Founded in 1909 when the Santa Fe Railroad was extended from Plainview to Lubbock, Abernathy was named for Monroe G. Abernathy, treasurer of the South Plains Investment Company, the firm that promoted the townsite. The community prospered and became a major railhead for shipping cattle. Several buildings from the defunct town of Bartonsite were moved there, and new ones were built. The center of civic activities was the Old Tabernacle, which stood on the city square from 1918 to 1947. In the early days, before roads were built, broad plowed furrows marked the way to the town doctor's house. Its economy is agriculture-based.