Reflections on our small towns

HARRINGTON — Incorporated in 1902, Harrington and Odessa have had similar influences effecting their development. Each built up their city government and each had a newspaper, the Harrington Citizen and the Odessa Record. Between these two young towns were other centers of inhabitants: Lamona, Downs, Mohler and Morocco.

Lamona was a small village along the Great Northern railroad. It was first settled in 1894 and had a nice business district by the early 1900s. In 1908, it would boast a hotel, general store, three warehouses, large school, Methodist church, Lutheran church, candy store, livery, post office, realtor office and saloon. Odessa Record publisher and historian Donald E. Walter wrote, “Little by little, Lamona withered. The school closed. The church was moved. The depot was torn down. Finally, in 1984, the store and post office shut down. Today (1988), the big store building sits phantom-like, though still majestically, among a cluster of houses.”

Downs was a unique development along the railway’s path, as it did not exist even in thought until about 1901 when a few people began to move there, but the real thrust of activity toward the creation of a real city was this: “Mohler Alarmed. Citizens and farmers in the vicinity of Mohler are wrought up over the action of the Great Northern railroad people, who have torn up the sidetrack at that place. Mohler is one of the most important wheat-shipping stations along the line of the road in Lincoln County, and many of the farmers would be put to great inconvenience if they had to haul their grain to other points. To make matters still worse, a big flouring mill is in course of erection, the value of which would be entirely destroyed if the sidetracks are not put in.” (Lincoln Co Times: 3-31-1903)

The short version of the story of the action of the railroad was that they intended to buy extra land from the Yarwood family for new sidetracks and when the Yarwoods demanded fair payment for the land, the Great Northern rebelled and literally moved many of the businesses (and their buildings) to Downs where the railroad sponsored a newspaper, the Downs Dispatch. During much of 1903 realtors, high financiers and speculators worked at creating the makings of a new town, and they were quite successful. There was no census for Downs in 1900 or 1902, but by the printing of the 1903-04 Gazetteer, Downs was to boast a population of 150, at which time they had a bank, hotel, furniture store, livery, drug store, lumber company, general store, harness and shoe maker, confectionery store, liquor and cigar store, meat/butcher shop and blacksmith, in addition to the four grain warehouses.

The demise of Downs occurred not nearly as rapidly as its manifestation: “Word has reached this office that a complete side track will be put in at Mohler and train traffic again resumed with that place. It will be remembered that the siding was taken out about two years ago, since which time the residents of the town have had to do all their shipping and railroad business through the neighboring stations of Downs and Morocco.” (Citizen: 1-27-1905) By 1910, the population was merely 25 with the following businesses: bank, lumber company, general store, hotel, restaurant, and a harness and saddler shop. The 1912 listing revealed that the end was near: general store, druggist, lumber company and bank. Today, the vault of that bank remains as a reminder of the swift passing of time for a town destined to be short-lived.

Mohler survived the ordeal with the Great Northern and the vanishing tracks. The Yarwoods got their payment. Mohler’s first store was opened in 1894 by Yarwood Bros., and in those early years they had an opera house, but it was not the grandiose building that Harrington later built. By 1902 the population of Mohler was 100. Mohler had a church, post office, several grain dealers, two large general stores, a hotel, one saloon and the livery stable. Dr Ayars had an office in the drug store. A business directory stated the 1904 population was 200, after the removal of quite a number of businesses. They could boast five grain warehouses. Mohler continued as a small village for years with a population estimated at about 75 until the Great Depression. The small grocery store and post office continued until the 1960s. Mohler never had city water, which Downs had when John O’Connor invested $8,000 for the waterworks for the townsite. Morocco was a short-lived attempt by the railway to replace Mohler as a train stop, but train service was restored in Mohler in 1908.

“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” (George Santayana in a 1948 speech to Britain’s House of Commons, later paraphrased by Winston Churchill as, “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it”). One wonders what the future holds for Harrington and Odessa.