Brownfield, Texas

Into a new state! I'm now cycling along the flatlands of northern Texas, hoping as always for a steady tailwind.

Brownfield is at the junction of U.S. highways 62, 82, 380, and 385 and State Highway 137, forty miles southwest of Lubbock in central Terry County. In 1903 town promoters W. G. Hardin and A. F. Small arrived in Terry County planning to turn Small's few hundred dollars into thousands. The two men bought the county's center lot from A. M. (Dick) Brownfield and began to plat the site, giving every voter in the county a lot in order to enhance the town's chances of becoming the county seat; they named the town after a prominent ranching family. The founders donated one block each for the courthouse, the school, and churches. J. R. Hill, the first to arrive with his family, built Hill's Hotel, the first business establishment, on the north side of the square. On April 1, 1903, Hill opened the first post office in his hotel building and became the first postmaster. The settlers lived in tents, covered wagons, or dugouts until construction materials for houses could be hauled from Big Spring or Colorado City. A school was built, and since there was no money for a teacher or equipment it served as a dance hall, church, and general gathering place until 1905, when the first school term began.