Eastland County was created by the Texas Legislature in 1858, but sparse settlement delayed organization until 1873, when Merriman became the first county seat. Charles Connellee and Jack Daugherty platted the town of Eastland near the center of the county, and in 1875 the county seat moved there by a vote of 67 to 60. Commissioners first met in a stone building across from the town square. The arrival of the Texas & Pacific Railway in October 1880 spurred growth, but the creation of Cisco by the Texas Central Railway led to another county seat election in August 1881. After an 1896 fire destroyed the 1883 courthouse, Cisco again challenged for the county seat, winning a majority but not the required two-thirds margin. In 1898 the county completed a new three-story courthouse and jail in Eastland. Oil and natural gas booms in the 1910s and 1920s led voters to approve $300,000 in bonds for a new building designed by the Dallas architectural firm of Otto H. Lang and Frank O. Witchell. The new courthouse opened by December 1928 with space for county, district, and appellate courts and offices. Built in the Art Deco style, it features stepped massing, prominent wings flanking a central tower, brick cladding, ornate terra cotta trim, and details including carved eagles, shields, medallions, pilasters, tripartite arched entryways, and stylized decorative banding. The courthouse also became widely known as the final resting place of Old Rip, a celebrated horned toad said to have been freed from the cornerstone of the earlier courthouse.