Memories and Trivia
Did You Know?
Did you know that Barstow, Texas was the first county seat of Ward county and was formed by George E. Barstow who moved from Rhode Island to West Texas and formed the town in 1892? The Court House was built the following year. By 1900 the population was over 1,000 people due to the recruiting efforts of Mr. Barstow. Mr. Barstow designed and built irrigation for crops, particularly grapes, and at the 1904 World's Fair took a Silver Medal for his champion quality grapes. Unfortunately, that same year the Pecos River dam broke and most crops were wiped out. The drought that followed brought an end to the irrigated farming by 1918 and a great era ended for Barstow. Barstow remained the County Seat until 1938 when a group of residents from Monahans, so the story goes, stole all the county records and moved them to Monahans in the dark of night. Below is a picture of the original Court House in Barstow built from local sandstone.
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The 1893 courthouse in Barstow as it appeared in the mid-thirties right before the move to Monahans.
Photo courtesy TXDoT |
Provided by Ray Cooper
