Having Cereal in Garza County

Faith Lutheran Church built in 1915
by Presbyterians

About the time we reached Garza County I quit paying much attention to where we were and was looking forward to where we were going. One of the things on my mind was lunch; however I was also contemplating dinner since I wanted it to be a good meal rather than something we just grabbed on the way to the hotel. This meant that lunch would be something light. So what do two supposed adults choose for a road trip lunch?












Garza County is medium sized with about 6,500 residents, and it’s growing slowly. Located southeast of Lubbock, its main economic base comes from agribusiness, oil and gas extraction, and textile mills. But

First United Methodist Church of Post
established in 1909

long before settlers arrived in Texas, the land was frequented by the imperial mammoth, from which a sixteen-foot-long tusk was found in 1934 Quanah and Bryan Maxey. A bit later, about 2,000 BC, indigenous peoples lived near Cowhead Mesa. Remains of their settlement and various artifacts were first found by Emmett Shedd in 1957. The site was further explored by the South Plains Archaeological Society from 1960 through 1965; they, too, found artifacts of these early people. And of course, as in many of the nearby counties, the Kiowa, and Comanche were frequent visitors of the area. Anglos didn’t make it to the area in any kind of force until the 19^th century, and they came to raise cattle. Two of the early cattlemen who occupied the northwest part of Garza County were W. C. Young of Fort Worth and Ben Galbraith from Illinois; they established, in 1875, what was to become the Curry Comb Ranch. The next year, the county of Garza was created.

Garza County is named for pioneer José Antonio de la Garza who was

C.W. Post monument

the first person to create a coin in Texas; and of course Garza, as with several other counties, was carved out of Bexar County. The county had a big population of 36. Although the entire county was open range, with the coming of the Square and Compass Ranch started by the Nave and McCord Cattle Company in 1880, came the closing of the range with barbed wire fencing. Four years later another ranch, the OS, was founded by Andrew J., and Frank M. Long from Kentucky. And it wasn’t long before another settler and his family would arrive who would change the area substantially. In 1888, Charles William Post, the breakfast cereal manufacturer, and his family arrived in Texas. He purchased land from the owner of the U Lazy S Ranch, John Bunyan Slaughter, and proceeded to create a Utopian colony. Post City was founded in 1907 on the edge of the caprock escarpment of the Llano Estacado and the southeastern edge of the Great Plains.




C.W. Post financed, supervised, and built the town in 1907; he prohibited alcoholic beverages and brothels. A hotel, a cotton gin, and a textile plant were constructed, as were houses that were rented to settlers; trees were planted along all the streets. A post office was established that year along with organization of the county seat in Post. C.W. Post’s planned

Garza County Courthouse

community sought to initiate debt-free private ownership across all businesses and occupations by offering acquisition of business or farm sites below actual cost. Merriweather Post, his daughter, carried on his humanitarian efforts. Some of these efforts included attempts to improve farm production by firing explosives from kites and towers into the clouds to produce rain. When these endeavors failed, Merriweather Post sent aid to the community to bolster the economy until the drought passed. With the coming of the railroad and the success of the cotton industry, the citizens were able to finance a new county courthouse in 1922. Architect Guy Carlander of Amarillo designed the courthouse, with construction carried out by the Fred T. Bone Company. Completed in 1923 this example of Prairie School architecture is reinforced concrete with brick exterior and cast stone details; it is a Texas Historic Landmark.

Lunch!

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