Childress: Named for the Man Who Wrote Texas Free

Childress is the county seat of Childress County, and the county and city share a name that carries real weight: George C. Childress, the lawyer who drafted the Texas Declaration of Independence in eighteen thirty-six. The town itself came together through a classic frontier compromise.

When the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway reached the area in eighteen eighty-seven, two rival townsites, Childress City and Henry, fought over county-seat status. The railroad favored Henry because the terrain was easier to build through. Henry won a second election, and to seal the peace the company simply renamed Henry as Childress.

Businesses and homes were loaded onto wagons and hauled to the new location. The rebuilt town prospered on the railroad's cattle trade, and Childress County's rolling plains and the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River made it cotton and wheat country through the twentieth century.