The Sterling County Courthouse was completed in 1938 in a Texas Renaissance style with Art Deco details.
The county’s first home, a two-story frame courthouse, cost about $1,800, while the second county capitol, a stone structure, was built for $25,000. The current temple of justice, partially financed by a $45,000 WPA grant, was valued at $85,000.
Both the county and the county seat of Sterling were named for buffalo hunter and surveyor W.S. Sterling, who came to the area before the Civil War where he camped and hunted for more than two decades. He eventually was killed by Apache Indians in Arizona where he worked as a U.S. marshal.
The following excerpt from one of the county’s historical markers gives a glimpse into the area history:
“This prairie region split by the north Concho River is old Comanche, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Lipan, and Wichita hunting ground. Possibly it was crossed by six or so Spanish explorations between 1540 and 1654. In the 1860s and ’70s, Anglo-Americans hunted buffalo commercially in this area. An 1860s hunter, Capt. W.S. Sterling, had a dugout home on the creek that bears his name. In the 1870s, bandits Frank and Jesse James kept horse herds on a tributary of Sterling Creek. In 1874 the United States Army occupied Camp Elizabeth, a Fort Concho outpost hospital, about ten miles west of here. Ranchers from other counties began to bring in large cattle herds in the 1870s, to capitalize on free grass. After keeping out small herds for a time, they permitted actual settlers to share the range. Family men staked land claims, grew crops in the valleys, and opened stores, schools, and post offices. On March 4, 1891, on the petition of 150 citizens, the county was created out of part of Tom Green County, and named for its first regular resident.”
During the fall of 1891, settlers conducted a fundraiser known as “Ball and Supper” to establish Sterling City’s first school. Ladies put together boxed meals which were sold to the highest bidders. Dancing followed the auction and meal.
In 1910, the Concho, Llano, and San Saba Railroad Company completed a railroad line from San Angelo to Sterling City, and everyone was given a free ride to San Angelo. While the railroad was later discontinued, the Sterling City Railroad Depot still stands and has been renovated by the Sterling County Senior Citizens Center.
The area’s early settlers were lured by good grassland, prompting a substantial livestock industry. In the 1920s, oil companies sent geologists to do testing, resulting in only small amounts of oil. However, some believed oil was there for the taking, and in the summer of 1947, the Georgia Frost Well, cased and deepened to 25 feet, began flowing. Oil fever spread as every section of the county was tested. Production grew steadily, and oil and gas remain key pillars of the economy.