

Cochran County
Created August 21, 1876, from Bexar County. Named for a native of New
Jersey, Robert Cochran, a private who died for Texas Independece in the
siege of the Alamo. Indian hostilities and the distance to market and
supplies made settlement slow. The 1900 census listed 25 cowboys. In 1910
there were 75 persons; then 67 in 1920. Organized May 6, 1924, with Morton
as county seat. Oil discovery and development of irrigation caused rapid
growth, and made it a farm and petroleum center. Site of Silver Lake, a
saline lake known to early Spanish explorers as Laguna Quemado. (1965) |