If you ever go to the Tech Ranching Heritage museum, one of the big exhibits in the Barton House. Was going to be the centerpiece of the town of Bartonsite, about 8 miles west of present-day Abernathy.
The railroad was going to bypass Hale Center until a group of about 8 men invested all their money into right-of-way to give to the railroad. It about broke them all, but the Santa Fe changed their route. Hale Center prospered, Bartonsite disappeared.
Regarding Wayside, the A&M professor told my son that the happiest day of the prof's life was when his dad sold all the cows, got out of the dairy business, and moved into Canyon. Since that took the prof and his several (five? six?) brothers out of the Wayside school, it also doomed the school, which soon closed.
Here's a little page on WaysideIf you have older relatives from the area, would you mind asking them a question for me? Is there anyone who remembers the U-2 spy plane that crashed near Wayside 8 July 1958?
My email address is my TexAgs username, except all lowercase letters, at hotmail dot com. Or responding here would be fine.
I don't go to Wayside very often, but if you want something photographed (church, cemetery, old homestead) let me know. I'll put it on the list for the next time I go that way.