Ochiltree TXGenWeb

Welcome to Ochiltree County, Texas!


HELLO - WELCOME!

My name is LaRae Halsey-Brooks, and my daughter,
Eireann Brooks, and I are the County Co-Coordinators
for the Ochiltree County TXGenWeb Project.

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TXGenWeb State Coordinator - Gina Heffernan
Asst State Coordinators -
Jane Keppler, Carla Clifton,
Laura Gregory Roberts

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About Ochiltree County

Ochiltree County is in the far northern Panhandle, bordered on the north by Oklahoma, on the east by Lipscomb County, on the south by Roberts County, and on the west by Hansford County. The county is in the heart of the High Plains, and occupies 907 square miles of level prairies

Perryton, the county seat, is in the north central part of the county, 120 miles northeast of Amarillo. The area was named for William Beck Ochiltree, a Republic of Texas judge, secretary of treasury, and an officer in the army of the Confederacy.

Prehistoric cultures occupied this region, then the Plains Apaches appeared. The historic-era Apaches arrived, then were pushed out of the region in the early eighteenth century by the Comanche Indians, who dominated the Texas Panhandle until the 1870s. The Red River War of 1874-75 led to the removal of the nomadic Indians to Indian Territory, which in turn led to the arrival of the ranching era. In 1876 the Texas legislature established Ochiltree County from lands formerly assigned to the Bexar District.

Proximity to the railroad, built in 1887 into nearby Lipscomb County, brought an influx of settlers into the county, especially after 1900, and the ranching economy evolved into a stock-farming system.  Between 1900 and 1910, however, stock farming began to give way to wheat farming. By 1920 there were 336 farms and ranches; almost 42,000 acres were planted in wheat, and 14,500 acres devoted to sorghum.

Although oil and gas exploration had occurred in the county as early as 1912 and continued periodically through the 1920s and 1930s, the first successful major producer blew in 1955.  More than 341,500 barrels of crude oil were produced in the county that year, and production rapidly expanded.

Ochiltree County possesses a diversified economy centered around agriculture, oil, and gas.

In the 1980s, the agricultural sector earned $70 million in 1983, primarily through the production of cattle, hogs, wheat, sorghums, corn, and alfalfa. Irrigation, which began in the late 1940s and expanded in the 1960s and 1970s, was used on 40 percent of the county's croplands in the early 1980s.

Oil production, valued at $61 million in 1983, helped to balance the agricultural economy. Feedlot operations, agribusinesses, and oilfield services also added to the local economy.

Communities in the county include Perryton (1990 population, 7,606), the seat of government; Waka (145); Huntoon (21); Farnsworth (149); and Twichell (22).

To post your Queries, Biographies, Bible Records, Deeds,
Obituaries, Pensions, and Wills, please visit
the Ancestry Message Board for Ochiltree County, Texas.


Ochiltree County Message Board

World War I and World War II
Texas Panhandle Casualties
and Missing in Action

World War I

World War II

Source: Amarillo Globe-News

NARA -- Access to Military Service and Pension Records

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the official repository for records of military personnel who have been discharged from the U.S. Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard.

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Ochiltree County Notables

Events, locations, and industries important
to Ochiltree County history.

The Buried City
Wheat Culture
The Whig Party and William Ochiltree
Tascosa - Dodge City Trail

CensusTools

Downloadable -- 35 FREE electronic spreadsheets for
archiving federal, state and international census data.
The spreadsheets provide a way of electronically
organizing, preserving and sharing census extractions.
They are offered as shareware by Gary Minder at Censustools.com.

Ochiltree County Co-Coordinators:
LaRae Halsey-Brooks & Eireann Brooks




This page was last updated November 12, 2023.

© 1997-2023 by the Ochiltree County Coordinator
for the TXGenWeb Project