 In 1849, the Army surveyed the San Antonio-El Paso Road from San Antonio to El Paso and the route included what is now Sheffield because of the Pecos Spring and the Pecos Crossing or Lancaster Crossing, named for the nearby Fort Lancaster.An early pioneer in the area was William Franklin Smith, who herded sheep from the Sherwood area of Irion County to the Pecos River and camped at Pecos Spring in 1886.Smith made several trips to Pecos County and eventually relocated permanently to Sheffield in 1912.