Text From Obituary:
W.C. Womble, 73, Who Settled Near Stinnett In 1900, Dies Thursday
Portrait of a Panhandle pioneer is draped in sadness today with the passing of William C. Womble, 73, familiarly known to friends and acquaintances as “Uncle Carson” and a resident of this section for nearly half a century, who died at the family home in Stinnett Thursday morning following a short illness.
Born in Bosque County, Texas, on February 7, 1874, Womble moved to this county at the turn of the century, and the pages of the history of the great Southwest are replete with his deeds and exploits.
His early days as the son of a cotton farmer were spent on the Brazos River near Cleburne. Shortly after his marriage to Miss Mollie T. Robinson on October 14, 1894, the young couple moved to Knox County, where he owned and operated a cotton gin.
Mr. And Mrs. Womble settled in Hutchinson County in 1900, several miles north of Stinnett, on the site near the present Lackey schoolhouse. Their first newly made acquaintance here was with Billy Dixon of Adobe Walls fame, which blossomed into a friendship lasting until Dixon’s death.
Womble owned and operated the first sawmill in Hutchinson County — a mill operated by steam, the boiler of which today forms a landmark on Moore’s Creek. Millions of board feet of cottonwood lumber were processed and sold. News to many persons here is the fact that huge cottonwood trees grew in abundance at one time in the breaks of the northern plains.
Womble led his wife and three of their older sons to participate in a valiant fight against the now famous prairie fire of 1910 in which hundreds of sections of land reaching from near Dalhart to the present site of Perryton were reduced to scorched earth.
These five members of the Womble family fought the onrushing flames all night while the smaller children were huddled in the family ranch house, but the fire claimed its toll in terms of thousands upon thousands of head of cattle, horses, and wild antelope.
He hauled the lumber and helped to build the first schoolhouse in Hutchinson County. The building known for years as the Lackey School was used as a church, town hall, and general meeting place for the entire county for a number of years.
A member of the county commissioners’ court for 14 years, Womble was active in political affairs for more than 40 years. His tenure as commissioner was highlighted by the building of the county’s present courthouse, the first paved road between Borger and Stinnett, and the building of the first bridge across the Canadian River between the two towns.
WC-Mollie Womble 50th Anniversary
Mr. and Mrs. Womble celebrated their golden wedding anniversary two years ago at the family home in Stinnett, at which upwards of 100 persons were in attendance; of this number, 73 were relatives of the couple.
Converted to the Christian faith when a young man, Womble gave the land and helped to build the Baptist Church in Morse, which has been described as the first church in this section of the country. He has had a hand in the building and maintaining of a number of churches during his years.
The pioneer ranchman had been a stock farmer until 1940, when he retired to his home in Stinnett. That he was a family man is attested by the fact that he once rejected a $1,000 per month salary by the wheat growers Association “just so he could be home with his family.” He was the author of the first set of by-laws drawn up for the Farmers Equity & Co-operative, which organization has since grown in national prominence. His land holdings were counted in terms of sections, with the largest tract of land being a ranch of approximately 12,000 acres near Clayton, New Mexico. His cattle brand, the W, has been famous throughout the southwest for more than a third of a century.
His death Thursday morning followed burns suffered in an explosion at his home last week. The attending physician said that death was caused by a coronary occlusion, which might have been hastened by the burns.
Children of William Carson and Mollie Womble. Back – Left to right: Allen Carroll “Kid,” Robert Edgar “Boy,” Roscoe Carson “Man,” William Travis “Tab,” and Dwight Moody Womble. Front: Sudie Lee Womble Forester, Ora Mae Womble Board, Betty Georgia Womble Lackey, and Thava Irene Womble Foster. All are buried at Lieb Cemetery in Hutchinson County, Texas.
Besides his wife, he is survived by four daughters, Mrs. W.B. Lackey, Stinnett; Mrs. Lex Board, Morse; Mrs. Ralph Forester, Canyon; and Mrs. Ben M. Foster, Stinnett; five sons, W.T. Womble, Stinnett;, R.C. Womble, Morse; R.E. Womble, Stinnett; D.M. Womble, Morse; and A.C. Womble, Pringle; one sister, Mrs. Jewel House of Bethany, Oklahoma; and 26 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Funeral services are to be conducted at the Pringle school at 2:30 p.m. Saturday with the Rev. D.L. Egger, Stinnett, and Rev. Jesse Bolin, Morse, officiating under the direction of Minton funeral home. Burial will be in Lieb Cemetery.
Casket bearers include Lee McClellan, Spearman; P.A. Lyons, Spearman; Lernest Lieb, Pringle; T.I. Harbour, Morse; Bill Goodwin, Stinnett; M.E. McCormick, Stinnett, Jack Johnson, Morse, and Myrliln George of Rosebud, New Mexico, foreman of the Womble ranch there.
Honorary pallbearers are Dave Hester, Spearman; A.F. Barkley, Spearman; M.W. McCloy, Morese; O.W. Jarvis, Stinnett; Joe Close, Spearman; L.M. Price, Stratford; Lonnie McCrory, Dalhart; W.T. Coble, Amarillo; Norman Coffee, Stinnett Stinnett; Fritz Thompson, Borger; D.B. Kirk, Holt; L.M. Patterson, Spearman; Jack Burns, Nara Visa, New Mexico; Jack Allen Perryton; B.C. Holt, Spearman; Jim Cator, Gruver; H.S. Benjamin, Borger; Jimmie Whittenburg, Amarillo; and J.B. Speer, Alpine, Texas.
Source: Borger News-Herald, November 22, 1946.
Compiled by: Kathy Weiser-Alexander, Legends of America, updated July 2023.
Dedicated to the Womble Family of Hutchinson County, Texas
William Carson Womble
This history of Hutchinson County, Texas, and its many places is dedicated to the William Carson Womble Family, who first came to the area in 1902. William Carson Womble, the patriarch of the Hutchinson County, Texas, family tree, married Mollie T. Robinson (1876-1964) near Eulogy, Texas, at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. W.C. Robinson, on October 14, 1894. The couple moved to Hutchinson County, Texas, in 1902. One of their first acquaintances was William “Billy” Dixon of Adobe Walls fame. Dixon was a good and true friend to them until his death. William and Mollie would have 12 children, ten of whom they raised to adulthood. One of these children was Thava Irene Womble Foster, who is Legends’ Founder/Writer, Kathy Weiser-Alexander’s grandmother.