In the late 1870s, Cox had obtained railroad land in western Crosby and eastern Lubbock counties in exchange for his sawmill business in Indiana, to establish a Quaker colony there.

The first families (surnamed Cox, Stubbs, Spray, and Hayworth) came to the area in the fall of 1879, just in time to endure a harsh winter.

After a few years of prosperity, the town's population was estimated to be 200 in 1890, but Estacado started to deteriorate when Emma took over as the county seat in 1891.

After 1900, however, the area's favorable growing conditions drew settlers, and Estacado survived despite the dissolution of the original Quaker community.

[6] When Emma Hunt started teaching in a dugout classroom in 1882, the hamlet offered some of the earliest organized education on the South Plains; by 1884, classes were being given in the Quaker meetinghouse.