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White
hunters cleared the land of buffalo and wild horses in the
1870s, while Colonel Ranald S. MacKenzie's Fourth United
States Cavalry subdued the Comanches in 1874 and 1875.
MacKenzie's base of operations against the Indians was located
at Anderson's Fort, also called Soldiers Mound, an army supply
camp located near the site of present-day Spur. In 1876 the
Texas state legislature formed Dickens County from land
previously assigned to Bexar County. |
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In 1890
Hagins planted the first cotton in Dickens County on school
land obtained from the state for fifteen cents an acre and 5
percent of the valuation. To avoid the 100-mile haul he had to
make to Jones County for ginning of his first crop, Hagins
built a gin in 1891. That same year, the county was
politically organized, with the town of Espuela. Dickens was
subsequently chosen as the county seat, and by 1893 the town
had a courthouse, a hotel, two stores, and a wagonyard. By
1900, 197 farms and ranches had been established in the
county, and the population had increased to 1,151.
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