Scotland

Scotland is on U.S. Highway 281 just south of the Little Wichita River, seventeen miles south of Wichita Falls in eastern Archer County. It began as a German Catholic farming community on land once part of the O Circle Ikard Ranch. Scotland was named for Henry J. Scott of Toronto, Canada, who bought land and established the town about 1907 through his agent, J. H. Meurer, of Bastrop. Many of the early settlers came from Central and South Texas, and Meurer is said to have traveled to Galveston to recruit newly arrived German immigrants. The first train arrived in Scotland on July 21, 1908, as the Southwestern Railway built west from Henrietta. A post office opened in the first general store in 1908, and a school began about 1909. In 1910 Scotland was described as "a thriving community" of 600 people. The railroad had reached Archer City to the west that year, and the town was shipping grain and cotton. By 1915 Scotland had St. Boniface Church, a Knights of Columbus hall, two more general stores, a bank, a cattle breeder, a gin, two lumber companies, a real estate office, a hotel, a physician, and a confectioner named Hesse.