Floyd County History 1922

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Floyd County History Written in 1922

Floyd County. Located in the heart of the Staked Plains region of Texas, Floyd County had an unusual development in advance of railroad facilities. In 1909 the Pecos & Northern Texas was constructed east from Plainview to Floydada, the county seat of Floyd County.

The development of the county up to 1910 is indicated by the following statistics taken from the report of the last census. At that time there were 620 farms in the county, as compared with 286 in 1900. The total area of the county is 647,040 acres, of which 311,118 acres were in farms and ranches, and about 73,000 acres cultivated, against about 19,000 acres in 1900. The county produces a great variety of crops. In 1909, 15,335 acres were planted in hay and forage crops : 10,981 acres in kaffir corn and milo maize ; 4,568 acres in corn ; 2,956 acres in cotton ; 1,562 acres in oats ; a limited acreage in wheat, while the horticultural interests were represented by about 31,000 orchard fruit trees and about 4,000 grape vines. The number of cattle in 1910 was 15,896; of horses and mules, 6,400; hogs, 4,200, and poultry, 25,192.

These figures indicate that the county at that time was not far behind many older and eastern counties of the state, and since then, with the advent of the railroad, the progress along agricultural lines has been much greater. Practically all this development has taken place in the last twenty years, and the first crop of cotton was planted about ten years ago.

Floyd was one of the counties created on August 21, 1876, and a local government was organized May 28, 1890. When the census of 1880 was taken, only three inhabitants were found in the county. In 1890 the population was 529 : in 1900, 2,020 ; in 1910, 4,638, and in 1920. 9,758. The value of property in the county in 1903 was assessed at $1,743,965 : the rapid increase of wealth during the next ten years was indicated by the figures for 1913, which were $6,544,336 ; in 1920. $8,305,300. The rapid development of the county is shown by the fact that it now ranks second in the state in point of hog production and fourth in poultry production. The county has shipped for the past three years, the heaviest tonnage of wheat of any county in the Panhandle. - History of Texas, 1922, by W. Barrett Travis.