the Cross L Ranch and the XIT to raise cattle. In 1883, New York Methodist minister Horatio Graves became the first white permanent settler in the county.

The city of Plainview has its beginnings in 1886 when rancher Zachery Taylor Maxwell moved his family and 2,000 sheep from Floyd County to the site of two hackberry groves on the old military trail established by Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie. The city's name comes from the area's vista. The county was organized