Tom Green County, Texas

Tom Green County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Thomas Green, a Confederate brigadier general

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Tom Green County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Its county seat is San Angelo. The county was established by the state legislature on March 13, 1874, and named for Thomas Green, a Confederate brigadier general. It originally comprised an area of over 60,000 square miles.

The original county seat was the town of Ben Ficklin. In 1882 flood waters destroyed the town and drowned 65 people. The county seat was moved to Santa Angelina. In 1883 the town's name was changed to San Angelo by the post office.

The county was officially established by an act of the state legislature on March 13, 1874, from Bexar land, and was named in honor of Confederate Brig. Gen. Thomas Green.^qv Because of the omission of a northern boundary the county was a huge area of more than 60,000 square miles that included the land of sixty-six modern Texas counties. On August 21, 1876, the northern boundary was drawn from the northwest corner of Runnels County west to the New Mexico line. This cut off the area of fifty-four counties to the north. The remaining Tom Green County was still larger than Massachusetts and Connecticut combined and included the area of the modern counties of Coke, Crane, Ector, Glasscock, Irion, Loving, Midland, Reagan, Sterling, Upton, and Ward. The county organization election was held on January 5, 1875, when the voters elected officials and chose Ben Ficklin, instead of the larger San Angelo, as the location for the county seat. Other settlements were Bismarck Farm, Lipan Springs, and Kickapoo Springs. The 1880s was a period of dramatic change for the county. The institutions of American civilization were established—businesses, churches, newspapers, schools, and agriculture. By 1880 the population of 3,615 included 3,020 whites, 1,132 Mexicans, and 142 blacks. There were four post offices—Ben Ficklin, Fort Concho, Knickerbocker, and San Angelo. Ben Ficklin was completely destroyed by flood in August of 1882. Sixty-five people were killed, and the county seat was moved to safer San Angelo, where a courthouse was built in 1884. The first sheep were brought from California by John Arden, and later from New England. The controversy between the new sheepmen and the established cattlemen never escalated to a crisis; in fact, many cattlemen eventually purchased sheep. A far greater problem, affecting both sheepmen and cattlemen, was barbed wire.^qv During the 1870s the Goodnight-Loving Trail^qv passed through Fort Concho, then west along the Middle Concho toward the Pecos River. Tom Green County was open range. But in 1881 L. B. Harris fenced 20,000 acres, and other ranchers, including John R. Nasworthy and Charles B. Metcalfe,^qv followed suit. As a result fence-cutting^qv became a major problem. In 1884, after several years of frustration, some violence, and economic loss, the state legislature made fence-cutting a felony. By 1885 the open range and longhorn cattle^qv were being replaced by fenced ranches and improved breeds, such as Durham and later Hereford cattle.^qv In 1886 the biggest roundup in the history of West Texas occurred near Knickerbocker, when fifteen "outfits" assembled 25,000 cattle. The Concho Times published the first county newspaper in April of 1880, and the San Angelo Standard was established on May 3, 1884, by W. A. Guthrie and J. G. Murphy. In 1885 San Angelo organized the first fire department. The 1880s was also marked by the establishment of religious denominations. Although the Spanish conducted religious services in the county in the seventeenth century, regular service was not held until Father Mathurin J. Pairier^qv began visiting in 1874 and built the first Catholic church in 1884. In the 1870s Methodist circuit riders held services and organized the first church in 1882. The Greater St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 1883. Baptist missionaries arrived in 1881 and two years later organized the Baptist Church of Christ of San Angelo. The First Christian Church began services in May of 1882 and built their first sanctuary in 1885. The first Presbyterian church was organized in 1886, and the first Episcopal church was built in 1888. The first subscription school was established in 1876 with twelve students. The school moved to four more locations before the first public school was established in 1884. Enrollment grew from 244 students in 1881 to 464 students in 1891. San Angelo Independent School District was formed in 1903

More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/TT/hct7.html (accessed November 9, 2008).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,541 square miles (3,990 km²), of which, 1,522 square miles (3,942 km²) of it is land and 18 square miles (48 km²) of it (1.20%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

• Coke County (north)
• Runnels County (northeast)
• Concho County (east)
• Schleicher County (south)
• Irion County (west)
• Reagan County (far west)
• Sterling County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

County Resources:

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