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Ark-La-Tex Genealogical Association Presents a Seminar, August 8, 2026, on Land Records and Wills

Camp County is located in the northeast part of Texas and is named for John Lafayette Camp, a politician who came to Texas just after statehood. The county seat is Pittsburg [no H], named after the family of William Harrison Pitts. In 1996, the town changed its name to "Cowboys" for a few weeks in support of the Dallas Cowboys, who faced the Pittsburgh Steelers that year in Super Bowl XXX.

Camp County was created in 1874 from Upshur County with Pitsburg as the county seat. With only 203 square miles of land mass, Camp County is the third smallest county in Texas, after Rockwall (148) and Somervell (192).

John LaFayette Camp was born on a farm adjacent to Elyton (now a suburb of Birmingham), Alabama, in 1820; attended the common schools and at the age of twenty graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He removed to Texas and located at Gilmer, in Upshur County, where he taught school and practiced law. He was then elected Captain of a Company of Upshur County and joined the Confederate Army. When the Fourteenth Texas Regiment was organized, he was elected Colonel, and in that capacity served through the entire period of the war. He was twice wounded in the right leg. He was twice captured and imprisoned for many months. After the war, he returned to Texas and was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1866 and State Senator in 1874. He became District Judge in 1878 and was appointed a member of the Board of Regents of the State University, but owing to ill health could not serve. In 1884 he was appointed Land Commissioner to Arizona. At the end of his term he moved to San Antonio and after a lingering illness died in July 1891.

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Resources

On-Site

Biographies Cemeteries Census Records Family History Land Records Local Information Lookups Maps Military Records Newspaper Items Obituaries Photographs Surnames Queries Surrounding Counties Vital Records

Off-Site

Camp Archives Other TXGenWeb Counties Portal to Texas History Query Board

Communities

Bolton
Center Point
Center Ridge
Cross Roads
Ebenezer
Harvard
Hickory Hill
Holly Springs
Leesburg
Lilly
Living Green
Matinburg
Miller Grove
Myrtle Springs
New Mine
Newsome
Pecan Heights
Pine
Pittsburg
Reeves Chapel
Rocky Mound
Spring Hill
Union Chapel
West Chapel
Yallo Bush