Eastland

Jacamiah S. Daugherty and Charles U. Connellee bought land on the C. S. Betts survey and platted the townsite in 1875, and voters moved the county seat here because it lay nearer the county's center than Merriman. Connellee, Daugherty, J. B. Ammerman and others built a stone courthouse, and the court first sat that September. The Texas and Pacific came in 1880 after receiving town lots, and a red stone courthouse followed in 1883. By 1884 Eastland had three churches, a school, a flour mill, two gins and about 500 people. Fire destroyed the second courthouse in 1896.

What the plaque says

County seat, Eastland County. Named for William M. Eastland--Texas War for Independence hero who was in Mier Expedition against Mexico, and was executed in "Black Bean" lottery at Rancho Salado in 1842. Most noted early local people were Comanches, who resisted occupation of area by white settlers. The last recorded Indian raid in county was in 1874. Eastland was named county seat in an election on Aug. 2, 1875. With 250 people it was incorporated on June 6, 1891, and W.Q. Connellee was elected as mayor. After a discovery in 1917, one of the fabled oil booms of Texas occurred nearby, with Eastland center for legal matters. With oil priced $2.60 a barrel, many wells flowed at 10,000 barrels a day. The city quickly grew to 25,000 people; 5 banks prospered. Coming here to seek "black gold" were celebrities, including evangelist Billy Sunday, circus owner John Ringling, sports figures Jess Willard, Tex Rickard. An international wonder-story happened here: the old courthouse cornerstone was opened (on this site) in 1928 to reveal survival of "Old Rip", a horned toad placed there with other mementoes on July 19, 1897. Continuing oil production, agricultural processing and clay products bolster the present economy. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Rip at the Eastland County Courthouse — steps away
  A horned lizard in a glass-topped casket in the 1928 Eastland courthouse, the creature said to have come out alive from the old building's cornerstone after thirty-one years.
• Conrad Hilton Center and Mobley Hotel — 9.5 mi
  The 40-room oil-boom hotel in Cisco that Conrad Hilton bought in 1919 when a bank deal fell through, now a museum of the Hilton start and of Cisco's 1927 Santa Claus bank robbery.

More markers nearby

• Camp Salmon, C.S.A. — steps away
• Early Settlers of Eastland County — steps away
• First United Methodist Church of Eastland — steps away
• Mangum Baptist Church — 6.0 mi