Look to the West
by
Florence McWhorter Harrington

Florence McWhorter Harrington was born in 1862 in southeast Denton County. Her father, Owen Chelton McWhorter owned the IX Ranch, a large cattle operation with a successful business running cattle between Denton County and Mexico. As a young girl she attended a private school run by her uncle Rev. William H. Allen. Rev. Allen was an educated man, a scholar, novelist, a state senator, and a historian who wrote the biography of John B. Denton. From the quality of the diary entries included in this document, it is apparent that Florence got an excellent education from Rev. Allen and she relates that attending his school were some of the happiest times of her life. She married William Lester Harrington 1884 in Denton, County. In 1888 they moved with her family to Hale County in the Panhandle.
These reminiscences were dictated in 1951 and are accompanied by selected diary entries dating from 1876 until 1882. Her diary entries are still so fresh and well written that it is hard to imagine that they are the product of a young lady on the frontier 150 years ago.

Florence McWhorter Harrington died in 1958 in Plainview, Texas.

Mike Cochran
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Here the diary ends.

I am indebted to Mary Jo Parsons for providing me with a copy of this document.