Elliott
Elliott is at the
intersection of Farm roads 1763 and 370, four miles south of the Oklahoma state
line in northeast Wilbarger County. Cotton was the main crop of the region. Many
of the first settlers in 1904 came from Williamson County to escape a boll weevil outbreak.
These early farmers were successful, although they were
told that cotton would not grow in the area. The settlement was
first called Waggoner's Colony.
In 1907 the name was changed to
honor the first schoolteacher, probably Sarah Elizabeth Elliott,
whose husband, J. W. Elliott, had donated the land for a school
established in 1906. The community was also known as Bugscuffle.
The Bethel Baptist Church was organized in 1906, and members erected
a building the next year. The church remained active in 1986 and
also served the communities of Oklaunion and Harrold. A Methodist
church existed during the early twentieth century but closed sometime
after 1937.
In 1941 the school was consolidated with that of Oklaunion.
Elliott was large enough during the 1920s to support a twenty-five-piece
community band, and by 1940 perhaps 250 residents lived there.
The town population, however, was consistently reported in census
records from the 1930s through 2000 as around fifty.
In 1986 the
community had the Elliott Co-op Gin, a combination store and domino
parlor, and the Baptist church. The Bugscuffle oilfield is four
miles west.
Source: Wilbarger County Historical Commission,
Wilbarger County (Lubbock, 1986).