TELL, TEXAS (Childress County). Tell, in southwestern Childress County, was founded in 1887. It was originally known as Lee and later as Tell-Tale Flat. Miss Janie Roberts taught the first school, which was located just south of the present site. In 1888 the first post office was opened in the dugout home of Belle Garrison, who served as postmistress. In 1905 federal postal authorities shortened the name to Tell. The following year Richard A. Sandifer opened a general store, R. A. Hawkins built the first cotton gin, and Jim Fox had a grocery and drugstore. The school was moved to its present site in 1912 and subsequently became noted for its champion baseball team. By 1916 several other businesses and four churches had been established. Tell State Bank operated from 1916 to 1934, when it merged with the state bank in Childress. Improved transportation facilities and other influences eventually robbed Tell of most of its businesses. In 1963 its school district was consolidated with that of Childress, and the vacated brick building was turned into a community center. By 1984 Tell had a store, a cotton gin, two churches, and a population of fifty-nine. In 1990 the population was sixty-three. The population remained the same in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Paul Ord, ed., They Followed the Rails: In Retrospect, A History of Childress County (Childress, Texas: Childress Reporter, 1970). Fred Tarpley, 1001 Texas Place Names (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980).

H. Allen Anderson