The Gray and The Blue

Paducah owed its name to a bargain. The Handbook of Texas says R. Potts, who had come from Paducah, Kentucky, offered later arrivals free land if they would vote to name the settlement Paducah and make it the county seat. A post office opened in 1891 with Charles H. Scott as postmaster, Paducah became county seat when Cottle County organized in 1892, and the Paducah Post began in 1893. By 1903 it had 151 people, and soon a bank, a lumberyard, a telephone company, a lodge, a school and two churches.

What the plaque says

Into the western part of Texas, about 1885 came Civil War veterans of the Gray and the Blue, to tame the wilderness. They grazed cattle where drought parched the grass. Lived in dugouts. Found daily existence a siege that reminded them of war hardships. On occasional trips into town, verbally refought the war on the Courthouse Square, but lived peacefully together to build a great county. In Cottle County, 85 per cent of the early pioneers had worn the Gray. One out of 3 had been in Texas units. Others, were from Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and Virginia. Of the great early brands, most were owned by Confederate veterans, but one in Cottle was run by a strong pro-Unionist. 8,722 Union veterans lived in Texas in 1890. One example in Cottle County at this time was Union veteran, William Frederick Liedtke (1836-1914), who had migrated to the U.S. from Prussia, in 1856. He served as a county official and then as state auditor of Nebraska before settling in Paducah. He was legal advisor, abstractor and Justice of the Peace here. Gray or Blue in the 1860s, the 1890 uniform tended to be cowman's regalia on an American looking to the future rather than at the past. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Matador Wildlife Management Area — 11 mi
  Twenty-eight thousand acres of mesquite, shinnery oak and juniper hills in the Rolling Plains north of Paducah, bought by the state in 1959 for wildlife research and open to permit holders.

More markers nearby

• Cottle County — steps away
• Chalk — 10 mi
• CV Ranch and Cee Vee Community — 17 mi
• Tee Pee City — 19 mi