Early Settlers of Andrews County
Andrews, Andrews County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of last frontiers of Texas. Anglo settlement here lagged 60 years behind rest of state due to Indians and scarcity of water. In 1886 O. B. Holt became first man to file for county land. First settlers included the Cowden brothers and Peter Von Holebeke. In 1900 county had 87 people; it was finally organized in 1910. With windmill pumps and drift fences, ranching became feasible, although soil was so dry that a grazing cow crashed through a dugout roof into a bed one day. In 1930 the discovery of oil brought wealth and rewarded the tenacity of first pioneers. (1970)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Andrews County sat on one of Texas's last frontiers, where Anglo settlement lagged some sixty years behind the rest of the state because of Comanche resistance and a punishing scarcity of water. O. B. Holt filed the first land claim in 1886, and hardy families like the Cowdens and Peter Von Holebeke followed, but by 1900 the county still counted only 87 people and did not organize until 1910. Windmill pumps and drift fences finally made ranching workable on the dry plains, and the 1930 discovery of oil turned decades of stubborn endurance into sudden prosperity.
Why it matters
It captures the slow, water-starved settlement of the West Texas plains and the oil strike that transformed frontier hardship into wealth — a compressed history of how the last frontier finally opened.
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Related people
- · O. B. Holt
- · Peter Von Holebeke
Related events
- · Organization of Andrews County (1910)
- · Discovery of oil (1930)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Original Townsite of Andrews
Andrews, TX
When Andrews County was organized in 1910, the new town of Andrews rose on land homesteaded by Robert Madison "Bob" Means, who had begun ranching the West Texas plains with his father in 1899. In a colorful county-seat fight against rival Shafter City, Means famously deeded town lots to local cowboys so they could register as voters and swing the election. He served as county clerk and gave land and money to the growing town for the rest of his life, retiring comfortably after oil was struck on his land in 1934.
J. S. Means Ranch House
Andrews, TX
Built in 1900, this is among the oldest houses in Andrews County, raised at the exact point where four claimants' land sections met so each could satisfy the legal requirement to live on his claim. After the group proved up their claims, they sold to Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Means, who by 1904 held fourteen sections and kept adding land to build a thriving cattle ranch. The operation ran cattle even after oil fields spread across the range in the 1920s.
Shafter's Trail
Andrews, TX
In 1875 Colonel William R. Shafter led a company of soldiers from Fort Concho across the arid plains toward Monument Springs, New Mexico, mapping the scarce watering holes that made the country passable. Along the way he skirmished with Native fighters and located the salt lake that still carries his name. The maps his expedition produced charted a land that had been largely unknown to newcomers, opening the Permian Basin to settlement.
"C" Ranch House
Andrews, TX
Purchased in 1883 by Chicago meatpacker Nelson Morris, this was the first privately owned land in the Midland area, known then as the Chicago Ranch. It boasted the first wire fence and windmill in West Texas and, by the marker's account, one of the world's largest herds of Black Angus cattle. Its innovations helped open the arid plains to large-scale ranching.