Anton

Anton, on U.S. Highway 84, Farm roads 168 and 597, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad twenty-four miles northwest of Lubbock in northeast Hockley County, was founded in the center of what had been the Spade Ranch 's north pasture. Around 1924 ranch owner W. L. Ellwood sold off more than 200 farms from his ranch and contracted with the Anton Townsite Company to plat a town at the site of Danforth Switch, a spur of the Pecos and Northern Texas Railway. The site was named Anton in honor of J. F. Anton, a Santa Fe railroad executive. On December 3, 1924, the Anton Townsite Company sponsored a "Grand Opening Jubilee" for the town; despite a bad sandstorm, they sold over 200 town lots the first day. Early businesses included a depot, four lumber companies, a gin, a hotel, and a newspaper, the Anton News (later the Four County News , which ended publication in 1959