History of Slaton, Texas

Slaton Texas history is interesting and sometimes surprising. In 1949, Captian R. B. Marcy blazed an overland route starting in Oklahoma across the Texas Panhandle and back through central West Texas. At the time, he wrote that he saw a waste of uninhabitable solitude where no man could permanently live. That turned out to be wrong, as a mere 50 years later there were some 30,000 people on the plains.

Before its existence, the original township of Slaton was patented to Stinson and J.I. Case, of farm equipment fame, in 1879. They ended up selling that plot of land, together with other holdings, to the Western Land and Livestock Company, who in turn sold the land to J. W. Kokernot and H.L. Kokernot. It was the Kokernots who were responsible for the early settlement around what is now Slaton in the first decade of the 20th century.

The Pecos and Northern Texas Railway of the Santa Fe system proposed to create a new division point and city. The railroad company needed a town site that was to serve as a division point to service trains traveling through northwest Texas. Therefore W. B. Storey Jr. was sent from Chicago to buy land for the projected town of Slaton. On April 15th, 1911, that transaction was completed. An early edition to the original city land purchased from the Kokernots was land owned by A. B. Robertson and Winfried Scott as part of the Hat-H Ranch. In 1910, I. A. Wells and others purchased a part of that land which they later developed into the South Park Addition of Slaton.

Interestingly, the existing City of Lubbock was not chosen for the site. There are several plausible theories. One is that the citizens of Lubbock demanded too high a price for the land needed for the facilities. Others have argued that there was derision between the older cattle ranchers who wished for less development in the panhandle region. However, it may have been several factors including the cost of land and the fact that Lubbock was too far from the actual center of the Texico-Coleman cutoff.

The town was named for O. L. Slaton who is said to have been instrumental in getting the Santa Fe Railroad through this area. He was a rancher, banker, Lawyer, and surveyor who never lived in Slaton and had much more to do with the development of nearby Lubbock. However, he was named vice president of the First State Bank in Slaton, which was established sometime before July 1911.

Building the Town

J. W. Walter was the engineer on the building project for Slaton and he steaked out the lots, blocks, and streets according to the Chicago Plat, an imitation of the plan of Washington, DC. Thus, Slaton is built in spoke fashion around a city hall, and from each corner of this town square three streets go outward, except the southwest corner which has only two streets.

On May 11, 1911, the town was dedicated in a document to the public, though it was not incorporated until October 26th, 1912. Then, on June 15, 1911, the town was opened in a celebration on a hot and dry typical summer day. This celebration was a thinly disguised means of promoting the new city and selling lots. Indeed, people came by wagon, horse, and on foot, and also including s special train excursion from Amarillo. There were several prominent railroad officials and a cafe was even set up in a boxcar. Land sales were brisk.

Beginnings

Initially, the first citizens of Slaton lived in tents, but that would rapidly change as small homes and buildings were already being built. Already businesses were popping up, including the Slaton Journal which reported on July 6th, 1911, that eleven new brick buildings were being built and their foundations already laid, awaiting bricks to arrive. The post office had already been built in 1910. The contractors could hardly keep pace. Other early businesses included building supply companies, including no less than four lumber companies.

Hardware and furniture were available at S. S. Forrest and dry goods and groceries were available from C. F. Higbee. There were even several bakeries. The Slaton Journal was established on June 15, 1911, and the Slaton Slatonite was first published on October 13th, 1911. 1911 saw Slaton’s first motion picture theater open and a new cotton gin operating by the end of the year. Slaton boasted two banks in 1911, First State Bank and the Paul Bank (later becoming the Slaton State Bank). The Paul family had previously been in the banking business in Amarillo. Both banks collapsed during the Great Depression. And of course, there were numerous land agents.

Success of Slaton

Four daily trains ended up linking Slaton to the rest of the world. There was a northbound and southbound train that ran between Amarillo and Sweetwater, an Amarillo Local and a Lamesa local.

On March 9th, 1912, the Slaton Independent School District was established. Before that, there was a school in the Methodist and Baptist churches beginning in about 1911.

Already, visitors could stay at the Caps Hotel located on the square, and in early 1912, the Singleton Hotel was begun, which was later described as one of the best of its size in the Southwest. Unfortunately, it burnt down in 1953. The Slaton, Texas Harvey House Restaurant was also built in 1912 and served Santa Fe Railroad passengers traveling through Slaton from 1912 until 1942. It is the last remaining structure from the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Slaton Division Point, and was saved from the wrecking ball at the last minute by quick action from Slaton residents and officials when a demolition crew sent by the railway company showed up in late 1989.

Indeed, during Slaton Texas history, the population grew rapidly with the railroad company employees and their families. However, not all the growth came from the railway. In 1895, a Catholic priest named Joseph Reisdorff, and a land agent, Hugo Herchenbach, got together. The priest wanted to establish farming communities for German Catholics who wanted to get away from the cities, and the agent to promote settlements and sell land.

Germans in Slaton

Indeed, the Reverend Joseph Reisdorff worked in several other Catholic perishes before coming to Slaton as the first Priest of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. He was known as a colonizer and here, he continued to recruit German Catholics from the Midwest and German Lutherans from Central Texas by placing ads in German newspapers. He was paid a commission on land sold in the area to Catholic families. Many of these people were farmers and so while the railroad was building the bulk of the community of Slaton, there came to be a very strong German heritage as well.

Decline

Slaton, Texas history tells us that with well over 100 businesses by the early ’30s, Slaton’s population had grown to 3,879 and 7,250 by 1970. In the late 60s, Santa Fe Railroad reduced operations at Slaton starting a slowdown in growth. The population shrank to 6,950 by 1988 and 6,078 by 1990. The number of businesses went from an all-time high of 155 to just 92 by 1988.

Luckily, cotton was raised in the area before the opening of the town. Today, Slaton’s strong agricultural community producing cotton and grain has kept Slaton’s economy going.