DELLA PLAIN, TEXAS. Della Plain was five miles north of Floydada on Highway 207 near the center of Floyd County. It was the first community in what was to become Floyd County and was founded in 1887 by rancher Tom J. Braidfoot and cousins John R. and Jim S. McLain and named for Jim McLain's daughter, Della. A store was built there in 1887, and a post office operated from 1888 to 1893. In 1890 the Della Plain Male and Female Institute opened but moved to Floydada a year later. The Della Plain Review was published from 1889 to 1891, but the loss of the county seat election in 1890 and a poor local water supply finished the community. In 1894 its houses were moved to nearby Lockney, and in the early 1900s the site was planted in cotton. A roadside historical marker indicates the location of the former town.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ed Ellsworth Bartholomew, The Encyclopedia of Texas Ghost Towns (Fort Davis, Texas, 1982 Alma N. Holmes, Favorite Stories about Floyd County (Dallas: Vanguard Visuals, 1973).
