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"Royal was elected sheriff of Pecos County on November 8, 1892.  Wearing a badge did not shield Royal from trouble with the law. He pistol whipped an "an unarmed, unresisting private citizen, " on September 4, 1893, nearly fracturing his skull. The attack must have indeed been unprovoked. Though the term "police brutality" had not yet been coined, a Pecos County grand jury indicted the sheriff for assault   . . . " Read more Look inside

"In October 1958, Cornelio was murdered in Fort Stockton. Pablo and his father had gone into Sandy's Lounge outside of town for a beer. As they leaned against the bar talking someone tapped Pablo's father on the shoulder and said, "Hey, Cornelio, someone needs to talk to you out front." Leaving Pablo in the bar, Cornelio walked out with the older man to the gravel parking lot where several cars and pickup trucks were parked at an angle Seconds later, a gunshot rang out. Pablo ran out to find his father lying face up in the gravel with a bullet hole through his forehead . . ." Read more Look inside

"The next morning Patrick went by the armory to check on where he might want to serve the Confederacy. He leaned there was a detachment of cavalry leaving in 20 days for West Texas to liberate Fort Stockton from the Union Army. Fort Stockton was located at Comanche Springs, and it upset Texas generals to have a Union fort operating in Texas..." Read more Look inside

The Republic of Texas was still in its first exultation over independence when John Salmon “Rip” Ford arrived from South Carolina in June of 1836. Ford stayed to participate in virtually every major event in Texas history during the next sixty years. Doctor, lawyer, surveyor, newspaper reporter, elected representative, and above all, soldier and Indian fighter, Ford sat down in his old age to record the events of the turbulent years through which he had lived. "From the Llano Estacado the trail ran southwesterly through Big Spring to the Horsehead crossing of the Pecos, then forked southward to the Comanche Springs where it divided..." Read more Look inside 

"The Evans gang terrorized citizens and cowed county authorities. On May 19, 1880, Evans and four of his New Mexico fugitives engineered a brazen robbery. While two entered Keesey's saloon and called everyone to the bar for free drinks, Evans and two more strode into the Sender and Siebenborn store, held up proprietor and customers, and made off with $930 in cash and an arsenal of firearms. they then rode down to Fort Stockton, where they lazed for several days until the county judge prodded the sheriff into assembling a posse to arrest them. The posse botched the..." Read more Look inside

"The troops followed those Indians for one month, overtook them at Medicine Lodge, and wiped them out. I was not in the Custer Massacre, but was stationed at Fort Stockton in Texas. when the news reached the fort, which was the end of the telegraph line, Private Paine and I were detailed to carry the dispatch to Fort Davis, seventy-five miles distant. We covered that seventy-five miles from 11:45 a.m. to 4 a.m. the next day. Twelve miles of the this distance was through mountain passes, and I have never seen it rain harder, and lightning and thunder more terrific than it did on that occasion... Read more

Texas was a huge wide place full of frontiersmen, ranchers, farmers, cowpokes, shiftless no-accounts, shootists, rascals, and politicians all of them blended together into a single state. Texas Rangers were outnumbered a thousand to one, and in one county Pecos county the law was all but helpless. Until Ranger Vaughn Steel went to Pecos, looking for revenge. . . . Read more Look inside

by Edward N. Wentworth

Found Inside: "Following the blizzard of 1888 that caused such terrific losses of sheep and cattle all over the Texas range, Anderson decided that 125 sections of land were insufficient. He sold them to purchase 225 sections in Pecos County, which ... " Read more

A vast and desolate region, the Texas–New Mexico borderlands have long been an ideal setting for intrigue and illegal dealings—never more so than in the lawless early days of cattle trafficking and trade among the Plains tribes and Comancheros. "After burying Bartlett's body on the banks of the Pecos, some of the cowhands rode onto Fort Stockton, Texas, to report the attack to Maj. Zenas Randall Bliss commander of the garrison. Bliss detailed Capt. Francis Safford Dodge with..." Read more Look inside

by Susan Combs

"He would go to Fort Stockton, which is called "Comanche" because of the Comanche Springs, and he would overindulge and be thrown into the local jail. My father would drive the seventy-plus miles north, get him out of jail, and bring him... " Read more Look inside

By Patrick Dearen

A final flurry of Indian depredations in the region in 1879 spurred the U.S. Army into the field along the Pecos. On April 7, Colonel George A. Armes embarked from Fort Stockton with fifty enlisted men, a second lieutenant, a surgeon, sixty horses, and fifteen pack mules . . . Read more Look inside

Between the Pecos River and Rio Grande a vast, harsh land was ruled by Texas Ranger Captain Hector Savage. Savage's motive wasn't duty, it was money; he's turned this desolate place into a bloodied, terrorized kingdom. Now, a protégé of Savage, Sergeant Dave Chance, has come with a prisoner--a big-talking murderer in his own right--shackled at his side. "Spent some time in Mexico, then came back to Texas. Didn't stop, mind you. Just passing through. ... Finally, I drifted back to Texas. ... Well, everything was going along just dandy till we got to Fort Stockton.” Read more Look inside

"The party then set out across Texas. The roads were rough, and the stage toppled over once again. On March 20, the men arrived at Camp Stockton (now Fort Stockton) Texas where they were joined by Frank MacManus, whose prominent New Jersey steel family had interests in the Pennsylvania railroad that was seeking to extend its rails into Mexico..." Read more

"Discrimination befell black soldiers, and their means of support were sometimes limited. Blacks occasionally retaliated when all was not well on the frontier posts, and a number of nineteenth-century mutinies---such as those at Fort Cummings, San Pedro Springs, Fort Concho, and Fort Stockton---presaged the more violent outbreaks of the early twentieth century..." Read more Look inside . . . for more like this please see Black History in Texas

"Paul E. Pierce grew up in Fort Stockton, Texas, and graduated from Fort Stockton High School in I932. An all-round athlete, he then attended Schreiner Institute Junior College in Kerrville, Texas, earning an associate of arts degree ..." Read more Look inside

The book takes a lighthearted look back at the authors journey and experiences with the Enron Dinosaurs. Tucker, an ex-Enron pipeline engineer, brings to the reader a lighter side of the events that led up to Enron's collapse. "My second stint with Enron began in Fort Stockton, Texas, a small historical town of 8,400 in the middle of the West Texas desert near the hub of all the pipeline systems. Here was where I learned to be a pipeline engineer, in the field, ..." Read more Look inside

 Indeed, black soldiers had been serving since the Revolutionary War, but now, for the first time, they became part of the regular army, enjoying the same privileges, performing the same duties, and facing the same tedium and occasional danger that were every soldier's lot, but with the added burden of the intense racism of the time. ..."Remained in camp there until March 26, 1876, when it started on march for Fort Stockton, Texas ..." Read more   . . . for more like this please see Black History in Texas

 "Likewise , when Francis Rooney retired , he settled at Fort Stockton, Texas , where he developed an expansive irrigation project on Comanche Creek . He raised corn , barley , and oats , which were contracted to the fort , sometimes ..." Read more

In Last Train to Texas, author Fred W. Frailey examines the workings behind the railroad industry and captures incredible true stories along the way. By late afternoon we reach Fort Stockton, Texas, 161 miles down the road and as far as Texas-Pacifico has operated trains the past seven years. One reason is that there are no customers in the 147 miles beyond Fort Stockton to Presidio..." Read more Look inside

"Billy Espino grew up, went to school and lived his life in Fort Stockton. He was a teacher and a principal in the school and eventually served on the school board. "I remember growing up, before I was even in school, ..." Read more Look inside

 Even the law was no match for the ruthless drug lord who'd fathered her child. Serrano had spies everywhere and wouldn't stop till he captured his son and killed Grace. Now Marshal Sam Chance was suddenly back in her life offering protection…could she dare to refuse? "And she didn't mind living here in Fort Stockton. the kind couple who ran the cafe had given her a job and a temporary place to live, hadn't they? Even the customers weren't too bad ..." Read more Look inside

Doctor Samuel Walker is in town to attend a medical conference. When he meets the lovely young Irishwoman he is quite taken with her and, at his colleague's entreaty, marries her and takes her home to Texas with him to keep her safe. "When are you coming to Texas for a visit?” “Now Sam, can you imagine ... and Mrs. Abernathy, this is our friend from Fort Stockton, Texas, Dr. Samuel Walker. ... Read more Look inside

by Patrick Dearen

"Even the U.S. Army shunned it, and would do so for another year before reoccupying Fort Stockton. As a cattle trail, the route came to be known to historians as the Goodnight or Goonight-Loving, although it is unlikely that drovers of ..." Read more Look inside

by Ben K. Green

Based on the author's own experience as the first veterinary doctor at Fort Stockton. Texas. Hear him tell the tales of his struggles with mean stockmen, yellowweed fever, banditos, poison hay, and “drouth.” His canny mix of science and horse sense when treating animals “that ain’t house pets” is 100-proof old time pleasure . . . Read more Look inside

Growing up during the Depression in Fort Stockton, Jane Sibley learned first-hand the value of hard work and determination. In what she describes as “a more innocent age,” she experienced the “pleasant life” of a rural community with good schools, friends and neighbors, and daily dips in the Comanche Springs swimming pool. She arrived as a student at the University of Texas only ninety days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor and studied art under such luminaries as sculptor Charles Umlauf. Her enchanting stories of returning to Fort Stockton, working in the oil industry, marrying local doctor D. J. Sibley, and rearing a family evoke both her love for her origins and her clear-eyed aspirations . . . Read more Look inside

It's live hard or die quick for the gun slinging bounty hunter who always catches his man. This is the new action-packed Western from award-winning author David Watts!After a dramatic gunfight with an Outlaw, Marshal Luke, is hired by a local Governor who has been plagued by high crime in a state bordering Mexico. With roving gangs of murderers flooding across the border ... Read more Look inside

"people in the area of the west Texas community of Fort Stockton. The rule of capture was cited as the law that allowed the legal and total “drying up” of one of Texas' most famous and historically prolific springs, Comanche Springs . . . Read more Look inside

Cynthia Ann Parker, first published in 1959, is a fascinating account of the life of a girl of European descent, who at the age of about ten, was captured (along with her brother) in Texas by raiding Comanche. "Comanche Springs, Texas. These are at the headwaters of Comanche Creek at the town of Fort Stockton in Pecos County, well-known to the Indians and to the early explorers of Texas. According to legend, the spring was named by a group of ..."  Read more Look Inside

"Many springs in Pecos County—including two of the largest in Texas, Comanche Springs and Leon Springs near Fort Stockton—failed for this reason. Prior to the 1940s, Comanche Springs produced about 1 million gallons per hour, ..." Read more Look inside

The West Texas Power Plant that Saved the World takes the Barilla solar plant in Pecos County as a test case for the state of renewable energy in the twenty-first century United States . . . Read more Look inside

For almost three hundred miles, the Pecos River cuts across far West Texas. It is an arid land, a land that in the last century offered danger and hardship to those who crossed it and those who settled it. Yet they came—army posts like Fort Stockton to challenge the Apaches’ claim to the rugged land, settlers to supply the posts, cattlemen to eke out a living from the vast but sparse grazing ranges. They came and they stayed because the land held one overriding appeal: it was Texas’ last frontier . . . read more

This is the story of the antebellum frontier in Texas, from the Red River to El Paso, a raw and primitive country punctuated by chaos, lawlessness, and violence. "While in San Antonio, Giddings lobbied General Twiggs, the commander of the Department of Texas, to post a garrison at Comanche Springs. His request proved successful. In a May 1860 letter, army quartermaster Major General T. S. Jessup ..."  Read more Look inside

In 1859, the US military established Fort Stockton to gain control of Comanche Springs, which formed an oasis in the midst of arid West Texas. In the town that grew up beside the fort, a colorful mix of hardy pioneers--Peter Gallagher, Cesario Torres, Frank Rooney, Father Jose Ferra, Annie Frazier Johnson Riggs, and others--struggled (and sometimes fought) to construct a viable farming and ranching community in the vast, isolated terrain of Pecos County . . . Read more

by Walter Fulcher

Found Inside: "Born in Lampasas County, Texas, on December 21, 1887, Arl Walter Fulcher was about fourteen when his family moved him to Sterling County in 1901 ... At the age of twenty-five Walter worked near Sheffield, Texas, on the Martin Ranch, which figures in his chapter on "Outlaws and Bandidos". There he witnessed some of the events in the last outrage of the Black Jack Ketchum gang, told for the first time in this book.  . . . " Read more

Found Inside: "Lozier was then in Pecos County, and near its easternmost limits; the nearest sheriff, W. H. Jones of Valverde County, was eighty miles to the rear even before the train carrying him and his posse pulled out of Del Rio, the county seat. Jones was in time to pick up the trail during the day, but the bandits would have expected that " . . . Read more Look inside

Clayton Wheat Williams—West Texas oilman, rancher, civic leader, veteran of the Great War, and a vocational historian—was a risk taker, who both reflected and molded the history of his region. The setting for Williams’s story, like that of his father before him, is Fort Stockton in the rugged Trans-Pecos region of Texas. As a youngster accompanying his father on surveying trips through the land, and subsequently as a cadet at Texas A&M  . . . . Read more Look inside

"While the savagery on display inside the Ruby Mercantile that summer morning in 1921 may have been especially blood-chilling, William Oliver Parmer was no stranger to the hardships of life on the border. By age nine-teen, Parmer was living in Pecos County, Texas.  . . . " Read more Look inside

"As a result, from 1848-1890, whites and Mexican Americans in El Paso, Presidio, and Pecos counties shared elected offices and conducted business transactions. Additionally, many of the white men moving to the Trans-Pecos during this period were single, and since there were few white women in the area, a number of Anglo American men married Tejano women . . . " Read more Look inside

Hispanic culture is woven into all aspects of Texas life, from mission-style architecture to the highly popular Tex-Mex cuisine, from ranching and rodeo traditions to the Catholic religion. So common are these Hispanic influences, in fact, that they have been widely accepted as a part of everyone's heritage, comfortingly familiar and distinctively Texan. "Comanche Springs was once among the largest springs in Texas . Famous for its location on the Comanche War Trail , this area also lies on the ..." Read more

Comanche Springs, for example, once spawned a stream that gushed through the desert for more than 30 miles and supported an atypical desert fauna of Common Muskrats, Texas Spiny Soft-shells, and Comanche Springs Pupfish . . . Read more Look inside

Resources:

West Texas History & Memories (Face Book Group)

Early Life in Texas County by County

Books about Texas People and Places

Famous People from Texas County by County