Big Square Community

Big Square Community. . In 1879, the Texas legislature appropriated land covering multiple counties in northwest Texas as payment for construction of a new state capitol building. The land became the XIT Ranch and included parts of western and southern Castro County. From the 1890s to 1910s, creditors began selling tracts of land to incoming settlers. , As part of this land rush, in 1907, Marcus Lionel Stiles (1840-1923) purchased four adjoining sections of land in Castro County of the former XIT Ranch. Stiles, a 67-year-old Illinois native, was a Union Army veteran of the Civil War who served with the 7th Illinois Cavalry, Company D. He traveled to Texas with his wife and adult children and their families to take advantage of the new farming lands in the Texas Panhandle. The community established by Stiles and his family became known as Big Square Community for the four square tracts and four almost identical square homes in the settlement, all built by the Stiles family. The original square home site was about 0.7 miles south of the present intersection of FM 145 and CR 503. Dozens of families settled in the community in its early years. Marcus Stiles built the first school in 1909, which remained until 1930. A new school was built on Agee family land and used until 1937. The first post office was established in the home of Otis and Nell Burton in 1910. It then moved to the Big Square Store, where it operated until 1927. , More settlers moved to the area in the 1930s, mostly farmers and ranchers. The occasional dance at a ranch home would attract neighbors and travelers to the area, in addition to singing conventions and rabbit drives. The dream of the Stiles family and many others that came to this area lives on through their descendants and through their traditions and heritage.