James T. Patman

Patman's years as sheriff matched Donley County's turn from ranching to farming. The county had 188 farms and ranches in 1900 and 601 by 1910, when almost 20,000 acres were planted in corn and nearly 5,000 in cotton. Its population rose from 2,756 in 1900 to 5,284 in 1910. In those same years Clarendon incorporated, in 1901, and on June 3, 1910, the town saw the last legal hanging in the Panhandle. By 1920 the county's new orchards held more than 30,000 fruit trees, most of them peach.

What the plaque says

James T. Patman Outstanding peace officer. Sheriff of Donley County, Nov. 1905 to Jan. 1, 1916 - era when large ranches were being subdivided into farms. Born in Sulphur Springs. Was a Methodist. Married Allie Graves. Had a son and daughter. Died in Clarendon. Recorded, 1968

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Saints' Roost Museum — 0.9 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.
• Donley County Courthouse — 1.4 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.
• Charles and Mary Ann Goodnight Ranch State Historic Site — 19 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 — 27 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 Cemetery — steps away
• Funeral Business in Clarendon — 1.2 mi
• First United Methodist Church of Clarendon — 1.4 mi
• Stockton P. Donley — 1.4 mi