San Saba

San Saba, the county seat of San Saba County, is on U.S. Highway 190 eighty-seven miles northwest of Austin in eastern San Saba County. It took root on the agricultural frontier in the 1850s and developed rapidly as the political and commercial center of San Saba County. In 1855 ranchers and cotton growers first settled the banks of the San Saba River, from which the settlement took its name. When the county was organized a year later, San Saba won election as the county seat. Baptist and Methodist congregations were the first to hold services in the community. By 1857 a post office had been opened and the first county courthouse completed. The court building also served as a school and meetinghouse until it was replaced in the 1880s. Cattle drives, sheep ranching, and cotton cultivation sustained the town's steady growth after the Civil War