Early Settlers on Coldwater Creek

Coldwater, the settlement near the springs, was the county seat by 1890, when the census found thirty-four people in Sherman County, eight farms, about 500 cattle and no crops at all. A small rock courthouse went up there in 1891, and C. F. Randolf began the county's first newspaper, the Sherman County Banner. Farmers came after 1901, when the Rock Island crossed the county's northwest corner and mechanized well drilling arrived; the J. T. Brown family brought drilling equipment in 1902. The Handbook of Texas records that nothing except a tiny cemetery is left of Coldwater.

What the plaque says

First area in Sherman County to be settled, and only live water for miles. First settler, buffalo hunter J.D. Rawlings, came 1870s. Later County Judge. W.B. Slaughter acquired the Rawlings place about 1894. Later ran bank and store in Stratford. John Lanners (arrived 1892) was a cowboy at Slaughter's ranch; acquired land and ran a mule-drawn supply line. One of largest spreads was owned by Thomas Snyder (also arrived in 1892). Among other prominent early settlers were J.H. Williams, freighter, and Geo. Loomis, merchant. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• XIT Museum — 31 mi
  Dalhart's museum of the three-million-acre ranch Texas traded for its capitol, in a 1929 Chrysler dealership that once housed a USO club for Black soldiers.

More markers nearby

• Removal of Archives From Coldwater to Stratford — 3.7 mi
• Sidney Sherman — 3.7 mi
• Sherman County — 9.0 mi
• Mrs. Cordia Sloan Duke — 31 mi