San Saba County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in western Central Texas, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 5,730. Its county seat is San Saba. The county is named after the San Saba River, which flows through the county.
History
Early history
Early Native American inhabitants of the area included Tonkawa, Caddo, Lipan Apache, and Comanche. In 1732, Governor of Spanish Texas, Juan Antonio Bustillo y Ceballos, arrived on the feast day of sixth-century monk St. Sabbas, and named the river Río de San Sabá de las Nueces. Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission was established in 1757. In 1788, José Mares led an expedition from San Antonio to Santa Fe.
In 1828, 28 people from Stephen F. Austin's group passed through. A portion of the county was included in Austin's grants from the Mexican government. Five years later, the Meusebach–Comanche Treaty was signed in San Saba County.
San Saba County was organized from Bexar County and named for the San Saba River in 1856. San Saba was selected as the county seat.
Post-Civil War history
In the 1880s-'90s, mob rule not only whipped and forced out numerous people in towns throughout Texas, but also took 140 lives in Texas following the Civil War. San Saba County had the worst of the violence, with 25 lives taken by lynching from 1880 to 1896. Mob killings in Texas in the years after the war were often racially motivated crimes committed by members of the Ku Klux Klan against suspected slave rebels and white abolitionists. An investigation led to the Texas Rangers restoring order. Many of the mob executions committed throughout Texas in the time following the Civil War were racially motivated and often committed by members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), which formed in Shelby County, Texas. Most of the people killed by vigilante mobs in the five years after the war were "suspected slave rebels and white abolitionists". Although the KKK in Texas was less active by the 1870s, lives continued to be taken each year. In 1885, for the state of Texas, "...an estimated 22 mobs lynched 43 people, including 19 blacks and 24 whites, one of whom was female". In 1889, the United Confederate Veterans William P. Rogers Camp No. 322 was established, named for Col. William P. Rogers. West Texas Normal and Business College was organized by Francis Marion Behrns in 1885.
Late 19th and 20th centuries
The parallel-wire suspension Beveridge Bridge was built across the San Saba River in 1896 by Flinn, Moyer Bridge Co. In 1911, the Lometa-Eden branch of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway was built through San Saba County. San Saba County brick and sandstone courthouse is erected. Architect Chamberlin & Co.
In 1930, half of the county farms were tenant farmed. The 1938 San Saba River floods caused county-wide devastation. One-third of the town of San Saba was under water. The Town of San Saba was incorporated in 1940. Prolonged drought in the mid-1950s brought hardship to the county agricultural economy.
Geography
thumb|The [[Colorado River (Texas)|Colorado River of Texas, from the Regency Suspension Bridge, on the border of Mills and San Saba Counties]]
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which are land and (0.3%) are covered by water.
Major highways
- 25px U.S. Highway 190
- 20px State Highway 16
- 20px Farm to Market Road 45
Adjacent counties
- Mills County (north)
- Lampasas County (east)
- Burnet County (southeast)
- Llano County (south)
- Mason County (southwest)
- McCulloch County (west)
- Brown County (northwest)