Stamford

R. L. Penick, called the Father of Stamford, founded a bank, served as mayor in 1903, 1917 and 1919, and was the first president of the Texas Cowboy Reunion Association. The Stamford and Northwestern Railway was organized to link the town with Spur and in 1908 was leased to the Wichita Valley. The Methodists opened Stamford College in 1907, and by 1909 sixteen teachers taught 346 students, but drought, the war and a 1918 fire closed it in 1920. The population was 3,902 in 1910.

What the plaque says

Swedish native Swante Magnus Swenson and his two sons, Eric Pierson and Swen Albin Swenson, came to Texas in 1882 to establish the SMS ranches. In 1899, Eric P. and Swen A. Swenson donated a large section of land for a townsite on an extension of the Texas Central Railway. Railway president Henry McHarg named the new town Stamford for his hometown in Connecticut. A Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized in members' homes and a post office was established in a railroad boxcar in 1899. The Bank of Stamford opened for business in January 1900 and the first train pulled out of the Stamford depot in February. Businesses, churches and utilities soon were established. The booming town was incorporated in January 1901 and P. P. Berthelot became the first mayor. Stamford relied primarily on agriculture for its economy. Cotton, Swenson's Herefords and other area livestock brought substantial income. The town also boasted a flour mill, cottonseed oil plant, iron foundry, gins, brick manufacturers and a railroad roundhouse. Both passenger and freight trains brought business to town. Stamford Collegiate Institution (later Stamford College), a Methodist school, opened in 1907. Oil was discovered near Stamford in 1935 and broadened the town's economic base still further. U. S. Army pilots trained at nearby Arledge Field during World War II. The town of Stamford thrived throughout the 20th century. Though the Burlington Northern Railroad (final proprietor of the railway through Stamford) abandoned the track in the late 1990s, the Swenson Land and Cattle Company remained in operation, and cotton, cattle and wheat continued to be among Stamford's leading industries at the dawn of the 21st century. (2000)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Phantom Hill — 22 mi
  A field of lone stone chimneys north of Abilene, left by the fire after the Army left in 1854, later a stage stop and a buffalo-hide town of more than 500 people.

More markers nearby

• "The Poet Ranchman" Larry Chittenden — 0.5 mi
• Texas Cowboy Reunion Oldtimers' Association — 0.6 mi
• Swenson Land and Cattle Company Headquarters — 0.6 mi
• Spring Creek Cemetery — 6.6 mi