Historic Midland

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Above: Midland students perform a
cantata under direction of Professor
Rankin, 1898, in a photo taken in
front of Dr. Curtis’ home at
Thanksgiving time.
Below: Miss Frank Luther, early day
music teacher, takes a buggy ride to
the Estes Ranch north of downtown
Midland.
land developer, also drilled wells and irrigated
crops in the vicinity of Cole Park at about the
same time. At the time water was applied by
flooding down a furrow, and the very high permeability
of the soil caused this to be a highly
inefficient method of applying water. It was not
until the advent of sprinkler systems that irrigation
became economically feasible in Midland
County.
W. N. Locklar, who still farms in the Cotton
Flat community, came to Midland County with
his family in 1914. They first farmed south of
the city on a farm now located two miles south
of Interstate 20 on Midkiff Road. Names of pioneer
families that Locklar remembers include:
Countiss, Montgomery, Olliff Jones, Rayburn,
Heidelberg, Whitmire, Wilson, Holzgraf,
Robertson, Ingraham, Selman, Pliska, Long,
Roberts, Whitefield, Mills, Truelove, Elkin,
Wallace, Brunson, Porter and O’Neal.
B. T. Graham of Greenwood moved to
Midland in 1924 to farm. He remembers farming
neighbors as follows: Charles and A. C.
Collier, E. P. Lawson, Homer and Louis Wren,
Joe and John Bell, J. M. King, Sr., Mac Fisher, C.
C. Wise, Robert Saylor, J. M. Livingston, John
Mathis, Neal Staton, W. E. Pigg, the Blancetts,
McKees and Eilands.
Phil M. King, John M. King, Jr. and Marijo
King Collins are children of the late John M.
King, Sr., who came to Midland in 1897 from
North Carolina and homesteaded in the
Greenwood community. They were born in the
county and John and Marijo reside on parts of
the original King farm and ranch land. Mrs.
Collins recalls her father having land cleared
and renting it on crop shares to Clark and
George Bright. Phil remembers that practically
every ranch, large and small, had some farmland
on which feedstuffs were grown for work stock
and cattle. Although there was a degree of
antagonism between cattlemen and “sodbuster,”
apparently it was not as strong as in some other
areas of the Great Plains.
Benny Bizzell came to Midland in 1923. His
father, Elmer Bizzell, bought George Selman’s
farm located south of town on what is now
Rankin Highway. It is still owned in part by
members of the family. Bizzell was a leader in
the farming community who encouraged others
to come to the county to farm, and assisted
them in learning how to farm the sandy lands.
The early farming pioneers who came and
stayed to greet newcomers told them that this
was “the best next-year country” as far as farming
was concerned, and characterized it as
“farming country that could promise more and
do less, and promise less and do more” than
anywhere else.
Farmers continued to move into Midland
County through the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s
from the eastern parts of the state and nation.
The seven-year drought of 1951-1956 and
the development of aluminum pipe for sprinkler
irrigation were factors responsible for rapid
32 ✦ HISTORIC MIDLAND