Oriana

ORIANA, TEXAS . Oriana (Orianna) was in west central Stonewall County on a local road two miles south of U.S. Highway 380, three miles west of Peacock, and four miles east of the Kent county line. The town was originally located on land owned by Ed Bilberry during the early 1900s and included a post office established on April 24, 1901, a school, a store, and a gin. The town was named for Ora Reese and Anna (or Annie) Patterson, daughters of landowners Will Reese and J. D. Patterson. About 1909 Reese and Patterson donated land for Oriana on the new Stamford and Northwestern Railroad. At the same time the nearby community of Antioch consolidated with Oriana. The town provided postal service until the office was moved to Peacock on February 15, 1918. A new school built near the railroad served the area until it was consolidated with that of Peacock around 1930. In the mid-1930s Oriana reported a population of four, but by 1945 it had a population of twenty and one business. The Stamford and Northwestern remained in service (as the Fort Worth and Denver Railway after 1952) until April 1968, after which the line was closed and the tracks removed. The Oriana cemetery was still being used in 1979. County maps of the 1980s indicated only the cemetery one mile west of the Salt Fork of the Brazos River.