Argyle

Argyle is on U.S. Highway 377 and the Missouri Pacific Railroad six miles southwest of Denton in southwestern Denton County. Between 1850 and 1867 fourteen families settled in the area under the auspices of the Peters colony, and in the 1850s twenty-nine families settled on vacant or unclaimed land in the area. At that time the place was known as Pilot Knob or Waintown. Early settlers raised cattle on the open ranges nearby. The first post office in the area was near Pilot Knob, where Emily Wilson was appointed postmistress in 1878. She had the post office in her log cabin, two miles east of the site of future Argyle, where a stagecoach delivered the mail. The first school in the area was in Graham, one-half mile to the north, in 1875. In 1876, the Graham Baptist Church, the first formal church in the area, was organized in the school. Previously, a ten-day revival had been held every fall at John Wells Campground, two miles west of Argyle.

The Texas and Pacific built its track through the area in 1881. Argyle was founded on November 7, 1881, when James Morrill was given the authority to build and maintain a depot, switches, and side tracks there. The community was named Argyle by a railroad surveyor, after a garden in France. In 1881 the post office was moved from Pilot Knob to Argyle. Mail was delivered by the railroad four times daily. By the late 1880s Argyle had two rural mail routes, each thirty miles long, which took a full day to ride. New cash crops, such as wheat and oats, were grown to ship on the railroad, and hogs and sheep were raised. In 1888 the Argyle State Bank was established. By 1890 Argyle had a population of 148 and several businesses, including two steam gristmills, a cotton gin, two general stores, a hotel, and a hardware store. In 1895 a fire started in a dry goods store and destroyed the entire business section, but it was rebuilt by the early twentieth century.