Dryden, Texas

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Terrell County, Texas

Dryden is a small unincorporated town in south central Terrell County, Texas, United States. The town had a population of thirteen as of the 2000 census.

1 Location
2 History
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Location

Dryden is located on U.S. Highway 90 at the intersection with State Highway 349 100 miles (62 km) west of Del Rio, Texas. Its coordinates are Lat: 30.04444, Lon: -102.11417. ^[1]^[2]^[3]

[edit] History

The town was founded in 1882 and named for Eugene Dryden, the chief engineer of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway, which was building its tracks through Terrell County and established a section house at Dryden. Over the next several decades Dryden became a small town center for ranching-based businesses, and the population grew to 100 by 1929.

In the early 1900’s, the village was a cattle shipping point for the area and also received cattle from Mexico. The headquarters for the Pecos Land and Cattle Company was established in Dryden in 1884. The company drilled a well that supplied the village with water. By 1912, the village had a hotel, the Dryden Hotel, operated by Beverly Carter Farley, and combined school, community center, and church. Two units of U.S. Army troops were stationed in the village during the 1913-1917 Mexican border unrest.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the railway moved its crews and closed its depot at Dryden, and the area’s ranches were eventually broken up. Population began to dwindle to approximately fifty by 1970. Although a general store was operating in 1995, the population continued to decline to thirteen by 2000.^[1]^[3]

The post office dates from 1888. The United States Postal Service currently maintains a post office in the village.^[1]