WALTHALL, TEXAS. Walthall (Walthal) was east of the Colorado River five miles southeast of Ballinger in southeast Runnels County. The town was started about 1875, when a telegraph station was established by William Hightower on a new line running from Camp Coloradoqv to Fort Concho. Within a short time a stage stop for the Dallas-Fort Concho route was added. Hightower also served as the first postmaster when the post office was established in 1877. The Walthall Baptist Church was organized in 1879 with Thomas W. Cotten as pastor. When commissioners met in the community to organize Runnels County in 1880, Cotten offered his stone residence as a temporary courthouse. Walthall served as the first county seat of Runnels County, from March 10 to April 17, 1880, when a new site was selected on Elm Creek. The post office closed in 1881. No indication of the community existed on 1980 county maps.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Claude W. Dooley, comp., Why Stop? (Odessa: Lone Star Legends, 1978; 2d ed., with Betty Dooley and the Texas Historical Commission, Houston: Lone Star, 1985). Frank D. Jenkins, ed., Runnels County Pioneers (Abilene, Texas: R&R Reproduction, 1975). A. E. Skinner, The Rowena Country (Wichita Falls: Nortex, 1973).
Charles G. Davis
