Hays County was created on March 1, 1848 from the southern part of Travis County. Its name comes from the legendary Texas Ranger captain John “Jack Coffee Hays”. The county is named after John Coffee Hays, a Texas park ranger and Mexican-American war officer. The boundaries remained stable for nearly a century, until the re-establishment of the border between Hays-Travis County in 1955 added more than 16,000 acres to Hays County.
It wasn't until the establishment of the Gary Job Corps Training Center on the site of the former Gary Air Force Base in 1964 and the increase in enrollment at San Marcos University, Hays County began a period of steady growth: from 19,934 in 1960 to 27,642 in 1970, 40,594 in 1980 and 65,614 in 1990. Although Democrat Jimmy Carter won a majority in 1976, Republican presidential candidates elected Hays County in nearly every election between 1980 and 2004.On March 1, 1848, the state legislature formed Hays County from the territory that was formerly part of Travis County. However, like other suburban counties in the state, the county began to lean toward the Republican Party in the 1970s. Hays County covers an area of 693.5 square miles in south-central Texas; the center of the county is 98°00' west longitude and 30°00' north latitude, twenty-three miles southwest of Austin.
Since the beginning of the century, Hays County has enjoyed a steady influx of tourists attracted by the caves, springs and spas of Wimberley and San Marcos. In 1880, Hays County's first railroad line, built by the International-Great Northern Railroad, was completed to San Marcos from Austin; it was later extended to San Antonio. The main natural grasses are the large blue stalk and indigenous grass; the trees commonly associated with Central Texas, including live oak, cedar, walnut and mesquite, are native to Hays County. Merriman and Mike Sessom, original settlers and members of the John Coffee Hays Texas Ranger Company, worked with General George Neill and led the first herd of cattle from Hays County to Kansas in 1867, followed by other campaigns.
The ethnic and racial makeup of Hays County is difficult to document accurately, but certain general features emerge from the county's census history. Hays County remained predominantly agricultural; nearly 90 percent of agricultural revenues in the mid-1960s came from Woods's thirty-sixth Texas cavalry regiment was organized at Camp Clark, in neighboring Guadalupe County, in 1862; Company A consisted mainly of men from Hays County.
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