ORTH, TEXAS. Orth is on Farm Road 3329 south of Olney in north central Young County. The community, founded in 1908 by J. A. Kemp of Wichita Falls, was platted on January 19, 1909, when it was a whistle stop on the Wichita Falls and Southern Railway. It was named for T. R. T. Orth, vice president of the railroad. An Orth post office opened in 1908 in William Vanzandt's dry goods store; other early businesses were John Lowe's drugstore, J. T. Routon's general store, and two gins. Baptist and First Christian churches were established, as was a three-teacher school that was later consolidated with the Olney school district. Although a boom followed the discovery of oil in the Orth field during the 1920s, by 1949 only the post office remained. At its peak Orth had about 200 residents. As late as 1965 the community reported a population of thirty-eight. By the 1970s, however, no population figures were available, and state highway maps showed only a cemetery at Orth.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Carrie J. Crouch, Young County: History and Biography (Dallas: Dealey and Love, 1937; rev. ed., A History of Young County, Texas, Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1956).