Wagon Trail from Estacado to Singer's Store-Lubbock

The early Quaker colony of Estacado was located near the present Lubbock-Crosby county line.  It was one of the earliest settlements on the plains of west Texas.  The settlement founder, Paris Cox, brought a group that settled on the plains just west of the old rock house where Hank Smith lived in Blanco Canyon.

George Singer, Cox's son in law, left the group and moved southwest into central Lubbock county to Yellowhouse Canyon where he started a general store.  These pictures show the remains of the old wagon trail that runs from Estacado to Singer's store.

This area northeast of Lubbock has never been plowed and the trail ruts are visible where they crossed the plains.  This trail dates from the 1880's

The original site of Singer's Store is located in Yellowhouse Canyon just off Loop 289 in northwest Lubbock near the present Lubbock Lake site.  The store was later moved to the original town square when the present Lubbock townsite was platted.

West Texas 1st Hospital-Ferguson Clinic

In the early 1890's a Dr. Ferguson moved to a location about 3 miles east of the Quaker colony of Estacado. Here he built the first hospital in West Texas, known as Ferguson Clinic. This was a two story box and strip building with a basement. A large concrete
slab or porch was poured on the south side of the building. A number of black Locust trees were planted to shade the building.


These pictures show the site of the hospital in February of 2007. The basement of the clinic is being used as a farm trash pit. No trace of the original building remains. Concrete slabs from the porch line the south side of the trash pit and some of the shade trees remain on the south side.

Local histories tell stories of patients having surgery performed outside on the porch under the shade trees and then being sent home for recovery. If necessary, patients were moved inside the hospital building to recover.



Asecond doctor Ferguson joined the staff and also worked at the clinic. Today the site of the clinic is being used as a farm trash pit. Some of the remains of the shade trees still line the trash pit.