Page 24 - Industries_of_San_Antonio

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COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.
Toni Green County—Is located adjacent to the two preceding, of
which we have made mention. It was organized in 1875, and named to
honor the famous character of Tom Green, a Confederate hero, whose
after life and exertions were spent to elevate the interests of the section of
country in which he had cast his life's lot. This county is endowed by
nature with more advantages than most of those in the western part of
Texas, being abundantly supplied with vegetation, trees with natural
products giving to the settler enough to protect himself, without addi-
tional capital, from the inconveniences and discouragements of the first
season's habitation of any particular district. The land is covered with a
growth of various timbers, the streams intersecting many groves of pecan,
walnut, live-oak, sycamore, and other classes of trees, many of which
yield a natural crop of nuts that are marketable at a high value. It is one
of the best watered counties of the entire State. A square mile of land
cannot be mentioned that is not endowed with numerous springs, which,
thrusting themselves into prominence, captivate the eye and guide the
hand of tourists and visiting prospectors. These springs afford all that is
necessary, with their surrounding verdure, to the improvement of stock
interests. In portions of the county there are lakes without outlets, fed
only by springs equalling the amount of evaporation, and leaving deposits
of salt, which are gathered for ranch purposes, saving an enormous out-
lay which other sections are compelled to make by importation of the same
article. Tom Green county has had the choice granted to its lands for the
establishment of a wool-growing company, whose headquarters are located
near San Angela, a thriving town of 1,100 inhabitants. The city of San
Angela was named in honor of the mother superior of the Urseline con-
vent at San Antonio. There are supply establishments located at odd
places throughout every portion of the county, inducing a settlement
which must gradually increase with the stock interest's demands.
Pecos County—Pecos, the last of the four western counties which we
shall innumerate, is a valuable tributary to San Antonio city; bounded on
the northwest by El Paso, east by Tom Green and Crockett, west by Pre-
sidio county, and south by the republic of Mexico. Its birth was at the
same time of creating Tom Green county, though its population is now
several thousands in excess, being about 7,000 people. It is the same size,
but with a surface of beautiful valleys and rolling prairies, a few hills and
mountains in the southern portion, and watered by the Rio Grande and
Pecos rivers with their many smaller tributaries. The valleys are of a rich
black sandy land, fine for agricultural purposes when irrigated; but always
covered with the grasses especially encouraging to the stock-raiser. The
smaller hills are of a gravelly formation and covered with evergreen brush
and grasses, particularly adapted to the grazing of sheep. Fort Stockton,
the county seat, is located on a level tract 5,000 feet above sea level, and
bids fair to be a prosperous city. Health is the blessing of all the inhabi-
tants, and, as a facetious local writer says: "The physician (we only have