Strutting in Stonewall County

Small roads took us through some little tiny towns and one caught my

Cactus sculpture

interest: Aspermont. It reminded me of aspirin, aspirgum, asparagus, asti spumante, and a host of other sound alike words. I certainly hadn’t heard of the town and didn’t expect to actually go through it. However, as the road curved we drove into this mini-metropolis. Surprisingly it is the seat of Stonewall County. This county has less than 1,400 people and is dwindling; Aspermont had 855 people as of 2017.








The early history of Stonewall County mirrors that of Young, Throckmorton, and Haskell Counties: Spanish explorers, military, Plains

Stonewall County courthouse and statue

tribes, buffalo, cattle and farming. In 1876, fifty-four counties were formed by the Fifteenth Texas Legislature from the Young and Bexar districts; Stonewall County was one of them. It is named for Thomas Jonathan ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, a famous general of the Confederate States Army. Stonewall County remained attached to Young County for all governmental functions until 1887, when it was assigned to Jones County. Then, in 1888, the residents petitioned the Jones County Commissioners Court to hold an election for county organization. In 1889, W. E. Rayner received a land grant to establish the town of Rayner; this became the county seat. The courthouse, a large stone building, was built that year; Stonewall County has had 5 courthouses with the first two being located in Rayner; the second courthouse was built in 1891.

Economics increased, as did the population throughout the 1890s, but not

Bank building

necessarily in Rayner. Also in 1899 A. L. Rhomberg platted the town of Aspermont, which as it turned out, was closer to the center of the county. The city citizens began, in 1892, petitioning for the town to become the county seat partially because of the rapid population increase. After a bit of conflict, Aspermont was named the county seat in 1892. In Latin Aspermont translates to ‘rough mountain, and may refer to the nearby Double Mountains. A new courthouse was begun in 1900 in Aspermont was signed; this rang the death knell for Rayner. The 1891 courthouse is in the ghost town of Rayner as a private residence. A new courthouse was constructed in 1911, again in Aspermont. Marshall Formby, who later became a Texas state senator, ran the Aspermont Star weekly newspaper in the mid- 1930s; it’s now called the Double Mountain Chronicle. The final courthouse was designed by Lubbock architects Mills and Davis in 1983; it is loosely based on designs by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Aspermont beach?

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