Editing Loving County, Texas (section)

==History==
Nomadic hunters inhabited the area during [[prehistory]]. [[Antonio de Espejo]] traveled in the area in 1583, and crossed the [[Pecos River]]. Immigrants used a ford, later named [[Pope's Crossing]], for travel in the 1840s. [[John Pope (general)|John Pope]] surveyed the area in 1854, for the building of a [[First transcontinental railroad#Origins|transcontinental railroad]]. He created a camp in 1855, and conducted three drilling attempts, but only found water once and was unable to access it. [[Andrew A. Humphreys]] ordered Pope to end his drilling and abandon the camp on July 10, 1858. Soldiers were stationed at the camp created by Pope from 1858 to 1861. The route of the [[Butterfield Overland Mail]] went through the area.<ref name="county history">{{Cite news |date=July 4, 1976 |title=Loving Organized In '93, 'Disorganized' in 1897 |page=84 |work=[[San Angelo Standard-Times]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/102454398/san-angelo-standard-times/ |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Pope's Camp |work=[[Texas State Historical Association]] |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/popes-camp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303012028/https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/popes-camp |archive-date=March 3, 2022 |access-date=May 24, 2022 }}</ref><ref name="county history2">{{Cite news |title=Loving County |work=[[Texas State Historical Association]] |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/loving-county |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220419025654/https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/loving-county |archive-date=April 19, 2022 |access-date=May 24, 2022 }}</ref>

[[Oliver Loving]], after whom the county was named, and [[Charles Goodnight]] drove [[Cattle drives in the United States|cattle]] through the area in 1866, creating the [[Goodnight–Loving Trail]]. Loving was shot by a [[Comanche]] native in 1867, and died from gangrene. The area was a part of [[Bexar County, Texas|Bexar County]] from 1837 to 1874, when it became a part of [[Tom Green County, Texas|Tom Green County]]. Eleven people in the area, including [[Clay Allison]], petitioned to the 19th session of the [[Texas Legislature]] to become a part of [[Reeves County, Texas|Reeves County]]. Loving County was created in 1887, by House Bill No. 113, although it was to be attached to Reeves County for certain purposes, including judicial and surveying.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gannett|first=Henry|title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ|year=1905|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n190 191]}}</ref><ref name="county history" /><ref name="county history2" />

Six men from [[Denver]] came to the county in 1893, and founded the Loving Canal and Irrigation Company and [[Mentone, Texas|Mentone]], which was named by a French surveyor for his home of [[Menton]], [[France]]. On June 13, the men filed a petition with 150 signatures to the Reeves County Commissioners Court requesting the organization of the county and it was accepted. The county organization was approved by an election held on July 8, with 83 voters participating, and Mentone became the county seat. Another election was held in 1894, and both elections held in the county are believed to have been fraudulent. The county commission issued bonds worth $6,000 to construct a courthouse in Mentone, but the project was not completed as a flood in August destroyed the work that was done on the irrigation project. Accusations of illegal county organization arose, which were investigated by H. C. Withers and A. H. Randolph. They were informed by W. A. Hunter, the sheriff and tax collector, that R. G. Munn, the county clerk, had taken the tax records to Denver. All of the county officials had left the county by 1897, and the county was dissolved on May 12, 1897, and returned to Reeves County.<ref name="county history" /><ref name="county history2" />

In December 1896, Hunter traveled to [[Pecos, Texas]], but went missing with his horses either dying from starvation or being unaccounted for. His sister, Jennie M. Mettler, attempted to receive the $15,000 in life insurance that Hunter took out in November, but the insurance company refused to pay, as Hunter's body was not discovered. She filed a lawsuit and won in the first case and in the appeal made by the company to the [[Supreme Court of the United States]]. Hunter was found living in [[Birmingham, Alabama]], under the name of Al Hunt in 1902. He had abandoned one of his horses, while riding the other one, to take a train from [[Barstow, Texas]]. He was sentenced to serve five years in prison, but his conviction was overturned on appeal.<ref name="county history" /><ref name="county history2" />

The county has no cemetery, and the only grave in the area is for Shady Davis, a 21-year-old cowboy who was killed by his horse and buried 12 miles from Mentone in the 1920s.<ref name="information2" /><ref name="information3" /> The population in the area increased following the discovery of oil, and led to the creation of the town of Ramsey. Loving County was reorganized in 1931, becoming the only county in Texas to be organized twice, and Ramsey was later renamed as Mentone.<ref name="county history2" />

On November 17, 2020, during the [[COVID-19 pandemic in the United States|COVID-19 pandemic]], Loving County was the last county in the contiguous United States to confirm at least one case of [[Coronavirus disease 2019|COVID-19]], with three cases confirmed in the area. Earlier in August, a nonresident male at a [[man camp]] was confirmed to have contracted it. Additionally, at least two residents who had contracted it elsewhere returned to Loving County and quarantined, but those cases were not counted in the county's totals.<ref>{{Cite news|date=November 18, 2020|title=Loving County, Texas, was the last 'COVID-free' place in the continental U.S. Now it isn't.|url=https://theweek.com/speedreads/950539/loving-county-texas-last-covidfree-place-continental-now-isnt|access-date=November 20, 2020|work=The Week|language=en|archive-date=November 20, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201120004336/https://theweek.com/speedreads/950539/loving-county-texas-last-covidfree-place-continental-now-isnt|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Loving County watertower.jpg|thumb|[[Water tower]], Loving County]]