During the late 1800’s the area surrounding (the future site of the Town of Upland) this section of desert land was apart of Tom Green County. At that time Tom Green County had a long narrow strip running to the West. Most of the land was owned by DR. George Elliot, and described as that which held all tributaries of the Pecos River, including Wild China Pond, the Centralia Draw and Castle Gap Creek. DR. Elliot drilled a water well thirty feet deep to furnish his needs. From all accounts the well was better than most in the area. DR. Elliot then took about the task of building a home around the well. DR. Elliot built a two room rock house. There was a lot more rocks to be had than there was timber in the area.

In 1887, Upton County was created out of Tom Green County and named for two brothers, John C. and William Felton Upton, they were both Civil War Heroes. The two brothers were highly decorated and talked about during the Civil War. They had taken part in some of the major battles while they were on the font lines. In the early 1900’s there were only three families living in Upton County, Texas, They were the Jim O’Bryans, Frank Inghrams and the A. F. Schnauberts.

The Town of Upland was started around the turn of the century Henry Halff had a dream that there was sufficient underground water to support irrigation. A short time later, Mr. Halff had a team of surveyors lay out a town site and began to advertise lots for Rankines sale. People started flocking in and in 1907 , 102 citizens, headed by E. B. Coatwright petitioned the Postmaster General for a post office to be located at Upland, the name of a store , owned by Mr. Coatwright. The petition was granted, a school was established and in 1910, the population of Upland was 198. The names of the streets were Rankin, Mayfield, Grimes, Harlan, Christy, Powell, Elliot, Coatwright, Holmsly, and Phillips.

By 910 , Upland was a very thriving and prosperous town, with a general store built by Henry Halff but sold to Jno. R. Johnston. It also had a two-story hotel owned by N. A. Zinn, which had a small telephone office located in it. There was never an organized church in Upland, but ministers from all denominations would come by and hold church service. Weather permitting the services were held outside by the school house, in bad weather they would crowd inside the one room school house.

Even though the KCM&O Railroad had by-passed Upland and was laying track ten miles to the south, the citizens of Upland held a bond election to build a new courthouse, the bond election passed. The new courthouse was built but before the cement was dry in the new Upland courthouse, the new town of Rankin was calling for an election to move the Upland school to Rankin. When the schools were , houses, sores, even the hotel was moved. There was very few families in Upland during 1914-15.