This was our 252nd Courthouse in Texas to visit. That means we are at 99.2% of our goal with .8% left to go.
Thomas William Ward was a Texas soldier and land commissioner, while John Monahans dug the first water well between the Pecos River and Big Spring. Barstow was the First County Seat in Ward County (5 miles East of Pecos).
Barstow was named after George Eames Barstow, a brilliant pioneer irrigation scientist from Rhode Island who used water from the Pecos River to produce abundant and profitable fruit and grape crops until a devastating flood and a succession of droughts stopped things cold. Shortly after farming stopped in Barstow, oil was discovered in Monahans. George Barstow came to West Texas in 1905 and is now buried in the cemetery. The current population of Barstow is just over 500 people.
