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 Original Tom Green County
N 31° 27.731 W 100° 26.353
14R E 363264 N 3481721
The state historic maker for the original Tom Green County, whose vast territory was carved up into 12 separate counties by the Texas Legislature
Waymark Code: WMV36R
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/15/2017
Views: 5
Original Tom Green County, a vast expanse of West Texas, spun off 11 separate counties over several decades in the 19th and 20th centuries, to reach its present size and odd configuration.
This marker is located in front of the Tom Green County Courthouse in downtown San Angelo TX.
Marker Number: 14847 (probably not 3875)
Marker Text:
On transcontinental trail of California Gold Rush. Until 1846 a part of Bexar Land District, Republic of Texas. Private tracts were surveyed as early as 1847. German Emigration Company colony (90 mi. SE) had grants here, but in 1840s found Indians blocking settlement. Butterfield Overland Mail managers lived at stands in area, 1858-61. R. F. Tankersley family established a permanent home in 1864 in future Tom Green County. By 1874 there were five settlements here, including Bismarck farm, a colony of 15 German immigrants. The county (12,756 sq. mi., 10 1/2 times as large as state of Rhode Island) was created in 1874 and named for heroic Gen. Green (1814-64), a state official and gallant Texas soldier.
After a decade of progress, the original Tom Green County began losing outlying areas. Midland County - halfway between Fort Worth and El Paso on newly opened Texas & Pacific Railway - was created in 1885. Settlers remote from San Angelo petitioned for new counties in 1887, and the Texas Legislature created Crane, Loving, Upton, Ward and Winkler. Coke and Irion Counties were cut out of Tom Green in 1889. Ector and Sterling were created in 1891. Last diversions - Glasscock (1893) and Reagan (1903) - gave Tom Green its present size. It remains influential in the region. (1972)
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