Kimble County, Texas

Kimble County, Texas
The Kimble County Courthouse in Junction
Location in the U.S. state of Texas
Texas's location in the U.S.
Founded	1876
Named for	George C. Kimble
Seat	Junction
Largest city	Junction
Area
• Total	1,251 sq mi (3,240 km2)
• Land	1,251 sq mi (3,240 km2)
• Water	0.2 sq mi (1 km2), 0.02%
Population
• (2010)	4,607
• Density	3.7/sq mi (1/km²)
Congressional district	11th
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Website	www.co.kimble.tx.us

Kimble County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 4,607. Its county seat is Junction. The county was created in 1858 and organized in 1876. It is named for George C. Kimble, who died at the Battle of the Alamo.

Prior to the arrival of foreign settlers, the area that would later become Kimble County was inhabited by several Native American groups, including the Comanche, Kiowa, Kiowa Apache, and Lipan Apache. The first Europeans to encounter the area were the Spanish, who led several campaigns against the local Indian tribes in the mid-18th century. In 1808, Spanish Captain Francisco Amangual commanded a military expedition from San Antonio to Santa Fe and mapped a road, which passed through what is now Kimble County. The area was first mentioned in Republic of Texas documents in 1842, when approximately 416,000 acres of the present county were included in the Fisher-Miller Land Grant, which extended from the Llano River to the Colorado River.

The earliest settlers began arriving in the late 1850s. One of the first was Raleigh Gentry, who settled along Bear Creek around 1857. The Gentry family consisted of Raleigh, his wife, and their several adult sons. Another early settler was James Bradbury, Sr., who moved to the area from Williamson County and chose a site along the banks of the South Llano River. Others settled in the Big and Little Saline valleys. Two of the Gentry's sons would later be killed, one by Indians and the other during the Civil War. Bradbury was also killed by Indians during what would later become known as the Battle of Bradbury Hills.