Midland County, Texas

Midland County is located on the southern edge of the High Plains in West Texas, surrounded on the east by Glasscock County, on the south by Upton County, on the west by Ector County, and on the north by Martin County and Andrews County.

Cities, Towns & Communities

Cotton Flat | Dameron City | Germania | Greenwood | Midkiff | Midland (Midway) – county seat | Odessa (mostly in Ector County) | Pleasant | Prairie Lee | Slaughter | Spraberry | Terminal | Valley View | Warfield

History

In 1885, when 300 people were living in the area, the Texas state legislature established Midland County from lands previously assigned to Tom Green County, and the county was organized later that same year. The town of Midland, originally named Midway to suggest its place on the Fort Worth–El Paso rail line, became county seat. The Staked Plains, the county’s first newspaper, began publication in 1885, and another paper, the Midland Gazette, was in circulation by 1889; the county’s first school house was built the next year. By 1890 twenty-nine ranches had been established in the county, and the agricultural census reported 14,867 cattle and 13,364 sheep in the area. No crops were reported in the county that year, though some early settlers did grow limited amounts of corn and grain, sometimes using irrigation. The United States Census counted 1,033 people living in Midland County in 1890.

Midland County History 1922. Reference has been repeatedly made in these sketches of Texas counties to the remarkable development that followed the construction of the Texas & Pacific Railroad from Fort Worth west to El Paso. In almost every case the counties through which that line passed were the first to begin development on a permanent basis, and the line of railway became the backbone to the economic activities spreading for many miles on each side. Between the town of Big Springs, in Howard County, and the Pecos River, the Texas & Pacific crosses the immense territory formerly comprised within Tom Green County. As elsewhere stated, the breaking up of the original Tom Green County began during the ’80s, and it is noteworthy that the first division was made at the western end rather than at the eastern side of the original county. The first of such counties to be detached and separately organized was Midland, created and organized in 1885. 

Location

Midland, TX 31° 59′ 50.4456″ N, 102° 4′ 40.494″ W

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