Coke County, Texas
| Coke County, Texas | |
|---|---|
The Coke County Courthouse in Robert Lee
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 Location in the U.S. state of Texas |
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 Texas's location in the U.S. |
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| Founded | 1889 |
| Named for | Richard Coke |
| Seat | Robert Lee |
| Largest city | Robert Lee |
| Area | |
| • Total | 928 sq mi (2,404 km2) |
| • Land | 911 sq mi (2,359 km2) |
| • Water | 17 sq mi (44 km2), 1.8% |
| Population | |
| • (2010) | 3,320 |
| • Density | 3.6/sq mi (1/km²) |
| Congressional district | 11th |
| Time zone | Central: UTC-6/-5 |
| Website | www |
Coke County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,320. Its county seat is Robert Lee. The county was founded in 1889 and is named for Richard Coke, the fifteenth governor of Texas. Coke County was one of 46 prohibition, or entirely dry, counties in the state of Texas, but passed a law allowing the sale of beer and wine in 2005.
From about 1700 to the 1870s, Comanche, Tonkawa, Lipan Apache, Kickapoo and Kiowa roamed the county. These tribes settled in rockshelters in the river and creek valleys, leaving behind artifacts and caches of seeds, implements, burial sites, and petroglyphs, river shells, turkey and deer bones, flint knives, scrapers, and points.
In 1851 United States Army post Fort Chadbourne was established to protect the frontier, and the fort was manned until the Civil War. The Butterfield Overland Mail ran through the area from 1858 to 1861.
Between 1860 and the early 1880s, the only settlers in what became Coke County were ranchers attracted to open grazing land. J. J. Austin established his ranch headquarters near Sanco in 1875. Pate Francher settled in the area in 1877.
In 1882, the Texas and Pacific Railway began providing service to San Angelo, and settlers started coming into the region in somewhat larger numbers.
Severe drought in the 1880s led to fence cutting and its attendant issues. State authorities eventually settled the disputes.
A few years later, the county was named after a confederate soldier, a Texas leader, a governor, and a U.S senator named Richard Coke.
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