Hale County Historical Commission

05/31/2026

05/29/2026

Visit the Unger Library to check out the Hale County Historical Commission "America 250" display.

05/26/2026

Susan Barkley leads the 'Echoes of Hale County' for the HCHC. Glenda Lancaster assists. Together, they do a great job bringing the educational history of Hale County to the Unger Library display cases. Stop by now through July to celebrate America's 250th in the Hale County way!

05/26/2026

05/25/2026

We are 2 months away from Camp Cattalo Family Summer Camp, a three-day camp that brings the Texas frontier to life! We invite people of all ages to attend, because history and fun are for everyone!

Native American Day -Tuesday, July 21st, 9 am - 12 pm

Learn about the Lord of the Plains—the Comanche, a tribe that built an empire based on horses and bison. Activities include: Bison One Stop Shop, Crafts, and Prickly Pear Jam with Biscuits!

Life on the Cattle Trail - Wednesday, July 22nd, 9 am - 12 pm

Why is the Longhorn so important to Texas? Look to ranchers like Charles Goodnight, who blazed trails to take this iconic cattle West and made a fortune. Activities include: Survive a Cattle Drive, Cowboy Hot Chocolate (and Coffee) with Pete the Chuckwagon, Make Your Own Hard Tack, and Storytime in Mr. Goodnight’s Den.

Pioneer Women on the Homestead - Thursday, July 23rd, 9 am - 12 pm

It was women who built the communities on the Texas Frontier, from Mary Ann Goodnight to Frenchy McCormick; they used their hearts and minds to build the West. Activities include: Build a Dugout, Make Butter— the Pioneer Way, and Pioneer Parlor Games.

We invite people of all ages to attend, because history and fun are for everyone! Each day will end with a picnic on the Goodnight Lawn, so bring a sack lunch! Children are $5.00 per day attended, and adults are $10.00 per day attended. We ask that any child under 18 attend with an adult.

Sign up by clicking the link below or call 806-205-2607!

https://thc.jotform.com/260475540577968

05/22/2026

There are many more books in the HCHC museum repository. These are what we currently show in the inventory.

6000 Miles of Fence Life on the XIT Ranch of Texas
A Century of Texas Cattle Brands
A School History of Texas
A Tree Sprang Forth: A History of Staked Plains Association
Adventures of Samuel Swartout in the Age of Jefferson and Jackson
Along the Texas Old Fort Trail
An Aesthetic-Based Plan for Pioneer Square, Plainview, Texas
Bailey's Tables and methods
Basketball Guide for Girls
Behold the man portraits of Jesus…Words and Brush
Best Made Better Recipes
Big art in a small town
Blue Book of the Texas Panhandle
bluebonnet cookbook
Boys of Cal Farley's Boys Ranch
C.C. Slaughter Rancher, Banker, Baptist
Changing Role of women During wwII
Civil War Veterans buried in Hale County
Code of the City of Plainview, 1957
County Courthouse Book
Courthouses of West Texas
Covenanant Health Faith and Healing
Don't squat with yer spurs on!
Dynasty of the Texas plains
Farmers Almanac
Fiddle Dust
Finally Got It Right (Cassette Tape)
First Baptist Church Centennial Album 1890-1990
First Baptist Church Spring Yearbook 1986
First Baptist Loyalty Album 19?? (blue)
First Baptist Loyalty Album 1961 (red)
Flags of Texas
Flying Pr******te
From Apples to Wacs: Supplement to the 2nd edition of Hale County, Texas bibliography
From Generation to generation: telling it like it is
Gem of the South Plains LBK
Great recipes from Texas
Hale County, Texas, bibliography
Hale County, Texas, bibliography: 2nd edition
Half-century of progress 1913-1936
Happy Times with Home Cooking
Here's How: Plainview Chefs
Historic Tales of the Llano Estacado
History of Hale County, Texas 1937
History of Seth Ward College 1977
Holidays at Home
Home Formula
Homespun Lyrics "Hard Times"
How I Found my roots on the internet
Hymns and Classics (Cassette Tape)
Idyl Thoughts " A Range Vagabond"
If I Was a highway
In Poetry Volume II
Jimmy Dean's own story
Kicking Against the Pricks
Kitchen Gems
Land of Bright Promise
Landing in My Present
Lela and Joe
Mark Inside
Medicine and Cowboys Sixty Years Ago and Today's Politics
Most Richly Blessed (Vinyl Record)
Murder Most Texan
My Sister's Secret
N.A.R.D. Almanac
Nearer To Thee (Vinyl Record)
Nineteen Jumps and a Prayer
Norfleet
Nowlin's Favorite Revival Songs
Offbeat Texas Stops
One Corner of Heaven
Our Family Ross-Stovall
Oz
Panhandle Pilgrimage
Panhandle Plains Historical Review 1970
Pictorial History of Hale County, Texas (blue)
Pictorial history of Hale County, Texas (green)
Plainview Centennial Cookbook
Plainview Cows
Plainview Homes and Families 1976
Plainview Nursery
Plainview Queens Classic Souvenir Program 1985
Plainview Site
Plainview, Texas, Main Street Project Volume 1
Plainview, Texas, Main Street Project Volume 2
Plainview, Texas, Mixed-use Complex: a Thesis in Architecture
Plainview, the Enigmatic Paleondin Artifact style of the Great Plains
Practical Cookbook 1933
Prairie Waltz
Purely Louise
Queens fly high
Reaching Goals
Recipes and Remembrances
Recipes from the Kitchen of: Family & Friends
Recipes that Please Cookbook
remembrance and renewal 75th Anniversary
School Service Favorite Food Recipes
School Service Favorite Food Recipes
Seth Ward and Seth Ward Elementary
Seth Ward revisited 2007
Shattering the Glass
Spirits of the Border: The History and Mystery of the Lone Star State
St. Mary's Guild Festive Favorites
Take It From Me (Cassette Tape)
Tastes for All seasons
Tested Favorite Recipes 1965-1973
Tested Recipes
Texas Before the Star
Texas Brags
Texas Justice: The Legacy of Historical Courthouses
Texas Land and Development Company
Texas Panhandle Frontier
Texas Travel Handbook
The Collective
The Time it Never Rained
The torch is passed
These Are My people
Trail Dust
Traits of a Winner: The Formula for Developing Thoroughbred Race Horses
Unique Cookbook 1923
Up from the Sshes
Victim of Circumstances
Vietnam Journey
Wandering Words
Wayland Century
Wayland College Choir
Wayland College General Catalog 1952-53
Wayland College General Catalog 1953-54
Wayland Family Cookbook
Wayland Homecoming Program 1952
Wayland Manhattan Melodies 1952
Wayland Story (CD)
Wayland World Volume 4 1951
Wayland World Volume 5 1951
Wayland World Volume 6 1951
Wayland World Volume 7 1951
We are Wayland Fall 2023
West Texas Association Yearbook 1925
West Texas Association Yearbook 1926
West Texas Association Yearbook 1927
West Texas Association Yearbook 1929
West Texas Association Yearbook 1931
West Texas Association Yearbook 1932
West Texas Association Yearbook 1933
West Texas Association Yearbook 1934
West Texas Association Yearbook 1935
West Texas Association Yearbook 1936
West Texas Association Yearbook 1937
West Texas Association Yearbook 1938
West Texas Association Yearbook 1939
West Texas Association Yearbook 1940
West Texas Association Yearbook 1941
West Texas Association Yearbook 2007
West Texas Middleweight (LaVern Roach)
West Texas Middleweight (LaVern Roach)
Where Have You Gone, Starlight Café?
Why Discovering Your Essence is Important for a Life of Meaning
Wrapped in the Arms of Jesus (CD)
Wyatt, Kenneth Western Art Interpreted

05/21/2026

There’s a lot of talk about the Founding Fathers of the U.S. as we celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, but what about the Founding Mothers? One name that should be considered for this title is Mary Katharine Goddard, an accomplished printer and publisher whose name appears on the second printing of the Declaration of Independence.

In January of 1777, after fleeing Philadelphia for Baltimore, the Continental Congress commissioned Goddard to print a second issue of the Declaration of Independence. This time, those who signed the Declaration in July of 1776 reasserted their commitment to the cause of Independence by allowing their names to be printed on the broadside. Mary Katharine Goddard put her name in print, too.

Printing this document was an act of treason. By printing this broadside and including her name, Mary Katharine Goddard was bravely aligning herself with the same risks that the signers had undertaken.

There are only 11 known surviving copies of the Goddard broadside, making it a very special treasure in the Library's collections.

To learn more about the Goddard broadside, visit the links below.

https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2018/03/rare-book-of-the-month-a-revolutionary-woman-and-the-declaration-of-independence/?loclr=fbloc

https://www.loc.gov/item/video-10718/?loclr=fbloc

Image: A cropped and zoomed-in image of the Goddard Declaration of Independence with Mary Katharine Goddard's name highlighted at the bottom, and an illustration of Goddard in the upper righthand corner.

05/20/2026

Today, we took a moment to inventory the HCHC matchbook collection in the Hale County museum repository. Here is the listing:

1st Supply Co. Inc.
Airport Café
Airport Motel
B. F. Goodrich
Bailey's TV & Appliance Center
Bearings & Industrial Supplies
Browning Seeds
Burl's Appliance Service
Byars Bros.
Charles Hobgood
Chicken Inn Restaurant
City Electric
City National Bank
Claude Hutcherson Air Service
Congress Inn Restaurant
Conner-Mathis Co.
Cooper-Sparks Pontiac, Inc.
Curtie Mae Rogers
Dial & Tapp Cotton
Diamond Industrial Supply
Dulaney's Auto & Truck Parts
Dunn Foods
Earl's Sandwiches
East Side Courts & Service Station
Eastside Grocery & Service Station
Eed's Gin
El Jardin Restaurant
Electrical Apparatus Service & Sales
Energas
Excel Hybrid Seed
Far East Restaurant
Faye's Café
Finney Grocery & Market
First National Bank
Flower Nook
Fred Garrison Oil Co.
Frontier Savings Association
Fulkerson Grocery & Station
Gebo's
Gunter-Mooney Motors
Hail's Shoe Store
Hale County State Bank
Hatch Automotive
Haydon Winkels Shoes
Haynes Machinery Co.
Henry Heck, Judge
Hilton Hotels
Hollywood Shop
Hotel Ware
J. D. Spann Bail Bonding Co.
James Bros. Implement
Jerry Caylor Auto Supply
John Logsdon Insurance
Johnson & Bumpas Service Station
K-Bob's Steak House
Kiker's Service Station
Lindsey's Cosden Service Station
Mace Olds-Buick, Inc.
Melvin Bramlet Oil Company
Midway Service Station
Milstead Hardware & Welding Supply
Mouser Agency
National Oil Company
No Name Café
Nu-Griddle Café
O. K. Drug
Old Mexico Restaurant
Owens Beauty Salon
Pants West
Pioneer Drive Inn
Plainview Chamber of Commerce
Plainview Country Club
Plainview Motel
Plainview Production Credit Association
Plainview Ready Mix Concrete
Plainview Rendering Co.
Plainview Roller Rink
Plainview Savings & Loan Association
Plainview Wheat Growers
Production Credit Association
Quick Lunch Café
R. Q. Silverthorne Insurance
Ranchers & Farmers Supply
Rest Well motel
Roberson Herring Drug
Security Land Title Company
SIC Loans
Simpkins Texeco Service Station
Smith-Bawden Grain Co., Inc.
Smokey's Bar-B-Q
Sonic
Stovall-Booher
Terrell-Standefer Insulation Co.
Texas Farm Machinery, Inc.
Tucky's Auto Parts & Supply
United Farm Industries
Ussery Sheet Metal
Western Motel
Westside Gin
White Rooster Restaurant
White's Super Markets
Wood Dunning Funeral Home
Wylie Stations
Young's Service Station

Do you have others to contribute? Tell us your stories about these businesses!