Loraine

Loraine is on U.S. Highway 20/80, Farm Road 644, and the Missouri Pacific line, ten miles east of Colorado City and fifty-eight miles west of Abilene in northeastern Mitchell County. It was originally established in the early 1880s as a cotton and cattle shipping point on the Texas and Pacific Railway but saw little development in its early years. A post office opened there in 1890, and a school in 1893. A hotel, a grocery, and a hardware store reportedly operated at the site before 1905. In that year Parson Crandall bought the townsite land from the railroad and platted the town. Three conflicting stories concerning the town's name exist: the first says that Loraine was named for a railroad official's wife, the second that the community was named for the daughter or wife (possibly Loraine Crandall) of a local landowner, and the third that the town was named for the French region of Lorraine.