CATALINE, TEXAS. Cataline, at the mouth of Gageby Creek on the Washita River in southeastern Hemphill County, was established in 1890 on the Houston and Great Northern Railroad survey. The town, located on the Alexander Ranch, was allegedly named by Lucy Alexander for the ancient Roman politician Catiline, about whom she had read and whose name she misspelled. One historian, however, states that a Kansas land promoter named Cataline named the community after himself. Although it had a post office and a combination school and church building, the town failed when the railroad changed plans. Cataline was too remote to prosper. The post office remained in operation until 1912. In 1990 only the community cemetery remained.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sallie B. Harris, Cowmen and Ladies: A History of Hemphill County (Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1977). Glyndon M. Riley, The History of Hemphill County (M.A. thesis, West Texas State College, 1939). F. Stanley [Stanley F. L. Crocchiola], Story of the Texas Panhandle Railroads (Borger, Texas: Hess, 1976).
