When Brown County was organized in 1857, only a few farmers and ranchers lived around the hamlet of Brownwood, which was the new county seat. Development was hampered by persistent Comanche raids. Brownwood, platted on land donated by Greenleaf Fisk, lay on a feeder trail of the western, post–Civil War cattle trail, which supported an economy of saloons and stores in the 1870s. Cotton became the primary agricultural product from 1880, with sixteen gins operating by 1900. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway arrived in 1885 and the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway in 1891. By 1889, two colleges had opened: Presbyterian-sponsored Daniel Baker College (FC31) and Baptist-supported Howard Payne College (FC31). Minor oil production started in 1917, but the finds produced only a modest boom between 1920 and 1927. Brownwood’s economy improved with the construction of Camp Bowie in 1940 by the Texas National Guard, which became the largest military training facility in Texas during World War II. Camp Bowie closed in 1946, and a seven-year drought in Central Texas between 1949 and 1957 reduced the city’s population. Brown County is one of Texas’s largest producers of pecans, and livestock ranching contributes significantly to the economy.
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