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The history of Tom Green County, what we do know

Tom Green County was founded in 1874, named after Thomas Green. Here’s the history of the county and the City of San Angelo.

TOM GREEN COUNTY, Texas — Tom Green County was founded in 1874, created from the Bexar Land District. Today, it is the county residents of San Angelo reside in, but when it was first founded, it was not organized.

Then it became more organized and detached from its larger counterparts, but even after this, Tom Green County was much bigger than it is today.

Dr. Jason Pierce, a history department chair and professor at Angelo State University who specializes in teaching the history of West Texas, explains what it was like back in the time of the naming of Tom Green County.

Jason Pierce said “Big, huge land grants are made as people move in, they would then make new counties. If you were going by horseback to go to your local courthouse, you would have to go all the way to San Antonio, which was way too far. So as these towns become more organized and settled, they set up counties and county seats.”

Back when Tom Green County was founded, the borders went as far north as Colorado City in Mitchell County and as far west as Loving County. However, by 1903, Reagan County was the last county to be created out of the oddly-shaped Tom Green County we live in today. 

But where does the name Tom Green come from?

Curtis Milbourn, a dual credit history teacher at Texas Leadership Charter Academy in San Angelo, who is originally from Michigan, completed a master’s thesis on Thomas Green and what his significance was to the Concho Valley.

Milbourn said “He was born in Virginia in 1814, oldest of a number of children to Nathan and Mary Green. Nathan was from Virginia, Mary was from North Carolina. When Tom was three, they moved to Tennessee, so that’s where he was raised for most of his life.”

Thomas Green ended up in Texas at the age of 21 before the Texas Revolution.

Originally, he came to Texas looking for adventure, landing in Nacogdoches in 1835.

A year later, he served in the Battle of San Jacinto (April 21, 1836), where Texas won its independence. In the battle, he manned one of the Twin Sister cannons alongside Ben McCulloch, which McCulloch County is named after. After Texas wins its independence in 1836, it seceded from America in 1861, becoming part of the Confederacy.

Green was elected to be a colonel of the Fifth Texas Volunteer Cavalry, where he was part of the Invasion of New Mexico in 1862, and was victorious in the Battle of Valverde. In the next year, he would capture Galveston, a garrison in Brashear City, Miss., and a couple small plantations in Louisiana.

How is he relevant to the Concho Valley?

He traveled down the Butterfield Stage Trail, which Pierce said, “It starts in Missouri, goes through northwest Arkansas, slices near north Texas, crosses through Abilene,” where at this point, it is following the same path as present-day US Highway 277, which crosses through San Angelo as well.

“Then, goes out to the west where it basically trails where I-10 follows, which takes you to California,” he continued.

By 1874, Tom Green County was named after the young victorious Tennessee native, Major General Thomas Green came to Texas looking for adventure. He played a key role in the Texas Revolution and then was part of a couple Confederate victories during the United States Civil War throughout the southern states, but on April 12, 1864, he would die while leading an attack Blair’s Landing on the Red River.

A couple of fun facts some may not know, there’s many more Confederate named places in West Texas including: Jeff Davis County, named after Confederate President Jefferson Davis; Beauregard Avenue in San Angelo, named after General P.G.T. Beauregard; and the one we all know, Robert E. Lee Middle School, named after well-known Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

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