Donley County

Spanish travelers crossed this ground long before ranchers: Pedro Vial in 1787, and Santiago Fernández, following his route, in 1788. The first Americans came in 1852 with the Red River survey of captains Randolph B. Marcy and George B. McClellan. In 1876 the area was separated from the Bexar District, assigned briefly to a county called Wegefarth, and then designated Donley. The 1880 census found 160 people on seven ranches or farms and counted 14,620 sheep and 7,592 horses, but no cattle. Ten unorganized counties were later attached to Donley for judicial purposes.

What the plaque says

Donley County Formed from Young and Bexar territories; Created August 21, 1876; Organized March 22, 1882; Named in honor of Stockton P. Donley 1821-1871; a Confederate officer elected to the Texas Supreme Bench in 1866; Clarendon, the County Seat.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Donley County Courthouse — 0.7 mi
  Bulger and Rapp's red brick and white stone courthouse of 1891, the oldest in use in the Panhandle, given back its third floor and towers in a 2003 restoration.
• Saints' Roost Museum — 1.3 mi
  Clarendon's county museum in the hospital Cornelia Adair built for JA cowboys in 1910, named for the nickname cowhands gave a Methodist town with no saloons.
• Charles and Mary Ann Goodnight Ranch State Historic Site — 17 mi
  The two-story house the Goodnights moved into on December 27, 1887, after leaving the JA, with a porch that looks over bison descended from the calves Mary Ann saved.
• Phillips 66 Station, McLean — 26 mi
  A 1929 cottage-style Phillips 66 station on First Street in McLean, the town I-40 went around last and whose Route 66 business district stayed much as it was.

More markers nearby

• Clarendon College — 0.2 mi
• First United Methodist Church of Clarendon — 0.7 mi
• Stockton P. Donley — 0.7 mi
• St. Stephen's Baptist Church — 0.7 mi