There may have been a little bravado involved in the naming of Comanche County. When the central Texas county was formed from parts of Coryell and Bosque Counties in 1856, Comanche rule was facing its first small challenges in that region (although pitched battles had been fought in other parts of Texas); a military road and about forty scattered families were the only signs of European encroachment, and even four years later the 1860 census found only 709 people living in the county.

The Comanches, on the other hand, had dominated the landscape for more than a century, and had no intention of going away peacefully. The name “Comanche” comes from a Ute word (Komantcia) meaning “one always wanting to fight.” The attacks started in March of 1857, and two years after the town of Comanche was made the county seat in 1859, Comanche braves invaded the town and stole nearly all the settlers’ horses. During the Civil War, when most of the able-bodied men were off fighting the Union, Comanche depredations were so severe that most of the white settlers left, and the population dipped to around 60 by 1866. For the first fifteen years of the county’s existence, Comanches were a constant source of worry for those brave enough to live in the county that bore their name.

It all started with the “Corn Trail,” a military supply road between Fort Gates (east of Gatesville) and Fort Phantom Hill (north of Abilene), laid out in 1850 (or shortly thereafter). The first settlers in the future Comanche County were the Collier and Mercer families, who arrived with 15 to 20 slaves just before Christmas in 1854. According to F.M. Collier, they and the Mercers were the only white settlers “150 miles from nowhere,” and Mrs. Mercer had definitely come along against her better judgement. On the four-month trip from Georgetown, the Mercers argued bitterly every day, much to the chagrin of the more agreeable Colliers. They settled on a creek (which they c ...

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