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In misguided retaliation, a mob of 300 residents of Brown and Comanche counties stormed the county jail where Joe Hardin (brother of the outlaw) and two of the outlaw's associates were being held. When the notorious John Wesley Hardin killed Brown County deputy sheriff Charlie Webb in Comanche in 1874 many local citizens resented Hardin's escape. The people worked for economic and social stability and were impatient with outlaws. The Comanche Chief, which began to be published in 1873, was for some years the only newspaper in this part of Texas. By the 1870s the town of Comanche had become the political center for some fifty counties, both organized and unorganized, to the west and northwest. By 1870 the county had 126 farms and ranches, encompassing about 17,500 acres, and the population had increased to 1,001. With the war's end, military protection returned, and settlers were once more attracted to the county, many to participate in a range cattle boom. Home-guard companies were organized for defense, but many settlers fled and the White population shrank to about sixty by 1866. The withdrawal of the United States Army during the Civil War left the settlers without protection and even without livestock after Indian raids. Wheat and corn were the county's most important crops on the eve of the Civil War only one bale of cotton was produced in the county in 1860. Cattle ranching was by far the most important economic activity in Comanche County at that time, and over 14,700 head of cattle were counted in the area that year. The population included only sixty-one slaves, and only two of the county residents owned as many as eight slaves most of the slaveholders owned only one.
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By 1860 the United States census counted 709 people living in the county farming and ranching occupied 24,730 acres, about 1,880 acres of which was classified as "improved." Twenty-five residents owned slaves, but there were no large-scale plantations in the area. In 1859 the more centrally located town of Comanche became county seat. Collier built the first log house in the county in 1855, and in 1856 the Texas legislature formed Comanche County from Coryell and Bosque counties Cora was designated as the county seat. White settlement in the area began with a colony organized by Jesse Mercer and others in 1854 on lands earlier granted by Mexico to Stephen F. The entry was usually covered with a bearskin, and a flap at the peak vented smoke from winter fires. Comanches sheltered in the common plains type of tepee, made of tanned buffalo hides, standing twelve to fourteen feet high and resting on a framework of sixteen to eighteen poles. They did not eat fish, wildfowl, dogs, or coyotes unless they were severely pressed for food. Their prey included buffalo, elk, mustangs, longhorn cattle, and black bears of the Cross Timbers region the last they used for their oil. Unlike some Indian tribes they organized raids and buffalo hunts without a tribal military society, but with a responsible hunt leader chosen as coordinator. The Comanches' culture was well adapted to their life on the plains. The area that is now Comanche County was dominated from the eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries by the Comanche Indians. The average minimum temperature in January is 32° F the average maximum in July is 95°.
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Peanuts, pecans, grains, and hay account for about 40 percent of the county's $69 million annual agricultural income, while beef, dairy cattle, swine, sheep, and goats account for the remainder. In 1982 there were 1,350 farms in Comanche that produced a variety of agricultural products. The county has a 238-day growing season and an average annual rainfall of 18.45 inches. Southern Comanche County forms part of the southern edge of the Grand Prairie region and has dark waxy and dark loam soils. The northern part of the county is in the Western Cross Timbers region, which is characterized by light sand and loamy soils that support mixed timber of cedars, oaks, mesquites, and pecans. The area is drained by the North and South Leon rivers and their tributaries, which in turn flow into the Brazos River system. The center of the county lies at 31★5' north latitude and 98☄0' west longitude the county seat, Comanche, is located about seventy miles southeast of Abilene. Comanche County covers 944 square miles of rolling land with elevations from 650 to 1,700 feet. The county is named for the Comanche Indians, whose territory once included the area. Comanche County, in central Texas, is bounded on the south by Mills County, on the west by Brown County, on the north by Eastland County and on the east by Hamilton and Erath counties.