Cottle County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

in the U.S. state of

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. As of the 2020 census, its population was 1,380. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is Paducah. The county was founded in 1876 and later organized in 1892. It is named for George Washington Cottle, who died defending the Alamo. Cottle County was formerly one of 46

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

, or entirely dry counties in the state of Texas. It now allows beer and wine sales. The Matador Ranch, based in neighboring Motley County, once reached into Cottle County.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which are land and (0.1%) is covered by water.

Major highways

* U.S. Highway 62 * U.S. Highway 70 * U.S. Highway 83

Adjacent counties

* Childress County (north) * Hardeman County (northeast) * Foard County (east) * King County (south) * Dickens County (southwest) * Motley County (west) * Hall County (northwest)

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, 1,904 people, 820 households, and 550 families resided in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . The 1,088 housing units averaged . The racial makeup of the county was 81.46% White, 9.87% African American, 7.20% from other races, and 1.47% from two or more races. About 18.91% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race. Of the 820 households, 28.00% had children under 18 living with them, 53.90% were married couples living together, 10.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.90% were not families. Around 32.00% of all households were made up of individuals, and 20.90% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.28, and the average family size was 2.84. In the county, the age distribution was 23.90% under 18, 5.70% from 18 to 24, 21.50% from 25 to 44, 23.30% from 45 to 64, and 25.60% who were 65 or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.90 males. The median income for a household in the county was $25,446, and for a family was $33,036. Males had a median income of $24,375 versus $16,667 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the county was $16,212. About 13.70% of families and 18.40% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 28.40% of those under age 18 and 16.00% of those age 65 or over.

Politics

Until 2000, Cottle County went consistently Democratic in presidential elections, except for the 1928 election, when sentiment against

Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was the 42nd governor of New York, serving from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1923 to 1928. He was the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party's presidential nominee in the 1 ...

’s devout Catholic faith and opposition to

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

allowed

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...

to carry the county with 51% of the vote. After John F. Kennedy,

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...

, and Hubert Humphrey easily carried the county in 1960, 1964, and 1968, respectively, Cottle County again voted for the Democratic candidate in the 1972 election, as it was the only county in Texas north of Maverick County ( Eagle Pass) to have been won by George McGovern, albeit by a margin of only seven votes. After

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

carried it in 1976 and 1980,

Walter Mondale Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (January 5, 1928April 19, 2021) was the 42nd vice president of the United States serving from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Minnesota from 1964 to 1976. ...

won a majority of the county's votes in 1984, Michael Dukakis won the county in 1988 and

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

carried it in 1992 and 1996. Like the rest of the Bible Belt, Cottle has trended powerfully Republican and in the last six elections, the Republican nominee has won more than two-thirds of the vote. In 2012,

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and retired politician. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Utah from 2019 to 2025 and as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 ...

received 555 votes to

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

’s 180, and in 2016, Hillary Clinton won fewer than 100 votes in the county, less than a tenth as many as Jimmy Carter 40 years before.

Communities

Town

* Paducah (county seat)

Unincorporated communities

* Cee Vee *

Chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

* Delwin * Dunlap * Hackberry

Ghost towns

* Ginsite * Narcisso * Ogden * Sneedville * Swearingen

Education

School districts serving sections of the county include: * Childress Independent School District * Paducah Independent School District * Quanah Independent School District The county is in the service area of Vernon College.Texas Education Code, Sec. 130.207. VERNON REGIONAL JUNIOR COLLEGE DISTRICT SERVICE AREA

References

External links

Cottle County government's website

Cottle County in ''Handbook of Texas Online''
at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

Cottle County Profile from the Texas Association of Counties

Paducah ISD – Home of the Dragons!

Cottle, George Washington (1811-1836)

The TXGenWeb Project: Cottle County

Historical Marker – Cottle County Courthouse

Historical Marker – Cottle County

Historical Marker – Cottle County

Historical Marker – The Grey and the Blue
{{Coord, 34.08, -100.27, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-TX_source:UScensus1990 1892 establishments in Texas Populated places established in 1892