ASHTOLA, TEXAS. Ashtola, on U.S. Highway 287 nine miles northwest of Clarendon in western Donley County, was established in 1906 as a section house on the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway. The townsite was originally named Southard and was granted a post office in March 1906, with Thomas F. Lewallen as postmaster. Two stores and a one-room schoolhouse were added by 1908. In 1916 W. A. Poovey, acting on the request of postal authorities, sought to have the town's name changed to Poovieville, but the name Ashtola was chosen instead. The town served the SJ and other area ranches. By 1930 it had three stores, a brick school building, and a population estimated at twenty-five. About that time the local ladies organized a home demonstration club, which later became the Ashtola Needle Club. After automobiles became popular, Ben Lovell opened a filling station and a gristmill. The mill remained in operation until 1973. The post office was discontinued in 1956. In 1958 the Ashtola school district was consolidated with that of Clarendon, and the school building was subsequently remodeled into a community center. Between 1949 and 1966 Ashtola had an estimated population of fifty. In 1968 the population was estimated at twenty-five. From 1970 to 1990 it was estimated at twenty. By 2000 the population grew to twenty-five.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Virginia Browder, Donley County: Land O' Promise (Wichita Falls, Texas: Nortex, 1975).

H. Allen Anderson