Dawson County, Texas: History
A Dawson County was founded in 1856 from Kinney County, Maverick County, and Uvalde County, but was divided in 1866 between Kinney and Uvalde Counties. The current Dawson County was founded in 1876.
In 1943, the discovery well for the Spraberry Trend, the third-largest oil field in the United States by remaining reserves, was drilled in Dawson County on land owned by farmer Abner Spraberry, for whom the geological formation and associated field were named. While most of the oil fields are in the counties to the south, a small portion of the Spraberry Trend is in Dawson County. Production on the field did not begin until 1949, and by 1951, an oil boom was underway in the area, with Midland at its center.
Like all Texas counties as stipulated in the Texas Constitution of 1876, Dawson County has four commissioners chosen by single-member district and a countywide-elected county judge, the chief administrator of the county.