Comanche County, Texas: History
Among the first inhabitants of present-day Comanche County were the Comanche Indian tribe.
In 1854, Jesse M. Mercer and others organized a colony near the future settlement of Newburg. in Comanche County on lands earlier granted by Mexico to Stephen F. Austin and Samuel May Williams. Frank M. Collier built the first log house in the county.
In 1856, the Texas legislature formed Comanche County from Coryell and Bosque counties. Cora community, named after Cora Beeman of Bell County, was designated as the county seat. Comanche became the county seat in 1859. As of 1860, the county population was 709 persons, including 61 slaves.
The Comanche Chief began publication in 1873. Editor Joe Hill's brother, Robert T. Hill, worked on the newspaper while developing his esteemed career as a geologist.
In 1874, John Wesley Hardin and his gang celebrated his 21st birthday in Brown and Comanche counties. Deputy Charles Webb drew his gun, provoking a gunfight that ended Webb's life. A lynch mob was formed, but Hardin and his family were put into protective custody. The mob broke into the jail and hanged his brother Joe and two cousins. Hardin fled. He was arrested in 1877 by Texas Rangers and a local authority on a train in Pensacola, Florida, while traveling under the alias James W. Swain. He was tried in Comanche for the murder of Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb, and sentenced to 25 years in Huntsville Prison.
Known for its fertile soil, Comanche County was a hotbed of political populism in the latter years of the 19th century.
In 1886, "one of those too horribly frequent crimes was committed by an African American. He was quickly caught and was punished in accordance with the rules of the unwritten law." Following this lynching, at a meeting of the white citizens "it was resolved to give every negro in the county one week's notice to leave the county, and committees of men from different sections of the county were appointed to carry out the will of the white people."
Notices have been posted in various towns of Comanche County, Texas, warning all "niggers" to leave under penalty of death, and it is fairly declared by the whites that no colored people will be allowed to live in that section.
In my days over the public well in the little railroad station [of De Leon, Texas], 16 miles from Comanche, there was a villainously painted sign, which read as follows: "Niggers! Let not the sun set on you in Comanche County."
Comanche County was a sundown town, and in 1886 the communities of Bibb, De Leon, Fleming, Sipe Springs, and Whittville had signage reading, "No negroes allowed in this town." According to a 1953 study, the county took pride in and publicized its all-white population.
Black porters on the train would hide in the baggage car as trains passed through Comanche County. Because of the threats to its porters, the railroad asked that the sign be removed, and the town of De Leon moved it to the town well, "in the middle of Texas Avenue". No report gives the date of the sign's removal. …