Search results
This collection consists of photographs of Desdemona, Texas. It bulks with photographs of the oil boom in Desdemona (c.1920). It also includes a tank baptism and an unidentified peanut farm in Eastland County, Texas. The negatives and prints are housed in separate envelopes.
Jun 25, 2019 · Desdemona, TX. Desdemona, on State Highway 16 in the southeastern corner of Eastland County, is one of the oldest extant Texas settlements west of the Brazos River. Sometime around 1857 a group of settlers built a family fort for protection from the Indians on land owned by C. C. Blair. In 1873 the oldest organization of any kind in Eastland ...
Desdemona was a busy place during the Eastland County boom. Image sourced from Texas Boomtowns: A History of Blood and Oil, courtesy of DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Texas Postcards Collection. Once Spidletop stopped gushing oil, the tent cities, con artists, chiselers, and prostitutes split.
Of all the nastiness that might be found in Texas oil boom towns during the era of discovery in the early 20th Century, Desdemona was reported to be the nastiest. In oil field circles, the town was known simply as Hogtown, which some say was also its original name. Ultimately, the Texas Rangers had to be dispatched there to maintain some ...
- Founded as Hogtown
- Boomtown
- Ghost Town
- Notable Residents
Dating to 1857, Desdemona was one of the first Texas towns established west of the Brazos River. Settlers constructed a small fort on land owned by C.C. Blair for protection from Comanche Indian attacks. In 1873, Rockdale Baptist Church, the first organization of any kind in Eastland County, was constructed. Two years later, the brothers William an...
In 1914, businessman J.W. "Shorty" Carruth drilled a shallow unproductive oil well and began selling stock in his Carruth Oil Company though he misrepresented the actual value of its worth. In 1923, a federal grand jury indicted Carruth for using the mail to defraud investors of some $7 million. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in the ...
Oil production dropped from more than seven million barrels in 1919 to fewer than three million in 1921. The boom ended nearly as quickly as it began, and much of the newer population abandoned the community. Another fire in 1921 destroyed an entire block. The Lone Star Hotel was also burned. With few residents, Desdemona dissolved its municipal go...
American actor James Brown, most noted for his role in The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, was born in Desdemona in 1920.
Desdemona, Texas. Photos courtesy John Keith. "I think this is one of the first, if not the discovery well on my grandfather's farm." - John Keith. Subject: Desdemona, Texas. I don't know if this is true or not, but have heard my aunts and my grandmother talking on many occasions. One of the stories was that when the first oil well was being ...
People also ask
What was Desdemona like during the Eastland County boom?
What happened to the residents of Desdemona?
Is Desdemona Texas a ghost town?
Why is Desdemona Texas famous?
Where is Desdemona Texas?
What happened to Desdemona?
Desdemona is a former oil boomtown and virtual ghost town located in Eastland County east of Abilene in West Texas. The community is located on Texas State Highway 16 at Farm-to-Market Roads 8 and 2214, approximately twenty miles southeast of the county seat of Eastland and twenty miles west of Stephenville , site of Tarleton State University .
