Menard County Texas

Surrounding Counties - Links and History

Concho County, Texas

Concho County was organized in 1879, after the required petition was signed by at least seventy-five voters. There being no established community in the county, the vote to select officers and a site for the county seat was held near Mullins Crossing on the Concho. The location chosen for the county seat was at a ford on the Concho about a mile below the mouth of Kickapoo Creek, twelve miles west of the confluence of the Concho and Colorado rivers, and five miles south of the Concho-Runnels county line. The county seat was named Paint Rock, after the nearby pictographs. The town developed steadily. By 1884 it had an estimated population of 100 and had become a shipping center for pecans, wool, hides, and mutton (the cattle were routed elsewhere). In 1886 a permanent courthouse was constructed.

Eden, on Hardin Branch in the south central region of the county, was established in 1882. By 1931, when Paint Rock had reached its peak population of 1,000, Eden had surpassed it with 1,194. Thereafter the population of Paint Rock declined and that of Eden remained relatively constant.(Source: Handbook of Texas Online)

For genealogical records or info on Concho County......visit Concho County TXGenWeb site

Kimble County, Texas

On January 22, 1858, Kimble County was formed by the Texas legislature from lands formerly assigned to Bexar County and was attached to Gillespie County for judicial purposes.(Source: Handbook of Texas Online)

On September 6, 1875, Kimble County was separated from Gillespie County and attached to Menard County for judicial purposes. On January 3 of the following year Kimble County was organized, and in February William Potter was elected the first county judge. Ezekiel Keyser Kountz was elected the first county and district clerk. In the spring of 1876 the towns of Kimbleville and Junction were founded, and Kimbleville was elected the first county seat. Following the first district court session, Junction became the county seat. Kimbleville, located a few miles northwest of Junction in a flood-prone area, soon disappeared. (Source: Handbook of Texas Online)

For genealogical records or info visit: Kimble County Texas TXGenWeb Site

Mason County, Texas

In the mid-1840s the overflow of German colonists from Fredericksburg and New Braunfels, under the direction of John O. Meusebach,qv began to move into what became Mason County, risking the dangers of the wilderness for the opportunity to own larger tracts of land. The establishment of Fort Mason in 1851 and the resulting greater protection against Indian attacks encouraged more rapid settlement of the county by Germans, Irish, and English.qqv Mason County was originally part of the Bexar District. When Gillespie County was marked off in 1848, most of the future Mason County was included within its boundaries. On January 22, 1858, Mason County, named for Fort Mason, was established by an act of the state legislature. George W. Todd organized the county on August 2 of that year. The act required that a county seat be established within two miles of the fort, and on May 20, 1861, voters chose the town of Mason for this purpose. The original boundaries of the county have remained virtually unchanged over the years. (source: Handbook of Texas Online)

For genealogical records or info visit: Mason County Texas TXGenWeb Site

McCulloch County, Texas

The Sixth Legislature formed McCulloch County from the Bexar District in 1856 and named it in honor of Benjamin McCulloch.qv In the late 1850s a few families came to the Lost Creek area and to the sites of present Milburn and Camp San Saba, but the population remained too small for permanent organization of the county. In 1860 McCulloch County was attached to San Saba County for judicial purposes. Some officials were elected for McCulloch County in the 1860s, and evidence suggests that the Voca and Lost Creek communities were the center of county affairs during these years, but it was not until 1876 that all of the county offices were filled and a county seat was chosen. McCulloch County was not organized in time to have a representative at the secession conventionqv of 1861, and its involvement in the Civil Warqv was limited. Indians, not Yankees, presented the more immediate threat to people who had settled there by the 1860s. Confederate volunteers from McCulloch and other frontier counties were stationed at such outposts as Camp San Sabaqv to protect settlers from Indians after federal troops withdrew from the area in 1861. The greatest impact that the Civil War and Reconstructionqv had on the development of McCulloch County was in providing incentive to families from other southern states to come west and start again. (Source: Handbook of Texas Online)

For genealogical records or info visit: McCulloch County Texas TXGenWeb Site

Schleicher County, Texas

The Texas legislature established Schleicher County from Crockett County in April 1887 and named it in honor of Gustav Schleicher,qv an early surveyor, engineer, and politician. It is not clear why the legislature decided to form the county at that time; there is no evidence available to suggest any lobbying efforts by local residents. In fact, because the county had such a small population, it was attached first to Kimble County and later to Menard County for judicial purposes. It was not until July 1901 that Schleicher County residents elected their first county officials. (Source: Handbook of Texas Online)

For genealogical records or info visit: Schleicher County Texas TXGenWeb Site

Sutton County, Texas

So successful were the herds that grazed in Sutton County, then a part of Crockett County, that by 1878 the region was known as Cattleman's Paradise, a nickname that was soon changed to Stockman's Paradise, since both sheep and cattle ranching were important. With the tremendous growth of the cattle industry in the late 1870s and early 1880s, the available rangeland across Texas was occupied quickly and in time fenced off into ranches. This trend was reflected in Sutton County but was slowed by the lack of accessible water. In 1882 a traveler reported that the Birtrong Ranch, which depended on Wall's Well, a seep discovered by Tom Birtrong and Ed Wall in 1881, was the area's only ranch. By 1885 there were eleven, all but one located near the region's few sources of groundwater. That one exception was the ranch of A. J. Winkler, who in 1884 had drilled a well, successfully tapping the water table. Henceforth, ranching on the Edwards Plateau was closely tied to well water, its extraction made easier by the development of the wind-powered water pump and the horse-powered drill. Increasing numbers of ranchers moved to the area and, in order to protect their water supplies as well as their range grass from roaming herds, began to fence off their holdings. By 1898, scarcely ten years after the erection of the first fence, almost all of the area's 120 ranches were fenced. The discovery of a reliable water supply also stimulated settlement. The area around Winkler's Well became a small frontier town, which by 1887 had twenty families and a number of buildings, including a Masonic lodge that doubled as a schoolhouse. At about the same time Charles G. Adams, a merchant and sometime rancher from Fort McKavett, moved to the area and settled two miles north of Winkler's Well. Adams seems to have moved into the area with the intention of founding a town and perhaps profiting from land sales. Initially, his plan seemed doomed to failure, since the site, which he named Sonora, had an insufficient water supply to attract many settlers. In 1887 the Texas legislature established Sutton County, which was carved out of eastern Crockett County and named after Confederate officer John S. Sutton.qv The establishment of Sutton County set off a new round of competition between the interests at Winkler's Well, now called Wentworth, and Sonora, over the location of the county seat. Initially Wentworth had the advantage, but in 1889 Charles Adams was successful in drilling a well on the Sonora courthouse property. With its water supply assured, Sonora proceeded to entice settlers with land grants.(Source: Handbook of Texas Online)

For genealogical records or info visit: Sutton County Texas TXGenWeb Site

Tom Green County, Texas

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.(Source: Handbook of Texas Online)

For genealogical records or info visit: Tom Green County Texas TXGenWeb Site

NOTE: While I strive for accuracy in all transcriptions, please be advised that typing errors may be present. I would suggest you always verify my online information with a copy of the actual record.

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Saturday, March 22, 2008 11:00 AM