THOMAS O'LAUGHLIN (1844-1923)
OLIVE KING DIXON (1873-1956)
JAMES ANDREW WHITTENBURG (1857-1936)
JUDGE NEWTON F. LOCKE
JUDGE STERLING G. CARTER
Thomas O'Laughlin (O'Loughlin in many sources), the first
white to settle his family permanently in the Texas
Panhandle, was born in Ireland in 1844. He immigrated
with his family to the American Midwest and during the
Civil War worked as a government teamster at Fort
There he met Ellen Gilmore, whose parents had immigrated
from Ireland to Dubuque, Iowa. They were married at her
hometown in 1869. Soon afterward they moved to the Kansas
frontier and started a small dugout store on the Santa Fe
Railroad at Pierceville, Ellsworth County. There they had
In 1874 the O'Laughlins were compelled to flee their
homestead after being warned of a party of Cheyennes
coming north on a rampage. These disgruntled warriors
destroyed the family's possessions and burned the dugout.
After that the family went to Lakin, Kansas, where Tom's
brother John ran a store.
During a Christmas visit to Dubuque in December, while
O'Laughlin was in Texas hunting buffalo, his wife gave
birth to a third child. In the spring of 1875 the
O'Laughlins moved from Dodge City to the Panhandle,
following the troops sent to establish Fort Elliott.
After camping with the troops on Cantonment Creek, they
squatted on a section of land halfway between the new
fort and the buffalo camp of Hidetown.
Three months after they settled there, the O'Laughlins
received word of the death of their daughter from rabies.
Having been bitten by an infected skunk, she had been
left behind in Lakin, where medical attention was
available. When the town of Sweetwater, later Mobeetie,
was founded on O'Laughlin's section, he was persuaded to
trade it in for 100 lots in the new townsite.
The O'Laughlins built a restaurant and a boarding house
out of pickets and sod in Mobeetie. Charles Goodnight was
said to have passed the night there in 1876 when he first
came to the Panhandle to establish the JA Ranch. A year
later his wife, Mary Dyer Goodnight, reportedly spent her
first night in the Panhandle with the O'Laughlins.
The family saw their share of quarrels settled by guns;
the fatal shooting of Granger Dyer by John McCabe
occurred in front of O'Laughlin's restaurant. Once the
buffalo were killed off, O'Laughlin started a cattle
herd, while his wife continued to operate the boarding
After Wheeler County was organized in 1879 he often
served as a juror. In 1885 the O'Laughlins expanded their
business into the frame Grand Central Hotel, one of the
town's most ornate buildings. The O'Laughlins' younger
son died in 1895. During this time, O'Laughlin began
breeding Hereford and shorthorn cattle on land in Gray
In 1901, after Mobeetie declined, the O'Laughlin family
moved to Miami, in Roberts County. There Miles, the
remaining son, subsequently became an outstanding
citizen. In 1904 he married Annie Elizabeth Earl, who had
worked in Mobeetie as a governess to the children of
"Big Johnny" Jones.
Miles O'Laughlin, who had three sons, took over the
family's ranching operations after the death of his
father in Miami on February 23, 1923. His mother died in
Miami on January 18, 1931. Both are buried in the Miami
After Miles's death in 1942 successive generations of
O'Laughlins continued to call Miami their home.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ernest R. Archambeau, "The First
Federal Census in the Panhandle, 1880,"
Panhandle-Plains Historical Review 23 (1950). Sallie B.
Harris, comp., Hide Town in the Texas Panhandle: 100
Years in Wheeler County and the Panhandle of Texas
(Hereford, Texas: Pioneer, 1968). History of Miami and
Roberts County (Miami, Texas: Roberts County Historical
Committee, 1976). Millie Jones Porter, Memory Cups of
Panhandle Pioneers (Clarendon, Texas: Clarendon Press,
1945). Glenn Shirley, Temple Houston (Norman: University
of Oklahoma Press, 1980).
H. Allen Anderson
OLIVE KING DIXON
Olive King Dixon was born on January 30, 1873, on Bent
Mountain, eighteen miles southwest of Roanoke, Virginia,
the eighth of ten children of Robert Woods and Mary Jane
(Blankenship) King. The family estate had been given by
the king of England to Gen. Andrew Lewis, Olive's
great-grandfather, for his role in Lord Dunmore's War
(1774) and was thus known as the Lewis grant.
When Olive was seven her father, a Civil War veteran,
succumbed to an outbreak of smallpox. Olive and her
sister Margaret were sent to Decatur, Alabama, to live
with a cousin, Dora King Wade, and her husband Miles, who
had two sons of their own. Olive remained at the Wade
home and attended school in Decatur until she was
sixteen, when she returned to Virginia.
In the meantime two of her brothers, Albert Richard and
John Archie, had gone to the Texas Panhandle in the 1880s
to work for the Seven K and Cresswell ranches. Albert
subsequently married and settled in Lipscomb County, and
Archie settled in Roberts County; both were doing well as
ranchers on their own.
In 1893 Olive visited her brothers and spent most of her
time at the home of Archie, who had married Sena Walstad
on Christmas Eve, 1890, and now had an infant son, Woods.
While Olive was there, James A. Whittenburg offered her
the job of teaching at Garden Creek School, between
Tallahone and Reynolds creeks, organized for the children
of the Whittenburg and Newby families. She accepted, and
soon afterward Olive met and was courted by the veteran
plainsman William (Billy) Dixon.
Billy and Olive were married on October 18, 1894, at his
Adobe Walls homestead on the Turkey Track Ranch. Rev. C.
V. Bailey, a Methodist minister, came a hundred miles
from Mobeetie to perform the ceremony. Later Olive stated
that for three years after her marriage she was the only
woman living in Hutchinson County.
The Dixons lived at Adobe Walls until 1902, when they
moved to Plemons. By then they had four children; three
more were added after their move to Cimarron County,
Oklahoma, in 1906. Before her husband's death on March 9,
1913, Olive carefully recorded his recollections of his
younger years as a buffalo hunter and army scout.
These she compiled and published as the Life of Billy
Dixon, an important source of Panhandle history, in 1914.
Frederick S. Barde, an Oklahoma western writer, helped
her edit the manuscript.
Mrs. Dixon and her children moved briefly to Texline,
then in 1915 to Canyon. They continued to farm the
Cimarron County homestead until 1917, when they sold it
and moved to Miami, in Roberts County. There she wrote
sketches of Panhandle history for area newspapers, and
several of her pieces also appeared in various magazines.
In 1923 she made a memorable trip east to visit relatives
and interview Gen. Nelson A. Miles and others who had
known her husband and who attested to the truth of his
exploits. As a charter member of the Panhandle-Plains
Historical Society, Mrs. Dixon led the successful effort
in 1924 to place historical markers at the Adobe Walls
and Buffalo Wallow battle sites.
In 1929 she moved to Amarillo and was hired as a
part-time staff writer by the Amarillo Globe-News. She
was made a salaried reporter in 1937 and was in charge of
preparing the Globe-News Golden Anniversary Edition of
August 14, 1938.
She remained with the Amarillo newspapers until her
death, on March 17, 1956. She was interred in Llano
Cemetery, Amarillo. Dixon heirs live throughout much of
West Texas, Eastern New Mexico, and the Pacific
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Amarillo Daily News, March 19, 1956.
Hutchinson County Historical Commission, History of
Hutchinson County, Texas (Dallas: Taylor, 1980). John L.
McCarty, Adobe Walls Bride (San Antonio: Naylor, 1955).
H. Allen Anderson
JAMES ANDREW WHITTENBURG
James Andrew Whittenburg, cattleman, the son of George
and Sarah (Jarvis) Whittenburg, was born on May 7, 1857,
in Chillicothe, Missouri. After the Civil War
Whittenburg's imagination was fired by reports of the
cattle trade, and at the age of twelve he devised plans
to join his older brothers in Texas.
When his mother sent him out for wood one morning, he
caught a freight train that took him as far as the Indian
Territory. After selling various trinkets for meals,
lodging, and passage on the Red River ferry to Texas, he
spent the next five years working with his brothers on
Ben Slaughter's ranch in Parker County. In four years he
had his own herd of twenty head.
When he arrived back at his home at age seventeen, he
walked in the door carrying a load of wood. After
attending school for a year, he returned to Texas and
went to work for John Proffitt at Fort Belknap, in Young
County. During the next four years Whittenburg made
several drives over the Western Trail to Dodge City; on
one drive he suffered from heatstroke, which affected his
eyes and left him almost blind for the rest of his life.
Nevertheless, by 1878 Whittenburg owned over 100 cattle.
At that time he filed on eighty acres of land in Young
County. There he met Tennessee Ann (Tennie) Parham, whom
he married on July 3, 1879. They had three children, one
of whom died in infancy. The Whittenburgs lived and ran
their cattle for a time in Lamar County.
However, a severe drought compelled them to parlay their
holdings into a larger spread in Wilbarger County. After
purchasing a wagon and team, the couple peddled groceries
and supplies, bought at Doan's Crossing, to the Comanches
and other tribes in western Oklahoma.
They soon won a reputation among the Indians as shrewd
traders, and husband and wife took turns standing,
shotgun in hand, on night guard over the team and
supplies. During one venture the Comanche chief Big Bow
became impressed with their son George's blond hair and
offered from seventy-five to a hundred horses for the
boy, promising to make him a chief.
In 1887 Whittenburg filed claim on land in Roberts County
near Miami. Here he carried the mail from Miami to the
Adobe Walls post office, then run by William (Billy)
Dixon. George became one of Olive King Dixon's five
pupils at Garden Creek School. Whittenburg was
instrumental in the organization of Roberts County and
served as a commissioner.
When Oklahoma was opened for settlement in 1889, he
grazed cattle in Kay County and for four years carried
mail on a star route. Whittenburg continued his
operations in Oklahoma until 1898, when he filed on four
sections of land in the center of Hutchinson County.
Panhandle, in Carson County, was the family's banking and
supply center until 1901, when the townsite of Plemons
was platted on land donated from the Whittenburg
homestead section. Because of his father's failing
eyesight, George took charge of the physical labor and
growing management responsibilities of the Whittenburgs'
MM Ranch, which accumulated 25,000 acres and over 3,000
cattle by 1920.
In 1924 oil was discovered on the Whittenburg holdings.
After the death of his wife in 1927, Whittenburg moved to
Amarillo and rented rooms at the Amarillo Hotel. On
October 19, 1936, Whittenburg died of injuries he
received when the car in which he was riding collided
with a freight train in Amarillo. He was buried in the
Dreamland Cemetery in Canyon.
The family's MM Cattle Company, headed by Roy Robert
Whittenburg, still operated the ranch in Hutchinson
County in 1986. One of his grandsons, S. B. Whittenburg,
founded the Amarillo Times, which he merged with the
Globe-News after buying an interest in the company in
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Amarillo Daily News, October 20, 1936.
Garland H. Bell, "Willis P. Hedgecoke," in
Amarillo Genealogical Society, Texas Panhandle
Forefathers, comp. Barbara C. Spray (Dallas: National
ShareGraphics, 1983). Hutchinson County Historical
Commission, History of Hutchinson County, Texas (Dallas:
Taylor, 1980). John L. McCarty, Adobe Walls Bride (San
Antonio: Naylor, 1955). Thomas Thompson, North of Palo
Duro (Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1984). Vertical
Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas
H. Allen Anderson
JUDGE NEWTON F. LOCKE
JUDGE NEWTON F. LOCKE, prominent merchant of Miami county and county
judge of Roberts county, holds a premier position among the pioneer
citizens of the great Texas Panhandle. For over a quarter of a
century he has been closely identified with the life and affairs of
this section of the state, and his influence and prosperity have
increased with the years. The industrial and commercial phases of
the region have not alone felt the impetus of his energy and
enterprise, for he has almost from the first taken an active part in
public affairs and has often been the incumbent of some important
Judge Locke has always lived in the sunny south, and though a man
just in the prime of his years he has had a varied and earnestly
active and useful career. He was born near Selma, in Dallas county,
Alabama, January 13, 1853, being a son of William F. and Elizabeth
(Brazeal) Locke. His parents were both natives of Alabama, and his
father lost his life while serving the cause of the south in the
armies of the Confederacy.
Reared on a farm, Judge Locke spent the first twenty-one years of
his life in his native state, and in 1874 came to Texas where for
over thirty years he has centered his activities. His first location
was in Dallas, where for a year he was employed in the mercantile
firm of Leonard Brothers. He then moved to Jacksboro in Jack county
and was in a store there for about a year. It will be remembered
that the seventies were still a period of Indian trouble and
depredation for the Texas frontier, along which at that time Jack
and Young counties still lay, and these especially suffered from the
ravages of the redskins. Accordingly the Texas Rangers, that famous
body of state troops of whom Texas history will never cease to
speak, where kept pretty busy, and Mr. Locke joined the organization
under Lieutenant Hamilton. General John B. Jones being in command of
the battalion. For two years he was in the exciting and arduous
service of the Rangers in the frontier counties from the Red river
In the spring of 1879 Mr. Locke came out to Wheeler county, which
was the first county to be organized in the Panhandle, and the
organization was effected that very year. He located at Mobeetie,
the county seat. At that time all the counties north of the Red
river in the Panhandle were attached to Wheeler for judicial
purposes, and in the year of Mr. Locke's coming the nearest justice
of the peace was at Henrietta in Clay county. In 1884, when the
second regular election after the organization of Wheeler county
occurred, Mr. Locke was elected clerk of the county and district
courts, and received three successive re-elections, so that he held
the office for eight years. He remained a resident of Wheeler county
until 1894, and early in that year came to Miami in Roberts county.
After engaging in the mercantile business for a while he sold out,
and was then on his ranch three years. In 1901 be bought back into
the mercantile business, and has since been numbered among the
enterprising merchants of the town of Miami. His well known firm is
the N. F. Locke and Son, his son, Newton, being the associate in the
business. In Roberts county also Mr. Locke has been publicly active,
having served one term as county treasurer, and in 1902 was elected
to the office of county judge for a term of two years. He was
re-elected in 1904.
A man of the highest character and standing, with a most
creditable record in every enterprise he has undertaken since be
became a resident of this section of the state, Mr. Locke is greatly
esteemed by all who know him and has wielded his influence in the
right direction for public progress and prosperity. Fraternally he
is a Mason and Odd Fellow. In 1881 he was married in Young county to
Miss Dora Barton, and they are the parents of four fine sons, named
respectively, Claude, who is a merchant at Allanreed, this state,
Newton, William and Clarence.
B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West
Texas, Vol. I (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), pp. 298-299.
JUDGE STERLING G. CARTER
JUDGE STERLING G. CARTER, stock farmer and real estate man at Miami,
Roberts county, is one of the best posted and widely experienced men
on the history and widely experienced men on the history and affairs
of this section of the state, having been closely identified with
the Panhandle in all its various aspects for over twenty years.
Though now just in the prime of his energies and his years, he has
passed through a large and prosperous career, and his sphere of
usefulness has not been restricted to any one department of
A fine example of the energetic and enterprising southerner, he
was born in Warren county, Georgia, November 15, 1851, and his
entire life has been spent south of Mason and Dixon’s line. His
parents were Wiley and Sarah (Rivers) Carter. His father, also a
native of Warren county, in the early fifties moved to Sumter
county, Georgia, and there continued his activity as an extensive
cotton planter and slave owner until his death. The mother was also
born and died in Georgia.
The well remembered plantation in Sumter county was the scene of
Judge Carter’s early rearing, and from the time he was able to
interest himself in serious pursuits he became identified with the
cotton business. When he was twenty-one years old he married Miss
Mary H. Cheves, and a short time later, in 1873, they transferred
their home from Georgia to the Lone Star state, where it was their
intention to go to housekeeping and establish a home. Locating first
at Bluff Springs (now Bluffdale) in Erath county, Mr. Carter, in
partnership with Captain Freeman (firm name Freeman and Carter) was
in the mercantile business for three years. In the meantime he had
been getting a bunch of cattle together and gradually worked into
the cattle business in Stephens county. His next choice of activity
was the contracting business, which the building of railroads
through this section of the state offered him.
He received a grading
contract on the Texas and Pacific Railroad, which was then building
west from Fort Worth, and in that work he followed the road until it
reached Dead Man’s Cut, on the far edge of the plains. On
returning to Fort Worth he met Morgan Jones, who was then building
the Fort Worth in a northwesterly direction to Denver, and who gave
Mr. Carter a graduating contract on that road. When Wichita Falls
was reached there was a lull in the construct earthwork, and Mr.
Carter then contracted with the Franklin Land and Cattle Company to
construct earthwork water tanks on that company’s extensive
pastures in the Texas Panhandle. During the eighteen months of his
engagement in the work he was in Roberts, Hutchinson, Carson and
Gray counties, having come up here in 1883, and has ever since been
identified with the famous Panhandle district.
When he had completed
the water tanks he started the cattle business on his own account,
becoming a successful cattleman in the Panhandle. He began his
operations on twenty-four sections of land, but gradually decreased
this vast domain, as he wished to go into stock farming and raise
thoroughbred stock. His present homestead which is located in
Roberts county two miles of Miami consists of two sections. He has a
number of registered thoroughbred Red Polled cattle, and has made a
specialty of crossing these with other thoroughbreds, such as
Herefords and Shorthorns, as well as “scrub” cattle.
Carter is also known as one of the most enterprising and progressive
men in this section of the state in experimenting with and growing
various farm crops, for the purpose of demonstrating what a good
country surrounds Miami for general stock-farming, and his efforts
along this line have been of great value to all lines of industry
and the general prosperity and welfare of the state. Experience has
made him a most ardent exponent of the growing, in this part of the
state, of the non-saccharine sorghum crop, Kaffir corn, milo maize,
and other forms of rough feed stuff. In an essentially treeless and
barren country he has contributed lasting value by the raising of
many forest trees, black locust, catalpa, shrubbery, has a fine
vineyard with thirteen varieties of grapes, raises strawberries,
blackberries, gooseberries, currants, the finest of vegetables, and
splendid rose bushes and other flowers—all making beautiful home
surroundings and also demonstrating in unmistakable way the
adaptability of this country to all purposes of a purely
While the interests cited in the foregoing paragraph have
occupied most of Judge Carter’s time and attention, he has
likewise devoted some of his efforts to public affairs and has
several years been honored by public office in Roberts county. He
was first a special constable; in 1892 was elected county treasurer,
and continued to serve in this capacity for six years. Previous to
this, in 1890, he was appointed sheriff and tax collector, and in
all these positions he performed his duties with substantial benefit
to the county and state. He held the office of sheriff for two
years. In 1898 he was elected county judge, and by re-election in
1900 held this office for four years. His official record has thus
been a long and honorable one. In addition to the management of the
stock farm, he has a real estate business in town, the firm being S.
G. Carter and Company, his partner being Jerome Harris, and they
carry on a very profitable general real estate business.
By his first wife Judge Carter had three children: namely,
William S., Mrs. Bena H. Kinney, wife of J. E. Kinney, a Miami
attorney, and Hugh G. After the death of his first wife he married
her sister, Miss Loua E. Cheves, and they are the parents of one
little girl, Musa B.
B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West
Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. I, pp. 283-284.
This page was last updated January 9, 2007.