CRESSWELL, TEXAS. Cresswell was on Wolf Creek about two miles west of the Ochiltree County Cemetery in central Ochiltree County. The town was founded in 1887 by brothers Gus, John, and Edward P. Klapp, and named for Henry Whiteside Cresswell, on whose Bar CC range (see CRESSWELL RANCH) the site was located. Richard S. Cutter and his sons brought in lumber from Dodge City and elsewhere to construct several frame buildings and to open a lumberyard there. Cutter also began the first Sunday school in the area. John Klapp served as the town doctor, and his brother Ed opened a general store. In addition, Ed and his wife, Hannah, planted a cherry orchard and built a greenhouse for vegetables. A post office was established at the Klapp store in November 1888. Cresswell was in the running against Ochiltree to become county seat in 1889, but began to decline after railroads came to the area. By January 1897 its post office had been discontinued. Some of the buildings constructed by the Cutters were moved to Ochiltree or sold for ranchhouses, and Cresswell was abandoned.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Pauline D. and R. L. Robertson, Cowman's Country: Fifty Frontier Ranches in the Texas Panhandle, 1876–1887 (Amarillo: Paramount, 1981). Wheatheart of the Plains: An Early History of Ochiltree County (Perryton, Texas: Ochiltree County Historical Survey Committee, 1969).
