Kerrick

KERRICK, TEXAS . Kerrick is on U.S. Highway 287 near the Oklahoma border in northeastern Dallam County. It was established on the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway and was named for Harrison S. Kerrick, a railroad official and colonel in the United States Army, who owned land in the vicinity. Although William Murdock and his family had settled on the site as early as 1906 and later established the first school there, the town was not actually laid out until 1931. Its leading business was the grain elevator erected by Dan T. Wadley. By 1933 the town had a post office; in 1976 it became a contract post office and it was still in operation in 2002. Sporting events and a community band provided the chief means of recreation and entertainment. During World War II Kerrick reportedly had the only designated airport between Amarillo and Denver, Colorado. After its schools were consolidated with those of Stratford in 1950, the old Kerrick school building was turned into a community center. In 1949 five businesses and a population of 100 were reported, but between the 1980s and 2000 the population was sixty. In 2002 the grain elevator was still in operation and the community church occupied a building that had formerly been a café. The community center was used for various programs.