Ligon

Ligon was the first town to be built in Cochran County. It was established about four miles south of present-day Morton and was named for E. Dick Slaughter's wife's maiden name. The townsite was surveyed and platted, and the plat was filed with the Hockley County Clerk's Office on March 15, 1923.

Streets running north to south were numbered, while streets running east to west were avenues named after members of the Slaughter family, Slaughter cowboys, and locally prominent persons. Slaughter Avenue was the main avenue. Other avenues included Veal, Green, Cooper, Whaley, Penney, Wilson, Oxsheer, Pierce, Boyd, Alexander, Knox, Arnett, Landon, and Burrus.

Bob Slaughter opened a general store that was operated by R. L. Crute and later Alvin O'Pry. A school was built and opened for the 1923–24 school term with five students enrolled. The term ended with a total of twelve students.

The county's first gasoline filling station was opened in Ligon by Hugh Knox in 1923. Knox later stated:

"I lost about all my friends and all my money, too!"

There were approximately six families living in Ligon in 1923.

The first cotton gin in Cochran County was built in Ligon in 1923 by the Slaughters. Gage Knox and two other cowboys were tasked with the gin's operation. The first bale ginned there belonged to Floyd Rowland. They failed to remove the seed from the cotton, and the first bale weighed in at one thousand pounds.

Later, the workers could not get the gin engine started, and an expert was summoned from Dallas. The expert simply tapped on the engine and it started right up. He charged $100 for his services. The bookkeeper felt the charge was excessive and asked the expert for an itemized statement. The statement read:

"For tapping on engine $1.00; for knowing where to tap $99.00."

The gin was sold and moved shortly afterward.

The Ligon Post Office was established on January 21, 1924, in Alvin O'Pry's general store, with O'Pry named postmaster.

Morton was named county seat in May 1924 and soon began to outgrow Ligon. At the same time, the Santa Fe Railroad was building a line into Cochran County. By railroad charter regulations, the railroad would have to pass through Morton or pass at least five miles away from the town.

The railroad could not go through Ligon, which was only four miles from Morton, so Santa Fe built the line directly across the center of the county, placing it through or near a majority of the Slaughter holdings.

Early in the spring of 1925, the Slaughters abandoned the Ligon townsite and moved the buildings, including the post office and general store and the school, four miles south to the railroad.

The new site was named Lehman in honor of Frank A. Lehman, general manager of the railroad at that time.

Texas' Last Frontier: A New History of Cochran County by Elvis E. Fleming and David J. Murrah.