San Angelo Standard-Times from San Angelo, Texas • 84

J7 vV a 4 4 V- 'I I SAN ANGELO Sunday July 4 1976-IOH LAND SAKES I SOLD THAT OLD WM With A Want Ad ttblg uf £irit 1 10TH A NORTH OAKES Jmsb -Pastor Loving Organized In 9 93 In 1897 toi TOO? WOTt! fcum Wf ana HiBaiMi Jaa ana a aa UCMIrMlhrMMna WM MWMr MMM Section 3C Anted that Loving County wu In be attached to Reeves County for Judicial surveying and all oilier pur wcMMraiiMaaiMa amMiwUMiaaiiii and wu again approved The county wu reorganimd on May 141131 The Porterville pool office hotel and school-church building were moved two mites northwest to the new town of Mentone Mentone had several outnesses during that period Including a hotel named far James Wheat Sr who pioneered the oil indurtry In Loving County ilk ion James The 1ST tax toUa showed three cattle enterprises in Loving County beiungngtothe Continental Land and Cattle Company the Seven Rivers Cattle Company and A Travis Windham These three enterprises constituted the only cattle interests In loving County According to the 1M0 US federal census there were only three persons living in Loving County: they end afl I males and an lived in Wheat Jr is one of the county commiariaoHS Loving County at present ia populated county in least tier brought suit and adudrion waa reached in her favor The insurance company appealed the cue to the UR Supremo Court which ouriahied the lower court dedsiuo and the policy wu paid in full In 1NX Hunter wu discovered in Birmingham Ala residing there under the name of AI Hunt He wu ameted and brought bock to trial where it wu teamed that alter tying his hone to the meaqulte he had ridden the other to Uarstuw catching the midnight train Hunter wu convicted and sentenced to five yean in the state penitentiary Itemadeu appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals in Auriia the drdsina of the lower court wu reversed and Hunter waa released The Johnson Brothers purchased the Ranch Iran Continental Land and Cattle Company in UN At the height of their ranching career the Johnson brothers posatued 12M lections of land In Winkler Loving and Ward counties The Johnson Ranch now called Slarii Ranch is Hill the largest ranch In Lovteg County and io still owned by the Johnson family Sid Kyle became one of the ninent ranchers in (swing arriving In IN0 Mis then prominei County an Sid Kyle In ISM six men came into the area of Loving County and founded the Loving Canal and Irrigation Company A xl on a rite 14 the the United State with people lain area covering C47 square miles The water is still hauled Mentone the county seat and only town In the county bu a port office school house courthouse a service -station and a cafe The county hu ao doctor hoqrtal or chamber of commerce The basis of the county's economy is oil production and cattle railing Due to high salt content of Irrigation water horn the Pecos River Loving County baa the smallest agricultural income in the rtato The two tochers of the County Independent District leach 12 children in grades 1 through I The 17 Junior high and high school atudento are transferred to Wink Independent School District II mites aut in Winkler County upriver from present-day Men-lone that first townrile was aimed Mentone by a homesick surveyor from Menton Ftance An work began ou canok people moved in and oaJriy I IM Loving County was or-Miwi as a or junto uy with Mentone aa the county mat alter a petition of IN rig-natures wu approved by Reem County officials It wsi rumored that many of the ligaatuteo were forged and that certain county efflctals pocketed monies Aram oaiea of wrennw uiwimbb iiwii hhnbhi By MARY BELLE JONH As in the rest of Texas the exploration made of wing County eras by the Spanish explorers the Spaniards trail entered the couity on the east bank of the Pecos River and continued upriver to a natural ford used by immigrants during the lMfc This crooning was named Pope's Crossing far Captain John Pope who had a survey in IIM far a raUraad to the Pacific and established a camp or fort south of the craning on the river's east bank In this ana Pope drilled far mi found water but had no means to tiring it to the surface The Butterfield Overland Mail Route waa darted ia lifii and followed nearly the same route as the Old SpanUiTML crossing to the west at Ifaprt crossing A garrison of soldiers was maintained at lOpe's Camp Anon MM-1N1 Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight made a cattle drive in IMS otarting a trail that was to bear their asmes but which closely followvd the Old Spanish Trail and the stage route crossing to the west side of the river at Pope's Crossing and on to Indlaa reservations aNd forts la New Mexico In 18S7 on this trail Loving warshot by Comanrbra later dying of gangrene AUMugh is was a native of Kentucky and a resident of Weatherford Texas this county was named far Oliver Laving Loving County south of Lea and Eddy ties New Mexico east of the Pecos River and Reeves County north of Ward County and west of Winkler County was the westernmost part uf Tbm Green County Then in IIM the Upper Pecos Valley petitioned the 1Mb Texas LegWatum to Iw made a part of Reeves County for Judicial and land surveying purposes The petkioa read in part "We respectfully call your attention to the fact that in order to reach the county seal of San located FREE INDEED Uf the Son therefore shall ma ve shall be frag (John Tiii i-- actaol lands and tamo Ihea county acquiring a piece of land and some cattle later riw left before others when the failed hri-ptioa project Tern or and Sid Kyis were married In untrue Loving County is the xao to be "dfe- only one In Texas 1N4 Mrs Kyle and Mre Gibbons wire of the manager Johnson Brothers the only females organised" by an act of the TVxas Legislature imtyoffi- of the Ranch were 1N7 there wore no county and Mis Kyle Sid Mac atm ranches in lire county Of the few brave rials residing county No MMMed or collected Therefore on May 12 IN7 an act was paued by the legislature for the dianrganizatioa of Loving County and Ma re-attachment to Reeves County far Judicial and all other pur wSSi nc people who homesteaded In Loving County II Hopper ia the only one who has descendants remaining He and hla son Bill and hia grandsons McKinley and Ernest have held public offices in the county far yean Stratton braurtd imnd-from the nadweri to grants Angelo we ere compelled to Ml travel from 250 A Hunter riierlff-col-tector of texu from UN to UN became involved in court proceedings that aroured the interest of the Upper Pecos Valley In November UN Hunter bought an kMuranre policy in the amount of IISN0 to benefit his airier Mis Jennie Mettler from Fidelity Mutual Life Association In December UN Hunter left Pecos City far Loving County and disappeared He bad camped an the Picoa River and tied one of his hones to a mesquite burtt The bane died of starvation The other hone couldn't- be accounted far at the time The insurance company refused to make payment on the policy because Hunter'i body wu not found Mis Met- Loving County in couraging them to buy land for farming The sctUers' port office wu called until Dr Phill Porter platteda townsite that wu named Porterville in hishonur In 1010 Porterville wu the only settled community in Loving County Porterville is no more and of the flrri immigrants to come with Stratton only the Goodrich family remains Ellen Goodrich hu a ranch in the Porterville area Oil wu discovered about one mile east of the present town of Mentone la the mkMKQi and by INI the oil boom wu bringing In mure people A petition wu again circulated In organize a separate county and through oix counties and county seats not including Midland County" The petition was signed by II "lax paying ettiaens" of the Upper Pecoe Valley one of whom wu AIU-aon the famous gunflghter Loving County wu created during the Texas Legiriature session of 10W along with several other Wert Texu counties House Bill No 113 in Section 1C ilnted that the new county be named in honor of Oliver Loving who waa mnr- wounded I tally i Fla thfai territory 54 Years of Progress Through Service When First Coleman National Bank was founded in 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression there was a definite need for the people of Coleman to hate a place where they coda obtain funds at reasonable rates to finance homes and where they could invest their savings with complete confidence Our growth through the years is evidence of our ability and willingness to meet these needs Mlkt Pecos River Ferry Sfnce there was no bridge across the Pecos River this terry was used io cross the waters in Laving County On the back of this picture taken Aug 24 1007 Is written the caption "This is the whole Pecos Valley all on one bnat hut a huwy crowd'-' (Photos from Lovlmj County courtesy Mrs tjiA I HM ri'A I -a.