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Welcome to Texas Genealogy Trails!
*Volunteers dedicated to putting free data online*
Crane County Website is available for adoption.
If interested in joining our group, view our Volunteer Information Page and
contact Kim.
[Basic webpage design knowledge and a desire to transcribe data is
required]
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We regret that we cannot perform personal research for anyone
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Crane County is named for William Carey Crane, a president of Baylor University The
County seat is Crane. Crane County was formed in 1887 from land previously assigned to Tom Green County the same
year, but for many years the area's scant rainfall deterred settlement. In 1890 only fifteen people lived in Crane
County; as late as 1900 the United States census enumerated only fifty-one people and twelve ranches in the county.
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The area only began to develop after oil was discovered in the county in 1926, when an oil boom attracted thousands
to the county. O. C. Kinnison opened a realty office and platted a townsite for Crane, where he named the streets
for his daughters and sons. He also invited a preacher to hold services in the area; according to county tradition,
local gamblers resented the gesture and gave Kinnison a beating for it.Crane County was attached to Ector County
for administrative purposes until 1927, but with (according to one estimate) 6,000 oil boomers in the area by that
time, the county was ready for organization. The town of Crane, bustling with as many as 4,500 fortune-seekers,
was designated as the county seat, and citizens organized to build a courthouse. Water was a scarce commodity.
People paid a dollar a barrel for water brought from a well seven miles east of town, or, if prosperous, paid $2.25
a barrel for better water from Alpine. Water was too precious then for any use but cooking or home-made whiskey;
women sent their laundry to El Paso. According to the census 2,221 people were living in Crane County in 1930.
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