The Weatherly Dugout


John and Maggie Weatherly were married in Childress County, Texas September 1, 1895. In the fall of 1897, John came out to Hutchinson County and built a dugout. He returned to Oklahoma and got his bride and they moved to the Texas Panhandle on January 11, 1898. John had sold his land in Oklahoma for $1000 and used the money to buy two sections of land in Hutchinson County at fifty cents per acre.

     The area of Hutchinson County was laid out in 1876, and settlers began moving in. By the 1900 census, there were 303 people living in the county, so on May 13, 1901 it was officially set up as a county. The county seat was set up at Plemons; a small community made up around the land owned by Barney Plemons, son of Judge William B. Plemons.

     In the early 1920s it became obvious that the Rock Island Railroad would pass through Hutchinson County. Several instant towns sprang up, including Signal Hill and Oil City. Signal Hill even found itself with a new brick building; ostensibly a bank, but actually used as a schoolhouse. The new railroad, however, actually passed through Stinnett in 1925. William Christian, the sheriff of Hutchinson County suggested naming the new town after A. S. Stinnett of Amarillo who had been a leading light in the building of the railroad from Liberal Kansas through the Texas Panhandle.

     At about the same time, oil wells were being drilled in the Texas Panhandle. Asa P. Borger of Carthage, Missouri came in and purchased 240 acres of land on the Weatherly Ranch for the nominal fee of $6,000. Here with co-founders C. C. Horton and John Miller he laid out a townsite, which he called Borger. It was a small town, with the streets named for prominent families in Hutchinson County. Lot sales began in March 1926 and soon his corporation was wealthy. By January 1927 the town’s population reached 15,000.

     January 11, 1926 the Smith #1 well came in at 10,000 barrels a day and by March 8, Borger had been formed.