Editing Comanche County, Texas (section)

==History==
Among the first inhabitants of present-day Comanche County were the [[Comanche]] Indian tribe.<ref name="Comanche County, Texas">{{cite web|last=Leffler|first=John|title=Comanche County, Texas|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcc20|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 1, 2010}}</ref>

In 1854, Jesse M. Mercer and others organized a colony near the future settlement of Newburg.<ref>{{cite book|last=Baker|first=T Lindsay|title=More Ghost Towns of Texas|year=2005|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-3724-7|pages=106–107}}</ref> in Comanche County on lands earlier granted by Mexico to [[Stephen F. Austin]] and [[Samuel May Williams]].<ref name="Samuel May Williams">{{cite web|last=Henson|first=Margaret Swett|title=Samuel May Williams|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwi35|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 1, 2010}}</ref>  Frank M. Collier built the first log house in the county.<ref>{{cite web|title=1860 Comanche County, Texas Census, Index|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txcomanc/1860indx.html|publisher=TxGenWeb Project|access-date=December 1, 2010}}</ref>

In 1856, the Texas legislature formed Comanche County from [[Coryell County, Texas|Coryell]] and [[Bosque County, Texas|Bosque]] counties. Cora community, named after Cora Beeman of [[Bell County, Texas|Bell County]], was designated as the county seat.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cora, Texas|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsNorth/Cora-Texas.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes – Blueprints For Travel, LLC.|access-date=December 1, 2010}}</ref> [[Comanche, Texas|Comanche]] became the county seat in 1859.<ref>{{cite web|title=Comanche, Texas|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsNorth/ComancheTexas/ComancheTexas.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes – Blueprints For Travel, LLC.|access-date=December 1, 2010}}</ref> As of 1860, the county population was 709 persons, including 61 slaves.<ref name="Comanche County, Texas"/>

The ''Comanche Chief''<ref>{{cite book|last=Massey|first=Sara R|title=Texas Women on the Cattle Trails|year=2006|publisher=TAMU Press|isbn=978-1-58544-543-1|page=129}}</ref> began publication in 1873. Editor Joe Hill's brother, [[Robert T. Hill]], worked on the newspaper while developing his esteemed career as a geologist.<ref>{{cite web|last=Alexander|first=Nancy S|title=Robert Thomas Hill|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fhi26|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 1, 2010}}</ref>

In 1874, [[John Wesley Hardin]] and his gang celebrated his 21st birthday in Brown and Comanche counties. Deputy Charles Webb drew his gun, provoking a gunfight that ended Webb's life. A lynch mob was formed, but Hardin and his family were put into protective custody. The mob broke into the jail and hanged his brother Joe and two cousins. Hardin fled.<ref>{{cite book|last=Metz|first=Leon Claire|title=John Wesley Hardin: Dark Angel of Texas |year=1998|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-2995-2|pages=133–138|chapter=Charlie Webb Goes Down}}</ref> He was arrested in 1877 by [[Texas Rangers Division|Texas Rangers]] and a local authority on a train in [[Pensacola, Florida]], while traveling under the alias James W. Swain.<ref>{{cite book|last=Smallwood|first=James|title=The Feud That Wasn't: The Taylor Ring, Bill Sutton, John Wesley Hardin, and Violence in Texas|year=2008|publisher=TAMU Press|isbn=978-1-60344-017-2|page=171}}</ref> He was tried in Comanche for the murder of Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb, and sentenced to 25 years in [[Huntsville Unit|Huntsville Prison]].<ref>{{cite web|title=A Guide to the John Wesley Hardin Collection, 1874–1931|url= https://www.thewittliffcollections.txst.edu/research/a-z/hardin.html|work=Biographical Note|publisher=Texas State University-San Marcos}}</ref>

Known for its fertile soil, Comanche County was a hotbed of political [[populism]] in the latter years of the 19th century.<ref name="Holdridge">Don Holdridge, [[University of Texas of the Permian Basin]] in [[Odessa, Texas]], "Surviving the Great Depression in Comanche County, Texas", [[West Texas Historical Association]], annual meeting in [[Fort Worth, Texas|Fort Worth]], February 27, 2010</ref>

===Expulsion of the African Americans===
In 1886, "one of those too horribly frequent crimes was committed by an African American. He was quickly caught and was punished in accordance with the rules of the unwritten law." Following this lynching, at a meeting of the white citizens "it was resolved to give every negro in the county one week's notice to leave the county, and committees of men from different sections of the county were appointed to carry out the will of the white people."<ref name=Courier/><ref name=Billy>{{cite journal
|title=The Negro Exodus from Comanche County, Texas
|first=Billy Bob
|last=Lightfoot
|journal=[[The Southwestern Historical Quarterly]]
|volume=56
|number=3
|date=1953
|pages=407–416
|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30237625
|jstor=30237625}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Notices have been posted in various towns of Comanche County, Texas, warning all "niggers" to leave under penalty of death, and it is fairly declared by the whites that no colored people will be allowed to live in that section.<ref>{{cite news
|newspaper=[[Belmont Chronicle]]
|title=(Untitled)
|location=[[St. Clairsville, Ohio]]
|date=August 5, 1886
|page=1
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29070659/
|via=[[newspapers.com]]}}</ref>}}

{{blockquote|In my days over the public well in the little railroad station [of [[De Leon, Texas]]], 16 miles from Comanche, there was a villainously painted sign, which read as follows: "Niggers! Let not the sun set on you in Comanche County."<ref name=Courier>{{cite news
|title=Tabooed: Texas County Where Negroes Are Unknown. Exiled by the people. Warn them to stay away from the place. Situation has drawbacks
|work=[[The Courier-Journal]]
|location=Louisville, Kentucky
|date=August 19, 1901
|page=4
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29070944/
|via=[[newspapers.com]]}}</ref>}}

Comanche County was a [[sundown town]], and in 1886 the communities of Bibb, De Leon, Fleming, Sipe Springs, and Whittville had signage reading, "No negroes allowed in this town."<ref name="ComancheCountyTX">{{Cite news |date=July 30, 1886 |title=Driven from Home |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/611087955/ |location=[[Fort Worth, Texas]] |newspaper=[[Portage Daily Register]] |page=1 |access-date=2024-09-21 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> According to a 1953 study, the county took pride in and publicized its all-white population.<ref name=Billy/>

Black porters on the train would hide in the baggage car as trains passed through Comanche County. Because of the threats to its porters, the railroad asked that the sign be removed, and the town of De Leon moved it to the town well, "in the middle of Texas Avenue". No report gives the date of the sign's removal.<ref>{{cite news
|title=In a 'sundown town' in Texas, white vigilantes forced Black residents to leave home
|first=Bud
|last=Kennedy
|date=May 3, 2022
|newspaper=[[Fort Worth Star Telegram]]
|url=https://news.yahoo.com/sundown-town-texas-white-vigilantes-214539094.html}}</ref>

===Arrival of the railroad===
The Texas Central Railroad<ref>{{cite web|last=Young|first=Nancy Beck|title=Texas Centrail Railroad|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/eqt11|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 1, 2010}}</ref> began service in Comanche County in 1885 and began carrying cattle and cotton to market.<ref name="Comanche County, Texas"/> By 1890, cotton had become king in the county, but by the start of the 20th century, the [[boll weevil]] had devastated the county cotton industry for three decades. In 1907, farmers in the county began to experiment with peanut farming.<ref name="Comanche County, Texas"/>

Oil was discovered at Desdemona in 1910.<ref>{{cite book|last=Grant|first=Joseph M|title=The Great Texas Banking Crash: An Insider's Account |year=1996|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0-292-72791-5|page=6}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Desdemona, Texas|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasGhostTowns/Desdemona-Texas.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes – Blueprints For Travel, LLC|access-date=December 1, 2010}}</ref> The peak year for the Comanche County oil boom was 1920.<ref name="Comanche County, Texas"/>

In 1951–1952, a desperate, drought-stricken county experimented with rain making.<ref name="Comanche County, Texas"/> [[Proctor Lake]] was impounded in 1963 to provide flood control and drinking water.<ref>{{cite web|title=Proctor Lake History|url=https://www.swf-wc.usace.army.mil/proctor/Information/History.asp|publisher=US Army Corps of Engineers|access-date=December 1, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101218115545/http://www.swf-wc.usace.army.mil/proctor/Information/History.asp|archive-date=December 18, 2010|url-status=live}}</ref>

From 1968 to 1974, Comanche County native Jim Reese served as the mayor of [[Odessa, Texas]]. He launched unsuccessful congressional campaigns in the 1976 general election against the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] [[George H. Mahon]] and in the 1978 [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Partisan primary|primary]] against [[George W. Bush]]. During the 1970s, the oil industrialist [[Bill Noël]] of Odessa purchased orchards in Comanche County.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fno26|title=William Douglas Noël|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=June 27, 2011|date=June 15, 2010}}</ref>

As of 1982, Comanche produced more than {{convert|45546000|lb}} of peanuts, ranking second in Texas.<ref name="Comanche County, Texas"/>