Kent County History

Except for Coronado's 1540/41 expedition, the region encompassing what is now Kent county was largely unmapped and uninhabited until the late 17th century, when the Plains tribes, primarily the Comanche - forever changed by the adoption of the horse into their culture - moved southward onto and through the rolling plains of Texas, and it became part of the Comancheria. For the next nearly 200 years, no matter what the citizens and governments of provincial Texas, colonial Texas, the Republic of Texas, the United States, or the Confederate States may have believed, it was in reality these "Lords of the Plains", who ruled this part of Texas.

Coronado's report made intriguing mention of copper mines in the Double Mountain area, and suggested the possibility of even more precious minerals. In 1786, Domingo Cabello, governor of the province of Texas, commissioned Pedro Vial to explore the region. Another exploratory expedition was undertaken by Jose Mares in 1788. After statehood, Randolph B. Marcy led an exploratory and surveying expedition in 1849.

Unlike the other southern states, Texas had never gone through a territorial phase, prior to annexation. Land ownership in the western rolling plains area of Texas dates to the 1850's, although significant Anglo settlement did not actually commence for another 20 years. In 1845, that area of Texas which is roughly west of the 98th meridian, and north of the 30th parallel, was still a vast, uncharted area, demarcated on maps only by notations of Comanche and herds of wild Mustangs. Climate, geography, and hostile Indians had been incentive enough to keep the colonials coming north from Mexico, and west from the US, well south and east of the Comancheria. Securing even marginal safety of the sporadic settlements on or near that line of settlement (and along the border, after 1836) required the most rigorous and diligent efforts of the legendary Texas Rangers.

Annexation brought only a deterioration in relations with the Indians. Between 1845 and 1860 the diplomatic policy of the federal government, (which was far more experienced at dealing with the "Five Civilized Tribes", who were quite different from the Comanche) toward the Plains Tribes was one of relative appeasement. The federal policy-makers deemed negotiation preferable to combat, though there was no shortage of the latter. This passive stance did not sit well with most Texans, who were somewhat understandably biased by a generation of frequent and appalling depredations on their settlements.

 As Secretary of War in the mid-1850's, Jefferson Davis, who understood the unique nature of the problem in Texas better than most, made one of the more realistic and valiant attempts to deal with the problems on the Texas frontier. Davis managed to convince the state of Texas to set aside land for the tribes willing to stay on reservation.

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