In the early days, this site held the South Plains' most significant trees, twin hackberry groves on an 1870s trail used by buffalo hunters, surveyors, law officers, and early settlers. On public domain, the site remained unappropriated until the mid-1880s, when sheep rancher Zachary Taylor Maxwell staked a quarter-section claim here and his friend, former Arkansas legislator Edwin L. Lowe, claimed an adjacent 160 acres. They had surveyor R. P. Smyth plat a public square, half from Maxwell's land and half from Lowe's. Though ranchers scoffed, others staked claims here, including the families of J. H. Bryan, J. C. Burch, J. M. Carter, Horace Griffin, Thornton Jones, Hugh McClelland, C. W. Marsalis, John Pendley, Poliet Smith, and J. W. Smylie. Jones opened a store, and Lowe named the town and became its first postmaster on March 18, 1887. When Hale County was organized in 1888, Plainview became the county seat, fulfilling the founders' hopes. Lowe died on July 13, 1889, and Maxwell moved away in 1892. Pioneers continued to arrive, drawn by the green trees and rich land, and later leaders secured railroad and highway connections, developed trade and commerce, and built enduring institutions.