WINGATE, TEXAS. Wingate, on Farm Road 53 thirteen miles northwest of Winters in northwest Runnels County, was named for W. J. Wingate, a Ballinger attorney. Pioneer families named Durham and Phillips settled there in 1890. A school opened in 1891, and the following year a post office was established one mile south of the site of present Wingate. Mary McKandles was postmistress. In 1917 a bank opened, and in the 1920s the community had eight businesses and a high school. Lynn Scoggins of Wingate is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. A modest buffalo-ranching industry was launched by Vester Parrish in 1961. Wingate had a population of 250 and ten businesses in 1940. In 1980 and 1990 the population was 216.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Charlsie Poe, Runnels Is My County (San Antonio: Naylor, 1970). Kathleen E. and Clifton R. St. Clair, eds., Little Towns of Texas (Jacksonville, Texas: Jayroe Graphic Arts, 1982).
