Andrews, Texas

On May 25, 1965, from one of 7,400 producing oil wells in the county's 196 fields, came the Billionth Barrel of Andrews County crude oil. In the 35 years and 5 months since oil flowed from the county's discovery well, C. E. Ogden No. 1, in Dec. 1929, Andrews has attained a new place in history. In 1929, the county had about 400 people. Its wealth, mostly in land and livestock, amounted to $8,109,399. Five persons in the county filed income tax returns. There were fewer than 100 children in school. Highway bonds in the amount of $200,000 were about to be issued, as a measure for county improvement. By 1956, Andrews County produced more than 60,000,000 barrels of oil annually--gaining recognition as number one in Texas and in the United States. Of great significance is the fact that presently proven reserves underlying the county total more than one billion barrels, without any consideration for additional recoveries by secondary methods. Andrews is more than a product of the billion barrels of crude of oil it has produced, more than the gasoline plants working through the night, more than modern highways, paved streets, homes, schools, dreams. Its destiny is great in human resources--and oil. (1965)

Andrews County, in the southern High Plains, is bounded on the west by New Mexico, on the north by Gaines County, on the east by Martin County, and on the south by Winkler and Ector counties. The center of the county is at 32°18' north latitude and 102°50' west longitude, 110 miles southwest of Lubbock. Andrews County encompasses 1,504 square miles of level, rolling prairieland typical of the southern High Plains. Sandy soils predominate except in the east, where red clay loam is found. The elevation varies from 3,000 feet in the south to 3,400 feet in the north. The average annual rainfall is 14.37 inches, and temperatures range from a January average minimum of 30°F to a July average maximum of 96°F. The growing season is 213 days. The county's road network includes Highway 385 (north‑south), Highway 176 (west‑east), and Highway 115, which bisects the other roads at Andrews. Angostura type arrowheads discovered by archeologists indicate the possibility of an aboriginal population as early as 6,000-4,000 B.C., but pottery sherds and other evidence establish occupation by the Anasazi people from around A.D. 900. In more recent times the Apaches and Comanches occupied the region, until the United States Army campaigns of 1874-75 cleared the way for White settlement. The county was formed from Bexar County on August 21, 1876, a year after the first detailed explorations made by Col. William R. Shafter from his military base at Fort Concho. The county was named for Richard Andrews , a hero of the Texas Revolution who was killed at the battle of Concepción in 1835. Subsequent boundary alterations occurred in 1902, 1931, and 1932. For administrative purposes the area was placed within the jurisdiction of Shackelford County in 1876, within the Howard Land District from 1882 to 1887, and within the Martin Land District from 1887 to 1891. The area was placed within the jurisdiction of Martin County from 1891 until 1910, when Andrews County was formally organized with Andrews as its county seat. In 1886 O. B. Holt first filed on county lands, although the huge Chicago Ranch, founded by Nelson Morris, a Chicago meat packer, purchased 228,000 acres in the southeastern corner in 1884. The county's aridity and its lack of surface streams encouraged novel rain-making experiments in 1891 by the United States Department of Agriculture. Sixty mortars charged with blasting powder and thirty kites suspending dynamite loosed their destructive forces at clouds while a number of ten-foot balloons, each holding a thousand cubic feet of oxygen and hydrogen gas were simultaneously discharged. Despite these notable bombardments no rain fell locally, although a copious precipitation to the east and south was, perhaps, a result of the experiment. After the droughts of 1886 and 1887, Nelson Morris introduced windmills to draw ground water until he had seventy-nine of the wind machines spaced on his ranch. Morris also introduced barbed wire drift fences to contain cattle. In 1894 the Scharbauers purchased the Wells Ranch, which with Morris's C-Ranch occupied most of the eastern part of the county. A year later the Texas legislature passed the four-section law, which helped to end open-range ranching in Texas by encouraging the breakup up of great ranches for the benefit of homesteaders and small tract purchasers. In the early 1880s the building of the Texas and Pacific Railway through Midland, Midland County, the supply point of Andrews County, gave promise of future growth. The railroad promoted immigration and had millions of acres to offer settlers. But since there was plenty of land in West Texas with better access to transportation than Andrews County, the population grew slowly; the census showed only twenty-four residents in 1890, and as late as 1900 only eighty-seven people lived in Andrews County. By 1910, however, the population was 975, principally farmers and ranchers. Though only 70 acres of farmland had been classified as impr

Andrews, the seat of Andrews County and the only incorporated town in the county, is on U.S. Highway 385 thirty-four miles north of Odessa. The town, like the county, was named for Richard Andrews , the first man to die in the war for Texas independence in 1835. The town began around 1908 with a general store and a schoolhouse. There were only eighty-seven people living in the county, most of them ranchers. A post office was established in 1909, and Andrews became the county seat in 1910 after a spirited contest against Shafter Lake; in 1911 residents built their first courthouse. In 1903 the Means Memorial Methodist Church became the first Andrews church to organize officially, followed soon after by the Andrews Baptist Church. Development in Andrews proceeded slowly until 1929, when the Deep Rock Oil Company made the first major strike in the county. As a result of the national economic depression and the slow flow of the oil, Deep Rock eventually sold its holdings to J. W. Tripplehorn, for $7,500. Tripplehorn brought in the wells J. S. Means No. 1 and R. M. Means No. 1 in 1934, and the pace of development quickened. In 1937 Andrews was incorporated. The town's population, 611 by 1940, did not reflect the increasing importance of the region, for most of the oilmen and their families lived outside of town in company camps. The same year that Tripplehorn's first wells came in, the Andrews County News began publication. A library, established in one room in the county courthouse in 1947, was moved to its own new building in 1967. Oil may have had its greatest local impact on the public school system. A one-room schoolhouse had opened in Andrews in 1907; by 1909 it had twenty-five students. A year later six county school districts were established. In the 1930s the original districts were consolidated into one, based in Andrews. A new high school was built in 1945 and a new middle school in 1954. In 1962 another new high school was built, and 1973 saw the construction of a new middle school, complete with planetarium. The modern and well-equipped schools reflected the system's reputation as one of the best and the wealthiest in the state. After the opening of new oilfields in 1942, 1943, and 1944, the industry slumped, and by the 1960s most of the oil companies had closed their camps. Left with the choice of diversification or evacuation, many residents stayed on and developed a broader economic base for the town. The population fluctuated during these years, changing from 3,294 in 1950 to 11,135 in 1960, and back to 8,655 in 1970. In 1980 Andrews had a population of 11,061 and 258 businesses, was served by a bus line, two motor freight lines, and a small airport, and had hospitals, a mental health center, and a rest home. Recreational sites included an eighteen-hole golf course and six public parks. The population in 1990 was 10,678. In 2000 the population dropped to 9,652.

Founded when Andrews County was organized in 1910, on land owned by Robert Madison Means (b. 1878). With his father, J. S. Means, "Bob" Means began homesteading here in 1899 and organized an abstract company in 1909. When Andrews battled Shafter City to acquire county seat, Means donated lots to local cowboys so they could vote; helped win election. Married Atwood Wilder, 1910; was county clerk, 1918-1922; civic leader throughout life. Town has grown through many gifts of real estate and funds from Means, who retired after finding oil on his land in 1934. (1970)

In 1875, Col. Wm. R. Shafter and a company of soldiers traveled from Fort Concho (where San Angelo is today) to Monument Springs, N. Mex., charting the arid plains, mapping all the vital watering places. This marker is in the only town of today through which Shafter's Trail passes. Here Col. Shafter, defending his party, chased Indians who ran 12 miles to the northwest. Thus he found the salt lake known ever after by his name. His expedition's maps of this formerly unknown land opened the Permian Basin to settlement. (1965)

Robert Madison Means, oilman and philanthropist, was born in a log cabin near Whitsboro in Grayson County, Texas, on July 25, 1878, the son of pioneer ranchers in Grayson and Andrews counties. He grew up in Andrews and operated Andrews Abstract Company until 1914, when he moved to Abilene. He later moved to Florida and worked for American Telephone and Telegraph company. He returned to Andrews in 1927 and then to Abilene in 1934, an area where he owned several ranches and oil wells. Means was a member of the First Christian Church of Abilene, where he was also a deacon and trustee. He made many large donations toward the upkeep and improvement of the church. In 1968 he contributed $20,000 for a new organ and later paid for the new education building at First Christian Church of Andrews. Other acts of philanthropy include the contribution of a two-story hospital to the Juliette Fowler Homes in Dallas in 1957, and a later donation of athletic buildings and a boys' dormitory. In 1970 a Texas historical marker was erected in his name on the original townsite of Andrews, since the land had originally been owned by Means. He was a lifetime member of the Texas Cowboy Reunion , the Gideon chapter of Abilene, Andrews Masonic Lodge, the Salvation Army, and the downtown Lions Club. He was also a member of the Texas Lions League for Crippled Children. He married Annie Atwood Wilder on June 28, 1908, and the couple had two daughters. Means died in September 1972 in Abilene. He is buried in Elmwood Memorial Park, Abilene.