Norton

The Handbook of Texas says Norton's first houses went up in 1901, when a school and Robert Turner's store also opened, and that the post office moved into town in 1902. A gin and a bank, open from 1923 to 1930, served the farms around it. A cyclone in 1912 killed one resident and damaged buildings, and a fire in 1929 caused heavy losses. Norton had no more than fifty people until the 1930s, 120 people and five businesses in 1940, and seventy-six from 1980 through 2000.

What the plaque says

Named for George W. Norton of Kentucky, who about 1882 bought and later developed the divide between Oak and Valley creeks. Post office, established in 1894, was at first in home (1.5 miles northeast) of postmaster Marion A. Wilkerson. This facility and a few country businesses - including stores, cotton gins, blacksmith shops -- were drawn into town, which was platted by O. C. Bivins in 1903. First homes are said to have been built by Dr. W. W. Mitchell and Les Trimmier. High school was established in 1906. Early institutions included several churches and a Masonic Lodge. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Z. I. Hale Museum and Rock Hotel — 11 mi
  A free museum in a Winters optometrist's office, a 1909 railroad hotel and a 1927 implement dealership, with Rogers Hornsby's hometown memorabilia and a 1912 horse-drawn cotton picker.
• Fort Chadbourne — 13 mi
  An 1852 infantry post and Butterfield stage station on a Coke County ranch, its fallen stone buildings rebuilt since 1999 by the descendant of the family that has ranched the land since 1877.
• Carnegie Library of Ballinger — 14 mi
  A 1909 limestone library with an Ionic portico in a railroad town the Santa Fe created in 1886, one of the few Texas Carnegie libraries still working in its original building.

More markers nearby

• Maverick — 5.0 mi
• Site of Old Communities of Mazeland and Wilmeth — 7.4 mi
• First Baptist Church of Bronte — 9.9 mi
• Site of the Town of Runnels — 11 mi