Gaines County
Seminole, Gaines County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named for James L. Gaines, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, this county was formed out of Bexar County in 1876. Anglo settlement of the area began about 1895, and the county was formally organized in 1905. Seminole was established as the county seat that year, and a courthouse was built in 1906. Ranching and farming were the most prominent and profitable occupations until the mid-1930s, when they were eclipsed by oil production. Gaines County encompasses 1,479 square miles, and Seminole and Seagraves are its two largest cities. (1989)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Gaines County was created in 1876 and named for James L. Gaines, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Anglo settlement began around 1895, the county formally organized in 1905 with Seminole as its seat, and a courthouse rose the next year. Ranching and farming ruled the economy until the 1930s, when booming oil production reshaped this corner of the West Texas plains.
Why it matters
The county's arc from ranchland to oilfield mirrors the transformation of West Texas, where twentieth-century petroleum wealth remade communities founded on cattle and crops.
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Related people
- · James L. Gaines
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Dan Cobb
Seminole, TX
A Tennessee native, Dan Cobb was the builder who gave early Gaines County much of its shape, constructing both the first county courthouse in 1906 and its 1922 successor, along with a Baptist sanctuary, a schoolhouse, and other landmark buildings. He and his wife Aurelia raised six children in the home they built here in 1906, and he held civic roles and even a federal mail contract spanning three counties. His work and leadership were central to the young county's growth.
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.
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.
Early Settlers of Andrews County
Andrews, TX
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.