Joseph Hudson Barwise

The Barwises came from Dallas on an exploring trip in 1878 and returned to stay the next year, and the Handbook of Texas counts them as the townsite's first permanent settlers; earlier residents such as the hide hauler Tom Buntin and storekeeper John Converse eventually moved on. Barwise paid $105 for Alexander Craig's cabin and two lots. Hattie Seeley, daughter of the man who platted the town, taught the Barwise children in her home, where Alexander C. Garrett also held Episcopal services. A post office opened in 1879, a public school in 1880 and a Methodist church in 1881.

What the plaque says

A native of Ohio, Joseph Hudson Barwise brought his family to Texas in 1877 and to Wichita County in 1880. An astute businessman and community leader, he earned the nickname "Father of Wichita Falls" after he donated land to the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway as an inducement for the building of a rail line through this area. He was instrumental in much of the city's growth and development, and served as county judge for three terms. Married to the former Lucy Hansell, Barwise was the father of seven children. He is buried in Riverside Cemetery. (1991)

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
• First County Officials — steps away
• Lost Battalion — steps away
• Charlye Ola Farris — steps away