Estelline: Where Western Swing Was Born

Estelline was platted in eighteen ninety-two by brothers Elam and Math Wright and named for Estelle de Shields, daughter of an early settler. A post office opened in May of that year. Within two years the town had two hotels, a Methodist church, a cotton gin, a livery stable, and a one-room school.

Its position on the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway made it a commercial center for the surrounding Hall County ranches. In nineteen thirteen, a fiddle-playing family named Wills moved from Limestone County to Hall County, out in the open country of the Texas Panhandle. The eldest son, Bob, was eight years old.

He grew up in these Red River plains, learning the fiddle and playing dances at ranch gatherings by age ten. Bob Wills grew up playing these Hall County ranch dances, and he later helped build the hybrid sound known as Western Swing, a blend of country, jazz, and blues that would make him the King of Western Swing.