Site of Joe T. and Laura Hamilton Home

The Hamiltons came just as the county opened to farmers. In 1901 nonresident owners of railroad certificates put eighty-six sections in the middle of the county up for sale, and from 1903 farmers settled on state and railroad land, clearing shinnery and catclaw to plant grain, sorghum and corn. Only forty-eight people had lived in the county in 1900; by 1910 there were 1,474, on 235 farms with 23,000 improved acres. Corn led, on more than 7,800 acres, while cotton covered just 131.

What the plaque says

Site of Joe T. and Laura Hamilton Home In 1885, Joseph Thomas Hamilton (1856-1932) married Laura Letha Franklin (1867-1936) in Franklin County, Texas. Natives of southern U.S. states, the couple moved west with their first three children and settled here in 1902, before Terry County was organized. In 1907, they established a home near this site. Joe was a stock farmer, carpenter, mail carrier and livery worker, and he was one of three men contracted to build the county's first courthouse. Laura, in addition to managing a large household, often assisted neighbors as nurse and midwife. Today, ths site is a link to the early pioneers who built Brownfield and surrounding communities. (2005)

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Brownfield Cemetery — 1.1 mi
• First Baptist Church of Brownfield — 1.1 mi
• Brownfield Municipal Power Plant — 1.1 mi
• Colonel B. F. Terry and Terry's Texas Rangers — 1.2 mi