Tahoka, Lynn County
Created 1876 from Bexar Territory. Name honors G. W. Lynn, "One of those who baptized the altar of Texas with life blood at the Alamo". Tahoka Lake and Double Lakes Springs were watering places on Indian, Spanish, U. S. Army and cattle-driving trails. This was home land of nomadic Indians; visited by Spaniards, 1500s-1800s; used by New Mexicans grazing large herds of sheep in 1860s; site of last great buffalo hunts and the U. S. Cavalry's drive against Comanches, 1874-1877. Last cowboy-Indian skirmish occurred 1879 at Double Lakes. Earliest open-range cattlemen settled here in 1880s. First schools, Lynn and T-Bar, opened in 1902. In April 1903, county was organized, with Tahoka as county seat. The first officials: M. L. Elliott, county judge; S. N. McDaniel, county and district clerk; C. H. Doak, sheriff and tax assessor; W. E. Porterfield, surveyor; J. E. Ketner, H. E. Baldridge, B. Humphries, and W. T. Petty, commissioners. The Santa Fe Railroad built to this point in 1910. This has since become a major agricultural area, ranking among top ten cotton counties in Texas-- and one of the top twenty in the United States. (1970)