Kate McCommis

Her short life fell in Garza County's emptiest years. The 1880 census counted thirty-six residents in the whole county, and the last Indian raid there came in 1883 at the Curry Comb Ranch. The disastrous winter of 1885-86, remembered as the Big Die-Up, and the drought of 1886 drove off some of the early ranchers, and by 1890 only fourteen residents remained. Recovery was slow: in 1900 the county had 185 people on thirty-eight farms and ranches, and its economy was still almost entirely given over to cattle.

What the plaque says

Kate McCommis A victim of frontier privations. Died in Feb. 1884 on day of birth -- attended only by her young cowboy father. Recorded -1968.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Garza County Historical Museum — 2.4 mi
  The county museum of Post, C. W. Post's planned town below the Caprock, kept in the stone sanitarium the town opened in 1912 as the best-equipped medical building west of Fort Worth.
• Slaton Harvey House — 23 mi
  A 1912 Santa Fe Harvey House in the railroad town of Slaton, restored as a museum, event hall and five-room inn overlooking a working BNSF yard.

More markers nearby

• Pioneer's Well — steps away
• Llano Ranch — steps away
• Garza County — 2.3 mi
• Post — 2.3 mi