ROYALTY, TEXAS. Royalty is at the intersection of Farm Road 1219 and State Highway 18, two miles north of Grandfalls in southern Ward County. It was named for royalties paid to landowners after the discovery of oil at Grandfalls in 1927. Royalty was established to serve the neighboring oilfield and its workers. Before a post office was opened in 1929, it was known as Allentown, after an early landowner. In 1933 Royalty had an estimated population of twenty, and a hotel, drugstore, cafe, pool hall, barbershop, and laundry. Its population peaked at 750 in 1940, when it reported thirty-five businesses. By 1950 Royalty had an estimated 280 residents and five businesses. With declining oilfield activity, the population had fallen to about 190 by 1968. In 1990 the population was reported as 196. The population dropped to twenty-nine in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Fred I. Massengill, Texas Towns: Origin of Name and Location of Each of the 2,148 Post Offices in Texas (Terrell, Texas, 1936). Samuel D. Myres, The Permian Basin: Petroleum Empire of the Southwest (2 vols., El Paso: Permian, 1973, 1977).

Glenn Justice