PEARL, TEXAS (Collingsworth County). Pearl (Pearl City), in central Collingsworth County, was named after the daughter of J. S. Kennedy, a land promoter from Fort Worth. It was a contender to be the seat of government when the county was organized in 1890. After learning in the spring of that year that Pearl was likely to become county seat, Kennedy and his associates brought in a group of prospective settlers from his hometown. A. F. Swafford built a saloon, and the first school in the county to be supported by state and county funds was built. As the contest for county government gained momentum, rival promoters and businessmen from Childress began supporting Wellington, two miles to the south. Kennedy offered a free town lot to every legal voter in the county if Pearl became the county seat, but the Wellington promoters offered five lots per voter. Wellington won the election after Kennedy returned to Fort Worth, and Pearl ceased to exist.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Clyde Chestnut Brown, A Survey History of Collingsworth County, Texas (M.A. thesis, University of Colorado, 1934 Estelle D. Tinkler, ed., Archibald John Writes the Rocking Chair Ranche Letters (Burnet, Texas: Eakin Press, 1979 Estelle D. Tinkler, "Nobility's Ranche: A History of the Rocking Chair Ranche," Panhandle-Plains Historical Review 15 (1942).
