Farwell Was Born From the XIT Ranch Land Sales

In the 1880s, Texas paid for its new state capitol building by giving the Capitol Syndicate about 3 million acres of West Texas land — including what is now Parmer County. That land became the XIT Ranch. Two brothers who led the syndicate, Charles B. and John V. Farwell, gave their name to the town.

The townsite was surveyed in 1905 at the spot where the Pecos Valley and Northern Texas Railway crossed into New Mexico. When Parmer County organized in 1907, Farwell became the county seat, replacing the earlier settlement of Parmerton. A permanent courthouse went up in 1917. Farming took over from ranching after the 1950s, when irrigation from the Ogallala Aquifer made large-scale row crops possible.