Removal of Archives From Coldwater to Stratford

Stratford took its name from Stratford, Virginia, the boyhood home of Robert E. Lee, as the Handbook of Texas puts it; the namer was Walter Colton, a Kentucky-born admirer of Lee who managed land Aaron Norton had bought from the railroads. After the records moved, Governor Joseph D. Sayers ordered Texas Rangers to Stratford to keep the peace, though the suit had been dismissed before they arrived. From 1904 to 1909 the railroad's Standard Land Company ran excursions from Chicago and kept an experimental farm to sell the county's land.

What the plaque says

On May 2, 1901, an election was held to determine whether the Sherman County seat should be moved from Coldwater (a ranching center in the central part of the county) to Stratford (a growing town on the new railroad). Partisan feelings ran high and the legality of certain votes was questioned. Because of a threatened injunction against the move, a special session of court was held at 1 a.m. on May 6. Votes were canvassed and, under cover of darkness, the county records were spirited to a tent about 2 blocks south of here. A horseman bringing the injunction to halt the move arrived too late. For several days apprehensive Stratford citizens kept an armed guard posted around the tent. Proponents of Coldwater then filed a suit titled "W.B. Slaughter Et Al. vs. D.W. Snyder Et Al.", but by the time court convened, Stratford had been widely accepted as county seat and the suit was dismissed. Those who helped move the records included D.W. Snyder, County Judge; C.F. Rudolph, County Clerk; Dick Pincham, Sheriff; D.D. Spurlock, Deputy Sheriff; Tom Chambers, Treasurer; W.J. Potts and J.H. Bowman, Jr., Commissioners; and J.M. Upshaw, a hired freighter. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• No Man's Land Museum — 30 mi
  The Panhandle's own museum at Goodwell, kept since 1934 by a society the strip's first settlers founded, on the campus of Oklahoma Panhandle State University.
• XIT Museum — 32 mi
  Dalhart's museum of the three-million-acre ranch Texas traded for its capitol, in a 1929 Chrysler dealership that once housed a USO club for Black soldiers.

More markers nearby

• Sidney Sherman — steps away
• Early Settlers on Coldwater Creek — 3.7 mi
• Sherman County — 5.6 mi
• Mrs. Cordia Sloan Duke — 31 mi