BARWISE, TEXAS. Barwise is at the intersection of the Fort Worth and Denver Railway with Farm Road 784, eleven miles west of Floydada in west central Floyd County. The town was laid out in February 1928 after the FW&D had built through the area and was originally named after J. W. Stringer, a local farmer and the owner of the original townsite; the name was changed when it was discovered that another Texas town was named Stringer. Some residents wanted the name Granary, but the final designation became Barwise, after Judge Joseph Hodson Barwiseqv of Wichita Falls, supposedly the first person off the train to register at the local hotel. Originally the town comprised some seven city blocks with streets named for early settlers. By the 1930s it had a hotel, a general store, a fertilizer dealer, a fueling station, a cotton gin, and two grain elevators. A population of about twenty-five was reported during the 1940s. Farm Road 784 reached Barwise in the 1950s. Although about half the original townsite had reverted to farmland by 1986, two businesses continued to operate in the community: Barwise Elevator and Fertilizer, which provided a grain elevator as well as farm supplies, seed, and fuels, and Henricks Barwise Gin, which began operations around 1948 as the Barwise Gin. Although the 1986-87 Texas Almanacqv listed a population of thirty, local residents stated that nine persons lived within the town limits during that period. The 1990 population was still reported as thirty, but in 2000 it dropped to sixteen.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Floyd County Hesperian, July 15, 1965.
Charles G. Davis
