This county, lying directly north of Mitchell County, was created in 1876, and was organized June 28, 1884. Until recent years it was, without railroad facilities, and the nearest shipping points were Colorado City on the south and still later the railroad towns in Fisher County on the east. The first railroad was the Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific, built from Roscoe on the Texas & Pacific in Nolan County to Snyder, the county seat of Scurry County. In 1911 the Texico-Coleman division of the Santa Fe system was built through the county, giving it a trunk line of railway. Development has been particularly rapid during the last ten years,
Some of the important pioneer facts concerning Scurry County are found in a sketch of W. H. Snyder. after whom the county seat town was named. In 1877 he opened a trading camp in the county, hauling lumber on wagons from Dallas to build his store and also hauling a good portion of his goods from the same place. He used what was known as trail wagons. with seven yoke of oxen to a team, each wagon having a capacity of 50,000 pounds. Mr. Snyder erected a house in Scurry County and began dealing in general merchandise and supplies for buffalo hunters. Other parties moved into the same locality, and that was the beginning of the town of Snyder. In 1882 Mr. Snyder laid out the town, and two years later it became the county seat. Snyder has had an enterprising citizenship, and ten years ago had an independent school district, four churches, and was an important center for trade. Its importance has greatly increased since the coming of the railway, and in 1910 its population was 2,154. Other towns have sprung up along the railway, the most important of which is Fluvanna, at the terminus of the Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific, and Hermleigh.
The population of Scurry County in 1880 was 102 ; in 1890, 1,415 ; in 1900, 4,158, and in 1910, 10,924. The taxable values in 1903, before the railroads were built, were $2,035,983 ; in 1913, $6,440,682. The number of farms in 1910 was 1,424, and in 1900, 586. The total area of the county is 567,680 acres, of which the greater part in 1910 was included in farms or ranches, and about 145,000 acres "improved land" as compared with about 38,000 acres in 1900. The last census reported 24,837 cattle; about 8,900 horses and mules; 5,541 hogs, and 51,670 poultry. In 1909 the acreage planted in cotton was 37,129; in kafir corn and forage crops, 7,603 acres, and in corn, 2,573. About thirty-one thousand orchard fruit trees were enumerated.
History of Texas, 1922, by W. Barrett Travis.
32° 43' 4.404" N, 100° 55' 3.432" W
See map: Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, MapQuest
