Upton County was formed from Tom Green County on February 26, 1887, and organized on May 7, 1910. It was named in honor of John Cunningham Upton, who lived from 1828 to 1868, a distinguished Confederate officer killed at Manassas on August 30, 1862. Its county seat was Upland from 1910 to 1921 and has been Rankin since. A cattle- and sheep-raising county, it is also dotted with oil wells.