Shackelford Co., TX - History - Historical and Descriptive of Shackelford County, Texas

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Historical and Descriptive
Shackelford County is situated in northwest Texas about 450 miles from
Galveston, 150 miles from Dallas, and on the Texas Pacific Railway.

Its organization:
By act of 1 February 1858, the boundaries of the county were established.

By act of the legislature of 14 Feb 1860, it was attached to Palo Pinto County
for Judicial purposes and on 1 May 1874, a similar enactment attached it to Jack
county. An election was held for all officers in 1874. The first meeting of the
County Commissioner’s Court was held at Fort Griffin on 28 September 1874. By
proclamation of Gov. Coke, dated 12 Oct 1874, Fort Griffin was designated as the
county seat pro tem. An election for the permanent location of the county seat
was held 8 November 1874, and resulted in the choice of the northeast quarter of
section one of the Blind Asylum surveys, on which Albany is now built.

Albany – the County seat
Albany, the county seat, is situated on the north prong of Mill Creek or North
Prong of Hubbard, Creek, as it is most generally called, and is three miles east
of the geographical center of the county. An election was held 31 December 1875,
to move the county seat to Griffin, but the latter place failed to receive the
necessary two-thirds of the vote polled. The first term of the District court
held at Albany was 15 November 1875, Shackelford County begin then in the old
34th Judicial district, J.P. Osterhout, judge. Then the only buildings were the
residences of Henry C. Jacobs, sheriff and the court house; and not only were
they the only houses in the town, but for several miles around. Albany is now
the terminus of the Texas Central Railway. The first sale of town lots occurred
in August 1875. The court house square is 420 feet square; all the streets are
100 feet wide and are intersected by alleys 20 feet wide.

The Town of Fort Griffin
This town took its name from the fort which is adjoining. It is situated in a
mesquite valley, on the south bank of the Clear Fork of The Brazos, about 16
miles northeast of Albany. The fort was established in 1867 and named after
Brigadier General Griffin, of the U.S. Army, at that time stationed in
Galveston, and was abandoned by 1881. The town started shortly after the fort
was established, but did not assume more proportions until 1874. The first term
of the District Court for Shackelford County was held here 7 June 1875. The
grand jury found 37 bills of indictment at this term, principally misdemeanors,
for gaming and keeping disorderly houses; this character of offenders being in
the majority in all towns continuous to frontier posts. The palmy days of the
town, may be dated from the fall of 1875 to 1878, during the flourishing times
of the great buffalo hunt. One could see 50 hunters at a time on the streets,
all in with wagons for supplies and ammunition.

It is true desperate characters made their headquarters at Griffin, and plied
their nefarious callings. Since the abandonment of the post the town has
decreased considerably in population and business. There are two good stores, a
drug store, a saloon and a post office. It will be the trading point of southern
Throckmorton and part of the Clear Fork valley always. There is a good school
and a Masonic hall. Lt. Chandler, J.S.A., is stationed there in charge of the
Tonkawa Indians, whose camp is near Griffin. There is a hack line and daily mail
from Albany.

The public buildings owned by the county are the jail and court house. The court
house was built in 1875 of cedar posts at a cost of $800 and was weather boarded
and repairer at various times. The jail of rock, two-story high, with chilled
iron cages in upper story. The contract for building was let to Thomas and
Werner of Fort Worth on 24 September 1877, $800; 1 January 1878, $1,200; balance
in bonds. The county owns four leagues of land in Motley county, but as this is
a donation from the state, for educational purposes
-- Edgar Rye


The Albany Star
J.C. Son, Editor and publisher
Vol. 1, 1
Friday, December 25, 1882