MARGARET, TEXAS. Margaret is at the junction of Farm roads 98 and 3103, on the Santa Fe line seven miles northwest of Crowell in north central Foard County. It was originally known as Pease. In 1884 it became the first county seat of Hardeman County and was renamed for Margaret Wesley, reportedly the first white child born in the county. In 1860 Cynthia Ann Parker^qv was rescued by Texas Ranger^qv captain Lawrence Sullivan (Sul) Ross^qv near the site. When Foard County was established in 1891, Margaret was in the new county. In 1908, when the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway bypassed the community, the prospects of the town looked dim, but the residents responded by moving the business center three miles southwest to the tracks. Margaret flourished for a time, with a railroad station, a hotel, and a number of other businesses, but declined in the 1930s and 1940s, as the number of area farmers dwindled and the major highways bypassed it. In 1940 Margaret had a post office, a store, a gin, and 100 residents. The school, built in 1909, closed in 1943 and was remodeled as a community center. The population of Margaret was reported as fifty-one through 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bailey Phelps, They Loved the Land: Foard County History (Quanah, Texas: Quanah Tribune-Chief, 1969).

William R. Hunt