the family received mail at the Joseph H. Reeves post office, two miles east, until it was discontinued in 1907; thereafter the homestead was included on the mail route from Silverton. In 1927 the Whiteley community was formed when the Fort Worth and Denver Railway established a switch on the family's property. It quickly became a shipping point for local farmers and ranchers, and during the 1940s its population was listed at twenty. Eventually, with the advent of paved roads and faster transportation, the community waned, but the old homestead where J. C. Whiteley and his wife spent their remaining years was still standing in 1987. In 1985 the community was listed as a railroad station.