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History of
Brown County
Brown
county was formed in Texas in 1856 from Comanche and Travis counties and
organized in 1858, with Brownwood designated as the county seat.
Brown County is named for Capt. Henry Stevenson Brown, a company commander
in the battle of Velasco and a delegate to the Convention of 1832.
The settlers were harassed by Indians and white predators for twenty
years after the county was formed.
Oil
was discovered in Brown County in 1879, and a small producing well was
drilled on the H. M. Barnes farm near Grosvenor in 1900. Later, several
other wells were drilled, but the first commercial production came from
the efforts of Jack Pippen in 1917 at Brownwood.
Between
1941 and 1943 military needs led to the construction of Camp Bowie,an infantry
and cavalry training center, mainly of the 36th Infrantry Division, that
covered 122,000 acres south of Brownwood. Over 240,000 men and women
trained at Camp Bowie during World War II.
The
county is served by U.S. highways 67 and 84 crossing from east to west,
and 377 and 183 from northeast to southwest. The Texas Pacifico Railroad
crosses the state from the northeast to the west through Brownwood.
The
first courthouse in Brown County was a log cabin east of its present site.
In 1865, a second story was added to a building that was to serve as a
Masonic Lodge. When title to the land proved defective, the courthouse
was moved to its current location, and it burned in 1880. There was no
courthouse from 1880 to 1885. The cornerstone for a new courthouse on the
same site was laid on October 30, 1884. In 1916 the County decided to repair
or remodel the courthouse. The courthouse of today is known as classical
revival brick.
The
old Brown County Jail (shown in the background), now the Brown County Museum
of History, was started in 1902 and completed in 1903 and exemplifies the
principles that governed jail design in America in the late 19th and early
20th centuries. The museum was organized in 1983 by the Historical Society
showcase the history of this county.
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