Marshall Clinton Formby, Jr.

McAdoo, where Formby grew up, began when local school lands were opened for sale in 1907. Its post office opened in March 1915 with Benjamin Hines as postmaster and took the name of William G. McAdoo, then secretary of the treasury under his father-in-law, President Woodrow Wilson. That year a one-teacher school was moved to town and also served three churches. Parts of its business section burned in 1925 and 1929. McAdoo had about 250 people from 1939 through the 1950s; its school joined the Spur district in 1985, and in 2008 a 100-turbine wind farm was completed there.

What the plaque says

BORN IN HOPKINS COUNTY IN EAST TEXAS, MARSHALL CLINTON FORMBY, JR., MOVED WITH HIS FAMILY TO McADOO (3 MI. N) WHEN HE WAS FIVE YEARS OLD AND SPENT HIS ADULT LIFE WORKING FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THIS PART OF THE STATE. EDUCATED AT TEXAS TECHNOLOGICAL COLLEGE (NOW TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY), THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AND BAYLOR UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW, FORMBY USED HIS TALENTS IN A VARIETY OF BUSINESS AND PUBLIC SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES. MARSHALL FORMBY MAINTAINED EXTENSIVE FARMING INTERESTS IN WEST TEXAS IN ADDITION TO OIL VENTURES AND RADIO, NEWSPAPER AND CABLE TELEVISION ENTERPRISES. HE SERVED AS DICKENS COUNTY JUDGE FROM 1936 TO 1940 AND WAS ELECTED TO THE TEXAS SENATE, ALTHOUGH HIS PARTICIPATION AS A U.S. ARMY CAPTAIN IN THE EUROPEAN THEATRE OF WORLD WAR II KEPT HIM AWAY FROM THE STATE CAPITOL FOR MUCH OF HIS TERM. FORMBY CONTINUED HIS STATEWIDE PUBLIC SERVICE AS A GOVERNOR-APPOINTED MEMBER OF THE TEXAS HIGHWAY COMMISSION IN 1953-59, INCLUDING TWO YEARS AS CHAIR. DURING HIS TENURE, HE WORKED FOR THE PAVING OF FARM-TO-MARKET ROADS AND FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM IN TEXAS. A MEMBER OF THE TEXAS TECH BOARD OF REGENTS, HE ALSO SERVED 12 YEARS ON THE STATE'S COLLEGE COORDINATING BOARD. ACTIVE IN THE BAPTIST CHURCH AND IN NUMEROUS CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS, MARSHALL FORMBY RECEIVED MANY AWARDS AND HONORS FOR HIS SERVICE TO HIS COMMUNITY, REGION AND STATE. HE DIED AT HIS HOME IN PLAINVIEW IN 1984 AND IS BURIED IN THE McADOO CEMETERY. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum — 13 mi
  Crosbyton's museum of Blanco Canyon, built in 1958 as a copy of Hank Smith's Rock House, and the place to learn the canyon's 1871 fight between Mackenzie's cavalry and Quanah's Quahadi Comanche.
• Spur-Dickens County Museum — 17 mi
  Dickens County's museum on the main block of Spur, a town born on November 1, 1909, when the first train reached the land a New York syndicate was selling off from the Spur Ranch.
• Motley County Historical Museum — 25 mi
  Matador's museum in the 1928 Traweek Hospital, in the county seat a Scottish-owned ranch created by having its cowboys open one-day businesses to pass a state rule.

More markers nearby

• Espuela — 10 mi
• Dickens County — 11 mi
• Dickens Springs — 11 mi
• Dickens Cemetery — 12 mi