Lipscomb County

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little road dust on it. Lipscomb County. Way up in the Texas Panhandle, carved right out of what used to be Young and Bexar territories.

Created on August 21, 1876. Now, you might think that was the end of it, but this county had a slow burn. It sat there, formed but not yet organized, for over a decade, until June 6, 1887, when folks finally got the paperwork together and made it official.

Some things take time out here. The county bears the name of Abner S. Lipscomb, born 1789, died 1856.

And this was not a man who coasted through life. He served as Secretary of State in President Lamar's cabinet. He stood in the Constitutional Convention of 1845, the one that shaped what Texas would become as a state.

And then, as if that weren't enough, he took a seat as an associate justice on the First Supreme Court of Texas. The first. Not the second, not the third.

The first. The county seat carries his name too, plain and simple: Lipscomb. A man's legacy written right into the map, from the territory line all the way to the courthouse.

That's the kind of honor that sticks.

What the marker says

Formed from Young and Bexar territories: Created, August 21, 1876 Organized June 6, 1887 Named in honor of Abner S. Lipscomb, 1789-1856. Secretary of State in President Lamar's cabinet member of the Constitutional Convention, 1845; associate justice of the First Supreme Court of Texas. Lipscomb, the county seat