The County Was Named for a Confederate Ranger, Not the City

The Texas Legislature created Lubbock County on August 21, 1876, carved from the old Bexar District. The county was named after Colonel Thomas S. Lubbock, who had served as a Texas Ranger and later as a Confederate officer in the Civil War.

For years the county sat largely empty. The first recorded permanent resident arrived in the late 1870s. Formal county organization came in 1891, when Lubbock was chosen as the county seat. The railroad arrived in 1909 and set off rapid growth. Today the city of Lubbock is home to about 257,000 of the county's roughly 310,000 residents.