First County Officials

Robert E. Huff, the first county attorney, had planned to practice in Vernon, but in May 1882 a chance meeting with Joseph Barwise sent him to Wichita Falls, where there was no lawyer and the county organization drive was centered. Huff's was among the 150 signatures on the organizing petition, some given by transients, and as one of two men chosen to carry it, he persuaded four of the five Clay County commissioners to approve. He served two terms, then led the Panhandle National Bank through the panics of 1893, 1907, 1914 and 1921.

What the plaque says

First Anglo-Americans settled in Wichita County in 1856. The county was named for Indians, and Indian troubles delayed local organization until 1882. The first officials were: Judge, James S. Akers; Attorney, Robert E. Huff; Sheriff, F.M. Davis; County and District Clerk, W. E.Brothers; Assessor, James H. Banta; Surveyor, A. Warren; Treasurer, John A. Williams; Inspector of Hides and Animals, B. M. Saxon; Commissioners--Precinct No. 1, Thomas J. Williams; Precinct No. 2, Joseph McFarland; Precinct No. 3, M. B. Bynam; Precinct No. 4, E. G. Bullard. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• World's Littlest Skyscraper — 0.3 mi
  A four-story brick tower in downtown Wichita Falls, 40 feet tall and 10 feet wide, the leftover of a 1919 oil-boom office deal in which, the story goes, investors misread inches as feet.
• Kell House Museum — 0.3 mi
  The 1909 Classic Revival house of Frank Kell, the miller and railroad builder who helped make Wichita Falls a city, shown by guided tour with its family furniture still in place.
• Lake Arrowhead State Park — 12 mi
  A prairie park on the north shore of the Wichita Falls water-supply lake, which drowned the town of Halsell in 1965-66, with mesquite campsites, a lighted pier and more than 200 bird species.
• Clay County 1890 Jail Museum — 18 mi
  Henrietta's 1890 stone jail a block from the domed courthouse, now the county museum, with its original cells, a gallows that was never used and the sheriff's family quarters.

More markers nearby

• Texas Governor James V. Allred — steps away
• Joseph Hudson Barwise — steps away
• Lost Battalion — steps away
• Charlye Ola Farris — steps away