Andrews County: named for a Revolution hero, built by oil

Andrews County was created from Bexar County on August 21, 1876, and named for Richard Andrews, a Georgia-born settler who arrived in Texas in 1827. He was killed at the Battle of Concepción on October 28, 1835 — making him one of the first casualties of the Texas Revolution. The Texas State Historical Association notes he was fighting alongside James Bowie and James W. Fannin, Jr. when he was mortally wounded. The county seat, Andrews, carries his name as well. In 1936 the Texas Centennial Commission erected a marker honoring him about twelve miles west of the city on FM 87.

Settlement was slow. The 1890 census counted only 24 people in the entire county, most of them ranchers. Large cattle operations dominated, and it was not formally organized as a county until 1910. The oil era began December 5, 1929, when the Deep Rock Ogden No. 1 well came in. The timing was rough — the stock market had just crashed — but through the 1940s twenty-six new oil fields were discovered and the county's population soared. By 1982 oil and gas production in Andrews County was valued at over $1.2 billion.

Today Andrews County remains one of the significant oil-producing counties in the Permian Basin. The economy still blends ranching and petroleum, and the county's character — a small West Texas city surrounded by flat high-plains ranchland and pump jacks — reflects that combined history.