Notla Community

The Handbook of Texas says Frank L. Hamilton was part owner of the Alton Grocery Company of Enid, Oklahoma, and that Notla was chosen as a reversed spelling of the company's name when the Hamiltons applied for a post office in 1920. Hamilton and Bud Westerfield had bought land there in 1906, and that fall the Westerfields built a house, a barn and a camphouse for transients on the freight route between Canadian and the Ochiltree ranching country. The Hamiltons sold their farm in February 1944 and went back to Enid; their store lasted until about 1950.

What the plaque says

At the turn of the 20th century, the State of Texas promoted sale of public school lands to encourage settlement of rural areas. By 1901, a community developed in southeastern Ochiltree County between Ochiltree, then the county seat, and Glazier, the nearest railroad point. R.E. Wamble (1876-1957) and his wife, Emma Jane (Taylor) (1861-1949), were among the first to purchase land and settle here. The community was originally called Half-Way for its location on the Ochiltree-Glazier Road. Earlier cattle ranch and wagon freighter trails comprised the local transportation network. William F. Taylor (1860-1947) and his wife, Helen (Short) (1869-1956), came in 1906, and the following year donated one acre to Ochiltree County for the community's Ridge School. Other early settlers included the Gerhart, Good, Norris and Westerfield families. The D-C-D Highway, developed in the 1910s from Dallas to Canadian to Denver, incorporated the Half-Way section of the Ochiltree-Glazier Road. This section of road later became FM 281. Frank L. Hamilton (1866-1960) and his wife, Mary Lucy (1872-1966), moved onto Section 209 in 1919. The Hamiltons opened a general store with two gas pumps, as the automobile was quickly replacing the horse and buggy. On Dec. 21, 1920, they applied for a post office named Alton, but as that name was already in use, Notla (Alton spelled backwards) became the new name for the community. Mary was postmaster for 22 years. Notla School, built in 1924 on the south side of the D-C-D Highway, replaced Ridge School as the center of the community. Over the years, many social and group events, including nondenominational Sunday School and church services, were held in the school. The post office closed in 1944 and the school, which merged with Perryton in 1939, burned in 1966. Today, residents and descendants recall the spirit of many generations. (2020)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Canadian River Wagon Bridge — 18 mi
  The longest pin-connected bridge in Texas, 3,255 feet of Parker trusses across the Canadian River at Canadian, built for wagons in 1916 and reopened as a footpath in 2000.
• River Valley Pioneer Museum — 18 mi
  The Hemphill County museum in Canadian, a Santa Fe division town of 1887 on the river breaks that held one of the first commercial rodeos in Texas and voted itself dry in 1903.
• The Citadelle Art Museum — 18 mi
  A 1910 Baptist church saved from demolition in 1977, made into a family home filled with art, and given to Canadian in 2009 as one of the Panhandle's few art museums.
• Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area — 22 mi
  Five thousand acres of sand sage and cottonwood bottomland along the Canadian River east of Canadian, bought by the state in 1950 for wildlife research and open to walkers with a permit.

More markers nearby

• Site of the Trading Post — 11 mi
• Ochiltree Townsite — 17 mi
• Canadian River Trails — 18 mi
• Hemphill County — 18 mi