County Seat: Comanche * County Population: 13,565
Comanche County’s original temple of justice was a split-log structure with one room, housed in the original seat of Troy. Once postal officials realized there already was a Troy, Texas, the name was changed to Cora.
The creation of Hamilton County in 1858 pushed Cora to the edge of the county, resulting in a new seat, Comanche, near the center of the county. Officials erected a picket courthouse, complete with dirt floor and shake roof. The building burned in 1862.
Following the war, Martin V. Fleming supervised the construction of a red brick courthouse completed in 1875 and valued at about $12,000. The courthouse was later used to dispense justice to John Wesley Hardin, one of the deadliest outlaw gunslingers of the Old West.
June Rayfield Welch, author of “The Texas Courthouse Revisited,” gives the following rendition of the trial:
When John Wesley Hardin was tried, he had to be carried inside because he was heavily chained. A mob threatened to hang him, and an army of Rangers and deputy sheriffs stood guard. After lynching talk persisted, an announcement was made that should an incident occur Hardin would be given two pistols and turned loose.
In 1890, the county moved into a three-story Victorian courthouse, built for $65,000. This building was razed in 1939 and replaced with the current county capitol, built in 1941 using $75,000 in bond money and $120,000 from the Works Progress Administration, according to Welch. The courthouse, designed by Wyatt C. Hedrick, was built of limestone.
Comanche County houses in excess of 600,000 acres of farmland and some 2,700 farms. The county is one of the leading peanut-producing counties in the entire country. Other major crops include pecans, melons, grain sorghum, peaches and grains.
The county’s dairy industry ranks third in the state in milk production.
The area offers a variety of leisure opportunities. For example, Lake Proctor provides fishing, hunting, swimming, boating, picnicking and camping areas in four federal parks of 250 acres each. The lake claims a shoreline of 38 miles and a conservation pool of 4,610 acres.
Favorite special events include the Comanche Open Rodeo the third week of July and the Comanche County Pow-Wow, conducted the fourth weekend of September. Although not an authentic Native American event, Pow-Wow activities include Indian dances, along with an arts and crafts fair, cook-off, classic car show, and an antique tractor and engine show.
The July rodeo kicks off with a street parade followed by three nights of activities followed by a special rodeo dance.
(Texas Almanac 2004-2005)