Texas Historical Marker #11927
Hicks & Cobb General Merchandise Store. The townsite of Medicine Mound had long been a thriving village when brothers-in-law Lon L. Cobb and Ira Lee Hicks arrived in the area with their families in 1927 and opened a general merchandise store. The store sold such items as work clothes and clothing material, shoes, cotton sacks, groceries and horse feed. Regular customers warmed themselves by the fire in winter, indulging in conversation and checkers. In 1933 a fire all but destroyed the townsite, but Hicks and Cobb rebuilt that year with round granite cobblestones from Oklahoma. Lon L. Cobb died in 1942. Hicks carried on and the store was among the last businesses to serve area residents and migrant agricultural workers. Ira Lee Hicks died in 1966; the structure became a community gathering place and a Medicine Mound museum. (1999) #11927
?, Chillicothe, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #11929
W. P. A. Sanitation Project. In 1937 the State of Texas and Hardeman County worked with President Franklin Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration in an attempt to provide much-needed employment to indigent citizens and replace unsanitary privies with improved facilities. The advantages of these structures included a decrease in such diseases as typhoid fever, hookworm and dysyntery. The privies featured fly-tight construction and were carefully placed in areas where they could not pollute the water supply. One toilet was placed on this site behind the Hicks & Cobb General Merchandise store. When it was destroyed, another privy was moved from where it originally stood on the property of the Bellamy family. W. H. Bellamy and his family were Medicine Mound town founders. (1999) #11929
?, Chillicothe, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #11928
Medicine Mound Community. Early inhabitants of this area were Comanche and Kiowa Indians whose campsites were situated around four dolomite hills called Medicine Mounds and known for their healing properties. In 1854, area land was deeded to a railway company. Anglo settlers began to arrive in the 1870s. A small village developed but was moved 2.5 miles north in 1908 when the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway was built. A townsite was platted that year and was fully established by 1911. At its peak, Medicine Mound boasted 22 businesses and a population of 500. Economic hardships, the Great Depression and a 1933 fire that burned the entire town were primary forces in the town's eventual demise. The last business closed in 1966. (1999) #11928
?, Chillicothe, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #11926
Chillicothe First Methodist Church. Originally organized in 1886 in the Jackson Springs community, this church was first served by circuit riders C. T. Neese and J. T. Hosmer. Shortly after the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway came through Chillicothe in 1887, the Jackson Springs Church moved into town. This edifice was erected at the church's second Chillicothe location. Designed by prominent area architect Rockwell Henry Stuckey (1855-1936) in 1916, the structure features classical columns, cornice and eaves. Notable elements include the ornate stained glass windows and octagonal dome, a feature often associated with Stuckey's work. The original stained glass windows were crafted in Germany during World War I and crossed the Atlantic three times before being accepted at New York and shipped to Chillicothe by train. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1998 #11926
301 Avenue J South, Chillicothe, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #05246
Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Substation No. 12, Home of Hybrid Sorghums. Forage crop field station at which in 1909 (when situated 6 miles NE) was planted the United States' first sudan grass, a sorghum especially adaptable to semiarid regions. The United States Department of Agriculture had brought the seed from Khartum, Africa. Here ensued more than a half-century of sorghum breeding under supervision of A. B. Conner, J. R. Quinby, J. C. Stephens and other scientists, culminating in hybrid seed for more productive crops that revolutionized the agriculture of the Great Plains. (1971) #5246
?, Chillicothe, TX, United States