Sedwick is a rural community located at the intersection of Texas State Highway 6 and Farm to Market Road 2312 about five miles northwest of Moran and about ten miles southeast of Albany. According to the "Handbook of Texas", the community that would later become Sedwick was established around 1875. The earliest settler in the area, George Greer, arrived in the early 1860's, establishing a home to the northeast. At this time, the community was known as Vesta. In the early 1880's, a man named Gabriel Jordan established a 662 acre ranch in Vesta. A substantial rock house was built on the land, which was torn down several years ago. Gabriel Jordan died in 1882. Ellen, his widow, would eventually sell the ranch to John Francis Sedwick, Sr. of Waco, Texas in 1890. Mr. Sedwick's son, John Francis Sedwick, Jr., moved to Vesta with his family in 1897 and began operation of the ranch. A few years later, the Sedwick family moved to Albany and Mr. Sedwick became involved with several business enterprises, including the management of the ranch land in Vesta. By 1900, the community had its own railway station on the Texas-Central Railroad line, which had first come through the area in 1881. When the station was established, Vesta was renamed Sedwick in honor of John F. Sedwick. Also in 1900, a cotton gin was established. In 1905, a post office was established. A wooden schoolhouse was used as both a school and a church. Later, this building would be replaced by a brick one.
For the next few years, Sedwick remained a small farming and ranching community. All that changed in 1921, when oil was discovered in the area. Quickly, the community became a boomtown. Houses sprung up, as did oil derricks, many of which were leased and drilled by St. Mary's Oil and Gas Company. There was a drug store, three grocery stores, a service station, a blacksmith shop, a cafe, a barber shop, and a saloon, among other businesses during the 1920's. Some of the families living in Sedwick during the time of the oil boom included the Jones, English, Montgomery, Rice, Burton, Pool, Scott, Owen, Young, Simpson, Strickland families, among many many others. But as soon as the oil made Sedwick a boomtown, the boomtown days were over. When the oil was discovered in East Texas, most of the population of Sedwick went there too in search of new wells to drill. Sedwick was left sparsely populated, much like it was before the oil boom began. By 1940, the population of Sedwick was 50 and steadily declined afterwards. Most of the houses and business buildings were either torn down or moved. The railroad depot was sold and moved away. The post office closed. Sedwick children were bused to Moran to attend school. The grocery stores and service station closed as well. Even the old Texas-Central, later the MKT Railroad, suspended its line through Shackelford County and Sedwick in the late 1960's. Today, only a few houses dot the landscape in what was once the boomtown of Sedwick. But the memories still linger.
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County Coordinator:
Gayle Triller
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