Whiteface

Whiteface is located in east-central Cochran County. The community was founded in 1925 and named after C. C. Slaughter's Whiteface Camp and Pasture, which in turn was named for the whiteface Hereford cattle C. C. Slaughter pastured there in 1897.

The name "Whiteface" was originally given to a settlement staked off in 1924 by Ira P. DeLoach approximately five miles southwest of present-day Pettit in Hockley County. Santa Fe traded DeLoach two lots in exchange for the use of the name Whiteface.

The Santa Fe Railroad began laying tracks through Hockley and Cochran counties in 1924 and planned to have a station approximately every five miles. Originally, the railroad surveyed a townsite about half a mile east of present-day Whiteface, inside Hockley County. However, Hockley County could not afford another school and stated that students in the area would have to attend school at Cobleland and furnish their own transportation.

J. C. Whaley offered some of his land just inside Cochran County for the town and school. A well located at the site made it a convenient stop for the railroad, and work soon began on a depot and residences for the railroad agent and foreman.

The first family in Whiteface was the C. W. Word family, who moved to the site in 1925. They lived in a tent and furnished meals to the railroad workers.

C. W. Word worked to establish a post office but was met with opposition because post offices already existed in Levelland and Lehman. He eventually succeeded, and the Whiteface Post Office opened on December 15, 1925, with his wife serving as postmistress.

By January 1926, the Words had built two buildings on Second Street in Whiteface. In the front portion of one building, they operated the post office and a grocery store while living in the rear. They operated a laundry from the other building.

Whaley built a one-room school building that was ready for the fall semester of 1925. The school opened with fourteen students and Mrs. Cooper as teacher. The following year, a brick school building was constructed and became available a few months after the beginning of the 1926–27 school year.

The original one-room school building was moved to the corner of Third and Filmore, where it was used by the Methodist, Baptist, and Church of Christ congregations until each was able to obtain its own building. Eventually, the former school building became the Baptist Church.

The Whiteface Hotel, which later became the museum, was built in 1926. That same year, Mr. Flanagan built a Texaco filling station with a two-room house behind it. It was rumored that gambling took place at the Flanagan house and that people were warned not to get into a game when Flanagan's wife played because she would win all the money.

The train from Lubbock came through Whiteface in the afternoon and spent the night in Bledsoe before returning to Lubbock the following morning. Whiteface residents often took the train to Lubbock to conduct business during the three or four hours before it returned to Whiteface.

At that time, roads were in poor condition, and the train was the best means of transportation to Lubbock. The paved road between Whiteface and Levelland was not completed until 1928.

Fred Snyder built cattle pens just south of the railroad, where cattle were fed to fatten them before shipment. The operation provided employment for a number of young men fresh out of high school.

The first electric light plant was located behind the drug store built by the Smith family. The Smiths sold electricity to Whiteface residents until Cochran Power and Light began serving the community.

The first water system was owned by C. W. Stephenson. Water pressure was so low that the water was off nearly as often as it was on, and at times the water appeared red from sand that had entered the lines. The city purchased a water system from J. J. Kerby in 1952 and installed a sewer system.

The natural gas system was purchased by the city in 1950.

Whiteface was incorporated on April 9, 1945. L. L. Drumheller was elected the first mayor, with James C. Casey and R. V. Hudgens serving as the city's first commissioners. The first city meeting was held on April 19, 1945, in the office of the Cameron Lumber Yard because there was no city office at the time.

The Whiteface Volunteer Fire Department also began in 1945. In the summer of 1954, City Commissioner L. U. Thompson and City Manager Truman Swinney traveled by train to Ohio to pick up the city's first fire truck, which was purchased by the county. Until then, a Jeep and trailer carrying a reel of water hose had served as the city's fire truck.

The city received its first ambulance from the county in 1971, and volunteers attended training to obtain the certifications necessary to operate the ambulance.

Girlstown was started by Amelia Anthony in her home in Buffalo Gap, Texas, in 1939 with a group of six homeless girls. Miss Anthony moved nine girls to Whiteface in July 1949, and in 1954 the Duggans donated land eight miles south of Whiteface to Girlstown. The campus closed in 2010.

The rail line serving Whiteface was abandoned in 1983.

Whiteface reached a reported peak population of 600 in 1941. By 1978, the population was estimated at 365. That number increased to 463 in 1980 and 465 by 2000. The 2020 census recorded a population of 414.