DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — this is Cochran County's story, straight off the record. Now, not every county in Texas came into the world with a crowd waitin' to greet it. Cochran County was created August 21, 1876, carved out of Bexar County, and then — well, then it mostly just sat there for a good long while, watchin' the tumbleweeds.
The county carries the name of Robert Cochran, a native of New Jersey who ended up far from home and gave everything for Texas Independence. He was a private, and he died in the siege of the Alamo. That's the kind of name worth puttin' on a county.
But settling the place? That was another matter entirely. Indian hostilities and the sheer distance to market and supplies made settlement slow — and the numbers prove it.
Come the 1900 census, Cochran County's entire population was twenty-five cowboys. Twenty-five. You could fit the whole county in a single bunkhouse and still have room to stretch out.
By 1910 that number had climbed to seventy-five persons, and then — here's a twist for you — it actually slipped back down to sixty-seven by 1920. The land was not exactly rolling out the welcome mat. Still, folks persevered.
On May 6, 1924, Cochran County was officially organized, with Morton named as the county seat. Something was stirring. Then came the two things that changed everything: oil discovery and the development of irrigation.
Rapid growth followed, and Cochran County found its identity as a farm and petroleum center. The same wide, stubborn land that had kept settlers away was sitting on fortunes all along. And tucked inside the county is one more piece of history older than any of this — Silver Lake, a saline lake that the early Spanish explorers knew as Laguna Quemado.
They mapped it, named it, and moved on, long before there was ever a Cochran County to put it in. Twenty-five cowboys in 1900. A farm and petroleum center not long after.
Cochran County took its time — but when it arrived, it arrived.
What the marker says
Created August 21, 1876, from Bexar County. Named for a native of New Jersey, Robert Cochran, a private who died for Texas Independence in the siege of the Alamo. Indian hostilities and the distance to market and supplies made settlement slow. The 1900 census listed 25 cowboys. In 1910 there were 75 persons; then 67 in 1920. Organized May 6, 1924, with Morton as county seat. Oil discovery and development of irrigation caused rapid growth, and made it a farm and petroleum center. Site of Silver Lake, a saline lake known to early Spanish explorers as Laguna Quemado. (1965)