Pecos County

George Milton Frazer, the county's first chief justice, had been on the move since boyhood. Born in Tennessee in 1828, he came to Texas in 1835, fought at Monterrey in the Mexican War and in 1849 rode with Col. Joseph E. Johnston's reconnaissance to El Paso. He prospected for gold in New Mexico and from 1852 to 1857 was a wagon master for the army quartermaster at Albuquerque. In 1861 he raised the Arizona Rangers at Mesilla for the Confederacy and fought at Glorieta Pass. After the war he ranched and kept a store in Pecos County.

What the plaque says

Pecos County Formed from Presidio County, created May 3, 1871. Organized March 9, 1875. On March 9, 1875, the following county officers were elected: George M. Frazer, Chief Justice. Cesario Torres, Commissioner. Francis Rooney, Commissioner. Hipolito Carrasco, Commissioner. Martin Huffmann, Commissioner. Fort Stockton, County Seat. Oil was discovered in the Yates field in 1926.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Historic Fort Stockton — 1.2 mi
  The Ninth Cavalry's post at Comanche Springs from 1867 to 1886, with its 1868 stone guardhouse, three adobe officers' quarters and barracks rebuilt from the original plans.
• Annie Riggs Memorial Museum — 1.5 mi
  An 1899 adobe hotel on Main Street that a twice-married frontier woman bought with her gunfighter husband's estate and ran as a boarding house until she died in 1931.
• Comanche Springs — 1.5 mi
  Once the sixth largest spring in Texas and a campground on the Comanche Trail to Mexico, pumped dry by 1961 under the rule of capture and now flowing again some winters.

More markers nearby

• Hovey School — 1.2 mi
• Site of Comanche Springs — 1.2 mi
• Old Fort Cemetery — 1.3 mi
• O. W. Williams — 1.3 mi